Why you can trust TechRadar
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Dreame U20 cordless vacuum: two-minute review
Hailing from parent company, Xiaomi, Dreame is fast becoming a popular sub-brand with an extensive product lineup. Ranging from wet-dry vacuums, air purifiers, robot vacuums (including a robot lawnmower), cordless stick vacuums and hair dryers, Dreame has it all, and across different budgets, too.
While its high-end robovacs are items to dream about (pun intended), as you can see in our Dreame X50 Ultra review, I’m in love with a much cheaper product that helps me clean up after my pets. The affordable Dreame U20 has become my lifesaver, combining Dyson-like tech with the signature Dreame style. It’s a versatile and lightweight cordless vacuum that delivers great performance for an exceptionally low cost, as it’s very frequently discounted.
Its color scheme belies its budget price point – available in a gorgeous gold and beige colourway, the Dreame U20 looks far more premium than its $249.99 / £250 / AU$399.99 price point suggests.
What I found even more impressive is its suction. For the price, its 120AW power isn’t bad at all, which isn’t too far off the Shark Cordless Detect Pro’s 123AW of suction, and yet it was more than enough to clean my pup’s fur off my sofa and carpets well. Needless to say, it handles hard floors very easily, making it a candidate for being one of the best cordless vacuum cleaners.
It comes with the standard attachments, including a multi-surface brush head with LED blue lights to illuminate dark areas, a mini motorized brush for cleaning upholstery, a crevice tool and a removable battery that’s rated for up to 60 minutes.
Realistically, though, you’ll get no more 37-40 minutes when using the two motorized attachments on the lowest suction, but that’s fine for smaller homes – I can easily vacuum my living area, two bedrooms and two bathrooms within that time. However, if you mostly have carpets, I found it can take longer to get it clean as you may need to go back and forth a few times, thus consuming more battery. The only battery indicator on the U20 is a tiny light on the end cap, which is hard to see while in use, and it blinks when it’s running low. There’s also no quick charging here, and the vacuum can take up to 3.5 hours to fully recharge.
The only other downside to this otherwise great buy is that the dustbin capacity is only 0.5L, meaning you might need to empty it frequently if you have a large home with pets. If you don’t need any more bells and whistles, the Dreame U20 is easy to recommend as a top-notch budget cordless vacuum cleaner.
Dreame U20 review: price & availability
- List price: $249.99 / £250 / AU$399
- Availability: Sold in the US, UK and Australia at third-party retailers
The Dreame U20 can be picked up in the US at Target for a list price of $249.99. It’s also available on Instacart, with supplies stocked at Costco and other smaller retailers. It is currently not available on Dreame’s US store.
In the UK, the list price is £250, and you can pick it up from Amazon UK or Curry’s, but again, the vacuum is currently unavailable at the brand’s UK store.
For customers living in Australia, Amazon AU lists it for AU$399.99, but it’s typically discounted to AU$199.99. Even in Australia, the U20 isn’t available on the Dreame website.
The Dreame website lists 27 countries where its devices are available, including the U20. If you’re having trouble finding the product, check their website to see if it’s available where you live.
Even at full price, the Dreame U20 represents superb value for money, particularly if you can find it at a discounted price. Admittedly it’s a very basic model, so if you want a touch more suction, Dreame has other mid-range models, with the Dreame R20 review scoring very well for balancing price and performance.
- Value for money score: 5 out of 5
Dreame U20 review: specs
|
Type: |
Cordless stick vacuum |
|
Bagless: |
Yes |
|
Weight: |
7.27 lbs / 3.3kg |
|
Bin size: |
0.5 liters / 500ml |
|
Max runtime: |
60 mins |
|
Charge time: |
3.5 hours |
|
Tools: |
Multi-surface brush head, motorized mini brush head, wide combination crevice tool and extension rod |
|
Power: |
120AW |
Dreame U20 review: design
- Compact cordless stick vacuum in a lovely color scheme
- Five attachments, including LED multi-surface brush, mini motorized brush and combination tool
- Can be used as a stick vacuum or a small handheld vacuum
I’m new to the world of vacuum testing, with just one other for sister site Tom’s Guide under my belt. Needless to say, the Dreame U20 has been quite the dream, especially when it came to design. For me, the gold and beige colorway was a winner, a stray away from the typical grey or black of other competitors. It lends the affordable vacuum a classy look.
Other than that, the Dreame U20 has a stock-standard design which allows it to become a handheld unit quickly for cleaning cars, sofas, mattresses and, hey, even dog beds. To pair with the handheld unit, there’s a motorized mini brush in the box that would be handy for said dog bed and the sofa. It could even be used on carpeted stairs.
It has a trigger, like most Dyson models, but you don’t need to keep this pressed at all times to run the machine – you just need to click it on and off. There’s just one other control button on the motor’s end cap to change suction modes and that should be easy to reach for most users with the thumb when holding the U20.
The main floor-cleaning attachment is called the Multi-Surface Brush, which features LED blue lights that help illuminate the floor in front of the brush head but don’t highlight miniscule dust particles like Dyson’s Fluffy tool does. And that’s OK because it still helps you see in dark areas – for example, I was able to see scattered kitty litter in an unlit bathroom.
The other attachment in the box is a combination crevice tool, but a wall-mount kit also ships with the vacuum in case you want to stow it away in a convenient place without compromising floor space.
Weighing 3.3kg / 7.27lbs, the Dreame U20 isn’t exactly lightweight (in comparison, the Shark Cordless Detect Pro weighs 2.7kg / 5.9lbs), but it’s still very easy to push around. It measures 16cm x 30cm x 68cm with the extension rod attached.
The 120AW motor is capable of running at three different speed modes, indicated by three lights on the end cap of the motor. You can switch between the speed settings (low, medium and high) by tapping the button directly below the lights and switching it on by using the trigger. For most cleans, I found I tended to flick between medium and high, especially when cleaning carpets.
According to Dreame, the U20 motor has a multi-layer filtration system that captures up to 99.9% of fine dust and particles. Its HEPA filter also keeps debris out of the air and inside the bin while vacuuming, which is pretty standard for any cordless vacuum cleaner these days.
For its price point, the 0.5L bin is quite standard, but it’ll likely fill up fast if you have, say, a two-bedroom or larger home with pets, meaning you’ll need to make more trips to empty it. The bin has a handy sticker on the front (which I did refer back to many times) that indicates how to insert or remove it to empty, and its as simple as pushing the button on the base and twisting the canister clockwise. After detaching, all you have to do is unscrew the filter from the container to remove the debris – finer dust or crumbs fall out easily, but you may need to get your fingers inside to remove clumps of hair from the bin.
The detachable battery pack could be handy for some users as you can clip it into the wall-mount attachment and begin charging it while you’re emptying the vacuum for example. However, if you’re a renter who can’t drill holes into your wall – like me – you can leave the battery attached to the U20 and keep the vacuum propped up against a wall or in a cupboard for topping up.
It lacks an LCD screen to show suction modes or time remaining before the next charge. Instead, the battery life is displayed by a small vertical light on the pack itself, which flashes when it needs charging. It’s unfortunate that it faces forward, so it’s not visible to the user, and neither is it a very noticeable light – and this is my biggest complaint with the Dreame U20 as there were a few instances where the machine shut down mid-clean during my testing.
The U20’s multi-surface brush head is quite similar to many floor-cleaning attachments from other brands, but it features blue LED lights on the front that illuminate two small triangular sections of the floor immediately in front of the brush head. While it looks similar to Dyson’s green dust-illuminating light on the Fluffy Optic, this blue light doesn’t highlight invisible dust on the floor, but I found it’s bright and vivid enough to help walk around in a dark room without bumping into things. Case in point: it perfectly showed scattered kitty litter in an unlit bathroom that was, at the time, pitch dark.
The brush also has V-shaped bristles with comb-like teeth – in my experience, this not only prevents tangles effectively, but can pick up human hair and pet fur from low-pile carpets just as well.
This brush head is quite flexible, rotating 90º around chair legs and furniture. It’s also not as large as you’d find on other (more expensive) vacuum cleaners and I found it can get into corners, which is particularly helpful in my pet hair-filled home.
My favorite attachment, however, is the motorized mini brush, which clips in just under the bin for handheld use. It’s just right for sucking up fur from my couch and cushions – it’s both maneuvrable and anti-tangle.
If it wasn’t for the missing display to check battery life, I’d say that Dreame would deserve top marks for the U20’s design.
Dreame U20 review: performance
- Excellent maneuverability
- Impressive performance on hard floors and low-pile carpets
- Lower suction than competitors but still tackles pet hair well
I’ve spent a few months with the Dreame U20 (as of publishing this review) and I still can’t get over how impressive its maneuverability is. The 90º rotating main brush head makes it very easy to clean around chair legs and furniture and I had no trouble handling the 3.3kg / 7.2lbs vacuum. That said, if you are using the extension tube to clean ceiling corners, the U20 could begin to feel heavy for some users quickly.
The controls are well placed, which are as simple as pushing the end cap button to select the speed and hitting the trigger underneath. And as I’ve mentioned previously, there’s no need to keep the latter depressed continuously for power like a Dyson.
Speaking of power: sure, we could ask for higher suction than its 120AW, but given its price point, it’s hard to argue with what it has. If you do need better performance, you could consider the Dreame R20 (if it’s available where you live), but I found the U20 does an admirable job nonetheless. It can struggle on some carpets as you will need to go over a particular spot multiple times to get a deeper clean, and I’ve found myself needing to push with full shoulder force on occasion.
Image 1 of 2
Throughout my testing, the Dreame U20 impressed in more ways than one. I performed TechRadar’s standard tests for vacuum cleaners, sprinkling a smattering of oats and tea from a bag on both my hardwood and carpeted floors. As an extra measure, I also made sure the floors had extra pet debris – i.e. kitty litter and fur – which were my two motivations for purchasing the U20 in the first place.
During the hardwood mess test, the U20 performed remarkably well on the lowest speed setting in picking up most of the oats. I needed to boost the speed to the second (or medium) setting to do another pass to pick up every last speck of oats, though, but that left the hard floor entirely clean.
As for the tea, the U20 did a better job, sucking it all up in one go on the low setting, so it handles lighter and smaller dirt better than larger debris. It was the same for pet hair on hardwood – all strands got sucked up in one pass on the low setting. The vacuum struggled a touch with kitty litter, leaving a few specks behind on hard floors in a single pass, but it was cleaned up in the second go.
Image 1 of 3
I wasn’t expecting as impressive a performance on carpets, but the U20 did better than I had anticipated on a low-pile carpet in my tests, quickly removing the oats and tea dust from a bag in one pass on the low suction setting. It will, however, struggle with medium and high-pile carpets, particularly if the dust and debris is deep-seated, although loose dirt will come away if you give the area a few gos with the U20.
In terms of pet hair on carpet, the U20 did indeed struggle at the lowest setting, leaving more than a few strands behind after the first pass. The U20 performed the best with pet hair on the same low-pile carpet at maximum suction, and didn’t require several passes to get the job done. The kitty litter yielded a similar result to the hardwood floor test, but I needed to boost suction again to pick up every last piece.
While it can tackle low-pile carpets with ease, pet hair embedded in medium- or high-pile carpets will remain even after several passes – you can expect about 80% off the fur to be sucked up from these kinds of flooring.
As a pet mum, it was important to me to own a vacuum cleaner with a tangle-free brush, as I’ve often painstakingly cleaned out wads of hair from cleaning attachments of older machines. I was thrilled to find that the U20’s V-shaped bristles were especially impressive at leaving no evidence of entanglements. That’s made ongoing maintenance of the vacuum easier.
This sentiment also rang true for the mini motor brush when cleaning my couch and cushions. It does, however, require several passes when using the handheld motor and mini brush to clean up pet hair due to its smaller footprint, but it still worked a treat.
The U20 collects a nice volume of hair in its 0.5L bin, and I have particularly enjoyed how easy it is to empty the bin with a twist of the base. If you are a pet owner with a shedding furry friend, then I would recommend the U20 for a quick, daily tidy-up, but you might want to consider other pet-focused vacuum cleaners, like the Shark Stratos Pet Pro (IZ400), as they usually have a larger-capacity bin and boast more suction power.
Despite its relatively lower suction and smaller bin, the U20 performs very well, given its budget price – it’s very easy to recommend for quick clean-ups.
- Performance score: 4.5 out of 5
Dreame U20 review: battery life
- Average battery life for an affordable cordless vacuum
- 3.5-hour charging time
- Expect shorter runtimes if the floor is dirty
According to Dreame, the U20 has a battery life of up to 60 minutes on a full charge, and takes around 3.5 hours to top up from practically empty. Take that number with a pinch of salt, as it indicates runtime when using non-motorized tools, which in this case is the combination crevice attachment only.
With a motorized head like the main floor cleaner and the mini brush, I found that it lasts a maximum of 37 minutes on its lowest setting – and there’s no dynamic suction here to drain the battery faster. At TechRadar, we’ve tested over a hundred vacuum cleaners over the last decade, and we’ve found that the average battery life for a budget cordless vacuum is around 40 minutes, which puts the U20 on par with others, including the Dyson V8 .
Higher the suction, the faster the battery will drain, of course and, in testing, I got about 17 minutes of runtime on a full charge when set to maximum. That’s not bad, considering some premium models like the Dyson V15 Detect can give you lesser runtime on Boost mode (about 8 minutes on a dirty mid-pile carpet), although it automatically adjusts suction power to suit the amount of dirt it detects.
So while the U20 has average battery runtime, I’d recommend it for smaller homes or something for the shed, perhaps.
- Battery life score: 4 out of 5
Should you buy the Dreame U20?
|
Attribute |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
Often on sale, the U20 is an excellent budget option with great performance. |
5/5 |
|
Design |
The color combination makes it look premium, and its attachments are useful. It would have been good if there was a better way to gauge battery life. |
4/5 |
|
Performance |
Great for everyday, quick cleaning, even of pet hair, on hard floors and low-pile carpets, but it may struggle on particularly dirty mid- and high-pile carpets. |
4.5/5 |
|
Battery |
Rated for up to 60 minutes, but expect about 35 minutes in real-world use on low power. |
4/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Dreame U20: alternatives to consider
|
Product: |
Dreame U20 (reviewed) |
Shark Cordless Detect Pro |
Dyson V8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Weight: |
7.27lbs / 3.3kg |
6lbs / 2.7kg |
3.48lbs / 1.58kg |
|
Bin volume: |
0.5L |
0.4L |
0.54L |
|
Max runtime: |
60 mins |
40 mins |
40 mins |
|
Accessories: |
Multi-surface brush head, motorized mini brush head, wide combination crevice tool and extension rod |
Duster, crevice tool, optional auto-empty dock (costs extra) |
2 x floorheads, Hair screw tool, Combination tool, Crevice tool |
How I tested the Dreame U20 cordless vacuum
TechRadar adopts a strict testing regime for all its products so potential buyers know exactly what they’re getting. To comply with the testing, I used the machine for a few months before putting it through some rigorous carpet and hard-floor tests using common pantry items, such as tea and raw oats. I also took into account the device’s ergonomics, design and overall experience to determine my final verdict.
Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners
- First reviewed September 2025
