Review: Samsung Bespoke Jet AI

Adrienne So

7/10

Samsung launched its Bespoke series, a home appliance line for the Wi-Fi-enabled mid-century modern home, a few years ago. Everything has a bunch of "AI-optimized" smarts and looks like it belongs on the set of A Single Man. As of today, Bespoke includes a smart slide-in induction range, dishwasher, fridge, clothes washer and dryer, and the Jet vacuums--a robot vacuum and this beautiful cordless stick vac.

When I tried the Jet Bot AI+ robot vacuum, it was clear that the appliance had been designed by someone who had never seen a robot vacuum before. Most robot vacuums look similar for very practical reasons, but the JetBot was much taller and bigger, and it boasted remarkable navigation capabilities while leaving a dirty 4-inch border around everything in my house.

The stick vacuum has been designed by someone born on planet Earth. It has a lot of useful accessories, a beautiful and easy-to-use docking station, plenty of "AI-calibrated" suction, and even a connection to the Samsung SmartThings app. I'm just not sure you need AI to do these things.

If you're considering whether to get a Bespoke Jet or a Dyson V15, the first questions you need to ask are whether floor space is scarce and whether you have a conveniently placed outlet. My family's first house had a hall closet where we could discreetly hang the V15. Later, we moved to a much bigger house where floor space is no longer a premium.

I love the Bespoke Jet's stylish, free-standing, and self-emptying docking station, which has a circular footprint that's about a foot across. The vacuum and station come in three chic colors: hunter green, satin black, and white. The set has a place of pride in my living room and is basically the Sword in the Stone. As Samsung's marketing materials say, it's designed to be seen.

The vacuum also comes with three attachments and seven additional docking station bags, although the accessory I really wanted was the spray spinning sweeper ($150), which is sold separately. The marketing materials note that the vacuum comes with an accessory cradle and an extra battery that you can swap out for more cleaning time, but these weren't in the box with my tester unit.

You can connect it to the Samsung SmartThings app (Android, iOS) by scanning the QR code, but although pairing is quick and painless, there isn't much of a reason to use the app. It lets you check the charge level, when the dustbin was last emptied, and the suction power, but you can also do this by checking the display on the vacuum itself.

It has an impressive 280 air watts of suction, which is more than even the Dyson Gen5detect ($950); my current Dyson V15 has only 230. At a little more than 6 pounds, it's almost 3 pounds lighter than the Gen5detect. However, its build quality doesn't hold up to the Dyson V15. It's more plasticky, and the pieces aren't engineered to fit together as precisely and solidly as a Dyson. It's a letdown on a premium vacuum marketed as being as slick and beautiful as a tube of Chanel lipstick.

Newer Dyson vacuums, like the Gen5detect, have HEPA-grade filtration and use light to illuminate dust particles and feed information back to the vacuum's computer. Samsung notes that the Bespoke Jet AI uses a combination of pressure and air sensors to calibrate the level of suction; but you can also see a little light illuminating all the schmutz as you push the vacuum around.

The company claims that the vacuum has a battery life of up to 100 minutes, but I've seen nowhere near that. When the vacuum is on our medium-pile (half-inch long) carpets and on the AI setting, I normally get about 29 minutes. Transferring to hardwood or tile floors extends the battery life to about 60 minutes, but even on minimum suction, I only get a maximum of about an hour and 14 minutes.

Despite this, the Jet is extremely effective. I have a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old. They leave a trail of grime behind them like cute, tremendously active snails. When they eat muffins, there are tons of crumbs and sugar sprinkles under the kitchen table. When they get home from camp, they shed piles of dirt off their legs; shake sand out of their shoes; and sprinkle who knows what out of their backpacks. The Bespoke Jet handled it all quite nicely, even sucking up palm-sized hairballs from my dog in the laundry room. My 6-year-old spilled an entire salt shaker at the dinner table, and the Bespoke Jet picked it all up.

I also appreciate the automatic emptying feature. With a Dyson, you have to click off the bottom handle and empty the bin into the garbage bag. The Bespoke Jet does it automatically when you click it back into the docking station. This process is around 75 decibels and continues for several cycles, which is more annoying than you might think, but it empties the bin much more effectively than I or gravity do with the Dyson. The bin is also removable and washable.

The crevice tools are usable and function well. The vacuum's lighter weight makes it great for sucking up all the spiderwebs in the far corner of my house and vacuuming hard-to-reach sections, like the stairs. The side effect of having so much suction is that it's hard to push on carpets, and I usually end up doing a two-handed push-pull.

There are a few compelling reasons to pick the Bespoke Jet over a Dyson. If storage space isn't an issue, the freestanding dock, accessories, and extra battery are all beautiful and convenient. If you bought the mopping attachment, it would be even more useful. Automatic emptying is a big bonus, and the LED display is easy to see and use. If you have other appliances from the Bespoke line, you can line them all up neatly in your home and in the app and gaze at them fondly.

The major reason the Bespoke Jet is not a practical purchase is purely philosophical--you don't really need AI to detect so-called invisible dirt particles. Companies like iRobot and Dyson have been doing this level of cleaning for years--and just as effectively. The Dyson is also a more practical size, with a slightly bigger dust bin (at 0.75 liters to the Bespoke Jet's 0.5), HEPA-grade filtration, and noticeably better build quality. If you're spending this much on a vacuum, it should be pretty darn close to perfect, and the Bespoke Jet isn't quite there.