At 65dB, the BCS122GB competes with some of the market’s best low-noise and ‘silence’ mains cleaners. You won’t disturb the neighbours even during midnight cleaning sorties. When it comes to suction, the Unlimited 7 proved to be a bit of a lightweight in our tests. A good vacuum cleaner isn’t only about the suction, but power in this regard certainly helps. On its most powerful setting, the vacuum only measured 11kPa. As you can see from our chart below, that’s only just over one-third of what a Dyson V15 Detect can manage (before it cuts out), and its similarly priced rivals are all more powerful even in low-power mode.

The Bosch Unlimited 7 that I reviewed arrived with two batteries and two chargers. Although the battery arrived with some juice, I opted to fully charge it before giving it a run for its money. I didn't have to wait long – within one hour all three battery indicator lights were illuminated.I used the Bosch Unlimited 7 is our three-bedroom home as our main vacuum cleaner for a number of weeks. I tried out all of its suction levels on the various flooring throughout the house plus a steep set of stairs, upholstery and the higher corners of the room. During testing, I monitored the battery life, noise levels and dustbin capacity and tested it with purposeful spills of flour and oats, as well as general everyday cleans. This effectively means that I haven’t yet run out of charge, no matter how much of the house I’ve wanted to vacuum. There’s always the spare battery available that’s fully charged up. On top of the body is the Turbo switch. That might not be as corny as Tesla’s ‘Insane’ power mode, but it seriously ramps up the BCS122GB’s suction. Runtime takes a nosedive accordingly.

At its best, the BCS122GB offers staggering good cordless cleaning. But at this price, we would expect a more polished all-around performance. VerdictHowever, those huge runtime differences highlight the equally massive difference in suction power between modes, and we think Bosch has got it very wrong here. As popularised by the eponymous Dyson, this Bosch is also bagless but it only has a capacity of 0.4l so you’ll have to empty it out pretty frequently. It’s smaller than the Dyson V8’s 0.54l bin, although on balance there’s not enough in it to make a significant difference to the way you’ll use the vacuum. On the downside, it has few of the features that are slowly becoming absolute essentials on a cordless vacuum. While I could live with the clunky emptying (and actually, I’m slightly taken by it), I would find it hard to introduce a vacuum into my household that doesn’t comb hair tangles out of its floor head.