Ultenic U16 Flex Cordless review: a whole lot of vacuum for $200

Finding a good vacuum at a good price point feels like it's often about choosing where you make your compromises. Do you give up a bit of battery life for a reasonably priced battery and suction power? How about all those accessories? Surely you can't need that many? The best vacuum cleaner balances those aspects, and many more, to feel reasonable yet powerful enough to actually do its job.

The Ultenic U16 Flex is a good follow-up to previous Ultenic offerings, with a screen to monitor your battery use and a smart new bendable tube to get down under seats without bending.

It even comes with a built-in brush end to smartly turn the whole thing into a handheld vacuum without swapping out a new attachment.

I mentioned compromises at the very start and there are a few notable ones here. But whether or not you have to keep them in mind before you buy or they make you put the entire vacuum aside will rely on whether it does its job. I'm happy to say the Ultenic U16 Flex has done so in my weeks with it.

Ultenic U16 Flex review: Price and availability

The U16 Flex pricing structure varies It is available for $179.99 on Amazon but $219.99 at Ultenic, regularly reduced down to $149.99.

Ultenic U16 Flex review: Design

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The Ultenic 16 Flex has very clearly learned quite a lot from its competition, like the rather brilliant Shark Powerdetect Clean & Empty Vacuum System, with a handful of smart features.

First is that the middle of the pole can bend with a click of a button, allowing you to get under furniture without bending over. This is good for people with low mobility, but also just a nice touch that makes cleaning feel like a bit less of a chore. It also has a screen on the top which displays battery life and shows you what mode you are in.

The U16 Flex's Turbo mode is louder, with a better suction but less battery life. Eco mode is the weakest but longest-lasting mode and standard sits somewhere in between. You cycle through these modes by using the touch screen on the top and you can turn the thing on with a trigger in the handle. This vacuum only comes with a single extra attachment but it technically has three proper ways you can use the end of the machine.

First is your standard vacuum end, with a roller and large head. The second is a more precise crevice tool to get the edges of carpets and up high. The last is actually built into the top of the vacuum itself and comes with a brush around it. As it sits near the handle, you can only use this when you take the pole of the vacuum off, turning the whole thing into a handheld device.

Unfortunately, the vacuum can't stand by itself and has to be leaned against something. The box does come with a wall stand, but if you are renting and don't fancy committing to hanging this thing up, like myself, you may find it falling over and getting a few dents or scratches. It's not quite sturdy enough to avoid more superfluous scuffs but it won't break from taking a hit. Fortunately, the battery can be taken off, meaning you can store the vacuum and just bring the battery to the charger

With a 0.8L bin in the handle, you won't need to clean this out every vacuum but it's still small enough to easily carry around. It meets a nice middle ground that makes this vacuum ideal for small to medium-sized apartments.

In addition, it comes with a green light in the base that goes off when you vacuum, intended to shine a light on any dirt in the ground. This is reasonably effective at pointing out any material and is particularly good for shiny debris like glass (which you shouldn't vacuum) but can sometimes be too bright for small amounts of dirt on carpet.

Ultenic U16 Flex review: Ease of use

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This vacuum is quite lightweight and works pretty much how you would expect it to. Without any fancy tricks or special gimmicks, you just point it where you want to vacuum, and click the trigger. It is also quite light, which is not only good for carrying it around but makes the handheld mode a genuinely good choice for getting up high or a light clean of a surface.

Unfortunately, you will need a little bit of determination to really get into the corners of baseboards, pulling out and angling the built-in brush or working the crevice tool in but the extra effort is worth it for a good clean. The crevice tool can be a little large for some crevices and the same can be said for the built-in brush end.

As well as this, one of the worst parts of using the vacuum is that the brush tool doesn't fully click into place when extended. You can push it forward by pressing buttons on the side but if you apply too much pressure while vacuuming, it actually moves the whole thing back into its starting position. If it had the ability to snap into place, it would be a great design but, right now, that brush is just okay.

Cleaning out the dust cup works like a joy though. You can get most of the dirt out by simply clicking a button at the end and tipping the dirt out but you can also open up the entire thing and clean parts individually with buttons on the side. This makes changing the HEPA filter no bother but also means you don't have to get a rod into the bottom of the cup to get all the debris out.

Ultenic U16 Flex review: Performance

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This is almost everything I'm looking for from a vacuum of this size and price point. My own apartment is mostly made up of low/medium pile carpet and it performs well here, picking up stray hairs, crumbs, and it's even strong enough to suck up things you should never vacuum (but do anyway) like the odd Lego or shredded paper.

The 45000Pa battery is tough enough to make it through all the dirt it needs to, and though the battery life isn't fantastic, it can clean my relatively small one/two-bed apartment on a single charge. I got just shy of 20 minutes of use in Turbo mode, which registers at around 72 dB of sound, under 35 minutes of use in Standard mode with an average of 66 dB of sound, and just under an hour of use in Eco mode at 63 dB of sound. The battery does take several hours to charge (generally just shy of five hours to go from 0% to 100%) so this isn't the best choice for a very large apartment with multiple floors.

However, it also handles tiles and flooring well, allowing the Green Eye technology to really shine. The bendable bar is great for getting under tables and chairs well, and it's still a very competent clean even in its standard mode. Generally speaking, Eco is for a light run over debris, standard is an all-rounder that works best on tiling and short pile carpet and Turbo is a slightly tougher mode for heavy-duty work.

The floor brush inside the head of the vacuum is very competent, with a mixture of soft and anti-static bristles that, in my time using it, all converged into the very middle of the brush for easy hair removal. On the side is a small lever that unlocks it, where you can simply take the brush bar out, cut off caught hair, and pop it all back in again. There aren't very many attachments here, with just the basic vacuum end, brush built into the top of the vacuum, and the crevice tool for, as you might guess, crevices. A detachable skinny brush end attachment would have been good for those corners or something very fine for specific areas but what little there is mostly serves its purpose.

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Ultenic U16 Flex review: Comparison

Coming in at the same basic price point as the Ultenic U12 Vesla (not including the fact that the latter model will see steeper discounts), this choice is an absolute no-brainer, thanks to some smart extras, quicker charging, and newer design. It does have one less accessory and doesn't show the exact remaining battery, but it feels like a noticeable upgrade. For a few hundred dollars extra, you could go all the way up to the Shark Clean & Empty Cordless Vacuum but, at this price range, this feels like one of the best options out there.

Ultenic U16 Flex review: Verdict

At first glance, you might be able to guess it's a bit of a budget buy. However, once it starts whirring and picking up all that dirt from the floor, you wouldn't be able to guess. The battery life isn't amazing but what life you get out of this vacuum is great. The built-in monitor is a smart way of knowing how much time you have left and the quick detachable battery means you don't have to commit to a full-on charging station spot if you don't quite know where you want your vacuum to stay long-term.

The Ultenic U16 Flex looks nice, is super easy to use, and outside of maybe getting an extra attachment, or improving the built-in brush add-on, I don't think I'd ask for anything more at this very reasonable price point.