This vacuum has some really nice features, a little technology over the competition, but it is a major pain to empty.
This Panasonic vacuum cleaner is a direct competitor to Dyson's never loses suction vacuum cleaners. Panasonic had the Dyson DC14 and 28 models in mind when it built this vacuum. They did a pretty good job at imitation. The cyclone dirt separator works very well. The whole bag less design, the clear dirt basket with all the cyclone parts exposed, the size, the weight, and all the plastic are direct decedents of Dyson. I'm using a Dyson DC14 for comparison to this Panasonic.
Where the Panasonic excels is with the motorized beater bar - it really moves and really beats your rugs hard - the whole wand arrangement with a height adjustable handle, and the electronic dirt sensor. That electronic dirt sensor is one very cool piece of technology, as you vacuum and the IR sensor sees dirt flying in, the light is red. As soon as the air stream is cleared up, no more dirt is flying in, the light turns green. That sensor works really well. I had to vacuum a very old rug for quite some time to finally get it clean, and yes it is very clean now. A dense oriental wool carpet took a lot less cleaning. High traffic areas lit up red for a much longer time than low traffic areas. It is pretty useless on hardwood or tile floors, there just isn't that much fine dirt on those surfaces.
Panasonic fails miserably with the canister design. My first emptying of the canister, I spilled dirt everywhere. There is a large opening near the top of the canister and if you carry the canister at even a 45 degree angle with that hole pointing down (it is actually a pretty natural angle given the canister handle design), dirt spills out everywhere. So I got to try the dirt indicator on a hardwood floor again. If you rotate the canister around unnaturally, and hold that hole up, no dirt will ever escape. The other problem is with the trap door latch to empty the canister; it is very oddly placed, and has a little thumb rest to improve leverage. It's actually kind of a pain to use. The Dyson, one big button to remove the canister, and the same one to flip open the trap door. I never read the Dyson instructions and in 3 years have never spilled any dirt with that vacuum.
July 6, 2010 update: Did a little refrigerator cleaning this weekend. The good news, that wand extension helps get down to the coils underneath a refrigerator. The bad news, that red inner 'pre-filter' inside the unit, clogs super fast with medium sized dust. I had to empty and clean off that filter 6 times while cleaning my refrigerator coils. Once plugged, the vacuum loses suction. And you have to mostly peel off the crud from that filter. The Dyson does nothing like this, you can vacuum away for days and it won't lose suction.
The other sad design choice is all the complex molded plastic parts. The canister is a dizzying number of parts, a main tube, a funnel, a lock ring, another tube, and the cyclone innards. At some frequency these are supposed to be pulled apart and cleaned. For reassembly don't lose the owner's manual - I actually forgot one part and ran the vacuum for a while without it. The HEPA (super fine particle filter) is below a molded plastic cover. There's a foam filter you are supposed to wash monthly located behind a very complex clear plastic panel. The panel looks like it could break over time. The headlamp is behind a brittle styrene plastic headlight that is not very easy to remove. The beater bar belt is behind a fairly thin plastic panel held down with three one quarter turn screws. That panel is very flexible plastic, but really doesn't look very sturdy. The beater bar belt is fairly easy to replace. The belt is a nice design, a six V groove style that looks solid. The beater bar is made of wood.
The wand handle is very adjustable. I'm six foot two and appreciated that I could raise the handle to a very comfortable height, much higher than the Dyson. I have no basis for this, but trying to twist the vacuum over obstacles on the floor, I'm convinced I would eventually bend the wand tube and then basically ruin the vacuum.
This is a pretty heavy vacuum cleaner, about the same weight as Dyson. I could see how it might be fatiguing if I were vacuuming a lot of hours in a day. The wheels are smaller and tend to follow the carpet nap as opposed to where you guide it. The Dyson rolls exactly where you point it. The Panasonic wheels sound really cheap on hardwood floors. The Dyson sounds solid and rugged, mostly due to the much larger wheels.
When lowering the vacuum to push it under beds or other obstructions, it is possible to go too far and lift the vacuuming end up off the floor. I'd say the lowest obstacle this can navigate is around 18 inches. The Dyson gets under much lower things, and it never lifts off the ground.
The wand pops off fairly easily. Attachments pop on and off easily and fast. The air turbine attachment is really nice - sort of a small beater bar vacuum attachment that cleans area rugs or mats well. The trouble with the design, pushing the expandable hose back into it's holders is a pain in the neck. The wand extends really far; I was able to clean walls up to an eight foot ceiling.
The vacuum is a bit quieter than the Dyson. It's still not a quiet vacuum cleaner.
Overall, this vacuum cleans, it sucks up the dirt. The canister design is what ruined this vacuum cleaner for me, it is small (doesn't hold a lot of dirt), a pain to open, prone to spillage, and has way too many parts. (December 19, 2010 update: That cyclone cleaning device plugs up much faster than expected. It is a pain to clean and requires the owner's manual to disassemble.) I really liked the dirt monitor that is a fantastic bit of technology. And I loved the color, the metallic red is handsome. My honest view of this vacuum cleaner, if you are going to spend this much, why not save up a bit more money and get the genuine deal, a Dyson? (December 19, 2010, contrary to what a commentor has stated, I do not work for Dyson)
Dyson DC14 All-Floors Cyclone Upright Vacuum Cleaner