Dyson unveils world's slimmest vacuum cleaner in Seoul

Tom Moody, president at Dyson Home, demonstrates the new PencilVac vacuum cleaner during a press briefing in Seoul on Monday. (Dyson)

Dyson unveiled its slimmest cordless vacuum cleaner -- the PencilVac, featuring a 38-millimeter diameter handle and weighing 1.8 kilograms -- at a launch event in Seoul on Monday.

To achieve the PencilVac’s ultra-slim form factor, the British appliance maker developed a new proprietary Hyperdymium motor, roughly the size of a Korean 500-won (37 cents) coin.

“The challenge was to get something small enough to fit this new 38 millimeters,” Nathan McLean, senior engineering manager at Dyson, said at a press briefing. “It is over 34 percent more power-dense than its predecessor and spins 140,000 times per minute.”

Despite its compact build, the PencilVac delivers strong suction performance, boasting 55 air watts -- sufficient to eliminate more than 99 percent of fine dust on hard floors, the company said.

The new model also debuts Dyson’s first Fluffycones cleaner head, equipped with four conically-shaped nylon brush bars. The brushes rotate in opposite directions, enhancing pickup efficiency across all directions.

Nathan McLean, senior engineering manager at Dyson, explains the features of the new vacuum cleaner during a press briefing in Seoul on Monday. (Dyson)

“Hair is ultimately spinning in this conical shape, where it is ultimately removed and migrated towards the end, where it conveniently comes off of the brush bar. So there's no tangling and you can see that they are actually inside the cleaner head here,” said Tom Moody, president at Dyson Home.

In addition, dual illumination green LEDs installed at the front and rear of the headlight illuminate up fine dust particles invisible to the naked eye, helping users detect and remove them thoroughly.

The PencilVac is also Dyson’s most maneuverable model yet. Its flexible design allows users to pivot smoothly around furniture and tight corners with minimal effort, enabling comprehensive cleaning in any direction.

Dyson has also reimagined the dustbin architecture of the PencilVac. The vacuum compresses collected dust within a separate chamber, effectively maximizing bin capacity -- up to five times greater than previous models -- and reducing the frequency of emptying.

The compressed dust is then ejected deeply into waste bins, minimizing airborne dust and ensuring a more hygienic disposal process, as users never come into direct contact with the debris.