I tested this cordless stick vacuum that shines a light on your dirt for 2 weeks — here's my verdict

When choosing the best vacuum cleaners, there are many things to consider besides power. You have to maximize the cost vs performance, and it needs to be easy enough for practically anyone to get some use out of. After all, if you are vacuuming in a full household, you don't want to get yourself designated as the go-to vacuum person because you're the only one who can operate it.

Tineco is a company known for solid design. With a modest price point, huge suction power, and some great little accessories, the Tineco Pure One A50S Plus feels smart and sturdy, while looking super sleek too.

However, there are downsides to this sturdiness and power in many of the places you might expect and whether or not it's all worth it will be largely down to the type of house you have, and the type of work you need your vacuum to do.

I've been testing the Tineco Pure One A50S for a few weeks and here's how I put all that power to the test. Find out how it came up in the tests.

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Price and availability

The Tineco Pure One A50S Plus is available at $329 from both the official Tineco site and Amazon. This model is $100 more expensive than the A30S and $120 cheaper than the Tineco Floor One S5 Extreme.

Although mid-range in price for a vacuum cleaner, this is one of the more affordable models in the Tineco lineup.

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Design

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

Unboxing the Tineco Pure One A50S Plus immediately made an impression. The pure white aesthetic and strong build quality are noticeable. The vacuum looks very clean and sleek, and there's a weight to it that expresses quality.

This vacuum cannot stand on its own, but a wall hanger and easily detachable battery makes up for this downside. You can effectively leave the vacuum wherever you like, take the battery off and charge it on whatever surface will hold it.

There's no trigger on this vacuum, instead opting for buttons on an LED display, which doesn't quite have the same satisfying click that many vacuums have. However, what does impress me is the auto-detect mode, which will change suction power based on the kind of debris under it. This means not having to hold down the max mode, just to avoid missing any little bits caught up in your carpet.

With a bin capacity of 1 liter, this is a good size for a cordless vacuum, being big enough to last more than a single vacuum but small enough to not feel too weighty or cumbersome in the hand.

Emptying the dustbin is super easy, requiring you to simply click a button on the top of the vacuum itself, then either emptying the dust through the standard compartment at the bottom or emptying and taking out the filter. This means it's much easier to get in there if something clogs.

In addition to having a green light to shine on dirt, this 3D Sense vacuum effectively signposts nearby walls with white LEDs on the side. Though the green light is decent in the right environment (heavy debris or tiling specifically), the white light feels most unneeded, distracting and potentially a waste of the battery.

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Ease of use

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

This Tineco vacuum takes a little bit more strength to wield than the recent Ultenic U16 Flex or Vactidy Blitz V9 Pro. This is down to the mixture of suction power and build quality. It's also a little on the heavy side at 7.1 pounds (3.2 kg), which makes it less agile on the move.

The buttons are a bit stiff, including the 2-in-1 crevice tool, taking accessories off, and clicking to bend the tube to get under surfaces. This all makes the cleaning process just a little more tiresome.

However, that bendable tube is great and a necessary part of the clean (once I got used to it). It can be a bit hard to keep the 3DSense vacuum head moving in a totally straight line with the tube bent, but this is a light inconvenience on a vacuum that really packs a punch in the cleaning department.

The brush of the 3DSense vacuum head is super easy to take off, with a circular attachment at the side to pull the whole thing out. The same is true of the bin.

The Auto performance mode is super intuitive and effective, helping to maximize battery life. The green light on the 3DSense vacuum head is strong enough to really highlight dirt on the floor. There's some stiffness to the operation of this vacuum in a few different ways but, with a bit of determination, it only really takes a few cleans to get used to them.

One cute accessory that makes this vacuum a little more attractive is a mini power brush, which can turn the vacuum into an adorable little one. This is good for small surfaces and can even get up high. It doesn't have the lighting of the bigger brush, which means a longer battery life but also doesn't have as smart a system for getting the brush out, if anything gets tangled.

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

Power:
The 185 watts suction power is genuinely impressive, and even makes the fibrers on my low/medium pile carpet stand up after use on the Max mode. This can get up all sorts of debris and the ability to open up a small part of the 3DSense brush head for bigger bits works impressively well.

Unfortunately, the 'Max' mode is very inefficient, lasting less than 10 minutes before forcibly changing over to low mode for a few minutes until the battery entirely drains. When it can take over two hours for the battery to charge again, this battery life exchange is really poor.

Battery life:
The 70 minutes of runtime estimated for the Tineco Pure One A50S Plus is based on the Eco mode using the 2-in-1 crevice brush (as it doesn't need the energy required to run the fancy lights). I got around an hour of use with the 3DSense brush in Eco mode and less on the auto mode (which naturally varies quite a bit). It's worth noting though that this figure is pretty flawed because, in Eco mode, the lights turned off after about 10 minutes of use, and it started to become much less powerful after just over 20 minutes.

Noise:
The Tineco Pure One A50S Plus can get very loud, especially in Max mode, which regularly climbs up to the high 80s and low 90s in decibels. It pushes air out near the top, which makes everything feel particularly loud for the person holding the vacuum.

In eco mode, that crept down to the high 60 and into the high 70s in decibels at the average in auto. Given the terrible battery life of the Max mode and loudness, I'd advise almost never intentionally clicking on this, unless you have a particularly debris-filled floor.

Cleaning results:
This vacuum handled pretty much everything I could figuratively throw at it, from dirt to hair to small items (though you probably shouldn't do the same). In Eco mode, the Tineco Pure One A50S Plus would occasionally fail to pick up dirt in medium pile carpet but got pretty much everything else and Auto mode is decent at reflectively swapping to the right mode on the fly.

Though the website for Tineco says the brush doesn't tangle, I did get a little bit of hair in there, though it was all rather easy to remove. The 2-in-1 crevice tool was good at baseboards, despite the stiffness in swapping from the crevice tool to the built-in brush at the end. Tile is no problem in pretty much any mode and the green light works at its best here too.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Comparison

Costing over $300, the Tineco Pure One A50S Plus unfortunately directly competes with the Shark Clean & Empty Cordless Stick Vacuum. Shark's choice is hard to beat thanks to its self-charging and self-emptying dock, as well as good suction, a detachable hand vac and good lighting.

Against this, the Pure One A50S Plus isn't quite as smart and it's louder. However, it's not awfully priced, thanks to some good raw power and solid accessories. For just $20 more, Shark would get my money but, with a discount, I'd certainly consider Tineco's choice.

Tineco Pure One A50S Plus cordless stick vacuum: Verdict

The Tineco Pure One A50S Plus can handle pretty much any grime you can throw its way, but my time with this vacuum also proves that raw power isn't everything.

It looks nice and functions rather well at sucking up dirt. While it doesn't have many, its accessories are mostly versatile enough to handle the average vacuum job.

However, mediocre battery life, general stiffness across the board, and some features that don't really add much to the overall package let this stick vac down.

Sometimes, less is more, and though this is a good vacuum, it's not an excellent one. You likely won't be disappointed in it, but there are better options.