Proscenic P11 cordless vacuum cleaner review

One-minute review

The cordless vacuum market is pretty crowded with brands such as Dyson and Shark all offering an array of models that ensure you can move from room to room without cables trailing everywhere and threatening to trip you up while you clean your floors. Chinese manufacturer Proscenic, which also produces one of the best air fryers on the market along with a range of robot vacuums, is hoping to give some of these brands a run for their money with its line of affordable battery-powered stick vacuums. 

The Proscenic P11 is the brand’s top-of-range cordless vacuum that offers two levels of suction power,  which can be adjusted using the 2.6-inch touch screen on top of the vacuum cleaner,  along with an auto mode that will adjust the suction power for you based on the type of surface you’re cleaning. 

Like most cordless vacuums, it can be converted into a handheld cleaner by removing the wand and floor-cleaning head, which also features what Proscenic dubs a ‘saw brush’ which shreds pet hair to stop it from getting tangled around the brush bar. The cleaning head also features four LEDs to make vacuuming in dark corners easier, while the larger-than-average 0.7-quart / 0.65-liter dust canister, will ensure fewer interruptions to your cleaning sessions. 

Powered by a rechargeable battery, which Proscenic says will last up to  50 minutes between charges, although this is on the lowest power setting. Considering the $239.99 / £199.99, this is a runtime that can rival models from Dyson and is ideal for those on a budget that want a cordless vacuum that can last for the whole of their cleaning session. 

Proscenic P11 cordless vacuum cleaner price and availability

•  List price: $239.99 / £199.99 

The Proscenic P11 is an affordable cordless vacuum, priced at  $239.99 / £199.99, and is available from Amazon. It’s often discounted too, and we’ve seen discounts such as a $40 / £50 coupon available to apply at the checkout offering a substantial saving. 

Design

• 0.7-quart / 0.65-liter dust canister
• Comes with one floor head and three tools 
• Converts into a handheld cleaner

The P11 is a lightweight, compact cordless vacuum cleaner, measuring 49 x 10 x 8.7 inch / 125 x 25.5 x 22cm, and weighing in at 5.5lb / 2.5kg. The sturdy handle ensures it’s easy to carry, while the red trigger button contrasts with the gunmetal grey shaft, making it easy to identify.

It looks very similar to many battery-powered floor cleaners on the market, with the motor, filter and dust canister at the top, attached to the wand, and the floor cleaning head at the bottom. Detaching the wand and floor cleaning head, which has four LEDs to ensure it's easier to clean in dark corners,  turns the vacuum into a handheld cleaner. Any of the three bundled tools can be attached in handheld mode to ensure you can clean a range of surfaces such as upholstery or up high. 

The vacuum cleaner offers two levels of suction, along with an auto mode that switches between the two levels based on the surface you’re cleaning, and comes with a 0.7-quart / 0.65-liter dust canister. In a style similar to the Dyson V15 Detect, there’s also a 2.6-inch screen that displays the mode the vacuum cleaner is being used in, along with the remaining runtime. 

The P11 is incredibly easy to set up – the battery pack unclips ready for charging and is straightforward to clip back into place afterward. 

Performance

• Works best on hard floors
• Auto mode adjust the suction to floor type
• Loud in use

The Proscenic P11 starts up with a quick squeeze of its power trigger and defaults to its auto setting unless prompted otherwise. Unlike some cordless vacuums, and many other handheld electrical appliances – hedge trimmers and strimmers come to mind – you don’t need to hold down the trigger to maintain power. You can switch to a lower or higher power setting by pressing the clover leaf logo on the display or by tapping or swiping across its touch-sensitive surface. 

During testing, a steady back and forth vacuuming motion with the floor cleaning head saw the P11 efficiently collect fine particles but some debris vacuumed up on the return leg was collected in a pile on the floor rather than being whisked inside the dust container. We found we needed an additional sweep to ensure it was all collected on both suction levels.

In our heavier soiling test, the lowest power level - dubbed Quiet mode - left more than 20 percent of the debris uncollected from an initial pass-over, and dropped a significant amount when we lifted it up to collect anything that wasn’t initially picked up. This was less of an issue when we used Powerful mode: the vast majority of the debris was efficiently collected, and by lifting up the back of the broom, anything it had corralled was sucked up into the dust container. 

We also found the P11 was better at collecting fine dust on carpet than hard floor, sucking up more than 90 percent of the flour and biscuit crumbs we’d tasked it with on the least powerful setting, while the most powerful suction move whisked away more than 95%.  However, some of the remaining debris seemed to be smooshed into the carpet. 

Neither setting was a match for the heavy dusting of oats, however.. The Proscenic P11 left behind around 20 percent of the oats in Quiet mode and 15 percent in Powerful mode, although vacuuming very slowly improved the pickup rate. Stray oats seemed to get blown away in the latter mode, though with the dust container half full by this stage, a slight loss of suction could also have reduced the vacuum’s efficiency. 

The dust container is a cinch to detach and open straight into a dustbin, but getting it to latch back onto the vacuum cleaner's body takes some mastering. After several attempts, we managed to snap it into place by dangling the P11 upside down so the container latched on to the body. 

On test, while the vacuum was pleasing quiet on the lowest power level, our decibel meter registered 78dB when it was used on maximum power. This is the same noise level experienced when a toilet flushes and makes it one of the louder vacuum cleaners we’ve tested. 

Battery life

• Battery lasted 34 minutes before needing a recharge
• Takes three-four hours to recharge
• Battery is swappable although spares are not currently available

Battery life for the Proscenic P11 is advertised as being 50-minutes or more on a full charge. We found it was more like 42 minutes using a mix of Auto, Quiet and Powered modes. The recharge time of three to four hours isn’t onerous, though, and if you wall-mount the charging point your P11 will charge whenever it’s not being used. 

The battery is swappable, so could reduce interruptions to your cleaning sessions. However, spare batteries are currently available to purchase, although Proscenic says they will soon be available through Amazon in the US, but no word about if they’ll be made available in the UK yet. 

Should I buy the Proscenic P11 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: November 2021

• Check out these great robot vacuum deals