Bosch Unlimited 10 vacuum review: How much is a 0.3-micron clean worth?

These days, it’s not a stretch to say that traditional European home electronics brands have taken a back seat to Asian, or more specifically, Chinese brands in the market. One only needs to scroll through platforms like Shopee and Lazada, or visit the quarterly tech shows to see that outside of Dyson, the usual suspects promoting their wares are names like Roborock, Dreame, Ecovacs, Xiaomi.

However, that doesn’t mean the Europeans have gone away altogether. They’re still releasing new products and new innovations. The Bosch Ultimate 10 cordless vacuum cleaner is one such product that caught my attention. At first glance, you might say that it’s just another vacuum cleaner, and as far as attachments are concerned, it does have a nozzle or head that would cover every home situation you might require. Depending on the bundle you get, there are crevice tools, furniture and upholstery brushes, hard floor and carpet brushes and even a keyboard nozzle.

The one thing with this vacuum that would immediately stand out among the competition is a flexible brush extender called the Flex Tube, which can bend up to a 90-degree angle. This would allow you to clean under furniture while standing and can be a real knee and back saver for daily vacuuming tasks. It also has a trash compactor feature like the LG A9 Kompressor. Beyond just saving space and allowing you more time between emptying the bin for the lazier folks out there, compressing the dustbin actually helps to greatly reduce the amount of dust blowout when you do open to empty it, which is a big plus.

The other thing that Bosch excels in is their interchangeable battery pack system. While the Unlimited 10 already comes with a powerful 5 Ah battery (with the ProPower bundle), the vacuum supports the 18V Power For All battery standard, which means you can swap out and use any Bosch Power For All battery packs from other appliances, and vice versa. If you have more than one Bosch device and invested into their ecosystem, this is actually a very strong unique selling point to have.

The most unique feature of the vacuum itself is what Bosch calls MicroClean Technology, which actually comprises three things that work in tandem for the Unlimited 10. Firstly, there’s a new MicroClean brush head that is engineered to have their best dust pickup performance ever. The new brush head also has a much larger diameter which is said to improve anti-tangle properties up to 3x compared to previous generations. Unlike the competition that uses little cutters in the brush head to cut up hair, the Bosch brush head simply makes it easy to remove hair without it being tangled or tied up in the roller. In practice, this claim holds true, as I could easily just pull aside about a week’s worth of trapped hair from the roller. If you regularly clean the roller letting hair accumulate over time, it should continue to be tangle-free.

The second and third part of the MicroClean Technology implementation is actually a sensor at the base of the vacuum handle and an LED ring light that indicates if dust continues to be present in the area you’re vacuuming. If the sensor continues to detect dust particles in the intake air stream, the LED right will remain dark (very dirty) or light up in white (some dirt remains). If the LED ring is fully blue in colour, this means that the area is clean.

The Unlimited 10 with MicroClean Technology promises cleaning performance that goes beyond visible dirt, down to just 0.3-microns in size. So, once the LED indicator turns blue, technically this means that the area you’re vacuuming is so clean that not even 0.3 micron-sized particles remain.

Bosch is quite proud of this feature, claiming it is a much better indication to the cleaning performance of the Unlimited 10, rather than common motor or suction power numbers such as Air Watts or Pascal that most competitors provide.

In testing, I can attest that the Unlimited 10 has been one of the most powerful vacuums I’ve ever used. This is anecdotal of course, but after reviewing multiple vacuums over the years, I’ve not had one that stuck to my carpet as strongly as the Unlimited 10, and this was with the new MicroClean Brush that’s supposedly capable of a multi-use brush capable of carpet cleaning as well. It felt like I had to physically drag the vacuum across. There are of course different suction modes that you can choose on the vacuum to reduce power, but I prefer to test with the Auto mode that is meant to adjust to various situations.

As for MicroClean Technology, I do not have the equipment to verify that it truly cleans down to the 0.3-micron level. We’ll just have to take the Unlimited 10’s sensor and LED at face value. While I don’t doubt the cleaning performance or the technology, I do wonder about sensor accuracy over time. Peering into the vacuum, the sensor is just exposed at the base without any specific self-cleaning features. Dust would eventually build up on and around the area over time, which would affect the efficacy of the system. You could wipe it yourself from time to time, but this is something that won’t be apparent to general consumers.

Another issue I’d like to point out is that the Unlimited 10 is a very heavy vacuum. As with most cordless stick vacuums, you’ll always see ads of people holding them with one hand vacuuming away. I’m here to tell you not to try lifting it up with one hand for prolonged periods. It weighs in at 3.8kg and bottom heavy with the 5 Ah battery pack. Comparatively, the Dyson V16 is still lighter at 3.5kg, while the Dyson PencilVac is just 1.8kg, and Samsung’s Bespoke Jet AI clocks in the middle at 2.6kg.

As far as vacuum’s go, the Bosch Unlimited 10 sucks really hard. It has some smart sensing features to tell you that your floor is clean, and a bunch of quality-of-life considerations like a universal battery system, trash compactor, and a handy bendy stick. Small things that make everyday chores better. I guarantee that within a month, these will matter more to you than how powerful the motor is.

Now, we come to price, the biggest hurdle of the Bosch Unlimited 10. The standard Unlimited 10 (with a 4 Ah battery) goes for S$1,499, and the ProPower bundle with the larger 5 Ah battery reviewed here is S$1,599. At this price range, Bosch is competing with cordless vacuums with complete docking stations and mopping functionality like the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI or LG CordZero A9 series with All-in-One Tower. As a standalone vacuum, even the latest Dyson V16 is “just” S$1,199, and the V12s Slim Detect Submarine has dropped to S$899.

Remember I said quality-of-life will eventually outlive performance? While MicroClean Technology is impressive, you’ll ultimately be paying more, for less quality-of-life over the current crowded floor cleaner market. But if that’s the price you’re willing to pay, then yes, the Bosch Unlimited 10 is one powerful sucker.

You can buy the Bosch Unlimited 10 from Bosch’s online store.