The lifestyle of the average Singaporean leaves little time to relax, especially with needing to tend to household chores and cleaning. Philips wants to help us lighten that load and free up more time to enjoy with the all-new Philips SpeedPro Max Aqua.

The SpeedPro Max Aqua has the same features of the SpeedPro Max; specifically, the 360-degree suction nozzle, LED light and low-incline functionality. However, new improvements have been added to the device.

The battery is now able to run longer than its predecessor, up from the initial maximum of 65 minutes to 75 minutes of runtime on its most powerful suction mode, more than enough for a single day of cleaning.

You likely won’t be needing to turn the suction all the way up anyway, the standard suction mode is sufficient for normal everyday vacuuming. The LED light also helps immensely in locating hidden particles on the floor. For especially pesky dust or lint, there’s a small brush attachment found at the end of the nozzle which you can flip over and use.

Speaking of attachments, the brush isn’t the only one that the vacuum comes with. Including the standard vacuum attachment for floors, there’s an attachment for sofa cleaning as well as the advertised mop attachment; the main body of the vacuum itself is mainly used to clean dust from ceilings or shelves.

Like the attachment used for floors, suction for the sofa attachment sucks up a respectable amount of dust. And detachment of components is easy to do if you need to switch around for different uses.

It is, however, sad to note that the mop attachment itself does not perform to the same level as its vacuum-related peers. Preparing the mop involves filling water and/or detergent into a detachable “tank” before securing it to the vacuum by way of magnets.

Though the magnets do the job just fine, filling the tank to the brim with liquid really hinders the manoeuvrability, making mopping a hassle, especially since the main body of the vacuum isn’t that lightweight. Putting less liquid helps a little with the weight, but not by much.

There also isn’t a good way to control the amount of liquid dispersed by the mop. The mop only works by releasing water through contact with surface and pressure, and for more troublesome stains — there is just an extra footstep on top of the mop to squeeze more liquid.

The mop on its own also lets out a little bit too much liquid, making the floors very slippery to move around afterwards. Also, this makes it a big problem for marble and wood flooring owners, whose surfaces will deteriorate if there’s excessive liquid.

Overall, the SpeedPro Max Aqua is a really good multi-functional vacuum. The suction power is really good and lasts really long for a cordless vacuum. The easy detachment of components also makes cleaning fast and efficient. It is unfortunate that that efficiency could not be translated to the mop function.

Perhaps some may see the value in being able to mop and vacuum at the same time to really save time in cleaning. But the decreased manoeuvrability and limited surface usability that the mop brings puts a damper on the overall function of the Philips SpeedPro Max Aqua.

Photos by Soloman Soh of the DANAMIC team.