And I kinda thought it would be. My old machine was the Dyson Animal (not the ball version) and it was heavy and a bit difficult to manovere very easily. After seeing the ads on tv which showed how effortlessly it seemed to glide around, I was very keen to buy it.
I am happy with the machine, but there are a few things that are not so good.
Firstly when I got it out the box to put it together, I found the instructions are not that great. Mostly they are just pictures showing where to slot everything into. I need everything written down in clear concise instructions otherwise I am stuffed! Being a woman of course, what do you expect? How I managed to get the floor cleaner onto the main hoover body I do not know as the instructions just showed it clicking on, but nothing seemed to match up until I put it at a very weird angle and then at last it did slot together. It did not help that my partner was sat on the settee laughing his head off at my antics. He refused to help as I was the one who insisted that we 'needed' a new hoover, men!
After a bit of scratching my head about how the wand fitted onto the machine, at last I had it all assembled and was ready to give it a try.
The first thing I noticed is that the machine is smaller in height than the old machine, if you are very tall, you may find yourself getting backache reasonably quickly as you have to stoop a little more than with the old machine. Something to bear in mind if you are considering buying one.
The machine is not that much lighter than the old Dysons, so if you are expecting it to be, you will be disappointed. The floor cleaner is much slimmer than most standard hoovers and goes nicely under units etc to clean under. The ball does not move as smoothly as it seemed to on the tv ads. It seems to want to run away with itself a bit and do it's own thing! I guess that will get better with time as I get more used to using it.
The hoover does appear to be more powerful than my old Dyson, the suction on carpets is very strong. I like the fact that you can turn the brushes on and off by a switch which is situated on the main body of the hoover, next to the power switch. On the old one, I had to bend down to the floor cleaner to turn it off, which was annoying. I also like the way the wand comes off the machine on the new model. It simply slides out the top of the machine and it is ready to go, rather than all the faffing about you had to do with the old model.
The dust container on this Dyson is a bit smaller than my old model, so I guess I will be emptying it that bit more often. However I thought I had broken it when I first emptied it as I took the container off the machine and promptly tried to pull the handle up as I did with the old machine, on this on you push it down to open it (I told you I am no good with following instructions!) This meant that the handle went out of alignment and I could not get the container back onto the machine again. Thankfully my partner stepped in this time and fixed it for me. So if you are used to using the old machine, remember it empties out a different way or you may find the same thing happening to you (unless you are someone who actually reads instructions!).
Stair cleaning is about the same difficulty as my old Dyson, it is a powerful machine and the wand tends to pull back a bit on you with the force of the suction. The attachment for cleaning stairs, chairs etc is smaller than the old Dyson and I think this is better as it gives you more manoverability.
So generally I am pleased with the machine and am glad I bought it. I think there are a few things that I will have to get used to, but overall it gets a thumbs up from me.