Henry is a vacuum brand that has become the darling of the commercial cleaning world. Those cute little eyes watching you work away has made the British-built vacuum almost iconic, and over 10 million have been sold.
You're usually sure to see them in offices, schools and hotels, but more and more people are buying them for their homes - and that's the target market for a brand new Henry product, the Henry Quick. And it couldn't be more different to that distinctive red cylinder.
The Henry Quick embraces all the latest technology, and offers a new cordless stick vacuum with 300w of power, a run time of up to 150 minutes and a powerful beater in its head. Yes, that's right, a Henry with a beater.
There's another key feature to make it stand out, too. The Henry Quick sets out to do away with dusty empties by introducing a "pod" system to its waste chamber.
In a sense, it feels like a backward step, bringing back the bag-collecting system to a cutting-edge cordless vacuum, but these recycled pods store a huge one litre of waste, and that could last you a few months.
They're a doddle to eject, made of recycled materials, and they also act as a filter. So there's basically nothing to clean in the main chamber, and you won't cake your clean floor in dust when you come to empty it in the bin.
It's a lightweight device, too. It feels really nice in the hand with a rubberised grip and a fine balance to it. It's not too noisy, either.
The beater does a good job of pulling up the pile on a carpet, and seems to fare pretty well with pet hair. Although some of the more premium vacuums, such as Shark's specialist pet hair devices, do a better job.
But it is impressive. The suction is strong, especially in boost mode, and it's great to see such a polished performance from a vacuum that's so easy to handle.
The pod system does mean you have no visible indication of how much grot you're collecting from your floors - that's something some of us will have become used to in a more conventional bagless vacuum - but a quick check of the bag after a thorough clean of my floors suggests it's definitely filling up nicely.
And that's an interesting downside to the Henry Quick. Just as with all the bagged vacuums we've grown out of, you have to replace the pods. There's six of them included in the box, along with some basic tools, but to buy 10 more you currently need to pay £12.99. Delivery is free, that said.
I'm impressed overall though. The Henry Quick carries over Numatic's legendary build quality, so it feels robust and built to last, and the battery life is very good too.
There's even a pink "Hetty" version available - and that brings us on to price. And this is where it gets complicated.
The Henry Quick, in the traditional red, is priced at £299 on Amazon right now, but if you want the pink one it's £527.49.
Weirdly though, the pink Hetty Quick is currently on offer if you buy it directly from Henry's website, and it's a bargain at £249.99.
If you can't bear a pink one, the red or grey Henry Quick is £299.99, with free delivery.
But we shopped around and we found deals on Henry Quick in red at Hughes, for £295.26 and at Very for £275.
It's obviously quite a lot of money for a cordless stick vacuum, but if you compare it with rivals from Shark or even Dyson, this is easily as good, if not better in some aspects.
And it has a smiley face. So that's me sold.
