Dad’s short answer: Worth it, as long as you buy it for the right job. A handheld is for cars, stairs, furniture and upholstery — not your floors. The one feature that makes or breaks it is whether it has a motorized brush head.

The motorized brush head is the whole story

A plain handheld is a suction nozzle. It picks up loose crumbs and not much else. Run it over a couch cushion with embedded pet hair and it glides right over the top.

A handheld with a motorized brush head is a different tool. The spinning brush agitates the fabric and lifts hair that's worked into the weave — the stuff you'd otherwise be picking off with a lint roller. On the handheld I scored a nine, that head was the entire reason it earned the sticker.

If you have pets and you're buying a handheld without a powered head, you're going to be disappointed. That's the one thing to check.

Where a handheld beats every other vacuum

Cars. Nothing else gets into a footwell and between seats properly, especially with a long crevice tool.

Stairs. Carrying an upright up a staircase is how people hurt their backs, and a cordless stick is awkward on a tread. A handheld is the right shape for the job.

Furniture and upholstery, and the small spill you'd never drag a real vacuum out for.

What to expect going in: runtime is short, the bin is tiny, and most are louder than you'd think for the size. Those aren't defects, that's the shape of the category.

Dad’s Take: Buy the one with a motorized brush head. A handheld without one is a dustpan that needs charging.