The AirRam is a cordless vacuum cleaner from British home appliance firm Gtech.

The device, launched here in March, is able to stand upright on its own, unlike most cordless vacuum cleaners which have to be leaned against a wall.

This is because the AirRam has a stable base, which makes it look like a manual iRobot with a handle. Almost everything, including its motor, filter, bin, rotating brush and battery, is sited in its square-ish base unit.

This also makes assembling the unit a breeze. Just fix the lower and upper components of the handle, insert the completed handle into the base unit and the AirRam is ready to use.

At the rear of the base unit are a big power button and the battery pack. Step on the power button to turn the AirRam on and off. There is no need to bend down to reach the power switch.

The battery pack is removable, so you do not have to lug the entire vacuum cleaner to the power outlet for charging. You can buy an extra battery pack for the AirRam.

There are four LED lights arranged in a circle on the battery pack to indicate how much power is left. It takes four hours to fully charge a flat battery. Each battery pack gives 40 minutes of cleaning time, which is pretty good by cordless vacuum cleaner standard.

For this review, I was given an extra battery pack, which came in handy as it usually takes me about an hour to vacuum my four-room flat.

Even though the AirRam weighs 3.2kg, the weight is centred on the base. I don't feel my arms aching as I push it around the house. I like the LED headlights at the front of the base unit - great for spotting dirt on the floor.

The AirRam was able to pick up most hair and debris. I found it especially efficient on surfaces such as carpets, floor mats and wood floors. But it seems to have less suction power on tiles and I found myself having to repeat the vacuuming process a few times with this surface.

As the base unit is quite bulky, it cannot go under some furniture, such as my sofa. In addition, it does not perform well at corners and edges. I still saw dust lining the corners after a few pass-throughs.

The AirRam does not come with extra attachments, such as a crevice tool or an extension wand, that you might find on some other vacuum cleaners.

This is a boon or bane depending on your preferences. While it eliminates the hassle of changing attachments, there will be some spaces in your house that you can never reach with the AirRam.

The dirt removal mechanism is quite clever, though. Remove the cylindrical bin from the base unit by just lifting a lever. The cylindrical bin has a slider that you slide forward to eject the debris directly into a trash bin. Easy.

• Verdict: The Gtech AirRam cordless vacuum cleaner is easy to set up and great to use, especially for a quick clean-up. But with its lack of attachments, you cannot clean your whole house thoroughly.