The canister behind you and hose and power in front of you. This can be difficult in a tight place. Some vacuums have a rug-floor selector . This is usually a premium. This feature will allow you to clean both rugs and hard surfaces with the same vacuum.
Electric brooms are effective on hard floors.
If you choose a canister they usually have a soft floor brush to do hard floors. Some vacuums have high filtration, others try to lead you to believe they do. Central vacs takes the air out of the house. Eureka Boss 1820 built-in 2. Some time being able to push the vacuum is more important then more power.