Are handheld vacuums powerful enough for heavy pet hair?

For spot cleanup, yes. Across the reviewers we read, handhelds excel at couches, stairs, car interiors and pet beds, but specialist-community consensus on r/VacuumCleaners is clear that they're meant for intermittent quick pickups, not for replacing a full-size vacuum on whole-house pet hair. Models with a motorized brush roll (like the Black+Decker furbuster) handle embedded fur better than suction-only units.