Roborock Qrevo Curv: two-minute review

I've tested and reviewed numerous robot vacuum cleaners over the years and Roborock is unquestionably my go-to brand for reliable, fuss-free vacuuming with smarts galore. The Beijing-based company's portfolio is chock full of sterling models that push the boundaries of design and function to the max. Where Roborock goes, others tend to follow.

Take the Roborock Qrevo Curv I'm reviewing here. With its immensely powerful suction of 18,500Pa, twin circular mops and ability to ride over thresholds up to around 4cm in height, it's one of the very best robot vacuums I've ever tested. I'd argue it's actually a better option than even the S8 MaxV Ultra, which many consider to be Roborock's flagship model.

In the pantheon of robot vac cleaning stations, the Qrevo Curv's dock is a refreshing change from the ugly norm. With its white, dome-shaped casing and not overly large footprint, this is one model you might not feel the need to hide out of sight. It's a clever bit of kit, too, given that it not only charges the robot and empties its small onboard bin but also washes the robot's mops with hot water and then dries them using hot air.

If you're willing to splash the cash on a brand that's renowned for innovation, reliability, high performance and convenience, the Roborock Qrevo Curv robot vacuum is a darn good place to start.

Roborock Qrevo Curv review: price & availability

• List price: $1,599.99
• Launch date: October 2024
• Availability: US now, UK to follow

The Qrevo Curv was announced in September 2024, and went on sale in the US in October. Originally it could be purchased direct from Roborock for a $1,399.99, but by November it had gone up to $1,599.99. It's also available on Amazon US for the same price.

That's very much in the premium price bracket, and one of the most expensive robot vacuums on the market right now. While for many people, there will be a more basic model that will do a perfectly good job for a much lower price, I'd argue the Qrevo Curv actually isn't bad value for money considering the build quality and smarts included. I have my fingers crossed for a discount in the Black Friday robot vacuum sales.

The Roborock Qrevo Curv is yet to be officially launched in the UK but you can express your interest by visiting the global Roborock website. Expect to pay in the region of £1,400 for the privilege of having one of the most accomplished autonomous cleaning devices in bot-land.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Roborock Qrevo Curv specs

Roborock Qrevo Curv review: design

• Innovative vacuuming and mopping features
• Curvy dock self-empties and cleans/dries mop pads
• 'AdaptiLift' technology to bump it over high thresholds

In the past, Roborock has adopted a less-is-more attitude, with just a handful of sterling models in its roster. However, in around the space of a year, the company's portfolio has increased tenfold to now include a swathe of new models under the Qrevo sub-brand (nine models and counting) of which the Curv is arguably the most stylish and innovative.

Let's start with the bot itself. At a smidge under 13.9 inches in diameter and around 4 inches in height if you count the LiDAR navigation turret, the Qrevo Curv will scurry under most furnishings with ease. However, because it uses laser-based LiDAR to navigate, it will likely treat any valances around sofas and armchairs as solid barriers.

It is therefore advisable to lift any valances when performing the robot's initial mapping run so it can venture beneath. Thereafter, the bot should – but not always – punch through the valence and sweep up all the fluff and dust that inevitably gathers under sofas, arm chairs and beds. (Here's more on how to prepare your home for a robot vacuum.)

LiDAR is far and away the fastest and most efficient form of navigation since it occurs in real time while you watch its progress on the accompanying Roborock app. For added navigational accuracy and obstacle avoidance, the Qrevo Curv is also equipped with an LED headlight and a front-mounted RGB camera that can detect and recognize around 60 objects (though not, I should warn, the majority of dog mess).

On the plus side, a LiDAR-based model like the Qrevo Curv moves around the home using a logical up-and-down pattern rather than cleaning the room in confusing zig-zag fashion like most camera-based navigation systems.

Incidentally, this bot's camera can also be used to make two-way voice calls so you can interact with your pet. I would recommend experimenting with this feature while at home, in case your pet freaks out when it hears your voice coming out of the robot's speaker. The camera will also take snaps of your pet while on its travels, though this is a bit gimmicky since the bot's camera doesn't have an especially high resolution.

One of the standout aspects of the Qrevo Curv is its excellent cleaning efficiency. With a whopping suction power of 18,500Pa (way above the norm of between 5,000 and 10,000Pa), it picks up everything from fine dust to larger debris with ease, making it suitable for carpets of any depth and all types of hard floors. It also features automatic suction control depending on whether it's on carpet or hard flooring.

Heading to the business end, the Qrevo Curv is fitted with a unique tangle-free brush system comprising two short spiral-shaped rubber paddles positioned side-by-side, with a small gap between them so loose pet hair can be forced in the direction of the main suction area. All robot vacs are fitted with a spinning side brush that flicks detritus along skirting boards and in corners into the path of the suction area.

However, the Qrevo Curv goes even further by having an arc-shaped FlexiArm side brush that pops out of the side by an inch or two whenever it detects the corner of a room. It works remarkably well, too.

By nature of their designs, many robot vacs struggle to climb over high thresholds between rooms, but Roborock has nailed this conundrum by dint of an AdaptiLift chassis that raises the entire bot by 10mm whenever it encounters a high threshold or similar barrier.

This means the Qrevo Curv can traverse even the tallest of room dividers with ease, and ride over other fixed obstacles up to around 4cm in height. You can see it in action above, filmed by TechRadar's Homes Editor when it was unveiled at IFA, but I also tested it out myself with books at home.

It truly is an off-piste machine that covers all bases when it comes to navigating an entire home. The raisable chassis also allows the Qrevo Curv to work effortlessly on the deepest pile since it doesn't get easily bogged down.

Like so many robots vacs these days, the Qrevo Curv can also mop floors. Normally I'm not a fan of mopping bots, mostly because they're not as thorough as an upright hard floor cleaner, let alone a mop and bucket. However, I will make an exception for this model, since its twin spinning toweling mops do a great job of giving any hard floor a very decent clean. Like the extendable spinning side brush, the Qrevo Curv's right-hand mop also extends outward to clean along skirting boards and around chair legs. Rather cleverly, the mops lift when vacuuming carpet, the brush lifts when mopping and both lift when heading back to base.

Let's take a close look at the Qrevo Curv's elegant cleaning station/charging bay. It's true to say that the majority of robot vacs' docks are not only pug-ugly to look at but they're pretty enormous in stature, too. While the Qrevo Curv's shiny domed cleaning station is indeed on the portly side (45 x 45 x 45cm), I consider it to be one of the better looking docks on the market. Mind, there's a very good reason this robot vac has such a large dock, since it needs quite a bit of internal space to accommodate its two substantial 2.4-litre water containers – one for clean water, the other for the dirty stuff removed during its mop cleaning regime.

The Curv's deep clean function uses 7C water to clean the mops for maximum grime removal, supposedly removing 99.9% of bacteria in the process. It will even rewash the mops if the base's cleaning sensor still detects some dirt. It then dries the mops using wafts of hot air at 45C. Incidentally, the base of the dock can be easily removed for periodical cleaning of fluff and any large detritus that's attached to the cleaning mechanism.

Robot vacs are divided into two main categories: those that come with a self-emptying dock – like the Qrevo Curv I'm reviewing here – and those that don't. If you have a lot of hairy pets in the home, I would avoid any robot vac that doesn't have a dust-emptying feature or you will have to empty the robot's tiny bin yourself and this will just make you angry.

By contrast, a model like the Qrevo Curv is fitted with a disposable dust bag that collects all rubbish and hair in the robot's bin after every cleaning session. The Qrevo Curv is fitted with a 2.7-litre dust bag which Roborock says should last for up to seven weeks of cleaning before it needs replacing. However, since I have five very hairy pets in the home, I've found myself changing the bag every three weeks or so.

Battery running time is rarely an issue with robot vacs since they will all head back to base for a topup, even mid-clean if necessary. The Qrevo Curv is equipped with a 5200mAh battery, providing up to 180 minutes of cleaning on a single charge, depending on the mode used. This long battery life makes it suitable for larger homes where it will automatically return to the dock to recharge if needed before resuming cleaning where it left off. At around 60dB in standard mode, the Qrevo Curv operates fairly quietly, especially when compared to other high-suction robot vacuums I've tested.

Finally, for those who fancy a fully-integrated floor cleaning system in their home, the Curv is also available with a plumbed-in ‘refill and drainage' feature that automatically fills it with clean water while emptying the dirty water tank.

• Design score: 5 out of 5

Roborock Qrevo Curv review: performance

• Exceptional vacuum performance on all floor types
• Traverses rugs with ease
• Very decent mopping function

Let's start with the setup, which is a veritable breeze since there are just two parts – the robot and the dock. Although Roborock suggests placing the dock in a position with several inches of space either side, I just plonked it between a box and my Gtech AirRAM 3 upright vac and it's had no trouble at all when docking. Syncing to the Roborock app was also extremely simple and involved nothing more than scanning a QR code under the robot's top lid.

Roborock’s Reactive AI navigation system is generally very impressive and in my numerous tests over the past 10 days it has effortlessly avoided most obstacles above two inches in height, while automatically optimizing its cleaning route when anything was in its way. Like so many robot vacs, there’s only so much a camera and sensors can see and once a small item is beneath the camera or close to the front when the robot turns, it will very likely fail to spot it.

The Qrevo Curv is also not very good when it comes to spotting phone cables and will happily ride over them. However, at no point has any cable become snagged under any robot I’ve tested to date – invariably the cable is spat out the other side. And that’s the case with the Qrevo Curv.

Would I trust this robot to avoid a dog mess? Not on your Nelly. In this regard Roborock has some catching up to do to compete with iRobot, whose poo detection is usually very good but still not wholly reliable. The moral with any robot vac is to make sure there isn’t any clutter on the floors – as they all advise in their manuals. After all, you wouldn’t start manually vacuuming the floor with socks, cables and loose Lego bricks all over the shop.

Crucially – for me at least – the Qrevo Curv has behaved remarkably well on my loose rugs without too much ruffling of the edges. I put much of this down to the excellent and very innovative chassis-lifting system and the decent gap between the front of the unit and the floor. To date this bot has negotiated all my rugs with consummate ease, even the really thin, loose ones. And that hasn’t been the case with so many other models I’ve tested.

When it comes to vacuuming, I have no compunction in awarding this model a full five stars. It sucks like a limpet and I really do rate the excellence of the pop-out side brush, which captures stray matter much more easily than models with a fixed side brush. It passed the raw oats test with flying colors, collecting every solitary oat flake without flinging them all over the place. Really impressive.

I’ve always been gobsmacked by the way all the Roborocks I’ve tested over the years have handled pet hair – tons of the stuff. And though some models’ cleaning stations have very occasionally had a spot of bother sucking the most tangled clumps of hair out of the bot’s bin, I think Roborock has improved this area because I haven’t any issues to report with the base’s suction power.

In fact, you can set this model to two levels of emptying frequency: 'Balanced', which is suitable for a cleaner environment; and 'High', which empties the bin during a cleaning session – perfect for pet owners. Basically, after 10 minutes or so into a long task, it will trundle back to the station to have its bin emptied and then carry on where it left off.

If there’s one area I would say could be improved, it’s the smaller-than-average size of the cleaning station’s 2.7-litre dust bag and the weird way it sits in the dustbin chamber. This smaller size means more regular disposal of the bag for pet owners than the usual stated month. It's still a very strong contender if you're on the hunt for the best robot vacuum for pet hair, though.

Its mopping, too, is surprisingly good and much of this is to do with the unit being fitted with spinning mops instead of a rear-mounted pad like the Roborock S7 and S8 models. In my mop test the Qrevo Curv made a very decent fist of removing some dried soy sauce off the kitchen floor after a couple of passes. No, I don't think it's as thorough at mopping as an upright hard floor cleaner or bucket and mop, but for day-to-day use the mops have definitely made a difference to the kitchen floor's appearance, and that's good enough for me.

My final test involved me taking the Qrevo Curv upstairs for use on a very deep pile carpet I inherited from the previous owner and, most surprisingly, it sailed through the trial without ever bogging down. Must be that AdaptiLift feature again. Mind, it did leave a few wheel tracks in its wake but nothing too untoward.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Roborock Qrevo Curv review: app

• Extremely comprehensive
• Easy to use once mastered
• Acres of customization

The Roborock app is extremely comprehensive and takes a good deal of time to navigate through its myriad of settings and preferences. Integration with the app is seamless, allowing users to set no-go zones, virtual walls, schedule cleaning times for both rooms and specific zones, monitor the unit's performance in real time and even add furniture icons to spice up the map. Alternatively, you can leave all the programming to Roborock's SmartPlan feature, which generates suggested cleaning modes while adjusting settings and preferences to suit your floor plan.

The app and bot are also compatible with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, adding an extra layer of convenience. Oh, and you get a wide choice of languages and accents, too, so if you live in the UK you can select an English sounding voice which sounds a little like the voice of Alexa.

• App score: 5 out of 5

Should you buy the Roborock Qrevo Curv?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Roborock Qrevo Curv

My home is open plan with mostly wooden hard floor so it's a relatively easy household for any robot to navigate. Nevertheless, I've tested some models that have had a lot of trouble traversing the numerous rugs I have scattered around without ruffling them up into a bundle or becoming trapped. I have had no such issues with the Qrevo Curv. In fact, on a reliability scale of 1 to 10 this one gets a 10 for trustworthiness. It means I can be away from home and when I arrive back I don't have to spend half an hour looking for a stranded bot while readjusting all the rugs. The fact it sailed through all my vacuum and mopping tests without a hitch speaks volumes for the quality of the Qrevo Curv's design and the software that runs it.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners

First reviewed November 2024

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus: two-minute review

The Yeedi C12 Pro Plus is great for what it is – a mid-tier robot vacuum that will help keep your floors mostly clean between deep cleanings. If your budget is limited to around $600, it might even be among the best robot vacuums for you. Of course, robot vacuums have come a long way so, if you're able to splurge, it might pale in comparison to some of the competition, though you'll have to pay much more for those other options.

It can't get right up to the edges of rooms, it's limited in the smart home department, and it's a little louder than other options. However, its vacuuming and mopping is good otherwise, and Yeedi seems to finally have cracked the code on mapping open-floor spaces, something I've been harping on since I first reviewed the Yeedi Cube and have continued to have issues with just about every other manufacturer since.

While the eye-catching design of the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus' base station is certainly a plus, the more important factor here is the affordability of this robot vacuum. Even disregarding the fact that it's going to see plenty of deals – as is the nature of Yeedi and Ecovacs products – this is a relatively affordable model. While I consider it mid-tier, it's among the most affordable options out there that include mopping functionality.

So, if you're on a budget but still want that mopping ability and can live with some compromises, then this could be the robovac for you. Read on for my full Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review, where I'll dive deeper into its design and how it performs, so that you can decide for yourself.

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: price & availability

• List price: $599.99 (about £470 / AU$900)
• Available: US
• Launched: July 2024

Even though Yeedi is owned by Ecovacs, this brand (or sub-brand, rather) seems to only be available in the US. At least this model is slightly more accessible than the Yeedi Cube, not to mention much cheaper than many of the Ecovacs robot vacuums out there.

You will have to make a few concessions for that lower price point. There's no clean and dirty water reservoirs in the base station, and the mopping pad is a flat semicircle rather than spinning discs (which are generally more effective).

You'll also live without quality of life features like mop pad washing and drying – although you can easily remove the mop pad and clean it yourself. So, if you're on a little bit of a budget, you might forgo some conveniences, but this robot vacuum is still a strong contender.

The Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop, which has a similar form factor, will set you back just a little more at $699 (about £559 / AU$1,054). Having reviewed that Shark robot vacuum, I do have to say that it runs a little quieter than the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus. But, it doesn't look quite as cool.

If you want to put the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus' value in context, consider the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo, a robot vacuum I gave a nearly perfect score to for its great performance, feature set, and wonderful mapping, not to mention the fact that it comes with a handheld vacuum. While the Yeedi is missing a lot of the features, and isn't quite as good when it comes to performance, it's also about double in price at $1,199.99 (about £9500 / AU$1,800).

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus specs

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: design

• Attractive and unusual looking base station
• Anti-tangling brushroll
• Have to manually switch out backplate for mopping function

Since the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus is mid-tier, it's a bit more stripped down and a little less automated than many brands' newest, flagship models. Despite that, this robot vacuum has some aesthetic appeal.

Available in black or white colorways, the base station's dust bin is actually transparent, showcasing the red metal filter inside that just demands attention. Instead of trying to be discreet, the base station is bold, and that's something I appreciate.

Since it doesn't have water reservoirs, it also doesn't take up a ton of space. There's just a dustbin into which the (small) onboard dust cup self-empties after every use. At 1.5 liters, the dock bin is smaller than many competitors', but should still hold a decent amount of dust and debris. It pops right out with a push of a button, making it easy to empty out every few weeks.

As far as the robot vacuum itself, it has the usual round shape with the protruding center. There's a bumper on the front for when it runs into stuff – I'll talk about object avoidance below, but let's just say it needs the bumper. And there are three buttons on top for basic controls.

There's just one side brush here, but at least the roller underneath is of the anti-tangling variety. There are actually two backplates that come with the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus – one if you just want to vacuum and one to add mopping functionality. The latter adds a 0.4 liter water reservoir and a flat mopping pad that will vibrate and apply downward pressure on the floor as it goes about its business. Since it can't retract this mopping pad, unlike more expensive models that have the spinning mop pads, it will just avoid carpeting when in mopping mode.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: performance

• Surprisingly good vacuuming, including pet hair
• Solid mopping but doesn't get to the edges of rooms
• Is a bit louder and has mediocre object avoidance

While I did test the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus with various debris to see how it would do, I was surprised to see it pick up a bunch of dust, dander, and pet hair on its first couple runs on what I thought were already clean floors. That's a testament to how well it vacuums up (it boasts 8,000Pa of suction, which is actually higher than you'd usually find on a robovac at this price point).

Beyond that, it did well vacuuming up larger pieces of debris. Just to test that, I threw a bunch of cereal in front of it (a Lucky Charms knock-off, if that's important to you) and it sucked it all right up.

On top of that, the brushroll, even after a good number of cleaning runs, was mostly tangle-free. Keeping in mind that this is a full household with a few people with long hair and a couple of dogs, along with a cat, that's impressive.

It only has one side brush – not unusual, although you will find some robovacs double up here. Also worth noting is that it's a bit louder than some other robot vacuums, with a volume of around 62db if you're a foot or two away.

The mop pad is a wide semicircle that vibrates, as opposed to the spinning disc variety (which tends to perform better). However, on test I was quite impressed. I found this robovac delivered a nice, even mop that dries quickly and it quickly cleans up small spills – I threw a bit of Diet Coke right in front of it to test, and it was wiped up in one pass.

Mopping the edges of rooms is a common issue with robovacs. A handful of premium models feature extra side mops or pads that can shift outwards to get close to the edges of rooms; unsurprisingly there's nothing like that here. That means the mopping can't get right up to the edges of rooms.

Also unsurprising at this price point is the fact that there are no mop pad washing and drying capabilities built into the dock. That means you'll have to manually clean the mop pad if it gets dirty, or you risk tracking soy sauce or, worse, mold, across your floors. There is an extra mop pad supplied, so you can swap it in as you leave a dirty one to dry out.

It's worth noting that, as long as you’re not trying to vacuum carpets, you can leave the mopping backplate on and still do a great job vacuuming. As mentioned before, when in mopping mode, it will avoid carpets. I threw a bath mat in front of the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus, and it cleaned right up to the edge and then backed off.

One area where the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus fell down a little was its object avoidance. Now, it didn't get stuck on anything despite there being plenty of dog toys sitting around, though it did bump into them. But, when placing a squirt bottle in front of it, instead of going around, the robot vacuum just pushed it out of the way.

In terms of battery life, this robot vacuum has 300 minutes of use on a single charge on anything but the most basic of vacuuming operations, you'll still get a lot of use out of this before it needs to charge. On test, I found it could manage 170 minutes when mopping as well as vacuuming, which is pretty impressive. However, like most robot vacuums, it seems to return the base station somewhat frequently (to self-empty usually, so I never saw its battery life dip particularly low.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: app

• Easy to use and navigate
• The mapping is very good, even with open floor plans
• Not much in the way of smart home features

Getting the robot vacuum set up in the companion app for testing was clean and straightforward. As with most apps these days, I found the app easy to use and navigate, although it did take a minute of poking around to figure out where everything is – some of the functionality, particularly anything map-related, is tucked behind picture icons in the top right.

There are a number of noteworthy things in the app. Of course, there's the basic ability to set up a schedule and adjust some settings, such as a child lock and 'do not disturb' modes. But what really stands out is the fact that not only does it automatically section off the different rooms when mapping, but it allows you to partition each room into smaller areas as well. Many companion apps that use a line tool can get stuck on this, but even though Yeedi's app uses the same approach, here I had no issues cutting off half or a quarter of a space into a new 'room'.

As great as that is, anyone hoping for smart home features will be sorely disappointed to see that there's no voice assistant or voice assistant support. You'll either need to use the app or the physical buttons on the robot vacuum itself.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Yeedi C12 Pro Plus review: also consider

Not sold on the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus? Here are some alternatives to consider.

How I tested the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus

To test the Yeedi C12 Pro Plus, I used it for a week to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and carpeting in my house. I focused on how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles. I also tested the features listed in the app, most notably the mapping.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed July 2024

SwitchBot K10+ Pro: two-minute review

If you want a compact robotic vacuum cleaner, the pint-sized SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro could be just what you're looking for. Don't be put off by the diminutive design – this robot vacuum is packed with tech, from intelligent room-mapping and app control, to self-emptying and some of the quickest navigation we've ever seen.

It squeezes with confidence – and often at speed – between furniture legs, cleaning carpet inaccessible by larger robots, and the equally compact dock will appeal to those with small apartments, too. It also taps into SwitchBot’s existing smart home ecosystem, and can be controlled by voice via Alexa or Google Assistant.

However, this small robot's suction power isn't a match for bigger, pricier rivals, and the mopping function – which merely drags a disposable wet wipe across the floor – failed to impress. As with many robot vacuums, you need to watch out for high doorway thresholds, as anything over 20 mm will be a struggle for the K10+ Pro to clear consistently (although some of today's best robot vacuums don't have such an issue with this, thanks to some new and innovative engineering solutions) .

Those factors aside, this compact vacuum is still a good option for smaller, mostly carpeted homes, or for focusing on specific zones of larger properties. Install it upstairs, away from the tougher challenges of the kitchen and hallway, and your guest bedrooms will be spotless, while giving up precious little space for the robot and its dock.

That's the short version; read on for my full SwitchBot K10+ Mini Robot Vacuum review.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro review: price & availability

• List price: $599.99 / £599.99
• Launched: August 2024
• Available: US / UK

The $599.99 / £599.99 K10+ Pro sits above the regular $399.99 / £399.99 K10+ in SwitchBot's lineup of mini robotic vacuum cleaners, but some way below the flagship S10, which costs $1,199.99 / £1,099.99.

It looks almost identical to the K10+ but the Pro model gains a set of useful extra features, including a PSD distance sensor for more accurate navigation, a silicon anti-tangle brush, and a 3,000Pa suction system (20 percent more powerful than the K10+). It also benefits from an antibacterial dustbag, which the regular K10+ lacks.

A price difference of $200 / £200 is fairly significant at this end of the robotic vacuum market, especially when the two robots look almost exactly the same. But pet-owners will surely be drawn to the anti-tangle brush of the Pro, along with the extra suction power.

The K10+ Pro’s price puts it roughly on par with other mid-range robotic vacuum like the Roomba Combo J5 Combo from iRobot. That model also works as a mop, but it too requires the user to manually swap the mopping attachment in and out to switch between the vacuum and mop functions. Unlike the SwitchBot and its disposable wet wipes, the Roomba has a washable and reusable (then eventually replaceable) mopping cloth.

The SwitchBot’s price falls between the Eufy Clean X8 Pro (which acts only as a vacuum with self-emptying bin), and the pricier Eufy X10 Pro Omni, which has a rotating and self-cleaning mop.

While not uncomfortably expensive, the SwitchBot K10+ Pro feels like it charges a premium for its compact size. Instead of being a smaller and therefore cheaper model, it sells its dimensions as a benefit rather than a byproduct. That’s mostly fine, but this price point causes the SwitchBot to fall between two categories of robot – ones that only vacuum, and ones that also mop. At 3,000Pa, the suction is fine but a little below what other models at this kind of price point offer.

Buyers will need to decide if they value the compact size above all else. Or, if they would rather spend less and lose the mop, or pay more for a robot that puts a greater emphasis on mopping.

• Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5

SwitchBot K10+ Pro specs

SwitchBot K10+ Pro review: design

• Shallow and compact design
• Self-empties dust into the (also compact) dock
• Unusually, the mop relies on disposable wet wipes

Based on photos alone, you might think the K10+ Pro looks like any other robotic vacuum, but when you see it in person you realize just how compact it really is. It's a circular robot with a diameter of just 9.76 in (24.8cm) – compared to 13.39 in (34cm) for the SwitchBot S1 Plus – and a height, including the top-mounted radar, of 3.62 in (9.2cm). These diminutive dimensions help the SwitchBot drive between and under furniture in ways larger robots cannot.

The docking station and dust bin is also smaller than most of its rivals. It's so compact, SwitchBot suggests you could even tuck it under a chair. The all-round diminutive size makes the K10+ Pro ideal for smaller homes, or even as a second robotic vacuum tasked with cleaning lesser-used parts of a larger home, such as the spare bedrooms or office.

The robot itself has a radar on top, plus sensors on its front and side, and a cliff sensor underneath, to help navigate without crashing, getting stuck or falling down the stairs. There are just two buttons on the robot, for powering it on or off and telling it to go back to its charger. Every other function is controlled by the SwitchBot smartphone app, which is free for iOS and Android.

The top cover is secured by magnets, and when removed reveals a power switch that's only needed during the initial setup process, and the dust bin. The bin's filter is easy to remove and clean, and handily the smartphone app notifies you when the bin has been removed or replaced.

Turn the K10+ Pro over and you'll find a spinning side brush for flicking dust and dirt out from corners of the room, and a rotating anti-tangle brush made from rubber. During my month of testing the brush didn't once get tangled up, although a fair bit of hair collected at either side. Thankfully this doesn't restrict its movement, and is easy to extricate by removing the roller and snipping at the hair with some scissors.

The robot comes with a mopping attachment, which is fitted manually to its underside and, rather unusually, uses wet wipes instead of a washable pad or cloth. SwitchBot says this is an improvement over robotic vacuum cleaners that use washable towels for their mops, since it employs a clean wipe every time. I can see the logic here, but fitting a new disposal wipe after every mop seems wasteful.

Either way, the K10+ Pro won’t give your hard floors a particularly deep clean, since the wipes are simply dragged over the surface with no real pressure behind them. If you need a mopping robot, I'd recommend upping your budget if possible and going for a model with a mechanical spinning mop, like the Eufy X10 Pro Omni or Eufy Omni S1 Pro.

Back to the K10+ Pro, and the compact charge station houses a generous 4-liter dust bag that should last for months before it needs taking out and replacing. The robot automatically empties into the dustbag when its own bin gets full (at a brief but rather loud 83dB), but there's no water supply for the mop, since it uses wet wipes instead.

Although compact, the top-opening charge dock is plenty large enough to house a spare dust bag and filter, plus a pack of wet wipes and a brush for detangling the robot – all of which is included in the box. It makes for a handy way of storing everything associated with the K10+ Pro, instead of inevitably losing its various components in a cupboard elsewhere.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

SwitchBot K10+ Pro review: performance

• Quiet, with moderate suction power
• Mop function is not worth the effort
• Good but not infallible navigation

Before I conducted a set of controlled tests with the K10+ Pro, I set it up and simply used it as my vacuum cleaner. The setup process is quick and easy. Just download the SwitchBot app, follow the instructions to connect the robot to your Wi-Fi network (this step failed at first, then worked fine when I tried again), and let it map your home.

I used the app to name each room and adjust the room boundaries slightly. The robot did a decent job of working out where room thresholds were, but got a bit confused by a hallway connecting the kitchen, bathroom, lounge and bedroom. A couple of minutes of tinkering in the app, and the map was perfect.

I was particularly impressed by how it confidently drove under a bathroom cupboard with less than 0.4 in (1cm) of clearance without even a moment of hesitation. I also liked how it could drive itself between the three legs of a table I have next to my sofa. Other, larger robots can't fit through here, or between the legs of my office chair, so the floor between the legs is always missed. Not so with the smaller SwitchBot.

However, while its navigation is mostly very good – and it really is capable of getting to places larger vacuums can't – it repeatedly drove at full speed into a fireplace hearth. This made me question the SwitchBot's intelligence, but I saw no other collisions during the mapping and cleaning process.

The K10+ Pro is quite good at driving over high thresholds, which have been a problem for much more expensive robotic vacuums in the past, like the Eufy S1 Pro. The SwitchBot sometimes had to back up and try a different angle, but it very rarely failed to clamber over what is a rather high threshold between my hallway and kitchen.

The same gung-ho approach couldn't be replicated in the lounge, however, where it repeatedly got stuck in a thick rug. I had to mark this area as a no-go zone in the app, which was disappointing but hardly a surprise. Only one robot that I've tested, the Eufy X10 Pro, has so far managed to successfully wade through the rug without calling for help.

As with other robotic vacuums, the K10+ Pro can be configured to clean each area once or twice, and there are four suction modes to pick from, called Quiet, Standard, Strong and Max. Via the app you can create a room-by-room cleaning plan, with the ability to set a suction strength and cleaning time (once or twice) for each room, before you set the robot on its merry way. It automatically increases suction power when driving from a hard floor to carpet, but doesn’t ramp up the power specifically when there’s more debris to tackle, as some more advanced robovacs can.

For everyday cleaning the K10+ Pro performed well. The app is easy to use and it takes just a couple of taps to tell the robot to clean a specific area, a certain room or the entire floor. It's also easy to create a schedule, which is where robots like these work best. Configure it to clean high-traffic rooms frequently, and this little-and-often approach will keep your floors looking their best. Alternatively, I can see a compact robot like this being perfect for giving your spare bedrooms a weekly clean, or even taking charge of the entire upstairs, while you use a conventional vacuum in the kitchen, hallway and lounge.

Time for the more specific tests. This involves using a mix of oats and flour on hard floors and carpet, then seeing how the robot performs as we cycle through all of suction strengths and cleaning modes.

Quiet mode is fine for a light, frequently vacuum of low-traffic areas, and at just 64 dB it is remarkably quiet. It'll pick up larger debris like oats, but as with other robotic vacuums the K10+ Pro tends to flick everything around on its first pass, rather than pick it all up. You really need to set the vacuum to pass every area twice. That way debris gets flicked around a bit initially, but is mostly collected on the second pass.

Cranking the power setting up to Max increases the volume to 70 dB, and there's a noticeable difference in suction power. More debris is picked up on the first pass, then almost everything else is picked up the second time around. That said, the K10+ Pro still isn't as powerful as some pricier rivals, since it offers just 3,000 Pa of suction, compared to 5,000 Pa or even 8,000 Pa for more expensive options from the likes of iRobot and Eufy. Even on maximum power it failed to suck up flour from the shallow grooves between floorboards, and had a habit of leaving arcs of flour on the floor every time it turned around.

It performed similarly on carpet, where maximum strength wasn't quite enough to pull every bit of flour out of the floor. During this test I also found it failed to clear a circa-2cm threshold between the exposed floorboards of the hallway and the bedroom carpet. This is a common stumbling point for robotic cleaners of all prices, and despite trying for several minutes, the SwitchBot eventually failed to climb onto the carpet and called for help via the app. You'll need to bear this in mind if you're shopping for a robot vacuum, since very few manage this journey from floorboards to carpet reliably.

The K10+ Pro is one of the quickest robotic vacuums I've ever reviewed, driving faster than most others when it has the space to do so. I reckon it would easily clear the challenging thresholds if it gave itself a run-up, but SwitchBot doesn't seem to have programmed it to do so. One for a future software update, perhaps – just so long as it can reliably distinguish between a tricky threshold and a staircase.

Generally, and thresholds aside, the K10+ Pro does a decent job of navigating between rooms. However it will occasionally drive straight into objects, like chair legs and door frames, and do so repeatedly, as if feeling instead of seeing its way around, until a clear path is discovered. Its behavior sometimes reminded me of older, less intelligent robotic vacuums. It's unlikely to damage anything, but this headbutting approach makes the robot seem less smarter than it claims to be.

As is often the case with robotic vacuums, the K10+ Pro is good at light, frequent cleaning, but struggles to pick up absolutely everything when tasked with fixing a specific problem, like the spilled cup of oats and flour used in our tests. The debris left behind was completely removed by a regular handheld vacuum in a matter of seconds.

Moving to the mopping function, and this is really more of a quick wipe than a thorough scrub. More expensive robots have motorized mops that spin and push down onto the floor with real force, but here it's just a case of fitting an included wet wipe and telling the robot to get to work. I like how the wipe holder stores neatly inside the charging dock, but fitting a fresh wipe each time is a bit of a pain.

Attaching the mop switches the robot from vacuum to mopping mode, but this is very much a manual process. You have to fit the mopping attachment (which covers the rotating rubber brush) and tell it to go mop a specific room or area, then detach it to turn the robot back into a vacuum cleaner. The rotating side brush operates in both modes.

While handy for a quick wipe, the mop isn't capable of lifting any serious stains. In fact, it failed to fully remove some freshly split hot sauce from the kitchen floor, despite passing twice over the liquid. The wipe became dirty, so it had clearly done something, but this is really no more than a very light clean. A pack of 30 wipes is included in the box, each with a couple of holes for fixing to the mop attachment, but I can't see many owners buying another pack when they run out.

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

SwitchBot K10+ Pro review: app

• Easy to use
• Lots of functionality
• Apple Home requires additional hub

This robot uses the same app as other devices made by SwitchBot, which is handy if you want to build out your smart home with the company's devices, like door locks, motorized window blinds, security cameras and the Bot from which the firm gets its name.

You'll need to buy a SwitchBot Hub for some of these, but the vacuum works fine on its own – although you will need that hub if you intend to control it from Apple Home via the Matter wireless standard. Incidentally, voice control via Alexa and Google Assistant works without the hub.

The setup process is quick and easy, with the robot mapping your home on its first exploratory outing. You can then use the app to split the map into rooms and name them accordingly. With that set, you can ask the robot to go clean a specific room, or create a cleaning plan where a different suction setting is used for each room. It's also possible to draw no-go zones (such as a thick rug that the robot will get stuck in), or draw a specific area you want cleaning.

These are all common features across various robotic vacuums. There's nothing that really makes the SwitchBot app stand out from the crowd, but it's nice to see how the ‘Mini' name doesn't mean it's lacking in features.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the SwitchBot K10+ Pro?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro

I set up the K10+ Pro and used it as my only vacuum for a couple of weeks before starting the review. I then carried out a range of specific cleaning tasks to assess its mapping, navigation, suction and mopping abilities.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed October 2024

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop two-minute review

The Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop with NeverTouch Pro Base isn’t the first robot vacuum on the market that can mop and vacuum at the same time, but the fact that it’s outfitted with lots of smart technologies makes it stand out. In fact, it has wide range of detection capabilities, some of which are borrowed from today's best Shark vacuums, including the ability to detect what kind of floor it's on and how dirty it is, as well as being able to spot wet or dry spillages and stains, and automatically adjust its cleaning behavior to suit.

In my testing, I found the PowerDetect robot vacuum did a great job with different types of stains and debris of varying sizes, and the detection features worked as advertised. Expect the best clean when the vacuum and mop work together. Unfortunately, the suction wasn’t strong enough to completely pull up super-fine materials like flour from hard floor or a thick rug, and you'll almost certainly need to supplement it with a manual vacuum for occasional deep cleaning – but that's not unusual, even with the very best robot vacuums.

The mopping is effective, but left my wood floors wetter than I would have liked. Unfortunately, you cannot opt out of the automatic cleaning and instead manually choose vacuum or mopping settings, which is frustrating in situations like this.

One standout feature is this robovac's ability to roam over high thresholds; I've never seen a robovac that can lift itself as high as the PowerDetect can. It also has a novel approach to edge cleaning: when it gets near an edge, the robot blasts air to move debris into the cleaning path. Unfortunately, over-sensitive object avoidance means that it doesn't always get close enough to the edges of rooms to make this feature as effective as it could be. On the plus side, the companion app is easy to use and very accurate.

Shark launched its PowerDetect robot vacuum in summer/fall 2024. The combination robot vacuum-and-mop is available with a NeverTouch Pro base, which self-empties, cleans its own mop pads, and refills its own water tanks. That's the priciest option and the one I tested for this review, and I appreciated how it took care of so many maintenance tasks for me. However, if you're on a budget, you can opt for a model with a NeverTouch base (no 'Pro'). It's the exact same robot vacuum, but the dock doesn't self-clean and it doesn't have an anti-odor puck.

(Also in the PowerDetect range is an even cheaper robovac that doesn't have mopping capabilities at all, and various manual vacuums – head to TechRadar's Shark PowerDetect Cordless Stick Vacuum review to see how we got on with one of those.)

Read on for my full Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop review.

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop review: price & availability

• Price with NeverTouch Pro Base: $999.99 / £799
• Price with NeverTouch Base: $899.99 / £699
• Launch date: September 2024
• Availability: US and UK

The Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop launched in the US and UK in September 2024. It's available to buy direct from Shark, as well as via third party retailers like Amazon.

For this review, I tested the most expensive option: the PowerDetect robot vacuum and mop with NeverTouch Pro base. This has a list price of $999.99 / £799.

Alternatively, you can pick up the same robovac but with a slightly less advanced base (the NeverTouch base – no 'Pro'). This one doesn't self-clean its mop pads, and there's no anti-odor puck. This is currently available in the US for $899.99 and the UK (although, weirdly, not currently on the Shark UK website) for £699.

There's also a basic version, which still self-empties but doesn't mop. In the US this costs $599.99 (product code RV2820AE). It's also available in the UK for £499.99 (RV2820VEUK).

On my review model, an extra mop pad, odor neutralizer cartridge, and multi-surface cleaning solution were included. Further replacements are available direct from Shark.

At TechRadar, a robot vacuum that costs more than $800 / £650 is considered a premium model, so the 2-in-1 PowerDetect falls into that band. Generally, self-empty robovacs, and combination vac-mops do sit at the upper end of the market, although it is possible to pick them up for as little as $350.

Overall, this robot does a great job in a lot of areas, especially in terms of mapping and ease of use. Do I think the model I tested is worth $999? I’d say a fairer price might be $799, as I’ve tested other robot vacuums with more features, such as live camera, voice control and so on.

Even though it's very new, you might still be able to snag a discount. The Black Friday deals often deliver particularly good robot vacuum deals, and until then it's worth keeping an eye on TechRadar’s Shark coupon codes for other ways to shave a few dollars off.

• Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop review: design

• Circular robovac with vacuuming and mopping abilities
• Base charges, self empties and (if Pro version chosen) self-cleans
• Robot controlled via companion app

The Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop with NeverTouch Pro Base is a black circular robot vacuum that’s 13 inches in diameter and has a cleaning path width of 5.69 inches. At 2.7 inches tall, it can fit under most cabinets.

My review model came with the NeverTouch Pro base, which is has a dark gray – almost black – in color. It stands 17.5 inches tall, 18.8 inches wide, and 14.33 inches deep. This dock charges the robovac, cleans its mop pads, empties its onboard dust cup and dirty water, and refills the onboard water tank. It also has an anti-odor puck to prevent bad smells building up.

The Pro base is pretty compact compared to other robovac-mops I've tested, but if you'd prefer something smaller, take a look at the regular NeverTouch base (RV2820YE). It lacks self-cleaning capabilities and doesn't have the anti-odor puck, and it looks a little different in that the water tank on the base is visible.

The robot itself has a side brush (an extra is included in the box) for gathering dirt and debris, as well as a half-circular mopping pad and a dust cup with a capacity of 0.33 quarts. It’s also outfitted with LED lights and has NeverStuck Technology which means the robot is designed to be able to lift itself over obstacles, thresholds, and thick carpets; I’ve never seen a robot vacuum lift itself as high as this one can.

When mopping, the robot also lifts the pad when moving over rugs. To assist with edge cleaning, the PowerDetect robovac blasts air to pushes debris from the edges of rooms and into its cleaning path. It can also extend the mopping pad up to an inch out from its sides for better edge mopping.

The base itself has a bin designed to last 60-days (no actual capacity is provided), while the water tank is capable of filling the robot with water for 30 days (again, no specifics from Shark). Thanks to felt and washable foam filters, as well as a HEPA filter, you can rest assured that the vacuum contains the dust and allergens it picks up.

Setting up the robot was fairly easy. It doesn’t take more than connecting the ramp to the base, filling the tank with water, attaching the side brush to the bottom of the robot, inserting the odor cartridge on the top of the base, and leaving everything to charge. I downloaded the app and connected the robot vacuum to my Wi-Fi. It took a few tries but not so many that I was concerned or frustrated. This is pretty typical for me during the testing of products with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity.

Although it's far from basic, this Shark robot vacuum lacks some features I'd expect in the premium price bracket – for example, voice control (it will emit voice commands to let you know when it needs to charge or if it gets caught on something, but you can't issue instructions back), the ability to move the robot vacuum with controls in the app, and live camera footage.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop review: performance

• Great at object avoidance and climbing thresholds
• Decent job at vacuuming and mopping
• NeverTouch Pro base takes care of most maintenance

After connecting the Shark robot vacuum to the app, it mapped my house. I was very surprised by how quickly it mapped the house and how accurate the map was. I think it’s the most accurate initial map that I’ve seen from a robot vacuum, especially considering that the robot didn’t go to every room in my house. While I’ll go more into detail about the app in the following section, I found it really easy to control the Shark robot vacuum in the app.

To begin my testing, I set the Shark robot to vacuum and mop my entire house so I could get a good sense for how it would work on a regular basis. I noticed a few things during this process. For one, the robot does a great job of object avoidance. I never saw it hit a wall or any of my furniture. This was impressive. I think the only drawback to this aspect is that it may impact the edge cleaning.

The robot seemed intent on not hitting a wall or an object, and because of that, it didn’t get as close as I would have liked it to get for superior edge cleaning. Yes, with EdgeDetect technology, the robot vacuum blasts air to move debris near the edges into the cleaning path. However, it needs to get closer to an edge to even effectively use such technology.

EdgeDetect is just one of a range of detection capabilities offered by this robovac. Another key one is 'DirtDetect', which essentially means the vacuum can sense how dirty a floor is and automatically adjust suction in response. However, on Shark's manual vacuums, you also have the option to manually set a suction level, whereas there's no manual control option here.

As someone who has a house with a lot of tall thresholds, I was curious to see how well the robot would be able to climb over them. It easily lifted itself over all my thresholds except for one, which I’ve never seen a robot able to do (it’s about two inches tall, so that's understandable).

The base took more time than I expected to fill the robovac's onboard water tanks. Since it’s a hands-free process, it’s not the biggest concern but something I wanted to note. I didn’t think I’d be impressed by the Shark’s robot’s mopping capabilities, because I am not a fan of the type of mop pad this robot uses. It’s a half circle pad that sticks to the bottom with Velcro. I prefer rotating circular pads as I think they clean better.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised with the Shark PowerDetect robovacs mopping abilities. This is due in part to the fact that the robot can move the mop pad from side to side offering enough friction to pull up dirt and stains from the ground. Thankfully, the robot lifted the mop pad significantly when it went over the rugs.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this robot vacuum is that it left behind too much water on my floors. Because I have historic wood floors, I have to be especially careful when it comes to mopping (water can damage wood floors). I was disappointed that I could not adjust the water level of this robot vacuum in the app.

Because the robovac is able to vacuum and mop simultaneously, it can clean your entire house in half the time it would normally take (for instance, if you had to vacuum first and the mop after). In most cases, it's actually better to instruct the robovac to mop and vacuum at the same time, because vacuuming doesn't always completely remove fine dust, and the mop can deal with any remnants.

Cleaning tests

To accurately gauge the Shark's cleaning prowess I ran some standardized tests. I placed a ground coffee and flour mix on my laminate floor and the same mixture on a rug and used the spot cleaning feature of the robot to send it to both spots to see how well it vacuumed the area. I like that there is a spot cleaning option, but unfortunately, you can’t adjust the size of the spot in the app.

On the laminate flooring, the robot had a sound rating of 69dB. It picked up the coffee with ease. When it came to the flour, it did a pretty good job, though it wasn’t completely perfect. Rather, it left behind a small dusting of flour, which leads me to say that, if you drop fine materials on hard flooring, such as flour, you should probably use the vacuum and the mop function in conjunction to clean it completely.

When I sent the robot to the rug, the noise level increased to 70dB. It actually did a better job of vacuuming the rug than I thought it would. Like on hard floor, the robot picked up all of the coffee, but it left a round patch of flour. The brush also flung some of the flour out of the spot-cleaning zone, and thus it was not vacuumed.

Next, I tested the mopping capability by placing a puddle of water and some dried syrup on the floor. With a sound rating of 69dB, the robot picked up the liquids easily. I couldn’t tell if the robot pushed the water around as it leaves a good amount of water behind anyway, but it seemed to clean the syrup well. After the floor dried, I noticed a very slight (and I mean very slight) stickiness to the floor, and just to be safe, I had the robot mop the spot once again.

This Shark robot takes about 3.5 hours to fully charge and then runs for about 2 hours and 20 minutes before it needs to recharge again. If it runs low on power in the middle of a cleaning job, it just recharges enough to finish cleaning your house. The robot isn’t able to clean my 1,600-square-foot home completely on a single charge. This is not really a concern for me since the robot vacuum takes itself to the base, recharges, and then finishes the cleaning job when it’s ready. I don’t have to do anything but sit back and let it clean on its own time.

My favorite aspect of this Shark vacuum is the hands-free cleaning. The NeverTouch Pro base lived up to its name. It not only pulls the dirt and debris from the vacuum and stores it in a sealed 60-day capacity bin, but it washes and dries the mopping pad after every clean. I should also add that the water tank holds 30 days’ worth of water, which is impressive considering how small the base appears from the outside.

Maintenance

As for other elements of maintenance, the vacuum and base need to be cleaned about every 30 days. You’ll have to use a dry dust rag to clean the sensors and charging contacts on the robot and in the base. The base can be cleaned with a wet rag and then dried with a cloth. The brushroll and side brush need to be cleared of hair, string, or debris. The mop pad should be washed and/or replaced every three months. The base’s dustbin should be emptied once a month.

The filter in the robot and the filter at the top of the base should be cleaned once a month, by shaking them free of dust and debris over a trashcan and then rinsing the foam filters with cold water and allowing them to air dry for 48 hours. On the bottom side of the base there is another filter, the post-motor filter, that can be cleaned every 6 months. You’ll also want to clean the water container with soap and water before refilling it.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop review: app

• Easy-to-use app with great mapping and instructional tips
• Whole house clean, room clean, or spot clean options
• App contains schedule and cleaning history

I love a simple and easy-to-use app, and the Shark app is just that. The map that was created of my house is quite accurate. Take note that it’s only 2D; there are no 3D mapping options. The map shows the different rooms in my house and even has some shadow areas that indicate furniture or things like a bathtub.

I can easily adjust the map – which I did by merging two rooms together that the robot separated and then splitting two rooms that the robot determined as one. I can also label my rooms and create no-go zones. Unfortunately, you can’t customize a no-go zone. For instance, I would like to create a no-go mopping zone for a specific area of my house, but the app doesn’t allow that.

The app is where you can see the battery life and instruct the robot to return to the dock, pause, or set it to vacuum, mop, or vacuum and mop at the same time. I can choose to have the Shark robot clean the entire house, one room, or to spot clean in a certain area. Unfortunately, with the spot clean feature, I can’t adjust the spot cleaning box to be smaller or larger. It seems to be a set size that I have to move on the map to the area I want cleaned.

Not only can I schedule the robot to clean and look at the cleaning history, but there is a support section that answers all of my questions related to the use and care of the robot vacuum. I also like the little notifications found on the main page as they can be helpful in knowing if there was an issue while cleaning or if the robot used some particular function to improve the cleaning experience.

This app would benefit with a few additions, such as the ability to adjust the water flow and vacuum suction power. As it is, the vacuum adjusts the suction and mopping functions based on its ability to detect dirt on the ground. While this is impressive, it would be nice to have some more control in some situations.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop specs

Should you buy the Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop?

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

How I tested the Shark PowerDetect Robot Vacuum and Mop

I tested the Shark PowerDetect 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop with NeverTouch Pro Base for over a week in my historic home. My house is outfitted with laminate and historic wood flooring, and some large thick rugs. To adequately rate and review the vacuuming and mopping capabilities of this robot, I ran the robot vacuum throughout my home and used various features like spot cleaning. I also conducted controlled tests where I had the robot vacuum flour and coffee from hard floors and rugs, as well as mop flour, water, and sticky materials from the laminate floor.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2024

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus two-minute review

The Roomba Combo J5+ is a combination robot vacuum and mop launched in summer/fall 2023. It is cheaper than many of the best robot vacuums, officially priced around $650 / £479 / AU$1,299, but often found on sale. The packaging is mostly cardboard, making components easy to identify. Setting it up involves unboxing, downloading the iRobot app, and mapping your home.

Its sleek design measures 13.8 by 3.6 inches and includes additional parts such as mopping cloths. The unit has bright green rubber brushes and a single-side sweeper, and the dustbin can be swapped for a mopping unit. It features an integrated light and camera for navigation. It is user-friendly but noisy, and you can control it via the iRobot app and integrate it into a smart home system if you use one.

Due to its single-brush design, it performs well on rugs but less so on hardwood floors. So, while it'll keep things generally clean on a day-to-day basis, you'll still need one of the best vacuum cleaners on hand to give your home a proper deep clean. 

The mopping function requires swapping the vacuum bin for the mopping one and, unfortunately, doesn't match traditional mopping in thoroughness. The vacuum also struggled with larger particles during our tests. While the vacuum navigates obstacles well, it may struggle with smaller objects and isn't flawless at obstacle avoidance. One helpful feature is its ability to return to its charging dock when the battery is low and resume cleaning afterward.

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus review: price & availability

• List price: US$649.99 / £479 / AU$1,299 
• Launch date: September 2023
• Availability: UK / US / AU / worldwide

The Roomba Combo J5+ is available from most online stores, including Amazon, Best Buy, and iRobot's site. It is also available in the United States, Australia, the UK, and other regions where iRobot products are available. 

Because it's no longer the most recent model in iRobot's Roomba range, you can grab it slightly cheaper than the most up-to-date products that would set you back. In the US, the vacuum is just under $650, but you'll find it on sale periodically and during large sales events like Black Friday.

The J5+'s relative age doesn't diminish its features, as it still boasts all of the pros inherent in the Roomba range. It sits in TechRadar's mid-range price bracket for the wider robot vacuum, and is decent value for a self-empty robot vacuum from a well-known and highly respected brand.

•  Value for money score: 4 out of 5 

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus specs

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus review: design

• Not particularly lightweight
• Easy to set up
• Vacuum and mop bins need to be swapped for different functions

The Roomba Combo J5+'s packaging is mostly cardboard, with only the unit in a plastic bag. Smaller boxes neatly contain additional parts, including mopping cloths. This makes it easy to identify each component, which is particularly helpful for robot vacuum beginners. 

Setting up the Roomba Combo J5+ is a straightforward process that involves unboxing the vacuum, downloading the iRobot app, creating an account to link the device, and mapping your home for future navigation. The iRobot app controls the vacuum, letting you start cleaning sessions, view and edit your home map, and set specific room-based cleaning tasks. It can also be integrated with any smart home system, allowing automated routines.

The Roomba Combo J5+ looks great, with a sleek, contemporary design that mirrors the signature shape and style of other vacuums from the brand. Measuring 13.8 inches across by 3.6 inches high, it's the right height to navigate under sofas and cabinets. The top panel features a single clear button to avoid confusion. The black finish with a stocky dustbin adds to the premium appeal, even if the unit is quite large.

The underside features bright green rubber brushes and a single-side sweeper. Whenever you need to change modes, you can swap the bin for the mopping unit (included in the box).

There's also an integrated light and camera that help the vacuum intelligently navigate and avoid obstacles. The overall setup is user-friendly and intuitive, though the relatively compact size of the vacuum unit does not automatically mean this is an ideal choice for small spaces. The dustbin accounts for much of the footprint, but the unit is also heavy. The weight contributes to noise levels as the vacuum moves across rooms, particularly in homes like mine. These homes have lots of furniture, corners, and raised wooden dividers between rooms.

If you plan to use the mop function, you must first swap out the vacuum bin for the mopping one. Fill the tank with your chosen solution and attach the mopping cloth. This is a key difference between the J5+ and Roomba Combo J7+, which can vacuum and mop simultaneously without swapping out any parts. If you don't want the hassle of switching bins during your cleaning routine, you may want to opt for the newer model.

The Roomba was tested in the household of a black cat who sheds hair absolutely everywhere. The vacuum doesn't disappoint in this regard, as it successfully picked up the abundance of pet hair from my floors. There was no issue with pet hair clogging the mechanisms, but I found that my longer human hair did wrap around the brushes, and they needed manual de-hairing after a while. I'd consider this one of the best robot vacuums for pet hair.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5 

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus review: performance

• Good at picking up larger particles but struggles with dust
• Obstacle avoidance feature only works for some items
• Mopping functionality has limitations

The Roomba Combo J5+ performed well during general use and specific tests, living up to the promise of its feature set. Dual multi-surface rubber brushes adjust to maintain constant contact with carpets and hard floors, and it promises to pick up everything from tiny dust particles to large debris, courtesy of a 3-stage cleaning system.

The device features a navigation system that maps your home, allowing it to transition smoothly between different floor types and navigate obstacles. The Roomba also boasts cliff-detection sensors that prevent falls down stairs or ledges, though I couldn't test this in my ground-floor apartment. Notably, it can return to its charging dock automatically when its battery is low and resume cleaning afterward.

One useful feature of Roomba vacuums is the audio error messages. These messages suggest why your vacuum stopped operating in the middle of the hallway instead of leaving you to guess. So, if you find your vacuum stuck in a corner, you can hit the button and have it tell you what the problem is.

It's worth mentioning that the Roomba Combo J5+ can be noisy during operation, especially when emptying the bin. It operates at an average noise level of 48dB, which is not overly loud but becomes significantly noisier during docking and emptying its tank.

Interestingly, the vacuum works more consistently on rugs than hardwood floors. This is mainly because robot vacuum brushes sometimes scatter loose dirt around the room, potentially missing some debris. However, rug cleaning performance remains stellar. Just note that the Combo J5+ might struggle with edges due to its single brush design, limiting its ability to reach corners and crevices.

Its obstacle avoidance feature is generally successful but not flawless. While it successfully avoids clothing, shoes, and pet droppings, it struggles with smaller objects like curtains and small toys. To be safe, you'll still need to pick up various items before letting the Roomba loose.

The Roomba Combo J5+'s mopping functionality is adequate for surface-level dirt cleaning of hard floors. However, it doesn't match traditional mopping thoroughness, especially for more stubborn or ingrained dirt.

In testing, the Roomba Combo J5+ struggled with fine dust while performing well with larger debris. For instance, it picked up biscuit particles easily but struggled with finer particles like flour. It also needed to empty itself multiple times when dealing with large amounts of debris, like rice spread across the floor.

After extended use, though, the Roomba Combo J5+ needs minimal maintenance. This included removing the main rubber brushes to clear them of hair and ensuring the side brush was obstructed. Occasionally, it should also be wiped down to keep its sensors clean. 

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus review: app

• Easy-to-use interface
• Accurate and customizable mapping feature
• Real-time updates on the vacuum's progress

The iRobot app, available on iOS and Android, significantly enhances the Roomba Combo J5+ user experience with its various controls and features. Users can schedule cleaning sessions, view their cleaning history, and customize cleaning preferences in one place. It also offers access to Clean Map reports, where you can track the areas cleaned after each session.

The J5+ is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, offering voice-activated control for hands-free operation. The mapping feature accurately rendered the layout of my home. I regularly played with features like customizable room dividers and real-time updates on the vacuum's progress. The app also allows for specific room cleaning and virtual barriers.

The app works remarkably well, providing an estimated time frame for task completion. Once everything is set up, you can select which rooms you want and don't want to be cleaned. For example, if you command it to clean the kitchen, it will complete the task swiftly. It will send a push notification to your device and then return to its charging base.

• App score: 5 out of 5 

Should you buy the Roomba Combo J5 Plus?

 Buy it if… 

Don't buy it if…

How I tested the iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Plus

I sprinkled crushed digestive biscuits and flour on my kitchen floor to test the Roomba Combo J5+ on different surfaces in my one-bedroom apartment. The vacuum successfully picked up the biscuit particles but struggled with the flour, leaving some behind. I also spread rice on hard floors and carpets to simulate larger debris.

I observed how the vacuum and its accompanying app performed over several weeks, and thankfully, it only required occasional major cleaning interventions at this time.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2024

• View at Narwal
• View at Amazon US

Narwal Freo X Plus two-minute review

The Narwal Freo X Plus is a budget-friendly robot vacuum and mop that does many things well, but a few things fairly badly. If you're just looking at the pros and cons list, the score of this review might not make sense as there are plenty more positives than negatives – but those few negatives can make for a frustrating experience. 

If you're willing to put in the time to understand this model, it could potentially be one of the best robot vacuums for you, especially if you're on a budget. After all, most of the best vacuums that include mopping ability are not going to be this cheap, unless you get something manual like the Bissell CrossWave OmniForce. When it comes to robot vacuums specifically, the price tag for great performance, feature set, and overall functionality goes way up.

The vacuuming performance of the Narwal Freo X Plus is very solid. However, like most budget models that just pull a single stationary pad across the floor, its mopping capability is just passable. Still, you'll generally end up with clean floors. 

However, the Narwal Freo X Plus seems to have a mind of its own. Unless you just set it to clean your whole space in the most thorough way possible, you'll end up with incomplete cleaning cycles. Or it might decide to head off on a different, unassigned job.

At least it has a tiny base station, so that the Narwal Freo X Plus is easier to place than most robot vacuums. Another added benefit is that it's possible to pair and use through a voice assistant like Alexa. All in all, the Narwal Freo X Plus is a somewhat capable robot vacuum that comes with some frustrating aspects, such as its erratic cleaning behavior. But they may be worth dealing with if you're on a budget, or just want to be able to do a basic, whole-home clean.

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: price & availability

• List price: $399.99 / AU$899 (about £310)
• Launch date: March 2024
• Available: US and Australia

The Narwal Freo X Plus is available in the US and Australia, with a list form of $399.99 / AU$899. That puts it in TechRadar's budget price bracket, which is particularly significant when you consider it offers mopping as well as vacuuming functionality. Of course, whether it's a good value buy or not will depend on whether you're okay dealing with its navigational quirks. It will still deliver fairly clean floors, but can be a pain to deal with.

This is not necessarily unique to the Narwal Freo X Plus, as the recently reviewed Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus came with its own quirky frustrations, not to mention weaker suction power than the Narwal, and it comes with a higher $649.99 / £499 / AU$999 price tag. It is, however, available in the UK unlike the Narwal, and comes with better mopping ability.

One of the strange things about the Narwal Freo X Plus is the fact that the company's flagship, Narwal Freo X Ultra, offers much better cleaning performance along with a range of other bells and whistles. Granted, that one is far more expensive (the Ultra costs $1,399.99 / AU$2,299 – about £1,110), but it's strange to see issues with the software given that it's coming from the same company.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Plus specs

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: design

• Compact base station
• Two side brushes and an anti-tangling brush roll
• Single, stationary mop pad

When taking a look at the Narwal Freo X Plus' design, the first thing that jumps out is in regards to its teeny, tiny base station. Since its only function is to charge the robot vacuum and give it a place to rest, it doesn't need to do a lot. Still, it's cute in its own way, not to mention makes it easier to find a good place in your space for the robot vacuum. Bigger models with self-emptying dustbins and water reservoirs, such as the flagship Narwal mentioned earlier, need a lot more space (although, of course, there are benefits of having these capabilities built-in).

As far as the robot vacuum itself, it has the typical rounded shape. There are two side brushes instead of one, giving it a leg up on the vacuuming front compared to models that only have one side brush. The main brush roll is of the anti-tangling kind so you won't find it wrapped with hair, something that's not always considered on budget robot vacuums.

The mop pad is of the single, flat variety that sits along the bottom back half of the unit. While it does apply some downward pressure, it doesn't do much in the way of scrubbing. I'll talk a little more about how this affects its performance below, but just know that this is normal for budget models and that more expensive ones seem to completely abandon this approach in favor of dual spinning mop pads.

Regarding the manual controls, there are just two buttons – a power button and a home button, each with a secondary function (start/pause/resume cleaning and child lock, respectively).

The Narwal Freo X Plus is a fairly sleek looking robot vacuum in its all-white aesthetic. That's partially because it covers its small water reservoir and dustbin with a glossy white top that stays in place due to some cleverly placed magnets. Both the reservoir and dustbin are easily removable and easy to fill up or empty, respectively.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: performance

• Very good vacuuming
• Mopping is just okay
• Erratic behavior in how it cleans

There are a couple different factors to consider with a robot vacuum's performance, but the core one is vacuuming. Luckily, the Narwal Freo X Plus does a very good job here. Thanks to having two side brushes, it's able to get debris on either side of it. Since it has an anti-tangle brushroll, it's able to tackle aside from charge cords (the kryptonite of all robot vacuums).

I ran this robot vacuum in a house with two French Bulldogs as well as four adult humans, two of whom have long hair, and it did a great job keeping the floor clean, picking up everything from smaller dust-like particles to debris the size of a leaf. It also picked up hair without issue and without any tangling. I even tested it with a pile of sugar and cereal and it took one pass to suck it all up. 

I used it on tile, hardwood floors, and a small but thick bath mat. In terms of just vacuuming, this robot vacuum has the goods regardless of the surface. The Narwal Freo X Plus has 7800 Pa of suction power, which isn't the highest on the market, but based on my tests is still enough to deal with most household cleaning requirements. 

Its mopping capability is a little less stellar. I would actually describe it as okay. Since it has the one pad, it's only applying downward pressure. So, somewhat dried pieces of mud in the foyer that a robot vacuum with spinning mop pads would pick up are unaffected. More frustratingly, unless I used the highest mopping humidity setting, it didn't always wet the entire area it mopped, leaving slightly streaky results. If you are going to use this robot vacuum for mopping, my recommendation is to use the highest settings and be prepared to regularly refill the water reservoir.

As far as getting to the edges, it does well with vacuuming, thanks to those two side brushes, but doesn't really get all that close when mopping.

The object avoidance, on the other hand, is pretty good. It won't necessarily give a wide berth to any randomly placed object but it will brush up against it. When I placed the bath mat down, the Narwal Freo X Plus vacuumed right up to it on all sides before deciding it could tackle it. Only then did it vacuum it.

Where the Narwal Freo X Plus falls short is in how it decides to clean. When I use the Freo Advice setting in the app, it will take the strangest path. Maybe it's only picking up certain debris on its sensor, but it will clean up maybe 20% of the area that it should. Also concerning, when I run to only clean a particular room, it will decide to move onto another room after finishing its initial job and start vacuuming there instead of returning to the base station. It's frustrating enough that I would rather have it clean the entire space instead of attempting to do any kind of spot cleaning.

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: app

• Easy-to-use app
• Mapping has some shortcomings
• Works well with third-party voice support

The Narwal Freo app is pretty straightforward to use, from setup to choosing the kind of cleaning you want to accomplish (vacuum only, vacuum and mop, and vacuum then mop). It's also a fairly attractive looking app. I didn't ever feel lost navigating to various settings, whether it's adjusting the specific cleaning settings such as suction power or mopping humidity or opening up the schedule to plan a cleaning.

The map is pretty easy to use, and you can even see a 3D representation of your mapped space. Of course, it suffers from the same editing shortfalls of a lot of robot vacuum apps, where you're limited on how you partition your space. If you have an open or semi-open floor plan like the space that I often test in, you'll only be able to partition once as you can't section a partitioned space in half.

On the bright side, setting it up with third-party control – I tested it with Amazon Alexa – was fairly easy to do. The only quirk is knowing the very specific phrases that it can understand. “Alexa, run the robot vacuum” doesn't work, while “Alexa, ask my robot to start cleaning” does.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: battery

• Very long battery life
• Will return to base when getting low

Possibly because the Narwal Freo X Plus is a bit lighter on features than more expensive units or possibly because it doesn't have spinning mop pads, its battery life of up to 254 minutes is quite a bit longer than what I usually see with robot vacuums. For reference, most units these days have up to 210 minutes of use.

While that's more than enough battery life for even fairly large spaces, the robot vacuum will return to its base when necessary for an extra charge before continuing on with its task if it's running out of juice.

• Battery score: 5 out of 5

Should you buy the Narwal Freo X Plus robot vacuum?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Narwal Freo X Plus robovac review: also consider

How I tested the Narwal Freo X Plus

To test the Narwal Freo X Plus, I used it for a couple weeks to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and a bath mat (to simulate carpeting) in my house. I also tested all the features listed in the app, from mapping to scheduling. I took note of how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles, not to mention running how the handheld vacuum performed.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2024

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus two-minute review

I’ve generally been a fan of Ecovacs robot vacuums, so I was a little nonplussed testing the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus. It’s not a bad vacuum by any means – its 4 out of 5 rating here should make that clear. It’s just that it’s much more stripped-down than a lot of other options out there, whether from Ecovacs or otherwise.

Some of the compromises made to keep the price down mean that it's hard to recommend this as one of the best robot vacuums for those working with a limited budget. Now, its cleaning prowess is pretty good as is its mopping capability. And, the fact that you have to remove the mopping pad if you only want to vacuum , then put it back on if you want to both vacuum and mop, is par for the course for something in this price range.

However, its operation is on the louder side, the robot vacuum gets stuck exiting its base station if it’s too close to any furniture, and its vacuuming prowess is not ideal if you’re trying to clean up an actual mess (I’ll elaborate on that later).

Still, it does share some characteristics of the best vacuum cleaners in this form factor, such as a long battery life and smart home features through Google Assistant or Alexa. It’s not bad for the price, and, being an Ecovacs product, you’re certain to find it with a pretty decent discount sooner or later.

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus specs

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: price & availability

• List price: $649.99 / £499 / AU$999
• Available: US, UK, and Australia

If you’re new to the world of robot vacuums with mopping capabilities, the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus’ list price of $649.99 / £499 / AU$999 may seem expensive. However, if you look at some of the more fully featured models we’ve reviewed, it becomes clear fairly quickly that this is actually a pretty good price.

Realistically, you’re going to have to pay $500 / £500+ for anything with mopping functionality. For example, the Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop has an almost identical form factor, including a similar clip-on mopping pad, and will set you back just a little more with an MSRP of $699 (about £559 / AU$1,054). That said, the Deebot N10 Plus has a much better battery life, although it runs a little louder.

If you want an example of a more fully-featured model to really get an idea of the Deebot N10 Plus’ value (or you’re considering splurging), take a look at the Narwal Freo X Ultra. It’s much pricier at $1,399.99 / AU$ 2,299 (about £1,110), but it has double the suction power, quieter operation, and a clean and dirty water reservoir in the base station. The base station auto-fills the robot vacuum's water tank as well as self-emptying its dustbin, and it'll also wash and dry the mopping pads. Also worth noting is the fact that the mopping pads retract so that it can just vacuum carpeting areas and then vacuum and mop hard flooring without having to swap anything out, unlike the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus.

If you want to stay in the Ecovacs family but want to opt for a more expensive model, the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo is an impressive unit for $1,199.99 (about £950 / AU$1,800), but at the time of writing it's only available in the US.

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: design

• Has two side brushes and a brush roll that gets tangled in hair
• Mopping pad clips on
• Base station needs a good amount of clearance

The Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus, available only in all white, doesn’t really break any molds. The actual robot vacuum has two side brushes, which makes it much more effective at sweeping up debris at the edges of a room, an obvious improvement over the single side brush that a lot of models come with.

The brushroll underneath that actually picks everything up is easily accessible, thankfully, since it does collect hair easily and will need to be untangled regularly. That said, even when wrapped in hair, it still seems to get the job done.

Though this is a robot vacuum with mopping functionality, the Deebot N10 Plus requires a bit of manual labor that you won’t find on more expensive units. Not to make it sound like hard work because it’s not, but you have to clip on the mop pad when you want to utilize that feature, then you have to unclip it whenever you want to use it on carpeting. It will however avoid any kind of carpeting when the mop pad is in use. You also have to fill up the water reservoir in the vacuum itself regularly.

In fact, I learned that lesson the hard way when I originally set up the base station in a room with carpeting and the Deebot N10 Plus would get stuck on the carpet every time it tried to run. While it’s not that much work, this is not the set-it-and-forget-it type of robot vacuum. Of course, that’s to be expected at this price point when you add in mopping.

Speaking of the base station, it’s kind of cute in its petite, somewhat slim design. It has just enough room for a dust bag, since it does have a self-emptying capability. The only other thing worth mentioning is that the bottom plate that the robot vacuum sits on when at rest is at an angle.

And when you have the base station too close to a piece of furniture (a chair in my case), the robot vacuum will try to exit off to the side of that bottom plate instead of going straight back, which results in it getting stuck. It’s frustrating, but easily fixable if you give the base station a good amount of clearance on either side.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: performance

• Good for maintenance cleaning
• Vacuuming gets to the edges, mopping does not
• Runs a bit on the loud side

Most robot vacuums are great for keeping the daily buildup of dirt at bay, while not providing true deep cleaning. That’s certainly the case with the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus. You’re still going to need to deep clean from time to time, and you'll still need to grab a more traditional vacuum when dealing with unforeseen messes.

When vacuuming, for instance, the Deebot N10 Plus does a great job of keeping the floor clean, picking up dander and hair. As mentioned above, hair does get tangled in the brush roll, so you’ll have to clean that out from time to time. However, I didn’t find that that affected its ability to suction up debris.

I did also test this robot vacuum with a bunch of cereal and, while it managed to suck up a good amount of it, it didn’t get it all, seemingly not detecting that there was still debris on the floor. It did, at least, get edges.

Mopping is pretty good with its single mop pad that vibrates on the floor as it moves along, but again, you’re not going to get a deep clean – models I’ve tested with spinning mop pads seem to get a little deeper (they’re also twice the price usually). But it’s good enough. However, the mop pad, being in a static position, isn’t able to get to the edges of rooms the way the side brushes are.

Be aware that you’re going to have to wash the mop pad every now and then as there’s no automatic cleaning on hand. Also of note is the fact that it runs a little bit on the loud side, registering around 65dB at full power.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: app

• Straightforward in setup and use
• Accurately maps and can save maps for multiple floors
• Limited partitioning can be an issue for open floor plans

Whether it’s going through the setup or just running the Deebot N10 Plus remotely, the Ecovacs app is fairly straightforward to use. There are a small amount of additional settings you can work with, such as adjusting when it self-empties into the base station, or creating a schedule.

It’s worth noting that, unlike most apps I’ve used for robot vacuums, adjusting cleaning modes is hidden behind a “cleaning preference” button instead of being right on the front page. However, once you’ve pulled that page up, it follows the same format.

Since I tend to get stuck on mapping features with these apps, I want to dig into that a little bit. Not only does the robot do a good job of mapping out the space, but the app will automatically break up what’s been mapped into rooms. On top of that, you can save different maps so that you can use the Deebot N10 Plus on different floors without having to remap when you move it.

Merging and dividing rooms in the app is easy, though it suffers from using a line tool for dividing, meaning that you’re limited in how much you can partition what it considers to be a single space. That can be an issue with those with open floor plans.

• App score: 4.5 out of 5

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: battery life

• Can last up to 300 minutes
• Still plenty of battery life on highest settings

The battery life on hand here is pretty impressive as it lasts between 200 to 300 minutes (or three and a half to five hours) depending on the intensity of the cleaning mode and whether it’s also mopping. Since the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus uses a static mop pad for the mopping functionality, it doesn’t even seem to impact the battery life all that much.

Since it does have such a long battery life, it does take a while to charge back up: about six and a half hours. That can be a pain if you find yourself in a similar situation as I have, where the robot vacuum gets stuck on an area rug with tassels and runs down the battery trying to escape / waiting for rescue. That said, when I was faced with that situation, it still had some juice left unlike other robot vacuums that I’ve found in similar situations (and they all get stuck on tassels, too).

• Battery score: 5 out of 5

Should you buy the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review: also consider

How I tested the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus

To test the Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus, I used it for a couple of weeks to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and carpeting in my house. I focused on how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles, not to mention pick up different sized debris. I also tested the features listed in the app, most notably the mapping.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2024

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra: two-minute review

Launched July 2024, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra is a high-spec, feature-packed robot vacuum and mop with a self-empty base. For this model, Roborock has tweaked both its basic features to offer more efficient and effective cleaning, as well as adding fancier new bonus features. I put it to the test to see how it compares to the rest of today's best robot vacuums, and if it justifies its premium price tag.

Overall, I was impressed. In terms of cleaning, it did a very good job, delivering reliable suction and performing well in my tests with different sized debris. I found the mopping equally effective, with the extra side mop doing a good job of getting right up to the edges of rooms. 

There are a lot of different options to offer precision cleaning, and useful features like the ability to sense carpet and boost suction accordingly, and the fact the mop pad can raise up to 2cm off the ground so you don't end up with damp rugs if you go for for the mop-first option. The rubbery rollers are great at gripping hair and propelling it straight into the dust cup before it has a chance to tangle, although the same cannot be said for the roller axles. 

The base station offers automatic dust emptying and detergent dispensing, and will clean and dry the mop pads after every use, all of which mean less hands-on requirements from you. Mapping is accurate and fast, and the app is intuitive to use, making getting set up pretty speedy and straightforward.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is the first to feature Roborock's smart voice assistant, and while the chance to boss a robovac about is appealing, in practice I found it struggled to understand the most basic of commands. The extending side-brush designed to reach under furniture and into corners was equally unreliable. Like a shy turtle, it refused to emerge, even in scenarios when it was clearly needed.

Roborock says that this robovac is able to intelligently identify 73 different common household objects to avoid, and if you ask it to, it'll even send you photos of these objects for you to approve. On test, results were mixed – it correctly identified some objects, although not every time it came across them, and it seemed to have a specific problem with socks. 

Another use for that on-board camera is to enable this robovac to embark on a 'pet patrol' while you're out. It'll find and photograph your pet, and you can even talk directly to it via the two-way mic.

Also in this range is the Roborock S8 Max Ultra (no 'V'). It's a little less powerful in terms of suction (8,000Pa vs 10,000Pa for the MaxV) and loses the intelligent voice assistant (although it does still have third-party voice control) and camera, which might appeal to those concerned about the privacy side of those features. It's also slightly cheaper. 

I'd recommend the S8 MaxV Ultra robovac to someone looking for a high-spec machine that can deliver precise cleaning, and will work equally well on hard floors and carpet. However, if you don't want all those extra features – and especially given some could still do with a little refining – there are cheaper, less fancy options that will work perfectly well for general use. That's the short version; read on for my full Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review.

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review: price & availability

• List price: $1,799.99 / £1,725 / AU$2,999 
• Launched: July 2024

At list price, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra will set you back $1,799.99 in the US or AU$2,999 in Australia. In the UK, it's only available on Amazon at time of writing, at £1,725.63. This was the price provided by our Roborock contact, but it feels much more like a price that will fluctuate rather than an RRP.

While that price tag might make some wince, it's increasingly common for brands' range-topping robovac models to reach into the quadruple figures, and bear in mind too that anything that offers mopping and self-emptying on top of just vacuuming will be at the pricier end of the market, to start with. By way of comparison, the Roomba Combo 10 Max – another high-spec, self-empty robot vacuum and mop, launched in August 2024 – is $1,399 / £1,499. 

You are paying a premium for features like the new smart voice assistant, though. If you don't need such a high-spec model, there are plenty of cheaper options about that will serve most people's needs perfectly well. 

Robot vacuums often attract discounts around major sales events like the Black Friday deals, so it's worth keeping an eye out around then if it suits when you need to buy.

• Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra specs

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review: design & features

• Sleek design with matte and shiny plastic
• On-board voice assistant, mics and camera
• Chunky but smart-looking dock with water reservoirs and auto-empty

The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra's body is a combination of matte and shiny plastic. That combination of textures is more noticeable on the black version, rather than the white I tested, but the overall look is still smart and stylish. On top are three multifunctional buttons: a power button, a mop button and a home button. However, more likely you won't use these buttons at all, but instead will use the companion app or your voice to set the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra about its tasks. At the back are your charging contacts, plus ports for water to go in, and dirty water and dust to come out.

At the front of the robovac you'll find an RGB camera, 3D light sensors and an LED headlight for illuminating the way in dark rooms. In the centre, there's a raised puck, protected with a bump sensor, and housing the LiDAR and microphones for the voice assistant. This is Roborock's first voice assistant. You wake it by saying 'Hello Rocky', and it's designed to respond to a wide variety of commands: Start cleaning, Skip here, Empty the dustbin, Pause, Vacuum harder, Mop softer, Clean the living room, and so on. 

If you ask it to, the onboard camera will take photos of the objects that it has identified and elected to avoid. You can send it out to find and photograph your pet, and you can also conduct remote conversations with said pet via the microphones. (Sadly, I am lacking a pet to spy on / remotely harass, so wasn't able to test these features for my review.)

The addition of the camera and mics will be welcome to some, but perhaps not the most privacy-conscious of you. Note that while the mics are active by default, they can be switched off. The camera is not switched on as standard, and it's very difficult to activate accidentally as it requires manual pressing of the three buttons on the robot itself (rather than just an in-app toggle), and you also need to set up a password pattern.

If you don't want a robot that has an onboard RGB camera and microphones, the cheaper S8 Max Ultra version lacks the voice assistant and swaps the RGB camera for reactive 3D.

The shiny panel on the top can be lifted off (it's magnetic, which feels like an elegant solution) to reveal a Wi-Fi indicator light and reset button, plus a 270ml dustbin and washable paper filter, and a 100ml water tank. You won't need to access this bit too often, because it's all self-emptying, but on occasion you may want to get in there to clean the filter.  

A note for those with bigger homes: the onboard dustbin is on the small side. You can increase empty frequency, but minimum duration is after 30 minutes of cleaning, so if you have high dirt buildup, this might not suffice. The same goes for the onboard water tank. 

Flip your Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra over and you'll find the dual rollers. These are similar to those on previous Roborocks, made from a rubbery ridged material designed to grip hair and debris efficiently, without getting clogged or tangled. 

Corners and room edges are notoriously tricky for robovacs to tackle, but Roborock's approach is to add a spinning FlexiArm that reaches out, ET-style, when the model senses it's approaching a corner or some low furniture. It's designed to assist the vacuuming process by flicking debris in the corners and edges of rooms into the path of the vacuum. This is listed as being unique to Roborock, but it's actually an approach utilized by Dreame in its X40 Ultra (review in progress).

The main mop is a little smaller than found on previous Roborocks (another potential down-side for those with bigger homes) and sits on top of two vibrating plates that create the scrubbing motion – these vibrate at 4,000 times per minute, which is quite a difficult metric to visualize, but certainly faster than I could do it manually. The mop pad can lift a generous 2cm off the floor when going over carpeted areas, and if you activate the automatic re-mopping feature in the Roborock app, it'll go over very dirty areas again.

Note: if your priority is mopping, you'd perhaps be better off with the Roborock Qrevo Master, which has dual spinning mops instead.

The mop pad is attached at one side, so while you can pull the Velcro-ed on bit to see the plates beneath, you can't remove it entirely. This seems like an odd decision, because it prevents you from, for example, putting it in the washing machine, if you wanted a more thorough clean. 

There's also a spinning side mop – a new addition with the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, designed to enable you to mop closer to your baseboards. Within 1.68mm of the edge of your room, to be precise. The mop has its own dedicated water outlet, but it is fixed in place rather than extending when it senses the edges of rooms, like the FlexiArm does. 

Finally, underneath the robovac is a set of cliff sensors to prevent your robovac from throwing itself down the stairs, plus a carpet detection sensor so it knows not to try and mop there.

Moving on to the dock. Note that this needs to sit on a hard, flat floor (the instructions suggest wood, tile or concrete) and obviously it also needs to be near a power outlet, too. Although it's still quite chunky – unavoidable with self-emptying, mop-and-vac models – the design has been streamlined compared to previous Roborock robovacs, with the various reservoirs hidden behind covers. 

The dock houses a 4L clean water reservoir, with a silver ion block designed to discourage the growth of bacteria. New to this model is a separate detergent compartment, which distributes your floor cleaner evenly and removes the need for guesswork when premixing your cleaning solution. There's a 3.5L dirty water tank and a 2.5L dust bag. 

Within the dock you'll find a spinning brush roller for cleaning the mop. It uses hot water (Roborock says up to 60C) to sterilize and remove grease from the mop pads, and heated air to dry. While the mop is being washed, there's a sensor to detect how dirty the pad is, and extend cleaning time if required. There are also different cleaning intensity options you can choose manually. 

You will need to refill the water tank manually. If you want to avoid that, there is a version that comes with a refill and drainage system. Be aware that this will require you to plumb in the base station, meaning you won't be able to move it. 

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review: performance

• Overall, strong mopping and vacuuming performance
• Decent obstacle avoidance, but did still get tangled in cables
• Voice commands unreliable

Let's start with vacuuming performance. The MaxV Ultra promises extreme suction. Figuring out how to tell how much suction a vacuum cleaner has is easier said than done, but here it's measured in Pascal, and the MaxV Ultra has 10,000Pa of it – which Roborock says is 'industry leading', but the Deebot T30S Combo actually offers 11,000Pa on max mode. It's still very sucky though. 

Generally, I found this robovac delivered a decent clean. There are sensors to detect when the robovac is on carpet and increase suction accordingly, and I found this feature worked reliably during my review period – I could hear the suction amping up when the robot trundled onto soft flooring in my home. 

There are quite a few vacuuming options to cater for different cleaning needs and preferences. You can opt for a deep clean, where the carpets are vacuumed twice to form a checkered pattern, or Carpet First Mode if you want the robovac to tackle carpets first, before it does any mopping, so the mop pad will be dry for this part of the clean (the mop pads do lift when the vac is on carpet; it's just as a backup). You can also set it to boost suction power when navigating around pet supplies.

To test fine debris pickup, I sprinkled cornflour on my medium-pile carpet. It picked up the surface dust but nothing more ingrained. I had similar results from my large-debris test – the robovac got most of the oats sprinkled on my carpet, but left a few. So not perfect, but still very acceptable. This was after just one pass – it is possible to instruct the robovac to do a more thorough clean. 

The extending side brushes, however, could be improved. I have radiators that sit slightly too low for the robovac to get under them, but the spinning side brush did not extend to clean these areas – particularly unfortunate, as dust often collects here. I saw another review from someone who had the same issue with low-sitting cabinets. I also found that pickup on the corners of rooms wasn't great – the robovac doesn't really linger long enough for the extending brush to do its work, often leaving debris.

Roborock promises a 99.5% hair pickup rate in carpet mode. I have long hair, and rollers did a great job of tackling this on the carpet; filtering it straight into the dustbin rather than letting it tangle around the rollers. However, I did find hair got tangled on both the axles of the rollers and the extending side brush, the former of which was particularly tricky to remove. 

Looking for the best robot vacuum for pet hair? I think this would be a good shout, with the combination of powerful suction and those grippy rollers. However, the small onboard bin might prove problematic if you have a pet that sheds a lot. 

Moving on to mopping. Again, I was impressed. I found the mopping effective, with the robovac tackling both wet spills (coffee) and sticky spills (dried on honey) effectively. The hot mop cleaning also seems to work well, with minimal stains left on the mop pads even after cleaning the coffee. 

Navigation is excellent, as I'd expect from this brand. The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra mapped my flat quickly and accurately, making setup nice and straightforward. It's smart enough to recognize which room it's in and promises to be able to identify 73 objects, including pet waste, shoes and mirrors (this last one has consistently been an issue for robovac owners with floor mirrors in the past, so is a welcome addition here).

On test, I found object avoidance was a little inconsistent. I left a sock (black) and a cable (white) on my light grey carpet. The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra tried its very best to vacuum up the sock. And while it successfully identified and avoided the cable (providing a snapshot for me to approve in the app – shown above), it then went on to repeatedly got stuck on cables during general cleaning, needing manual rescuing. 

Note that if you activate Pet Mode, the robot will exercise more caution when avoiding obstacles – so it'll be less likely to hoover up your cat, but might also provide a slightly less comprehensive clean as a result (your choice). 

I also found the voice assistant to be unreliable. This robovac frequently failed to understand basic commands, included in the list of approved commands ('Return to dock', 'Mop here'). Not that it should matter, but I don't have what might be considered a 'challenging accent', so I'm a little baffled as to why it struggled to understand me.

Roborock is known to have one of the best robot vacuum apps, and the app for the S8 MaxV Ultra didn't disappoint. It's well-designed, fairly intuitive to use, and does a good job of organizing all the many different controls it needs to offer. However, if you're new to robot vacuums, you may still find it a little overwhelming and confusing. 

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra

• I used this as my main vacuum for 3 weeks
• I tested all the different modes and features
• I ran specific cleaning tests using different types of spillages

For my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review, I used this robovac as my main vacuum cleaner for three weeks to gain an idea of how it performs on a day-to-day basis, including how easy it is to control and how good it is at cleaning in general. I tried out all the different functions I was able to, as well as running a series of specific tests to assess cleaning powers. These included seeing how well the mop coped with wet and dried-on sticky stains, and if the vacuum could handle large and small debris. I scattered common objects like socks and cables on my floor to assess the reliability of its obstacle avoidance features. I measured my findings against our experiences with other robot vacuums, and the Roborock's own claims about this vacuum's performance. 

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2024