The SwitchBot K11+ is a scaled-down robot vacuum that's perfect for cramped homes. It delivers solid vacuuming and navigates with surprising speed and confidence, even if it doesn't always avoid all the obstacles it should. If you have a home with lots of nooks and crannies, it will be compact enough to squeeze into them, although note that while it's small in width, it's about standard height.
The dock is perhaps the smallest auto-empty option I've seen – sitting happily out of the way beneath my bed – and packs a surprisingly generous 4L dust bag. For that reason alone, it's a contender for the best robot vacuum for small homes.
The only major disappointment here is the "mop", which takes the form of a disposable wet-wipe that the bot drags across the floor. For the level of cleaning it delivers, it isn't worth the effort of attaching it. In fact, if you ignore the mopping capabilities altogether and just treat the K11+ as a vacuum-only bot, it becomes a far stronger proposition overall.
It isn't perfect, however. Aside from the dodgy mop, the app has a few weird quirks – and the auto-empty function is rather noisy. Overall, though, there's something very charming and appealing about this little bot. At full price it's clear you're paying a bit of a premium for the small size, but discounts are easy to come by, and if you snag one of these it can be very strong value for money.
That's the short version; read on for my full SwitchBot K11+ review.
(Image credit: Future)
SwitchBot K11+ review: price & availability
List price: $399.99 / £399.99
Available: US, UK
Launched: September 2025
The SwitchBot K11+ launched in September 2025, and is available to buy direct from SwitchBot, but also via Amazon. At list price it costs $399.99 in the US and £399.99 in the UK. However, at time of writing, there were significant discounts available one both sides of the shore. You're paying a bit of a premium for the dinky size here, although even at full price I think it's decent value for money.
Two of the best cheap robot vacuums on the market, the Dreame D9 Max Gen 2 and the Roborock Q7 M5 are both cheaper and offer far more capable mopping than the K11+, but neither come with an auto-empty dock. You'll be able to pick up better-value auto-empty hybrid robot vacuums if you're happy to go for an older model – a good example is the Roborock Q5 Pro+. Note, though, that the dock is much bigger, and is unlikely to fit under your bed.
Value for money score: 4 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ specs
Max suction:
6,000Pa
Robot diameter:
9.8in / 24.8cm
Robot height:
3.6in / 9.2cm
Dock dimensions (W x D x H):
9.4 x 7.1 x 9.8in / 24 x 18 x 25cm
Dust bin volume (base):
4L
Water tank volume:
None
Base type:
Charge, auto-empty
Max threshold clearance:
0.7in / 1.7cm
Smart home compatibility:
Matter (Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home)
SwitchBot K11+ review: design
Small (but not short) robot with rubber roller and side brush
Mop is a wet-wipe dragged across the floor, then disposed of
Compact dock with auto-empty and storage for mop plate
The SwitchBot K11+ is a dinky robot vacuum with an equally compact base. The bot itself measures 9.8in / 24.8cm in diameter, whereas most bots these days are about 13in / 33cm. This means it can clean in narrow spots – although note that at 3.6in / 9.2cm, height-wise it's pretty average, so it won't be sneaking under a low sofa – for example – to clean.
Below you can see it next to the Roborock Saros 10 – while the K11+ is significantly smaller in diameter, its puck makes it taller; the Roborock's puck is retractible.
The pint-sized K11+ next to the more normally proportioned Roborock Saros 10 (Image credit: Future)
On the top of the K11+ you'll find buttons for On and Return to dock. Lift off the cover (which appears to just sit in place – I'd prefer some magnets to hold it a little more securely – and you'll find the dust cup clipped to the side.
There's a raised LiDAR puck, bumpers around the edge, and a camera at the front. Flip the K11+ over and you'll find a rubber roller. Sensibly, SwitchBot has made this almost the full width of the robot, which means the suction area is actually relatively large. There's also an angled side brush, to avoid hair from becoming tangled around it.
Image 1 of 4
There are a couple of manual buttons, and a raised LiDAR puck (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 4
The rubber roller takes up most of the width of the robot (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 4
The dust cup clips on the side of the bot (Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 4
The mopping setup is just a wet wipe (Image credit: Future)
The K11+'s mopping capabilities appear to have very much been an afterthought. To launch the function, you attach a wet-wipe to a base plate, and clip this to the underside of the bot, on top of the suction area. The wipe is then dragged across the floor, and disposed of afterwards. Note that the wet-wipe isn't biodegradable.
Although you need to attach the mop plate to activate "mopping", it is possible to specify carpet and no-mop zones on the map, to avoid the mop wiping down any areas that should not be wiped. However, you can't set a no-mop zone where the dock sits.
(Image credit: Future)
Speaking of the dock, the K11+'s station is far smaller than those you find accompanying the vast majority of bots nowadays. In fact, it's significantly more compact than the already-small dock that came with this model's predecessor, the SwitchBot K10+ (specifically, 2.9in / 7.3cm shorter and 0.8in / 2.1cm narrower).
(Image credit: Future)
This dock has TARDIS-like properties, though: lift the lid and you'll find a far larger than usual 4L dust bag. SwitchBot has also added storage for the mop plate beneath the lid – just one of a number of thoughtful design touches (my other favorite is that the handle on the onboard bin doubles up as a clip to secure it in place).
It's far from the most fully featured dock in town, though. There's no mop pad cleaning or refilling of water tanks (because there is no mop pad, nor is there a tank to fill). However, I'd wager that there are plenty of people who'd prefer a smaller dock with a large dust bag to a gigantic one with tanks included.
Design score: 4 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ review: performance
Navigates quickly and confidently, decent obstacle avoidance
Good suction performance but bin emptying rather loud
Mopping not worth the effort, and dock can't be in a no-mop zone
When I set the SwitchBot K11+ off on its first cleaning run, the first thing that struck me was its speed. This bot powers up and down floors like there's no time to waste.
Despite that, it seems to do a good job at picking up dust and debris – I paused it before it could auto-empty, and the onboard bin had plenty in it, even though the room had been vacuumed the previous day, and I was using the second-weakest suction mode. (You can choose to clean a room once or twice, and there are four suction options: Quiet, Standard, Strong and Max.)
This dinky bot navigates with speed and confidence (Image credit: Future)
As usual, you can request the bot clean a room or a zone. However, the "Spot clean" function – where a robot will clean an area that's about a square meter or so around a chosen position – was still in beta testing at the time of writing, which is a little annoying if you want to clear a spillage.
Although fairly quiet in operation, the auto-empty process is really rather noisy. However, you can set different auto-empty durations via the app, to save at least some unnecessary disruption.
The auto-empty process is a little noisy (Image credit: Future)
Mopping is a different story. Attaching the wet wipe is fiddly, and ends up with a lot of the wipe on the underside of the base plate. It barely left my bathroom floor damp – imagine trying to clean the entire floor of a room with half a single wet-wipe. It also deposited bits of grime next to every grouting line.
I'll get into the results of the mopping tests in a second, but the short version is that if I owned this bot, I just wouldn't bother with the mopping functionality – in my opinion, it just isn't worth the effort.
The wet-wipe mop setup deposited grime whenever it hit an uneven bit of floor (Image credit: Future)
Navigation and obstacle avoidance
As a result of its speed, you might assume the K11+ experiences a fair few collisions, but this isn't the case. On test, it skirted its way around furniture and avoided permanent obstacles with impressive accuracy and reliability.
Ad hoc obstacle avoidance was less consistent. During one cleaning run, the K11+ drove into the dog (who, thankfully, remained unbothered) and then went on to push his water bowl across to the other side of the room.
During my set obstacle avoidance tests it hit my shoe, but on encountering the same shoe a second time, the bot carefully skirted around it before continuing. The K11+ also sucked up a red ribbon I'd used in place of a charge cable, but I wound't say that was surprising – I've yet to find a robovac that can successfully avoid cables, whatever the manufacturers may claim.
Image 1 of 2
The K11+ didn't always avoid obstacles (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2
Definitely tidy away cables before sending it out (Image credit: Future)
Cleaning tests
Next I moved on to TechRadar's official suction tests. For this, I sprinkled dry tea (from a tea bag) and a handful of oats onto the carpet, and monitored how effectively the bot sucked them up.
A single pass in Standard mode took care of most of the oats but only the top layer of tea, and a second in Max sucked up the rest of the oat crumbs and a decent amount of tea. That's a good result – the tea test is purposefully tricky (I used a Dyson V15 Detect to clear it completely).
Image 1 of 3
Tea and oats on carpet, ready for suction tests (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3
This was what remained after a single pass with the K11+... (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 3
... and after two passes (Image credit: Future)
Moving onto the mopping tests. This one felt unfair because it isn't so much a mop as a wet-wipe. Nevertheless, I persevered. I smeared a tiny amount of ketchup on a tiled floor and left it to dry, and also spilled a little soy sauce, to see how the K11+ could clear it.
Predictably, it could not. The soy sauce ended up smeared all over the floor and the ketchup was completely unaffected. I sent my Roborock Saros 10 in to clean up after it.
The K11+'s wet-wipe "mop" did not impress in the mopping tests (Image credit: Future)
If I owned this bot, I wouldn't bother with the mopping function at all. For the level of cleaning it delivers, it isn't worth the effort of attaching the wet-wipe. It also limits where you can position the dock, because it can't live in a no-mop zone.
Performance score: 3.5 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ review: app
Pretty well designed and easy enough to use
Fine-tuning options are limited
Some minor illogical quirks
Since SwitchBot is a brand that makes a number of smart home products, its app is a hub for any SwitchBot gadgets you might own, rather than being dedicated to robovacs only. That means you'll have to click through twice from the homescreen to reach the K11+'s control options.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: SwitchBot / Future)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: SwitchBot / Future)
Once you reach the right section, it's much like most other robovac apps I've used. Editing a map is straightforward, and you can easily add no-go zones and merge or split spaces. The control options are more limited than you'll find in other, pricier robot vacuums, but all the main bases are covered.
There are a few niggles, though. I was pleased to find a Boost mode for carpets. However, specifying an area of carpet adds a pattern on top of the map that's so dark you then can't see the robot's cleaning path. Slightly annoyingly, there's an 8-character limit on room names that prevents you from, for example, labelling "Top floor", and bafflingly, there's no "Hall" or "Corridor" type option within the room defaults.
App score: 3.5 out of 5
Should you buy the SwitchBot K11+?
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Value
Budget / mid-range at full price, but big discounts are common. Paying a bit of a premium for the small size, but still decent value.
4 / 5
Design
Tiny robovac with an equally compact dock. Not exactly feature-packed, and mopping is very basic, but it looks great with some useful design features.
4 / 5
Performance
Vacuuming is solid and navigation is good, but emptying is noisy and mopping isn't worth bothering with.
3.5 / 5
App
Decent app with a few illogical quirks.
3.5 / 5
Buy it if...
You don't have much space for a dock If you want auto-empty capabilities but don't have room for a massive dock, this bot is perfect – it has perhaps the smallest auto-empty dock I've seen.
You're dealing with lots of dust or hair Although the dock is small, its internal dust bag is far bigger than you'll find in most auto-empty docs, with space for plenty of dust or pet hair before it needs replacing.
You want a speedy cleaner The K11+ rattles along at quite a pace, which means despite its small size, it will get your rooms clean quickly.
Don't buy it if...
Your priority is mopping The mopping here is really very basic, and for most people, not worth the effort.
You don't have lots of dust or hair If you're dealing with low levels of dust, you could consider not bothering with auto-emptying at all. There are plenty of excellent full-sized bots with very compact, charge-only docks, for less money than you'll shell out for the K11+.
How I tested the SwitchBot K11+
I used the SwitchBot K11+ as my main vacuum for a fortnight, to get a feel for its general cleaning performance and ease of use. I also ran a series of set suction tests to assess this bot's cleaning powers, seeing how effectively it cleared fine (tea leaves) and chunky (oats) spillages. To assess the mopping, I spilled soy sauce and smeared ketchup on a tiled floor. To test obstacle avoidance, I scattered common items you'd usually find around a home across my living room floor to see if it could correctly identify and avoid them.
During my review period, I assessed how easy it was to set up the SwitchBot K11+, how accurately it made its way around my home, and if there were any annoyances with its performance. I compared my experience with other robot vacuums I've tested, both budget and premium models.
The SwitchBot K11+ is a scaled-down robot vacuum that's perfect for cramped homes. It delivers solid vacuuming and navigates with surprising speed and confidence, even if it doesn't always avoid all the obstacles it should. If you have a home with lots of nooks and crannies, it will be compact enough to squeeze into them, although note that while it's small in width, it's about standard height.
The dock is perhaps the smallest auto-empty option I've seen – sitting happily out of the way beneath my bed – and packs a surprisingly generous 4L dust bag. For that reason alone, it's a contender for the best robot vacuum for small homes.
The only major disappointment here is the "mop", which takes the form of a disposable wet-wipe that the bot drags across the floor. For the level of cleaning it delivers, it isn't worth the effort of attaching it. In fact, if you ignore the mopping capabilities altogether and just treat the K11+ as a vacuum-only bot, it becomes a far stronger proposition overall.
It isn't perfect, however. Aside from the dodgy mop, the app has a few weird quirks – and the auto-empty function is rather noisy. Overall, though, there's something very charming and appealing about this little bot. At full price it's clear you're paying a bit of a premium for the small size, but discounts are easy to come by, and if you snag one of these it can be very strong value for money.
That's the short version; read on for my full SwitchBot K11+ review.
(Image credit: Future)
SwitchBot K11+ review: price & availability
List price: $399.99 / £399.99
Available: US, UK
Launched: September 2025
The SwitchBot K11+ launched in September 2025, and is available to buy direct from SwitchBot, but also via Amazon. At list price it costs $399.99 in the US and £399.99 in the UK. However, at time of writing, there were significant discounts available one both sides of the shore. You're paying a bit of a premium for the dinky size here, although even at full price I think it's decent value for money.
Two of the best cheap robot vacuums on the market, the Dreame D9 Max Gen 2 and the Roborock Q7 M5 are both cheaper and offer far more capable mopping than the K11+, but neither come with an auto-empty dock. You'll be able to pick up better-value auto-empty hybrid robot vacuums if you're happy to go for an older model – a good example is the Roborock Q5 Pro+. Note, though, that the dock is much bigger, and is unlikely to fit under your bed.
Value for money score: 4 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ specs
Max suction:
6,000Pa
Robot diameter:
9.8in / 24.8cm
Robot height:
3.6in / 9.2cm
Dock dimensions (W x D x H):
9.4 x 7.1 x 9.8in / 24 x 18 x 25cm
Dust bin volume (base):
4L
Water tank volume:
None
Base type:
Charge, auto-empty
Max threshold clearance:
0.7in / 1.7cm
Smart home compatibility:
Matter (Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home)
SwitchBot K11+ review: design
Small (but not short) robot with rubber roller and side brush
Mop is a wet-wipe dragged across the floor, then disposed of
Compact dock with auto-empty and storage for mop plate
The SwitchBot K11+ is a dinky robot vacuum with an equally compact base. The bot itself measures 9.8in / 24.8cm in diameter, whereas most bots these days are about 13in / 33cm. This means it can clean in narrow spots – although note that at 3.6in / 9.2cm, height-wise it's pretty average, so it won't be sneaking under a low sofa – for example – to clean.
Below you can see it next to the Roborock Saros 10 – while the K11+ is significantly smaller in diameter, its puck makes it taller; the Roborock's puck is retractible.
The pint-sized K11+ next to the more normally proportioned Roborock Saros 10 (Image credit: Future)
On the top of the K11+ you'll find buttons for On and Return to dock. Lift off the cover (which appears to just sit in place – I'd prefer some magnets to hold it a little more securely – and you'll find the dust cup clipped to the side.
There's a raised LiDAR puck, bumpers around the edge, and a camera at the front. Flip the K11+ over and you'll find a rubber roller. Sensibly, SwitchBot has made this almost the full width of the robot, which means the suction area is actually relatively large. There's also an angled side brush, to avoid hair from becoming tangled around it.
Image 1 of 4
There are a couple of manual buttons, and a raised LiDAR puck (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 4
The rubber roller takes up most of the width of the robot (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 4
The dust cup clips on the side of the bot (Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 4
The mopping setup is just a wet wipe (Image credit: Future)
The K11+'s mopping capabilities appear to have very much been an afterthought. To launch the function, you attach a wet-wipe to a base plate, and clip this to the underside of the bot, on top of the suction area. The wipe is then dragged across the floor, and disposed of afterwards. Note that the wet-wipe isn't biodegradable.
Although you need to attach the mop plate to activate "mopping", it is possible to specify carpet and no-mop zones on the map, to avoid the mop wiping down any areas that should not be wiped. However, you can't set a no-mop zone where the dock sits.
(Image credit: Future)
Speaking of the dock, the K11+'s station is far smaller than those you find accompanying the vast majority of bots nowadays. In fact, it's significantly more compact than the already-small dock that came with this model's predecessor, the SwitchBot K10+ (specifically, 2.9in / 7.3cm shorter and 0.8in / 2.1cm narrower).
(Image credit: Future)
This dock has TARDIS-like properties, though: lift the lid and you'll find a far larger than usual 4L dust bag. SwitchBot has also added storage for the mop plate beneath the lid – just one of a number of thoughtful design touches (my other favorite is that the handle on the onboard bin doubles up as a clip to secure it in place).
It's far from the most fully featured dock in town, though. There's no mop pad cleaning or refilling of water tanks (because there is no mop pad, nor is there a tank to fill). However, I'd wager that there are plenty of people who'd prefer a smaller dock with a large dust bag to a gigantic one with tanks included.
Design score: 4 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ review: performance
Navigates quickly and confidently, decent obstacle avoidance
Good suction performance but bin emptying rather loud
Mopping not worth the effort, and dock can't be in a no-mop zone
When I set the SwitchBot K11+ off on its first cleaning run, the first thing that struck me was its speed. This bot powers up and down floors like there's no time to waste.
Despite that, it seems to do a good job at picking up dust and debris – I paused it before it could auto-empty, and the onboard bin had plenty in it, even though the room had been vacuumed the previous day, and I was using the second-weakest suction mode. (You can choose to clean a room once or twice, and there are four suction options: Quiet, Standard, Strong and Max.)
This dinky bot navigates with speed and confidence (Image credit: Future)
As usual, you can request the bot clean a room or a zone. However, the "Spot clean" function – where a robot will clean an area that's about a square meter or so around a chosen position – was still in beta testing at the time of writing, which is a little annoying if you want to clear a spillage.
Although fairly quiet in operation, the auto-empty process is really rather noisy. However, you can set different auto-empty durations via the app, to save at least some unnecessary disruption.
The auto-empty process is a little noisy (Image credit: Future)
Mopping is a different story. Attaching the wet wipe is fiddly, and ends up with a lot of the wipe on the underside of the base plate. It barely left my bathroom floor damp – imagine trying to clean the entire floor of a room with half a single wet-wipe. It also deposited bits of grime next to every grouting line.
I'll get into the results of the mopping tests in a second, but the short version is that if I owned this bot, I just wouldn't bother with the mopping functionality – in my opinion, it just isn't worth the effort.
The wet-wipe mop setup deposited grime whenever it hit an uneven bit of floor (Image credit: Future)
Navigation and obstacle avoidance
As a result of its speed, you might assume the K11+ experiences a fair few collisions, but this isn't the case. On test, it skirted its way around furniture and avoided permanent obstacles with impressive accuracy and reliability.
Ad hoc obstacle avoidance was less consistent. During one cleaning run, the K11+ drove into the dog (who, thankfully, remained unbothered) and then went on to push his water bowl across to the other side of the room.
During my set obstacle avoidance tests it hit my shoe, but on encountering the same shoe a second time, the bot carefully skirted around it before continuing. The K11+ also sucked up a red ribbon I'd used in place of a charge cable, but I wound't say that was surprising – I've yet to find a robovac that can successfully avoid cables, whatever the manufacturers may claim.
Image 1 of 2
The K11+ didn't always avoid obstacles (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2
Definitely tidy away cables before sending it out (Image credit: Future)
Cleaning tests
Next I moved on to TechRadar's official suction tests. For this, I sprinkled dry tea (from a tea bag) and a handful of oats onto the carpet, and monitored how effectively the bot sucked them up.
A single pass in Standard mode took care of most of the oats but only the top layer of tea, and a second in Max sucked up the rest of the oat crumbs and a decent amount of tea. That's a good result – the tea test is purposefully tricky (I used a Dyson V15 Detect to clear it completely).
Image 1 of 3
Tea and oats on carpet, ready for suction tests (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3
This was what remained after a single pass with the K11+... (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 3
... and after two passes (Image credit: Future)
Moving onto the mopping tests. This one felt unfair because it isn't so much a mop as a wet-wipe. Nevertheless, I persevered. I smeared a tiny amount of ketchup on a tiled floor and left it to dry, and also spilled a little soy sauce, to see how the K11+ could clear it.
Predictably, it could not. The soy sauce ended up smeared all over the floor and the ketchup was completely unaffected. I sent my Roborock Saros 10 in to clean up after it.
The K11+'s wet-wipe "mop" did not impress in the mopping tests (Image credit: Future)
If I owned this bot, I wouldn't bother with the mopping function at all. For the level of cleaning it delivers, it isn't worth the effort of attaching the wet-wipe. It also limits where you can position the dock, because it can't live in a no-mop zone.
Performance score: 3.5 out of 5
SwitchBot K11+ review: app
Pretty well designed and easy enough to use
Fine-tuning options are limited
Some minor illogical quirks
Since SwitchBot is a brand that makes a number of smart home products, its app is a hub for any SwitchBot gadgets you might own, rather than being dedicated to robovacs only. That means you'll have to click through twice from the homescreen to reach the K11+'s control options.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: SwitchBot / Future)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: SwitchBot / Future)
Once you reach the right section, it's much like most other robovac apps I've used. Editing a map is straightforward, and you can easily add no-go zones and merge or split spaces. The control options are more limited than you'll find in other, pricier robot vacuums, but all the main bases are covered.
There are a few niggles, though. I was pleased to find a Boost mode for carpets. However, specifying an area of carpet adds a pattern on top of the map that's so dark you then can't see the robot's cleaning path. Slightly annoyingly, there's an 8-character limit on room names that prevents you from, for example, labelling "Top floor", and bafflingly, there's no "Hall" or "Corridor" type option within the room defaults.
App score: 3.5 out of 5
Should you buy the SwitchBot K11+?
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Value
Budget / mid-range at full price, but big discounts are common. Paying a bit of a premium for the small size, but still decent value.
4 / 5
Design
Tiny robovac with an equally compact dock. Not exactly feature-packed, and mopping is very basic, but it looks great with some useful design features.
4 / 5
Performance
Vacuuming is solid and navigation is good, but emptying is noisy and mopping isn't worth bothering with.
3.5 / 5
App
Decent app with a few illogical quirks.
3.5 / 5
Buy it if...
You don't have much space for a dock If you want auto-empty capabilities but don't have room for a massive dock, this bot is perfect – it has perhaps the smallest auto-empty dock I've seen.
You're dealing with lots of dust or hair Although the dock is small, its internal dust bag is far bigger than you'll find in most auto-empty docs, with space for plenty of dust or pet hair before it needs replacing.
You want a speedy cleaner The K11+ rattles along at quite a pace, which means despite its small size, it will get your rooms clean quickly.
Don't buy it if...
Your priority is mopping The mopping here is really very basic, and for most people, not worth the effort.
You don't have lots of dust or hair If you're dealing with low levels of dust, you could consider not bothering with auto-emptying at all. There are plenty of excellent full-sized bots with very compact, charge-only docks, for less money than you'll shell out for the K11+.
How I tested the SwitchBot K11+
I used the SwitchBot K11+ as my main vacuum for a fortnight, to get a feel for its general cleaning performance and ease of use. I also ran a series of set suction tests to assess this bot's cleaning powers, seeing how effectively it cleared fine (tea leaves) and chunky (oats) spillages. To assess the mopping, I spilled soy sauce and smeared ketchup on a tiled floor. To test obstacle avoidance, I scattered common items you'd usually find around a home across my living room floor to see if it could correctly identify and avoid them.
During my review period, I assessed how easy it was to set up the SwitchBot K11+, how accurately it made its way around my home, and if there were any annoyances with its performance. I compared my experience with other robot vacuums I've tested, both budget and premium models.
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K: two-minute review
Founded around 15 years ago, Shenzen-based Baseus Security is one of a number of Chinese brands whose products are now available across the world. Under review here is a new model, the Baseus Security S2 - an outdoor camera with a twist (quite literally). It’s the follow up model to the 2024 Baseus S1 Pro which was billed as the world’s first 4K security camera with a sun-powered tracking system.
Like its predecessor, the S2 also features an innovative twisting solar panel above the main camera unit to maximize power from the sun. However, the big difference is that the video resolution of this latest model has been improved from 2K to 4K. Rather than 8GB of local storage, the S2 upgrade also features a MicroSD card slot capable of storing up to 256GB local storage.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
That’s particularly useful in avoiding costly monthly cloud storage fees and reducing a potential cybersecurity risk (hackers have been known to access video footage from security cameras stored in the cloud). Unfortunately, however, the memory card isn’t provided as standard so you will have to buy it separately.
Designed to be installed on the outside of a property with an unhindered view of the sky, the S2 comes with a reasonably sturdy mount complete with wall plugs and screws. Once installed, a process that takes around 20-30 mins, it’s simply a case of downloading the iOS/Android app and adding the camera via the QR code on the side of the device.
Whereas some outdoor models are dual-band Wi-Fi compatible (some will even work on 4G/5G cellular networks), the S2 is only compatible with the 2.4GHz, not the 5GHz, band. That said, we didn’t have any issues connecting the camera at the end of the garden to the broadband repeater at the back of the house. With an IP67 waterproof rating, the Baseus Security S2 can, claims the manufacturer, be used in temperatures from -20 degrees centigrade to 50 degrees centigrade – though it never got above 25 degrees centigrade during my testing.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
Once the app is installed, it’s simply a case of tailoring the camera’s settings to suit your setup. This includes naming the camera depending on where it’s located (eg backyard) and checking to see if it captures all the areas you need it to.
The field of view of the Baseus camera is 145° which should be wide enough for most applications. You can set up privacy zones to exclude certain areas (handy to prevent accidentally capturing your neighbour’s property) as well as activity zones to detect motion in certain parts of the frame.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
Whereas many outdoor security cameras are overly sensitive capturing footage of passing cars, even swaying tree branches, this doesn’t seem to be an issue with the Baseus Security S2. Although it is possible to adjust sensitivity between 1 and 5 we found on the standard 3 setting the camera it didn’t trigger any false positives. Baseus claims the inclusion of radar detection in addition to standard PIR (passive infra-red) detection, reduces false alerts by 99% so you only get relevant notifications.
Best of all are the facial recognition settings which enable you to add the images and names of family members or house mates on the app. It will then detect when it sees these faces on the camera and send you an alert telling you who it has spotted. It’s a feature that is now available on other outdoor security cameras but you usually have to pay a monthly subscription fee for it. With the Baseus, you can even set up motion alerts if the camera spots a vehicle or a pet. Alternatively, these can be excluded if you want to reduce the number of notifications you receive.
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K: price and availability
How much does it cost? Baseus Security S2 £199, $US129, $AU129
When is it available? Available since July 2025
Where is it available? UK/US/AUS
Generally, outdoor security cameras and video doorbells are fairly cheap to buy. That’s because manufacturers can subsidize the price of them with monthly subscriptions, costing anywhere between £2.50 and £15 a month.
Not so the Baseus Security S2 outdoor camera. Rather than being stored in the cloud for a monthly fee, your footage is stored locally on a MicroSD card. And while you will have to buy a MicroSD card if haven’t got one already (I paid £10.99 for a 128GB Samsung EVO Select with SD adaptor), this is still a far cheaper option than being locked into an expensive subscription.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
What’s more, the camera offers smart detection/facial recognition features as standard which are normally only available to premium users paying a subscription fee. Plus of course another bonus is the inclusion of solar panel.
That said, the Baseus Security S2 certainly isn’t the cheapest model on the block, particularly in the UK where prices are significantly more expensive than in the US and Australia. It’s also a lot more expensive than its predecessor, the Security S1, which you can currently get for £59 from Amazon. Like the S2, the S1 also features a rotating solar panel. However, the key differences are that it is only offers 2K resolution and 8GB of built-in storage rather than up to 256GB via a MicroSD card.
Value score: 4/5
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K: design
Simple installation
Flexible battery/solar power options
Sleek design
Looking more like a Bluetooth speaker than a conventional security camera, the all-white Baseus Security S2 is long tubular design with an innovative rotating solar panel mounted on top. Screws and wall plugs are provided for mounting the bracket on the wall and the camera can be angled easily to obtain the optimum view.
I had worried that the long and narrow design might make the camera a little unstable when mounted on my wooden summer house, but actually this wasn’t a problem at all. Set up didn’t take too long either (less than half an hour), though obviously if you are mounting on a brick wall you will need to use a drill and wall plugs for installation, which will take longer.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
Underneath the device is a USB-C socket for charging the camera up via the mains (a 7800mAh rechargeable battery is built in), as well as a slot for a MicroSD card. Up to 256GB is supported but we used a 128GB card for recording. There’s also a sync button for use during set up and a modest-sized speaker underneath.
On the front of the camera there are PIR and radar sensors for detecting movement more accurately, a small microphone for two-way audio and a powerful spotlight capable of illuminating the night at distances of up to 12 meters.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
Next to the circular radar sensor is a similar shaped camera lens, giving the impression of two eyes on a face! Capable of recording in 4K and providing a 145° Horizontal field, the camera displays a flashing blue light on the front of the camera when recording footage. Finally, there’s the solar panel on top of the camera which auto tracks the sun moving 40° to the left or the right from the horizontal position depending on the sun’s location.
Design score: 4.5/5
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K: performance
Excellent 4K image quality
Stable video connection
Smart detection is still work in progress
Never having tested a Baseus security camera before I didn’t really know what to expect. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised. There are really two main issues with outdoor security cameras.
Firstly, images can sometimes be a little unstable because of the longer distances between the router and the camera. Secondly, when you do eventually get a stable image, the onboard sensors are usually so sensitive that they end up recording far too much, draining the battery and creating lots of false alerts.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
Not so the Baseus. On both counts, performance was flawless. Despite it only being compatible with 2.4GHz and not the 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency I didn’t have any signal problems at all.
What’s more, it also triggered fewer false alerts than other cameras I’ve tested, in part because of the combination of PIR (passive infra-red) and radar technologies to detect movement. Images are superbly detailed during the day and the spotlight is excellent for illuminating the garden at night to ensure high quality footage in the dark.
(Image credit: Chris Price)
That’s not to say everything was perfect. When testing the camera’s two-way audio talking to my wife in the garden, I didn’t think the speaker was the best. Also it’s fair to say that the smart detection/facial recognition system (billed as being in beta) is still a work in progress.
During testing I added images from my phone’s camera roll of family members and friends to see if it recognzsed them when it saw them on camera. Sometimes it did, especially when standing right next to the camera, but often it didn’t. One on occasion it even mistook me for my dog which was a little odd (we don’t look much alike).
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Undoubtedly, what’s really good about the Baseus device is the rotating solar panel. While living in the UK and testing at the beginning of Autumn/Fall wasn’t ideal for testing, we had enough sun to get a pretty good idea of the panel’s performance. After a week of rainy days, power had dropped to 85% but just four days of sunshine was enough to bring it back up to 96%.
Considering I installed the camera practically under the eaves of a summer house and it only received around three hours of direct sunlight a day it really wasn’t bad at all. Usefully, a solar panel image appears on the display to show you when the camera is being powered by the sun and with the detection statistics option in the app you can see how much solar is contributing to the device’s overall power – a nice touch.
Performance score: 4.5/5
Should you buy the Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K?
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K score card
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
In the UK, the camera isn’t particularly cheap (although it works out cheaper in the US and Australia). However, the main bonus is you don’t have to pay an expensive monthly subscription so it does work out better in the long run.
4/5
Design
A white tubular design, the Baseus Security S2 is a pretty classy looking security camera. Best of is the solar panel above that rotates towards the sun to maximize power.
4.5/5
Performance
Picture quality is excellent and thanks to the inclusion of radar there are far fewer false alerts than with many cameras. However, facial recognition technology is still a work in progress.
4.5/5
Overall
An excellent outdoor security camera with an innovative rotating solar panel. Though it’s a little more expensive than some models, the lack of a monthly subscription fee means in the long term it’s much better value.
4.5/5
Buy it if
You want to maximize power from the sun
A large rotating solar panel means that this outdoor camera is able to maximize power from the sun so you shouldn’t need to charge it very often especially if you live in sunny climes.
You want high quality images
Boasting 4K resolution, the Baseus device provides some of the sharpest images I’ve ever seen from an outdoor camera. Connectivity is very good too.
Don't buy it if
You want to locate it in a shaded area
Of course you can still power the security camera from the mains via the USB-C socket if you are located in the shade. But where this device really comes into its own is with the solar panel.
You just want a cheap solution
Costing nearly £200 in the UK, there are simply much cheaper options out there. However, always bear in mind that you may need to pay a monthly subscription fee with some devices.
Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K: also consider
Camera
Baseus Security S2 4K
Reolink Altas PT Ultra
Eufy 4K S330 Security Camera
Ring Outdoor Cam Plus
Subscription price
None
From £3.49 a month
None
From £4.99 a month
Viewing angle
145 degrees horizontal
355-degree pan / 90-degree tilt camera view
360-degree view
140 degrees horizontal
Network connection
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz)
Wi-Fi/4G
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz)
Audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Video
4K video resolution
4K video resolution
4K video resolution
2,560 x 1,440 (2K)
Power
Battery, solar
Battery, solar
Battery, solar
Mains, battery, solar
Hardware price
£199 (with built-in solar panel)
£229 (with solar panel)
£189 (with solar panel)
£69 (£99 with solar panel )
Reolink Altas PT Ultra
A very advanced home and business security solution boasting a large rechargeable battery and solar panel. Can record footage 12 hours a day for over a week with colour night vision facility.
An extremely innovative battery and solar-powered camera, the Eufy can be used with the supplied 4G Sim card to capture recordings - ideal for those who live in areas with poor Wi-Fi/broadband.
How I tested the Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K:
I used the camera outdoors
I installed it myself
I tested the facial recognition technology with family and friends
To test any outdoor security camera you really need to use it regularly over a period of time to get used to its quirks and idiosyncrasies. I decided to use this camera for a period of two weeks in the back garden. It was placed on my summer house at a height of about 2.5 metres and connected to a wireless repeater in my kitchen around 13 metres away.
During this period, we experienced a range of weather conditions to challenge the IP-67 rating of the camera. This included heavy rain and cloud followed by a period of around 4 to 5 days of sunshine. It was during this sunny period that the solar power really came into its own, charging the battery back to nearly 100% despite regular daily alerts via the app.
The Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL is a smart lamp and Bluetooth speaker combo that enables you to switch up the vibe in moments.
Available to purchase directly from the Govee website or at Amazon, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL has a list price of $179.99 / £169.99. While the price is certainly on the steep side, if you’re already a big Govee fan and want to save space by incorporating a speaker into your smart light setup, this would be a good way to go about it.
Having said that, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL already been subject to a $20 / £20 discount in the Govee Fall sale, which sweetens the deal a little. That's despite the fact that it has only been available in the US for around 11 weeks, and less than a week in the UK, at the time of writing.
(Image credit: Future)
Being so used to the Govee Table Lamp 2, which I happen to have two of, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL looks a little on the chonky side. This is understandable, considering it’s packing a speaker and a 5,200mAh rechargeable battery, which can provide up to four and a half hours of playback if the volume and brightness are set to fifty percent.
There’s a notable difference between the US and UK models when it comes to the power cable. The connector is set at a 90-degree angle in both cases, as the power port is located on the bottom of the lamp, but the US uses a small DC connector, and the UK uses USB-C.
More importantly, the cable for the US model is moulded to a US plug, so you can just plug and play; but in the UK, a USB-C cable is all that’s included, so I needed to source an adapter with a minimum of 35W for it to run efficiently. The first adapter I had to hand turned out to be too low-powered, and the lamp was clearly unimpressed.
(Image credit: Future)
Getting the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL synced with the app and with the WiFi networks in the office and at home was a quick and simple process. There are two separate Bluetooth connections, one for the lamp itself and one for the speaker. I found this a little inconvenient at times, as it seemed I needed to reconnect the speaker in my phone’s Bluetooth settings whenever I’d been out of the room. But overall, it makes sense that it’s set up this way, as one may want to listen to music on their headphones while still enjoying the features of the lamp.
(Image credit: Future)
There are two elements of the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL’s design that provide eye-catching lighting effects. These are the main body of the lamp, as you’d expect, but also the base, thanks to its clever reflective design. Both elements can be used independently or together, so you can have your lighting effects as stand-out or as subtle as you’d like.
The control panel on the top of the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL was simple to use, with a push power button and four touch buttons for the speakers' volume controls, playing and pausing, and a button for cycling through nine customizable presets.
(Image credit: Future)
My favorite way to control the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL – and all the Govee products I’ve tested, actually – is by taking advantage of the voice control via my Echo Dot (5th Gen) or hopping onto the feature-packed Govee Home app.
If you’ve already read some of my other product reviews, such as the highly rated Govee Neon Rope Light 2, you’ll already have some idea of how fond I am of the Govee Home app.
Along with the run-of-the-mill power, brightness, and volume controls, it also boasts over 100 preset scenes, with themes ranging from the ocean to the universe. The Govee Home app offers opportunities to get creative with lighting effects, too, with a finger sketch feature that allows you to decorate the canvas with random colors or drawings before choosing a motion setting and speed, as well as an AI effect generator.
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One small niggle I have stems from the preset audio that plays by default when some of the scenes are selected. I found some of them to be somewhat irritating, especially if they caught me by surprise when cycling through the default presets using the onboard controls. Fortunately, they can be disabled in the app, but only one at a time, so I had to go through and turn them off for all of my favorite scenes that were afflicted.
(Image credit: Future)
The audio quality was as I expected from a JBL speaker, by which I mean it was a solid performer. The treble sounds clean, and I could hear a good level of definition in the high-pitched percussion in the background of Sunny Days by Kolter. The bass lacks some impact, but it still has a good weight to it and isn’t bad going, considering the price. Unless you happen to be an audiophile, you’ll probably be perfectly happy with the audio quality on offer here.
The Dynamic Music feature added some fun when listening to music, especially the Gridding and Ripple effects, and was enjoyed by everyone in my office. I did notice they can struggle to hit the right notes if the track has a lot of different elements, but it’s nonetheless a fun dynamic effect, especially when paired with bass-heavy tracks.
(Image credit: Future)
Overall, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL offers eye-catching and day-brightening lighting effects and a satisfying-sounding speaker for the price. So, if you love the look of the Govee Table Lamp 2 and want a solid speaker to listen to tunes, podcasts, or audiobooks, then you’ll be happy wth the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL.
If you’re in the mood to check out more ambience-altering lighting, then why not take a look at our pick of the best smart lights?
Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL review: Price and specs
Price
$179.99 / £169.99
Model
H6020
Colors
Lamp Body: RGBICWW, Base: RGBIC
Lumens
600
Dimensions
6.1 x 6.1 x 10.1 inches / 18.9 x 18.9 x 34cm
Connectivity
2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
App
Yes
Control methods
Alexa, Google Home, Matter, IFTTT, Apple Watch, Razer
Speaker
Sound by JBL 2.5-inch 500cc full-range speaker
Additional features
Rechargeable battery
Should I buy the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL?
Buy it if...
You want a fun and feature-packed smart light Thanks to its rechargeable battery, voice control, and the many eye-catching preset scenes and customizable lighting effects, there’s a lot to appreciate here.
You want a smart light and Bluetooth speaker in one The combination of pretty lighting effects and satisfying audio makes this a versatile smart lamp, whether you have it at your bedside or in your living space.
Don't buy it if...
You don’t want to be interrupted by random audio The default sounds linked to some of the preset scenes may prove a little irritating.
You want a subtle smart lamp Whether it’s lit up in bright colors or being used as a reading light, the built-in speaker makes this a pretty hefty smart lamp.
Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL review: Also consider
Govee Table Lamp 2 If you’re more interested in the smart lighting effects than the audio element of the Table Lamp 2 Pro, then I recommend checking out the previous model. With most of the same features, including a bucket load of preset scenes, customization, and voice control via smart home hubs, the Govee Table Lamp 2 has a lot to offer. Plus, its list price is $100 / £100 cheaper. For more details, and to learn why I awarded it 4.5 stars, check out my full Govee Table Lamp 2 review.
How I tested the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL
I tested the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL for a couple of weeks
I tested the different features and customizable settings
I observed its performance as a smart light and as a speaker
I used the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL on my desk and next to my bed for a couple of weeks.
I followed the setup process on the Govee Home app and explored its features, testing how different scenes looked, and used the creative features to create my own.
I tested the audio quality by listening to different genres of music and bumping up the volume to assess the output at higher levels.
The WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26 is a color-changing smart bulb that features a coiled LED strip in place of a traditional filament.
It’s available in the US and the UK under slightly different names to reflect the difference in wattage, bulb shape, and fitment, but they have the same feature set and look very similar.
Known as the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26 in the US, or the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 40 W ST64 E27 in the UK, it has a list price of $32.99 / £27.99, and can be found at WiZ and Amazon.
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I love the Filament Bulb’s classic shape, and was pleased to find that it didn’t feel overly fragile. I have mixed opinions about the coiled LED strip. I found it looked nice in warmer whites and red, but due to the combination of different colored LEDs, it proved a bit of an eyesore when in other colors, with the brightness turned up when using it in my lamp.
If you want a light that can light up a room in addition to providing some nice mood lighting, then this bulb won’t be suitable. It’ll just about do as a reading light if your book is positioned right next to it, but it’s not ideal – although I believe this is often the case due to the nature of filament-style bulbs.
(Image credit: Future)
While it looks pretty on certain settings, the width of the LED strip may prove off-putting if you’re looking for a more authentic-looking filament bulb. If so, you may be better off looking for a non-color filament-style alternative, which you can also find from WiZ, Philips Hue, and various other brands.
The Filament Bulb was pleasingly straightforward to sync with the WiZ V2 app, as it was automatically detected, and it connected to my Wi-Fi quickly and without any fuss.
(Image credit: Future)
Unfortunately, the WiZ V2 app isn’t as intuitive as the Govee and Nanoleaf companion apps – although it would take a lot for an app to compare to the Govee Home app, which you’ll have probably guessed if you’ve already read my review of the Govee Table Lamp 2. Despite this, the WiZ V2 app provides access to a variety of useful functions, such as the control menu, which offers some static presets that include warm and cool options, and night, TV, and relax lighting modes, along with a few others.
I could also choose hues from a color graph, adjust the color temperature using a slider, or choose one of the twenty-five dynamic presets, each offering different color palettes and motions. I could also alter the speed of the color changes, though this adjustment was applied to all of the dynamic presets, rather than individually.
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The brightness was easy to adjust using a slider on the home screen or when adjusting settings in the control menu. Thanks to the rhythm function, which I set to change between different modes based on the local time, I was able to get the brightness and color temperature to adjust automatically throughout the day. There’s also a schedule feature, which I used to get the Filament Bulb to turn off at a set time.
I found the Filament Bulb could be slow to respond when switching between the Dynamic lights. And it was also a bit long-winded applying each one, as it asked me which room I wanted to apply it to each time, despite only having one setup. But I could set four of my preferred light settings on the home screen, up to eighteen in the quick action folder, or save them as scenes, so at least the process was quicker once I’d picked my favorites.
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On the subject of scenes, I found it far more efficient to fine-tune the lighting effect I wanted in the control menu before saving it as a scene. While the same settings are available when creating a new scene, the bulb didn’t immediately reflect any changes I made. Instead I would only get to check the result after creating and enabling the new scene, which wasn’t ideal, meaning it was often better to tweak the lighting settings first.
Connecting the Filament Bulb to my Echo Dot (5th Gen) was nice and simple, as it was automatically detected by my Alexa app. I needed to put the Filament Bulb into pairing mode, which was a case of switching the light off and on until it began to pulse blue, and the syncing process took just moments to complete. I could then use voice commands to get the Filament Bulb to change colors, temperature, and brightness, which was very convenient, especially as my requested changes were applied promptly.
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Despite the disappointing elements of the app, once I’d fine-tuned the lighting effects and set up the automations and voice control, I quite enjoyed testing the Filament Bulb. Overall, I was pleased with the quality for the price. So, if you’re looking for a vintage-style bulb with modern smart features and want to change up the ambience with a little color, it’s worth checking out the WiZ Filament Bulb Clear 25W ST19 E26.
If you love smart lighting as much as I do and want to explore some other fantastic options, then I highly recommend checking out our best smart lights buying guide.
WiZ Filament Bulb review: Price and specs
Price
$32.99 / £27.99
Model
US: Filament Globe Clear 25W ST19 E26
UK: Filament Bulb Clear 40 W ST64 E27
Colors
Multicolor
Lumens
US: 300 / UK: 470
Temperature
US: 1800-2100K / UK: 2200-6500K
Connectivity
2.4GHz WiFi, Bluetooth
App
Yes
Voice control
Yes
Dimmable
Yes, using the app
Additional features
Matter compatible, motion sensor (with 2+ bulbs)
Should I buy the WiZ Filament Bulb?
Buy it if...
You want vintage style with modern features The shape of the bulb is gorgeous, and while the coiled LED isn’t exactly traditional, it has its own charm in the right setting. This, combined with the smart features, makes it an eye-catching choice.
You want automation and voice control The rhythms and schedules are easy to set up and work well, and controlling the light becomes pretty effortless when synced to smart home devices like Alexa.
Don't buy it if...
You want to light up the room This bulb’s definitely destined for mood lighting rather than illuminating a space, so it wouldn’t be the brightest choice if you plan to use it as a solo pendant light.
You want a traditional-looking filament Although the LED strip allows for colorful lighting effects, it has a noticeably different aesthetic compared to white filament-style smart bulbs.
WiZ Filament Bulb review: Also consider
Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb If you’re looking for an alternative smart light with a difference, this Nanoleaf bulb may do the trick, thanks to its quirky faceted bulb. It’s cheaper than the WiZ Filament Bulb, yet also Matter compatible, vividly colorful, and can mirror your PC or Mac screen when used with the desktop app. If you’d like the learn more, check out our full Nanoleaf Matter Essentials smart bulb review.
How I tested the WiZ Filament Bulb
I tested the WiZ Filament Bulb for one week
I tested the different features and customizable settings
I observed its performance and brightness levels
I used the WiZ Filament Bulb on my desk in my office and in my living room. I screwed the bulb into a table lamp before powering it on and evaluating the setup process on the WiZ V2 companion app.
I explored the features, testing how different colors and settings looked, and created my own presets and scenes. I also tested how bright the bulb was both in daylight and in a dark room.
I synced the WiZ Filament Bulb with my Alexa app to check how straightforward the process was and to test out voice commands, which I did by altering the brightness, colors, and powering the bulb on and off.
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: two-minute review
The days of traditional ‘analog’ doorbells connected via wires to an internal chime are fast coming to an end. Increasingly, people are turning to video doorbells, which will send an alert to your mobile phone when someone comes to the door. They will even act as an intercom so you can talk to whoever is there whether you are in the house, walking the dog or sitting on a beach.
Like its predecessor, the Blink Video Doorbell doesn’t come with its own indoor chime. Instead, you can pair it with a Blink Mini 2 camera (sold separately) or connect via the Alexa app on your phone to a Fire Stick or Amazon Echo Show. This will allow you to see who is at the front door on your TV screen/multimedia display or you can get a voice message via your Amazon Echo Dot when someone presses the doorbell.
Alternatively, it may be possible to connect existing doorbell wiring from the Blink Video Doorbell to a legacy indoor chime providing its rated between 16 and 24 volts. Batteries are required for use whether you use existing doorbell wiring or not.
The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) uses three AA lithium batteries (Image credit: Chris Price)
What I like about Blink devices is just how easy they are to add to an existing system. I’ve already got several Blink cameras around the house so adding one more was simply a case of scanning the QR code on the back of the device and adding it to the home set up. However, if you’ve never installed a Blink camera before you will need to download the app (Android or iPhone) as well as connect the sync module provided to your broadband router (this acts as a hub for up to 10 Blink security devices).
Unfortunately, as the one supplied isn’t compatible with local storage via a connected USB flash drive, you will need to pay a monthly subscription for storing video footage and accessing the latest features – see subscription options below.
When it comes to mounting the video doorbell on the door there are two options. You can either use the standard flat mount or a wedge mount if you are placing it on a door architrave. As I was replacing the previous Blink video doorbell (Gen 1) I was hoping I could re-use the mount from that one to save time on installation. However, that wasn’t possible because this unit is a slightly different size.
Instead I used the black mount provided for the black video doorbell supplied by the manufacturer (a white version with white mount is also available). At least I didn’t have to screw two new holes in the wood as they’re positioned in the same place on the mount as the previous version.
Installing the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is very straightforward, particularly if you already have other Blink devices at home (Image credit: Chris Price)
Once installed, controlling the camera is simply a case of using the Blink app. One of the main differences between this model and its predecessor is the camera’s lens, in particular the aspect ratio. Whereas the previous model offered a more conventional 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio with 1080p resolution, the new video doorbell boats a square 1:1 aspect ratio with improved 1440p resolution.
It also offers a larger field of vision (150 degrees horizontal and 150 degrees vertical) compared to 135 degrees horizontal and just 80 degrees vertical on the previous model. The result is that not only is it possible to get a head-to-toe image of someone coming to the door, you can also view the ground – handy to see any deliveries that have been left outside your front door.
The in-app setup process is very simple (Image credit: Chris Price)
Certainly the 1:1 aspect ratio does take a little bit of getting used to, especially the square shape on the Blink home page next to all of the other more conventional widescreen cameras. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that, because the field of view is so much bigger than its predecessor you will need to reduce the device’s sensitivity, especially if you are paying for the Blink subscription with AI-powered Smart Detection.
Otherwise, you may well record every person and vehicle that goes past your house as well as those who come to the door. Not only will this severely reduce the lifespan of the batteries, it is also highly annoying to get pointless alerts every few minutes.
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: subscription options
There are two different subscription plans available depending on the number of Blink devices you own, and which features you require.
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: price and availability
List price $69.99 / £59.99 (about AU$110)
Launched August 2025 with Sync Module
Currently available in UK and US (not Australia)
With its second-generation video doorbell, Blink has managed to maintain the same $69.99 / £59.99 price point as the original video doorbell (you can now buy the earlier model for under £30 on Amazon in the UK without the sync module). Really, it’s exceptional value for money, much cheaper than a Ring video doorbell device, despite the two companies sharing Amazon ownership.
However, it's not available in Australia at the time of writing, and it’s worth bearing in mind that if you want to benefit from the full functionality of the device, including the ability to store video clips, you will need to pay for a subscription costing from $3 / £2.50 a month. That’s because - unlike the first video doorbell which incorporated a sync module with the option of adding local storage – it’s not the case with the second-generation model.
You won't be able to store videos recorded by the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) on the Sync Module Core (Image credit: Chris Price)
Instead of the Sync Module 2, the second-generation Blink video doorbell features the more basic Sync Module Core. Personally, I find that a little bit cheeky, but then at least the monthly subscription fees are cheaper than most of the rivals (Ring subscription plans start at $4.99 / £4.99 a month).
In addition to unlimited cloud video storage, the Blink subscription package includes Blink Moments which stitches together multiple events from multiple cameras into one video. Then there’s AI-Powered Smart Detection which tells you whether the camera has captured a person coming to the door/walking past your house, or a vehicle in your driveway/driving along the road. To reduce the amount of footage captured, which can be quite overwhelming, we recommend reducing the device’s sensitivity and also editing the ‘motion zones’ (areas of the frame that are active or private).
Value score: 4/5
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: design
Easy-to-install mounting bracket
Chunky design
Available in white or black
Blink cameras are renowned for being some of the most compact and lightweight devices on the market. However, the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bit of an exception. Tipping the scales at 4oz/113g, it’s both heavier than the first-generation model (3.2oz/91g) and also a little thicker too at 1.44in/36.6mm compared to 1inch/27mm.
Image 1 of 2
The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bulkier than its predecessor (Image credit: Chris Price)
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The Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) is a little bulkier than its predecessor (Image credit: Chris Price)
The main reason for this, of course, is that the new model incorporates space for three AA lithium batteries whereas the original model featured just two batteries. In turn, this means that battery life is much longer though it’s unlikely to be as long as the two-year lifespan that Blink’s marketing suggests.
Like its predecessor, two colour options are available (white or black) and there are two types of mount – one for placing flat on the door frame and another for mounting on a door architrave. Using the standard mount with the screws provided, it only takes around five minutes to install wirelessly, although if you are connecting to existing doorbell wiring the process is much longer. Since there's no built-in chime, you'll need to connect it to Alexa devices or buy a Blink Mini 2 camera to hear the doorbell indoors.
It only took around five minutes to install the doorbell with the included mount (Image credit: Chris Price)
Looks-wise, the second-generation model is a little different from its predecessor with a larger oval shaped button in the middle, compared to the round button on the first generation model. Recording is also more subtle with a small blue light on the top right indicating when video is being captured, rather than the area around the central button becoming illuminated in blue.
When the button in the centre is pushed by a visitor, it illuminates white and a message is sent to the connected phone telling you ‘someone is at the door’. As with the first-generation model, the doorbell sits inside a bracket but can be removed for changing batteries etc. by inserting a small metal ‘key’ in the base. It is also rated IP-65 weather resistant which offers greater protection against the elements than the previous model which was only IP-54 rated.
Design score: 4/5
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: performance
Good image quality (especially in Best mode)
Stable video connection
Overly sensitive camera
There’s no question that when it comes to performance Blink has upped its game with this second gen model. The first one was certainly OK, but not as good as some of the admittedly more expensive video doorbells from companies such as Ring. However, in nearly every respect, the Gen 2 model offers better performance than its predecessor.
Not only does it have a wider field of horizontal view (150 degrees compared to 135 degrees for the first model), it also offers a 150-degrees vertical field of view for a perfectly square 1:1 aspect ratio image. At first I thought that was a bit odd, but having used it for a little while it’s incredibly useful. Not only can you see an entire head-to-toe image of someone at the door you can also see if a parcel has been left on your doorstep.
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The new square aspect ratio makes it easier to see both visitors and packages (Image credit: Chris Price)
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The new square aspect ratio makes it easier to see both visitors and packages (Image credit: Chris Price)
Whereas the previous model offered 1080p video resolution, the second-generation model boasts improved 1440p video resolution. Three video quality settings are on board (Best, Standard, and Saver). I settled on Best as it’s good to be able to see details more clearly although this will obviously reduce battery life. The second-generation model also offers improved night vision.
Of course, it’s not all good news. The downside of the camera lens being much bigger is that it also collects much more footage – too much. Blink cameras are known for being sensitive anyway and this latest model is no exception.
Even with privacy zones set up, I found it necessary to dial the sensitivity right down to avoid false alerts (Image credit: Chris Price)
With motion sensitivity set to five, I found the camera was recording around 100 events a day, most of them of people walking their dog past the house or delivery vans going by. Even with the ‘privacy zones’ set up to block out the extremes of the frame (including areas of sky) the camera was still extremely active. In the end it was necessary to reduce sensitivity to just two out of 10 so it only captured people actually coming to the door.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning the sync module. Whereas the previous model included the Sync Module 2 with a USB socket so you could insert a USB flash drive for storing video clips, this model comes with the Sync Module Core without local storage. Essentially this means if you want to store video clips you will need to pay a subscription of at least $3 / £2.50 a month.
Performance score: 4.5/5
Should you buy the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core?
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) score card
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
This video doorbell represents pretty good value for money. Even the monthly subscription charge for premium features is around half the price of some devices.
4/5
Design
Available in black or white, the Blink doorbell is a much bulkier model than its predecessor. It is accompanied by a small sync module which connects to your router.
4/5
Performance
Although the motion sensor is a little overly-sensitive, performance is very good indeed particularly the 1:1 aspect ratio for ‘head-to-toe’ video capture.
4.5/5
Overall
When it comes to performance Blink have upped their game with improved quality images and longer battery life. Just a shame the supplied sync module can’t be used for storing clips.
4.5/5
Buy it if
You already have a Blink camera
The software makes it easy to use the video doorbell as part of a Blink home security system comprising indoor and outdoor cameras.
You want a wide viewing angle
One of the main benefits of the latest Blink camera is the head-to-toe viewing angle so you can see whoever comes to the door and the parcels that are left on the doorstep.
Don't buy it if
You need a separate chime indoors
The Blink doesn’t come with a chime so you will need to turn up the volume of the device or rely on either a separate Blink camera or connect to Alexa-enabled device.
You don’t want to buy expensive batteries
With this model you will need to buy three expensive Lithium AA batteries. Blink claims up to two years’ battery life but it’s likely to be a lot shorter.
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core: also consider
Product
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module
Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 1) and Sync Module
Yale Smart Video Doorbell and Doorbell Chime
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus
Subscription price
From £2.50 a month
From £2.50 a month
From £3.50 a month
From £4.99 a month
Viewing angle
150 degrees horizontal
135 degrees horizontal
154 degrees horizontal
150 degrees horizontal
Network connection
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Two-way audio
Video
1440p Full HD resolution
1080p Full HD resolution
1080p Full HD resolution
1536p Full HD resolution
Power
Battery
Battery
Mains or battery
Battery
Hardware price
£59 (with Sync Module Core)
£59 (with Sync Module 2)
£129 (video doorbell), £29 (chime)
£129 (video doorbell), £139 (with basic chime)
If you're not sure whether the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core are the right combo for you, here are two other options to consider.
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus
Amazon-owned Ring has firmly established itself as the ‘go to’ company for video doorbells. It offers several models including this wire-free model which also features a head-to-toe view.
A solidly built video doorbell, the Yale device offers good image and sound quality. However, streaming recorded content and speaking to people at the door can be a little slow.
How I tested the Blink Video Doorbell (Gen 2) and Sync Module Core
I used the doorbell every day for 10 days
I installed it myself
The doorbell was set up on the front door facing towards the road
To test a video doorbell properly you need to use it as part of your home system. Fortunately, I already have other Blink cameras so adding another one was particularly straightforward. But even if I didn’t then downloading the app would have been easy enough.
Installation takes around 15 minutes or so, requiring a screw driver to attach the mount to the door frame before positioning the camera in place. It’s roughly the same size as the previous one, in terms of length and width, so thankfully I didn’t have to worry about unsightly screw holes all over the door frame.
The new Blink Video Doorbell is roughly the same height and width as its predecessor, so I didn't have to worry about messy screw holes when I upgraded (Image credit: Chris Price)
During the period of testing, I really began to appreciate the device’s head-to-toe viewing. I get a lot of deliveries, so being able to see if they have been left on the doorstep when I’m out is handy. Another bonus is the additional power that having another AA battery brings.
Whereas the previous model relied on two lithium AA batteries that had to be changed every three months, this one has three. However, I think it’s extremely unlikely these will last two years as Blink claims in its marketing blurb. I’m pretty sure I’ll be changing the batteries again in six months time given how sensitive the camera’s motion sensor is!.
For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.
The Segway Navimow X3 Series robot lawn mowers are built specifically for sizeable lawns. And when I say sizeable, I mean sizeable – the range covers lawns from 0.5 acres / 1,500 square meters right up to a massive 2.5 acres / 10,000 square meters. To make them suitable for such vast spaces, these bots are designed to operate quickly, efficiently and accurately, with batteries capacious enough to allow for long mowing periods, without having to make the arduous journey back to the dock to recharge.
To see if this lawnbot could deliver on these promises, I sought out the largest yard I knew of. The lawn at my sister's home, measures around 1,000 square meters / 0.25 acre (although Segway sent me the X350, which is designed for even larger areas still). The first thing I was struck by is the speed of the mower. It rolls along at quite the pace, navigating with confidence, even when traversing under trees.
The lawnbot itself is really quite large (and the same size as the other X3 Series models), but if you have a lawn big enough to need one, that's not going to matter so much. It feels solid and high quality, with a friendly orange and grey color scheme and slightly retro-feeling dot-matrix screen to provide key information.
(Image credit: Future)
A big reason as to why the experience of using the Segway Navimow X3 Series is so enjoyable is down to the design of the companion app. It's intuitive to use, walking you clearly through all the steps required to complete each process, and providing background information – rather than leaving you to figure things out by yourself. There are plenty of setting options to explore, and planning a schedule is straightforward.
In terms of performance, I had no issues. Throughout the test period, the bot behaved exactly as I'd hoped, mowing neatly and within boundaries, taking a logical route and never missing any spots. It also reliably avoided medium (soccer ball-sized) obstacles, although it did mow over a satsuma-sized ball (understandable, given it was sitting below camera height). Since this bot is two-wheel drive rather than four-wheel, it might struggle with especially rough terrain; but for the average yard, it will be absolutely fine.
Overall, a very strong recommendation for those looking for an efficient, fuss-free mower to take care of larger lawns. That's the short version; read on for my full Segway Navimow X3 Series review.
Segway Navimow X3 review: price & availability
List price: from $2,299 / £2,199
Available: US, UK, AU
Launched: Spring 2025
The Segway Navimow X3 Series was unveiled in spring 2025, and is available to buy in various countries including the US, UK and Australia. You can only purchase direct from Segway Navimow in the US, and in general these lawnbots aren't stocked widely online (you won't be adding one to your Amazon Prime order). Instead, you might need to check the Segway Navimow site for distributors local to you.
When it comes to pricing, brace yourself: the Segway Navimow X3 Series doesn't come cheap. The cheapest in the lineup costs $2,299 / £2,199 at list price, and the priciest is $4,999 / £4,299. That's a significant investment, and if you don't have a large yard – or a yearning for ultra-speedy mowing – there are plenty more affordable alternatives. However, for those in need of large-scale mowing, the Navimow's pricing isn't too far away from what you'd pay elsewhere on the market.
Let's say you want something for a 1-acre / 3,000m² lawn. The Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD 3000 costs $2,499 / £2,549 at list price, and the Navimow X330 is $2,799 / £2,599. The LUBA 2 has slightly more advanced features all round, including all-wheel drive and two cutting decks, which makes it a better-value buy at full price. Nevertheless, both are excellent, advanced, high-quality lawnbots.
Overall, my experience with the Navimow X3 series was extremely positive, and it felt well built and thoughtfully designed, so I think for large lawns it's worth the investment.
Value for money score: 4 out of 5
Segway Navimow X3 specs
Segway Navimow X350 (reviewed)
Segway Navimow X315 (cheapest)
Recommended lawn size:
1.5 acres / 5,000m²
0.5 acre / 1,500㎡
Cutting width:
9.3in / 23.7cm
9.3in / 23.7cm
Cutting height:
0.8-2.8in / 2-7cm
0.8-2.8in / 2-7cm
Drivetrain:
2-wheel drive
2-wheel drive
Incline ability:
50% / 27 degrees
50% / 27 degrees
Waterproof:
IP66
IP66
Lawnbot size (L x W x H):
27.5 x 21.7 x 12.1in / 69.8 x 55 x 30.7cm
27.5 x 21.7 x 12.1in / 69.8 x 55 x 30.7cm
Lawnbot weight:
43.7 lbs / 19.8kg
43.2 lbs / 19.6kg
Charge time:
80 mins
60 mins
Mowing time per charge:
200 mins
120 mins
Cutting blades:
6
6
Segway Navimow X3 review: design
Available in versions with different batteries for different lawn sizes
On-bot info via a screen, and cameras on three sides for obstacle avoidance
Comes with RTK receiver (option to add a second) and charge station
The Segway Navimow X3 Series is a big bot for big lawns. There are a few options in the lineup, all of which are identical in design and specs, except the ones at the top end of the range have a bigger battery and as such are suitable for larger areas. These are the options:
Model
Recommended mowing area
Runtime per charge
Charge time
X315
0.5 acre / 1,500m²
120 mins
60 mins
X330
1 acre / 3,000m²
160 mins
65 mins
X350 (tested)
1.5 acres / 5,000m²
200 mins
80 mins
X390
2.5 acres 10,000m²
240 mins
100 mins
Moving on to the lawnbot itself, and the brand has opted for a friendly look, with a dark gray and bright orange color scheme, and a dot matrix screen to provide key information in real time. On test I found this limited in its practical usefulness, although it is quite fun. There are physical buttons for Go, On/OK and Return to charge, plus a big emergency stop button. However, for the most part you'll be controlling the bot via the companion app, which I'll cover in detail in a separate App section below (there's also support for voice control via Alexa or Google Home, if you prefer).
(Image credit: Future)
The Navimow X350 is rather large, and for the times you might need to manually maneuver it, Segway has added a big handle around the rear of the bot. Unfortunately, there's no grip area at the front – so unless you stick your hand in the charge slot, which goes against an important lesson I learned as a toddler, you'll need to make do with crouching and dragging rather than picking it up.
It's fairly common for modern lawnbots to come equipped with a camera for object identification and avoidance, but the X3 Series has not one, but three: one at the front and one on either side, delivering a 300-degree field of view. Alongside one of the side-mounted cameras you'll find an Expansion Bay section, where you can attach add-ons. There's an edge trimmer attachment that already exists in a few countries (I didn't test this), and open API access means if you have the skills, you can create your own additions.
Also hidden somewhere on the top is a compartment for a tracker, should you wish to add one for added security reasons (there's also an out-of-bounds alarm, lift alerts and GPS tracking to guard against theft).
(Image credit: Future)
There are two main wheels, plus two smaller wheels at the front. Since this bot is a two-wheel drive machine, it isn't designed for very uneven terrain, although it can still handle slopes up to 50%, and will be more than up to handling the average yard (or football field).
Flip it over and you'll find the cutting deck, which consists of six blades mounted on a rotating disc, which can be raised or lowered automatically via the app (it can cut at heights of 0.8-2.8in / 2-7cm). The whole thing is designed to avoid the mechanism becoming clogged up with cuttings. Like most lawnbots, there's no grass collection here – instead you're meant to use it regularly enough that the tiny cuttings end up mulching back into the lawn. The Navimow delivers a generous cutting width of 9.3in / 23.7cm.
(Image credit: Future)
Additional components
The X3 Series is at least partially reliant on satellites for navigation, so in the box you also get an RTK receiver to improve the accuracy of the satellite information. You'll need to find a good spot for this – ideally it needs to sit somewhere high up, with a wide, uninterrupted view of the sky. Since I was only borrowing this machine, I just stuck it on the provided lawn-mount spike, and it worked remarkably well even in this sub-optimal position, as you'll learn in the Performance section. You can purchase a secondary antenna to act as backup if you have an especially large lawn.
(Image credit: Future)
You're also provided with a charge station, where your lawnbot will return to juice up. This needs to sit on flat ground, with access to a power source.
The lawnbot is IP66 rated, which means it's resistant to both water (everything apart from complete submersion) and dust. Even so, I tend to think a plastic garage roof is a good idea for a little extra protection from the elements in the long term.
(Image credit: Future)
Features
Let's look quickly at what's going on under the hood. Like most modern lawnbots, the X3 Series doesn't require boundary wires, but instead uses a combination of RTK satellite navigation, cameras and sensors to find its way around (here's more on how lawnbots navigate, if you're interested).
To ensure the bot always knows where it is, even when being used on a palatial lawn, Segway has introduced a number of navigation upgrades. The RTK system has been improved and can apparently deliver 40% better observation, to keep it moving in potential blind spots such as narrow pathways or under rooftops.
(Image credit: Future)
Inside, two complementary wayfinding systems work together to help the bot find its way about: VSLAM, which relies on recognizable visual cues; and VIO, which is great for new, featureless areas. All of that, added to the wide field of view provided by the three onboard cameras, should mean this bot is an absolute pro when it comes to navigation.
Design score: 5 out of 5
Segway Navimow X3 review: performance
Neat, thorough and very speedy mowing
Confident, accurate navigation, even under trees
Strong obstacle avoidance, although can't spot very small items
Let's start with setup, which I found fairly painless. There's a bit of self-assembly required of the base station and RTK receiver, but if you hook up the app first then it walks you through the process quite clearly (there's also a paper instruction booklet, if you prefer). The app also guides you through the mapping process.
My test lawn has unclear boundaries and tree coverage, so I opted to create a map manually, by remote-controlling around the perimeter of the area I wanted mowing and then editing the results in-app. I found the process straightforward. If you have a very simple lawn, you'd use AI Assist Mapping, where the bot will automatically map the area for you.
The first thing I was struck by when I started mowing was how speedy the Navimow proved. I was promised efficiency, and the Segway Navimow has delivered. The X3 rolls confidently along at an impressive pace compared to other bots I've tested.
I mostly used the Standard speed for my tests, but bumped it up to Efficient at one point but couldn't really notice a difference. The app states that it's 0.2m/s faster in this mode, which would be noticeable over time if you were mowing an especially large lawn.
(Image credit: Future)
I was also very impressed by navigation. My test lawn has a number of large trees, which I thought might cause the X3 to get lost – especially given the RTK receiver was just stuck in the ground, rather than elevated above the trees and buildings, as it really should be. However, all the test-runs were free of issues. The bot made its way around confidently, covering the full lawn in a logical pattern. It also accurately avoided a no-mow zone I'd set up in the center of the lawn, on a patch of ground that had recently been re-sown with grass seed. I guess whatever Segway Navimow has done to "improve the RTK performance by 40%" has worked.
(Image credit: Future)
I also ran a couple of specific object avoidance tests by placing large (a toddler's ride-on car), medium (soccer ball) and small (a tangerine-sized ball) obstacles in the X3's path. It had no issues spotting the car or football, duly skirting around each one, even when I kicked the football about to try to confuse it, but the smallest ball met a grizzly end beneath the X3's blades.
We've yet to test a lawnbot at TechRadar that can spot small obstacles such as this, so it isn't a particular failing on Segway Navimow's part. However, it's worth noting if you have, for example, a dog that likes to poo in your yard, and you don't want to spend an afternoon cleaning it out of wheel crevices.
Performance score: 4.5 out of 5
Segway Navimow X3 review: app
Lots of useful explanations and info, with diagrams
Plenty of fine-adjustment options
Well laid out and easy to navigate
From the off, I was super-impressed with the Segway Navimow app. It provides plenty of information and clear explanations – often with diagrams – to walk you through everything from setup to how to map. Other lawnbot apps I've tested use opaque language and leave you to mostly figure things out for yourself, which can be especially confusing if it's your first robot lawn mower.
(Image credit: Segway Navimow / Future)
Here, however, everything is logically laid out and easy to navigate. There are also plenty of options to fine-tune your mowing. There's a straightforward schedule-maker, where you can select days, times and zones for cutting. You can also choose between three mowing speeds (Quiet, Standard and Efficient) and grass length (20-70mm, in increments of 5mm).
(Image credit: Segway Navimow / Future)
There's a section for Map management, where you can split, add or remove sections, or add no-go zones (or, as Segway Navimow whimsically calls them, "BioLife Islands"). It will let you select where you want to start on the map, with the bot cleverly driving itself over to your chosen spot, and then the app will guide you to drive the new boundary line using remote control. I found this process straightforward and logical – again, not always a given.
Segway Navimow also offers a range of "Advanced" features, too. There's an "Animal friendly" mode that will see the bot stop if it spots an animal and take a new route so as not to disturb it, rather than just skirting around it. You can also toggle on "Traction control" for particularly muddy or challenging terrain.
App score: 5 out of 5
Should you buy the Segway Navimow X3 Series?
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Value
Very much a premium lawnbot, but performance and features help justify the investment.
4 / 5
Design
Rather large, well-built lawnbot with RTK station and charge dock. Two-wheel drive and cameras to the front and both sides, plus a dot matrix screen on the bot itself.
5 / 5
Performance
Neat, fast, efficient mowing. Confident navigation even in challenging conditions, and solid obstacle avoidance (bar very small objects).
4.5 / 5
App
Extremely usable and well designed, with plenty of useful, clear information.
5 / 5
Buy it if...
You have a massive lawn
The Navimow X3 series is designed specifically to cover large areas quickly, efficiently and without getting lost.
You need something easy to use
The Segway Navimow app guides you through the setup and mapping processes and provides you with useful background information – perfect if this is your first lawnbot.
Your grass grows quickly and needs to look neat
This is a very efficient mower, so it will come into its own when faced with a fast-growing lawn.
Don't buy it if...
You have a small / medium-sized yard
This bot is for big lawns – if you're mowing an area less than 0.5 acre / 1,500m² (or even around that size), there are plenty of cheaper, smaller options that will suit the job better.
Your lawn is very uneven
For challenging terrain, you might need an all-wheel drive model such as the Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD (the Segway Navimow is two-wheel drive).
Segway Navimow X3 review: alternatives to consider
Segway Navimow X330
Mammotion Luba 2 3000
Mammotion Yuka Mini S (US) / Yuka Mini 600 (UK)
Recommended lawn size:
1 acre / 3,000m²
1 acre / 3,000m²
0.15 acres / 600㎡
Cutting width:
9.3in / 23.7cm
15.7in / 40cm
7.5in / 19cm
Cutting height:
0.8-2.8in / 2-7cm
1-2.7in / 2.5-7cm
0.8-2.4in / 2-6cm
Drivetrain:
Two-wheel drive
All-wheel drive
Two-wheel drive
Incline ability:
50% / 27 degrees
80% / 38 degrees
50% / 27 degrees
Waterproof:
IP66
IPX6
IPX6
Lawnbot size (L x W x H):
27.5 x 21.7 x 12.1in / 69.8 x 55 x 30.7cm
27.2 x 20.2 x 27.3in / 69 x 51.3 x 27.3cm
20.7 x 16.3 x 11.1in / 52.5 x 41.3 x 28.1cm
Lawnbot weight:
43.7 lbs / 19.8kg
41 lbs / 18.6kg
23.4 lbs / 10.6kg
Charge time:
65 mins
120 mins
90 mins
Mowing time per charge:
160 mins
190 mins
55 mins
Cutting blades:
6
12
5
Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD Another hi-tech, premium bot for large yards, the LUBA 2 has the edge if you need something for especially challenging terrain. It boasts all-wheel drive, two cutting decks working in tandem, and the ability to handle steeper inclines.
Mammotion Yuka Mini If you have a much smaller yard, check out this more compact option. The app is nowhere near as intuitive as Segway Navimow's, nor are there as many features or fine-tuning options, but it's still a very capable mower and comes in at a far lower price.
I tested the X350 model of the Segway Navimow X3 Series. I used it for several weeks in the garden of my sister's home. The test lawn measures around 1,000 square meters, and has unclear borders and several large trees. I set up the bot myself from scratch, following the instructions in the app, including constructing the charge station and RTK receiver. I mapped the lawn into different mowing zones and added no-mow areas. I assessed the lawnbot based on the neatness and speed of mowing, accuracy of navigation, and general ease of use. I also explored the different options in the app to see the extent to which I could fine-tune settings, and ran object avoidance tests using different-sized obstacles. I then compared all of my findings to other lawnbots I've used, while also weighing everything up against the price to gauge whether the bot offers good value for money.
I'll say one thing about Ecovacs Robotics: the brand might make too many robot vacuums that I, as a reviewer, can’t keep up with, but they all seem well thought out and catering to different needs and budgets. In 2024, it released a good-value robovac that I really liked in my Ecovacs Deebot T30 Omni review, and it’s impressed again with a higher-end model in the Deebot X8 Pro Omni reviewed here.
The X8 has plenty of smarts on board, with Ecovacs’ voice assistant Yiko now better at understanding commands and having a more conversational interaction than its previous iterations on older Deebots. Even if you don't interact with Yiko, the X8 has plenty of automated voice prompts that I very quickly found to be annoying – there's only so many times you can hear it say "don't worry" when its auto-emptying. While you can't switch these off, you can mute the volume entirely and depend on the app notifications to find out if the robot needs help at any time (like if it's stuck somewhere).
There's Google Assistant and Alexa support as well, but Yiko can handle a few extra commands that I found the other two voice assistants couldn't handle. To futureproof your smart home, the X8 Pro Omni also has Matter support, so you can control several smart devices via a single hub.
There's a camera on board that the bot uses to ‘see’ its surroundings for better navigation and obstacle avoidance, but it also provides a live feed that requires a passcode to be set up for access. There’s a Patrol mode here that turns the X8 Pro Omni bot into a security unit and it saves a bunch of photos for you to view whenever you like. You can also speak to your pets or kids if you need to check in on them (spy?) while you're at work. I’ve asked Ecovacs for clarification on how secure the camera is from hackers and will update this review as soon as I hear back.
These smart bells and whistles are all great, but this robot vacuum shines at its most important function: cleaning. It’s arguably one of the best automated cleaners I’ve tested in 2025, with edge cleaning its biggest asset thanks to an extending side brush and wet roller while vacuuming and mopping respectively. In fact, I’ve seen the X8 Pro Omni travel far closer to walls and furniture than many of its competitors, thus allowing its extendable parts to do their job effectively.
The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni can get very close to walls and furniture to clean, much closer than other bots I've tested previously (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
It puts its 18,000Pa of suction power to good use, with my carpets looking fresh and clean after a single run on its highest suction setting. It did a better job than what I saw in my Roborock Qrevo Edge review despite 18,500Pa of suction. And its roller mop was quite impressive compared to the mops pads I’d gotten used to previously, and that’s despite Ecovacs saying there’s no pressure applied by the roller on the floor.
There’s also a detergent dispenser on board and use of the soap is automatic provided you toggle it on in the app – Ecovacs says there’s always a ratio of 200:1 detergent and water mix in the pipeline to ensure the correct usage. Even without detergent I found my floors were left stain-free after every mop – in fact, it was better than I experienced in my Narwal Freo Z10 review that, at the time, I said had excellent mopping skills.
In four weeks of testing, the X8 Pro Omni got entangled in a cable just once because the side brush pulled a low-hanging wire towards the bumper, but otherwise its obstacle avoidance is very good. Even more impressive is its overall navigation – it invariably took the path of least resistance in my apartment, which meant it got its tasks done relatively quickly and, importantly, without consuming too much battery life.
Even the base station performance is top notch, with the onboard bin getting cleaned quite well each time it empties, and the wet-roller cleaning is impeccable. Water consumption is also lower than any other robovac I’ve tested before – I’ve previously had to refill the clean water after every full cleaning cycle in my small inner-city apartment, but this time I’ve had to do so once every four or five sessions (depending on its routine).
All in all, this was excellent performance from not just the robot vacuum, but I commend Ecovacs for streamlining its app experience as well. It’s much nicer to use, with plenty of customization options to suit your personal cleaning needs. Importantly, these custom routines are now very easy to access.
It's relatively noisier than some of its newer competitors, and it can't perform the climbing feats of the more expensive Dreame X50 Ultra, but if you value excellent cleaning performance above all else, I'd find it very easy to recommend the Deebot X8 Pro Omni – and it's often discounted.
It doesn't necessarily stand out visually, but the gold accents lend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni some class (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: price & availability
Available since March 2025
List price: $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499
Incurs ongoing costs for dust bags and detergent
There are quite a few all-in-one robot vacuum cleaners at the same price point that Ecovacs Robotics is selling the X8 Pro Omni, but I think the Deebot can justify its premium cost on its feature set and performance.
It’s listed for $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499 at full price but, at the time of writing, US and UK customers could pick it up for $899.99 / £999 respectively directly from the Ecovacs website. In Australia, it has dropped to AU$2,199 previously, but I suspect there’ll be better discounts around the world during major shopping events like Black Friday sales. It’s also available from select third-party retailers, including Amazon.
This price gets you not just excellent performance (explained below in detail), but you also get an impressive set of features, including voice assistant and Matter integration for a smarter home setup. With that in mind, I think the X8 Pro Omni is well priced compared to some of the other robovacs on the market, although Ecovacs has cheaper models that clean really well, as proved by the Deebot T30 Omni.
As an example of competitor pricing, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra cost $1,499/ AU$2,499 (unavailable in the UK) and is a good machine, but has 12,000Pa of suction compared to the Deebot’s 18,000Pa. Matching the suction power at 18,500Pa is the Roborock Qrevo Edge, but I found it hard to recommend at its list price of $1,599.99 / AU$2,799 (unavailable in the UK) based on its performance alone. On the other hand, Ecovacs' own Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has 18,500Pa suction, the Yiko voice assistant and promises good cleaning at a lower price point of $799.99 / £799 / AU$1,799.
If you want more suction power, you’ll have to pay a lot more. For example, the Roborock Saros 10 with its whopping 22,000Pa of power will set you back $1,599.99 / £1,499.99 / AU$2,999 at full price, but is often discounted to match the X8's retail cost. The Dreame X50 Ultra Complete with 20,000Pa of suction is also expensive compared to the X8 Pro Omni, coming in at a list price of $1,699.99 / £1,299 / AU$2,999, but it can climb low steps that many of the newer machines can't.
As with any other hybrid robot vacuum, there is the ongoing cost of purchasing dust bags and detergent to take into consideration, although the latter is an optional add-on but I can see the need for it in homes with toddlers and pets. Unlike other brands, though, Ecovacs doesn’t supply a bottle of detergent in the box – at least not in Australia, where the testing for this review was conducted, due to “customs issues with international shipments” – so that’s $49.98 / £44 right off the bat for two 1L bottles in the US and UK (frequently discounted), but the same two-pack isn't available in Australia where a 1L bottle retails for AU$37.50.
The antibacterial dust bags come in packs of three and are available directly from Ecovacs Robotics for $24.99 / £17.99 / AU$29.90 at the time of writing.
Despite the ongoing cost, I think the Deebot X8 Pro Omni balances its feature set, performance and price well, but I’d recommend picking it up during a sale as it’s frequently discounted.
• Value score: 4 / 5
The three-prong button on the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni doesn't look functional, but it has three tasks it can perform when needed (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: specs
Suction power:
18,000Pa
Onboard bin capacity:
220ml
Dust bag capacity:
3L
Clean water tank capacity:
4L
Dirty water tank capacity:
4L
Reservoir capacity:
110ml clean; 95ml dirty
Mop lift:
10mm
Noise level:
up to 75dB
Battery capacity:
6,400mAh
Runtime:
up to 228 minutes / up to 240sqm (2,580 sq ft)
Charging time:
4.6 hours
Dimensions:
Robot = 353 x 351.5 x 98 mm; base station = 350 x 477 x 533 mm
Weight:
Robot = 5.3kg; base station = 7.6kg
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Design
Gold accents give it a classy look
Extending side brush and wet roller mop
Taller than the average robot but lacks a turret; tall but slim base station
I only had to take the robot out to see that Deebot X8 Pro Omni exudes class, thanks to some gold-colored accents on the otherwise black machine. Unlike the Narwal Freo Z10 that I reviewed prior to the X8 (which was a 11kg weight straight out of the box), the Deebot comes packed in layers, which makes it very easy to set up.
Robot design
Once you remove the wash tray from the top of the box, the next item to emerge is the X8 robot. The first thing that distinguishes it from many other robovacs is the lack of a top turret that typically houses the navigation tech. In the X8 Pro Omni, though, all the necessary sensors are on the front and the sides.
The lack of a turret means the X8 can roll under many low-lying pieces of furniture, although it's doesn't have the slimline form factor of the Roborock Saros 10R – it's a little taller, standing at 9.8cm/3.8in compared to the Saros at 8cm/3in, so there needs to be a minimum clearance of 10cm/4in for the Deebot to clean where many other robovacs can't.
A black plastic disc with the Ecovacs logo in gold covers the top of the robot, with a cutout to show off a gold three-pronged button. There's a tiny power icon in the center of the button to indicate that it's functional, but it's easy to miss and can appear purely decorative, although it lights up when in use and charging. Its functionality is listed on a large piece of cardboard inside the packaging: a short press to start or pause, a double press to extend or retract the wet roller, and a three-second long press to send the bot back to its dock. In the four weeks I spent with the machine, I never found the need to use the button – the robot does everything seamlessly.
Also under the top cover is a removable 220ml/7.4oz dustbin whose filter can be taken out for regular cleaning, plus a toggle switch for power, a Wi-Fi indicator light and a QR code to begin your app setup.
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After four weeks of use, there was barely any hair tangled anywhere (just one strand around a large wheel) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The V-shaped bristles of the central brush are very effective at avoiding entanglements (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The wet roller was a lot more effective at streak-free mopping than circular mop pads (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
On the front of the robot are LiDAR sensors that it uses for mapping your home, while a camera also peeping through the same front window adds visual information that’s paired with artificial intelligence (AIVI) to navigate around obstacles. Along the sides are edge sensors that prevent it from banging into a wall or furniture, yet allowing the bot to get really close for effective cleaning. A mic and speaker are also housed within the front window.
The back of the robot has two charging points, but there’s also a water compartment inside with a clean capacity of 110ml and 95ml for dirty mop water. While you never have to worry about the water reservoir after setup, it can be released using an inset lever.
The side brush extends, but given the Deebot X8 Pro Omni travels very close to obstacles, it even managed to clean corners (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As with nearly every other Deebot I’ve tested (and many other brands besides), the underside of the robot houses the central bar brush that sports bristles arranged in a V shape to help it gather hair and fur without itself getting entangled. A single side brush towards the front of the bot rotates at varying speeds automatically depending on the size of the debris it senses – it slows down for larger pieces, similar to some of the high-end Roborocks. It can also extend out to reach into corners and clean along edges – both of which it manages to do better than many of its competitors because the robot itself gets really close to walls.
The rear of the undercarriage is dominated by a wet roller rather than circular mop pads which, according to Ecovacs, spins at a speed of 200rpm and has a scraper in its holder that constantly cleans out the dirty water as it rotates. 16 nozzles keep it supplied with clean water (and detergent if you’re using any).
The main wheels are quite large and, for the first time in any robot vacuum I’ve tested, I found them to be quite noisy when traveling over the tiles in my home. The sound was akin to very hard or brittle plastic moving over a rough surface, but in my time testing the X8 Pro Omni, I didn’t notice too much wear and tear on the wheels to account for the sound. A small omnidirectional caster wheel completes the robot’s physical setup.
It's easy to remove the onboard bin in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni to clean out the filter regularly (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Base station design
The base station itself isn’t much to write home about and is quite similar to several other models on the market. However, the gold accents on the lids of the two water tanks and branding on the front of the dock makes it look quite smart. The tanks have a 4L capacity each and are very easy to lift up, refill or clean out, then replace back on the dock.
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Water tanks are easy to access and fill or clean (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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There are plenty of parts you can wash out if you want to, including the soap dispenser (on top of the tanks) and the wash trays (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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Even the robot's onboard water compartment comes off easily of you want to give it a quick rinse (the inside filter can get grimy) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Below the tanks is a covered nook that houses the detergent dispenser and a 3L dust bag. The dispenser is very easy to slide out and refill, while changing the dust bag is also very intuitive. It’s the cover for this nook that takes a little effort to remove each time you need access to either of its two inmates – it clips in very tightly indeed and you'll need to pull it with some force from the bottom of the panel.
Under the covered nook is the cavity for the robot, which sits on a washing tray. Inside the cavity, on the rear wall of the base station, you'll notice nozzles and charging points that keep the robot doing what it needs to do.
The base station is about as tall as many other brands offer, but it’s a little slimmer than, say, a Narwal dock. It will still need a decent amount of space to house, with enough clearance on the top to allow you to remove and replace the tanks.
• Design score: 4.5 / 5
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Performance
Excellent vacuuming on high suction; top-notch mopping at most waterflow levels
Arguably one of the best edge cleaners in the business
Very good navigation and obstacle avoidance
The X8 Pro Omni for this review was tested in a 40sqm/430sqft inner-city apartment in Sydney, Australia, with the single bedroom fully carpeted, but the rest of the rooms featuring matte-finish tiles. The bathroom, however, has smoother tiles than the rest of the hard floors and it was part of the full map that the X8 had to clean. There are no stairs in the apartment to test cliff sensors, but there are a couple of low thresholds that were useful to test the X8 Pro Omni’s ability to clear some obstacles.
It’s also important for me to mention that I have no pets, but I’ve always found my bedroom carpet covered in my own (long) hair within 3-4 days of cleaning it, and is usually a very good test for any vacuum cleaner that I review.
Before starting the first cleaning session, I not only set up some custom routines (called Scenario Cleans in the Ecovacs Home app), but I also went through the advanced settings to toggle on some key features, including the carpet-first option as I have mixed flooring. This ensured that no matter what custom cleaning routine I might use, carpets were always vacuumed first to minimize the risk of them getting wet (more on the app experience later).
Overall performance of the X8 Pro Omni was excellent, but it’s important to note that it’s best used for the regular maintenance cleaning sessions that you might need on a daily or a weekly basis. It can’t replace the best cordless vacuum cleaners, but it definitely reduces the human effort and time spent on keeping your floors spick and span.
Water usage in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni is not a lot compared to other models I've tested (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Vacuuming
Let’s start the performance section with the most basic function: vacuuming. I’ve already mentioned earlier in this review that the X8 Pro Omni was one of the best cleaning machines I’ve tested recently, exceeding the vacuuming performance I got from a Roborock and a Narwal that I tested prior to the Deebot. It really does put the 18,000Pa – which is in no way class-leading now – to very good use, particularly at its higher suction settings.
I usually have to set most robovacs to their maximum suction setting to get a decent clean on the bedroom carpet which, as I’ve described above, can get covered in my own hair within days. It’s been rare for me to see that carpet completely hair free after a single session even using the highest power level on other robovacs, but the X8 Pro Omni was been able to do just that each and every time it’s done a bedroom clean on its Max setting.
The Deebot’s got four suction settings and while I wasn’t particularly keen on the Quiet option which reduces the power significantly, I found the Standard and Strong settings to be perfect for hard floors, not once needing to step it up to Max on tiles.
The Deebot X8 Pro Omni repeatedly does 360º rotations around furniture legs to ensure good cleaning (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
The X8 Pro Omni has a suction-boost option which, as the name suggests, automatically increases power when it detects carpets, but I wasn’t able to notice the dynamic suction from sound alone when it went from hard floor to the mid-pile rug in my living room, although it seemed to do a very good job anyway. The audible change in suction was heard when it was vacuuming tiles in my kitchen, just under a cabinet – go figure.
To check its vacuuming abilities further, I conducted TechRadar’s standard tests of sprinkling tea dust and oats (representing two different-sized debris) on both hard floors and carpets. Doing a Zone clean and set at Strong suction, you can see from the video clip below that the X8 Pro Omni did a fantastic job on the tiles, even sucking up the tea dust from along the edge of the room.
If you look closely, you’ll also notice that the side brush slows down when it detects larger debris (oats) to make sure they all get pulled towards the bar brush.
On the carpet, which was also just a Zone clean done as a separate test, I set the robot to Max suction and found it cleared up the oats very well indeed, although tea dust that went deep into the fibers remained, and is visible in the video clip as a dark patch. I used my finger to loosen the carpet fibers and let the X8 run over it again, and voila, it was all cleaned up.
For both tests, I had the X8 Pro Omni set at moving in the Deep Clean pattern, which covers maximum floor space but time consuming, and I didn’t find the need to go over either of the spots with my Dyson V15s Detect Submarine.
Mopping
This is the first robot vacuum I’ve tested that features a wet roller rather than a pair of rotating mop pads and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Needless to say, the X8 Pro Omni exceeded my expectations and then some with the way it tackled my hard floors. I will go so far as to say this was arguably the best mopping I’ve seen in a while by a robot vacuum.
From shaved Toblerone on the kitchen floor (I was making Toblerone cheesecake at the time) to a partially dried dollop of coriander-mint chutney, I was very impressed with how well it mopped up different (dry) spills.
I specify dry because you really don’t want a robot vacuum to clean a wet spill like cereal milk or curry sauce as everything in the undercarriage will get wet with the sticky liquid or the sauce, including the wheels and side brush. Cleaning the bot after that will be a chore in itself.
It's fun to watch the wet roller slide in and out from under the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni bot (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As with many other robot vacuums like itself, the X8 Pro Omni has three waterflow settings (Low, Medium and High) with a total of 50 levels. The lowest settings would be good for sensitive wood floors but, for me, I’ve always found higher waterflow rates better for my tiles, so I had the Deebot set at level 40 most of the time as I found 45 and 50 made my tiles very wet indeed, while 30 and lower barely left a damp streak.
My kitchen floors, in particular, need regular mopping and, given it’s right beside the dining room, this area of my apartment was a good test for the X8 Pro Omni. I found that in its Deep Cleaning speed and water level set to 45 but no detergent, there was a visible difference on my floor after its first run compared to what the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine had done prior to switching to the Deebot.
In fact, I’m not sure how much difference adding the detergent has done to my floors because it mopped up dusty footprints and dried, dusty water stains very well without any soap, and it did just as good a job with.
The stress test I put the X8 under was mopping up a partially dried dollop of coriander and mint chutney – it took a couple of passes at water level 40 with detergent in the dispenser to mop it up entirely, no stain left on the floor. The issue here was that the rotating side brush scattered a tiny bit of dry chutney away, but given it was set to Deep Clean, the bot moved over the entire zone twice (more on this below in the navigation section), running perpendicular to its initial path, which meant that scattered bit got mopped up later.
I enjoyed watching the extendable roller sneak in and out of the robot as soon as it sensed something on its side. This could be a wall or a furniture leg, but I found that it hardly left a dry spot.
On the product listing page on the Ecovacs website, the brand says there's no pressure applied by the wet roller on the floor, but given how well I saw it mop, I'd be surprised if this spec listing is correct. There's surely some pressure being applied for such effective mopping.
Another thing I love about the roller is that it's streak-free, particularly on the lower or mid waterflow rates. The only time I saw streaks (and not dirty ones, mind, just marks to show a mop has passed) was when the roller was saturated with clean water.
Navigation & obstacle avoidance
With the sole exception of one Zone cleaning session when it took the wrong path out of its dock to get to where it needed to in a different room, the Deebot X8 Pro Omni never once strayed from the path of least resistance.
It’s impressive navigation extends to doing full 360º rotations around furniture legs, and while the side brush didn’t always extend when I expected it to, the robot itself got so close to walls and furniture that I never had cause for complaint when it came to its navigation just millimeters from what is essentially an obstacle.
It’s three different “cleaning speeds” (or its movement pattern in a given space) are a little hit and miss if you really want a thorough job done. The best movement pattern I found was the Deep Cleaning, which means the robot cleans a space twice, first running in parallel lines just centimeters apart, then traveling perpendicular to ensure no spot is missed.
The other two cleaning speeds – Standard and Quick – aren’t bad, but because the parallel pathways are slightly more spread out compared to Deep Cleaning, I found that the occasional hair strand or speck of debris got missed. That said, “cleaning speed” as Ecovacs calls it is apt as these determine how quickly the X8 Pro Omni finishes its cleaning task.
Obstacle avoidance is also fantastic, as you can see from the video above when I conducted TechRadar’s standard test – creating an obstacle course of a slipper, shoe, a cable, socks and a tissue box. It avoided every single one of them without a hiccup, a feat I’ve not yet seen from any robot vacuum I’ve tested to date.
The only time the Deebot X8 Pro Omni got entangled with a cable, it was the side brush that pulled it into the bumper (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
However, during one vacuum-only session in my bedroom, it got entangled in a USB-C cable that had one end dangling close to the floor and the side brush pulled it lower (see above image). I could hear Yiko complaining and a notification popped up on my phone that the X8 Pro Omni needed help. I disentangled it and it carried on with its work after I used a voice command to “restart cleaning”.
During a full-house clean, I shut a door to one room to see how it would react to its map not quite being accurate and it had no issues. It got close to the door, pivoted a little on an axis to see if it could spot an opening, but carried on doing what it needed to in the rest of the apartment without any complaints.
Base station performance
Whether it’s sucking out all the dirt and debris from the onboard dustbin or cleaning the wet roller, the X8 Pro Omni base station performance is so good that it justifies the high price tag this machine demands.
Only the tiniest amount of dirt remains inside the onboard dustbin after each vacuuming run that you, honestly, never have to worry about. The only time you’ll need to remove the small onboard bin is when the filter needs cleaning or replacing, or if something gets stuck inside that requires manual removal (never once happened during my testing).
The dustbag inside the base station has a 3L capacity, so it will last you a long while, albeit that will depend on how often you clean, how large your home is and whether you have pets.
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Using the detergent dispenser is optional, and the 3L dust bag could last a while (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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With use, the inside of the base station can begin to look a little worse for wear, but it doesn't hamper performace (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Dispensing detergent happened as required, as did filling up the robot’s onboard 110ml clean water compartment. Even pumping out dirty water from the 90ml partition worked well during my testing – you can remove this compartment to clean out the filter inside.
The washing of the roller was impeccable. It looked nearly new after my running it a few times a week for four weeks and the shortest two-hour hot-air drying is more than enough to ensure there’s no trace of dampness that could encourage bacterial or fungal growth. In fact, at the end of my four-week trial period, I found the roller soft to the touch as it was on day one.
The wash tray can also be cleaned out automatically by the machine from time to time, so the only hands-on task you’ll have to do regularly is clean out the dirty water and refill the fresh water. Every couple of months or so, you’ll also need to swap out the dust bag or refill the detergent dispenser if you’ve been using soap for mopping. The ‘health’ of all the accessories and parts is listed in the app, so you’ll know when to do what anyway.
Battery life
Ecovacs says there’s a 6,400mAh battery pack powering the X8 Pro Omni robot, which is rated for up to 228 minutes or a maximum area coverage of 240sqm / 2,580sq ft. In my testing – which admittedly was done in a much smaller space – I found that a number like that is nigh impossible to achieve unless you run the robot at the lowest settings possible, which I doubt anyone will want to do.
In Standard suction and medium waterflow levels during a full 40sqm clean doing a single vacuum-and-mop pass, the X8’s battery dropped to 20%. Bumping it up to Max suction and high waterflow rates, I found the robot needed to go back for a top up at the mains after completing five out of the six rooms in its map – about 78 minutes. Both these tests were conducted at the Deep Clean speed, so more time consuming.
Extrapolating that for Standard or Quiet cleans, you will be able to run the X8 Pro Omni for around 150 minutes, but keep in mind that it boasts dynamic suction as well, so total battery life will depend on how many carpets it encounters or how tough the cleaning job is.
That’s not bad battery life, but it’s not class-leading as models like the Narwal Freo Z10 and Dreame X40 Ultra can outdo the X8. Larger homes will find that a full cleaning task may well require recharging to complete. That said, the X8 is smart enough to learn how much battery it needs to finish a job, so a full-home clean may not necessarily take all day.
• Performance score: 4.5 / 5
No matter the cleaning task, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni performs it well (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: app control
Improved Ecovacs Home app
More streamlined setup for robot and base station settings
Map might need extensive editing, but is easy to do
I’ve previously not been very impressed with the Ecovacs Home app as it wasn’t as streamlined as I would have liked, but that’s changed now – the updated version of the app that I used with the X8 Pro Omni is a significant improvement.
It’s now easier to access the custom cleaning routines – renamed Scenario Cleans from just plain ol’ Scenarios – as they're listed on the homepage of the device, and each of these are also very easy to customize and set up.
To access more settings options, the Ecovacs Home app has always allowed you to ‘Enter’ a more detailed page with your home’s map laid out, but now the robot and base station advanced settings are right there on that same screen – the robot stuff is right at the bottom while switching tabs gives you the base station setup. This is a much better app experience than I encountered only a few months ago from the time of publication of this review.
Mapping with the Deebot X8 Pro Omni is quick and it's remarkably easy to edit the final map (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As I’ve already mentioned, there’s the Yiko voice assistant on board and, in all honesty, I really don’t see the need for verbal communication with the device, but my inner lazy self took a shine to it for a very short time. All routines and settings work so well, that Yiko doesn’t need to be there, but it was nice to see that it can understand commands better than before.
During my testing, it didn’t comprehend its own name (see the screenshot below where it hears its name as "you go"), but that didn’t stop it from performing the task I asked it to do (pause cleaning). I immediately asked it to restart again – no problem whatsoever.
You can give Yiko back-to-back commands and you'll hear its voice prompts very often, so much so that it can get annoying (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
You’ll also hear a lot of oral prompts every time the robot has to perform a task. This can quickly get very annoying, particularly when the self-empty of the bin takes place because it’s a long, drawn-out message telling you “don’t worry” about the loud noises. There’s sadly no way to turn these off, but you can drop the volume right down to ‘mute’, but this also means you won’t hear when the bot needs help. Thankfully there are app notifications to help with that. The volume is also associated with a ‘ding’ sound the robot makes every time you adjust a setting – these too will be muted if you turn the volume slider right down.
There's plenty of control via the Ecovacs Home app, which has evolved to become more streamlined than before (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Every setting on the app is well explained and easy to understand in case you want to use it, but I would advise that you take some time to go through all options before you begin using the X8 Pro Omni so that you get the best results possible.
For example, you can set and forget the cleaning sequence for the whole house and, no matter which rooms you choose for whatever custom routine you might have, the X8 Pro Omni will follow that. This can be edited at any time too. As I’ve mentioned before, you can also toggle on carpet-first cleaning in the robot settings, set how you want the auto-empty to take place or how often you want the wet roller washed. You even get control over how long you want the base station to spend drying it with hot air. You’ll also need to toggle on auto detergent use, otherwise the base station won’t use soap even if you’ve filled the dispenser.
There is a lot of control here, although it would be nice to see Ecovacs allow the user to choose how many passes the X8 will do when on an automatic AI-powered cleaning run (it’s always just one in this mode).
• App score: 4 / 5
Should I buy the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni?
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
Compared to other similarly specced models, the X8 Pro Omni is very competitively priced, balancing feature set, power, performance and cost quite well – plus it's often discounted.
4 / 5
Design
It’s a very low-maintenance design with several parts that can be taken out to wash if necessary. And it exudes class. The lack of a turret means it can even roll under some low-lying furniture.
4.5 / 5
Performance
As long as you avoid using the X8 to clean wet spills, it will handle your regular cleaning with aplomb. It will even maintain itself well without too much intervention from you.
4.5 / 5
App control
The updated Ecovacs Home app is a lot more streamlined now and easier to use.
4 / 5
You prioritize good cleaning above all else
Considering the X8 Pro Omni passed all my tests with flying colors, it's arguably the best robot vacuum I've tested to date.
You want as much of a hands-off cleaning experience as possible
While you don't really need the voice assistant, Yiko gives you even more opportunity to not have to lift a finger – literally! Just open the app and ask it to start a cleaning routine (even a custom one) and it will do so.
You have wood floors
There are plenty of waterflow levels here to choose from and I think the lower settings will look after wood floors well. Moreover, the roller minimizes streaks on floors that I've previously seen mop pads leave behind in their wake.
You have low-lying furniture
It's a little taller than the Roborock Saros 10, but even then, the lack of a turret allows it to roll under furniture that has a clearing of at least 10cm.
Don't buy it if...
You don't want to spend too much money
The X8 Pro Omni might be a fantastic robovac but it's a premium one. If you can forgo some of the smart home features like Matter integration and voice assistant, and aren't too fussed about mop pads doing the wet cleaning, you can get similar performance from a cheaper model – in fact, the Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has slightly higher suction and the same Yiko support, but a lower price point.
You want a quiet robot vacuum
On its higher suction settings, the X8 Pro Omni is louder than similar models from Narwal and Roborock. Moreover, the wheels, when moving over the tiles in my test space, were quite rattly too.
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Also consider
Roborock Saros 10R
Our reviewer called it the "perfect hybrid robot vacuum cleaner even for the most cluttered of homes". Improved navigation and a low profile means it can get to places other robovacs will typically avoid. It's also quiet, has excellent vacuum and mop skills, and it's pretty much a master of its trade. It costs more than the X8 Pro Omni, but it might be a worthwhile investment for some homes. Read our in-depth Roborock Saros 10R review for more details.
Dreame X50 Ultra
Going by the additional moniker of "Complete" in some markets, the Dreame X50 Ultra is a premium model that not only gives you way more suction than the X8 Pro Omni (a max of 20,000Pa), but it can also tackle some short steps in your home and roll under furniture by retracting its turret. Find out more in our detailed Dreame X50 Ultra Complete review.
How I tested the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni
Used three to four times a week for four weeks
Tried various suction and waterflow levels in a 40sqm test space with mixed flooring
Experimented with the Yiko voice assistant and tweaked various advanced settings
It's very easy to recommend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, despite its higher price tag (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
I received my review unit of the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni in the third of week of July 2025 and spent the next four weeks running it on various settings and custom routines mostly three times a week, but it has done more sessions during the last week when I conducted my obstacle course test.
I found that once all the settings were as I'd want them, the X8 Pro Omni just did what it needed to do without any fuss. During that time, I found it didn't use as much clean water as other robot vacuums (especially compared to the Narwal Freo Z10 I tested prior to it) and, hence, found I didn't need to keep refilling the clean-water tank as much. Of course, that's also because the test space is small (just 40sqm/430sqft) and has mixed flooring with carpet in the bedroom and a large rug in the living room.
I set up four different custom routines, or Shortcut Cleans as the app labels them, and tested each one 2-3 times over the course of the four-week testing period. I also ran single-room and zone cleaning sessions to see how the X8 Pro Omni performs in its auto-cleaning mode.
While I began testing the X8 without any detergent for the first week, I added a small quantity to the dispenser on week 2 of testing.
I put it through TechRadar's usual tests for vacuuming and mopping (using oats and tea from a bag for the former, and a dollop of chutney for the latter). I also conducted our standard obstacle avoidance test, but threw in two types of socks and a tissue box for good measure.
As you've probably already read, the X8 Pro Omni passed all its tests with flying colors, with only the one hiccup when it got entangled in a low-hanging cable during a vacuum-only session.
I'll say one thing about Ecovacs Robotics: the brand might make too many robot vacuums that I, as a reviewer, can’t keep up with, but they all seem well thought out and catering to different needs and budgets. In 2024, it released a good-value robovac that I really liked in my Ecovacs Deebot T30 Omni review, and it’s impressed again with a higher-end model in the Deebot X8 Pro Omni reviewed here.
The X8 has plenty of smarts on board, with Ecovacs’ voice assistant Yiko now better at understanding commands and having a more conversational interaction than its previous iterations on older Deebots. Even if you don't interact with Yiko, the X8 has plenty of automated voice prompts that I very quickly found to be annoying – there's only so many times you can hear it say "don't worry" when its auto-emptying. While you can't switch these off, you can mute the volume entirely and depend on the app notifications to find out if the robot needs help at any time (like if it's stuck somewhere).
There's Google Assistant and Alexa support as well, but Yiko can handle a few extra commands that I found the other two voice assistants couldn't handle. To futureproof your smart home, the X8 Pro Omni also has Matter support, so you can control several smart devices via a single hub.
There's a camera on board that the bot uses to ‘see’ its surroundings for better navigation and obstacle avoidance, but it also provides a live feed that requires a passcode to be set up for access. There’s a Patrol mode here that turns the X8 Pro Omni bot into a security unit and it saves a bunch of photos for you to view whenever you like. You can also speak to your pets or kids if you need to check in on them (spy?) while you're at work. I’ve asked Ecovacs for clarification on how secure the camera is from hackers and will update this review as soon as I hear back.
These smart bells and whistles are all great, but this robot vacuum shines at its most important function: cleaning. It’s arguably one of the best automated cleaners I’ve tested in 2025, with edge cleaning its biggest asset thanks to an extending side brush and wet roller while vacuuming and mopping respectively. In fact, I’ve seen the X8 Pro Omni travel far closer to walls and furniture than many of its competitors, thus allowing its extendable parts to do their job effectively.
The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni can get very close to walls and furniture to clean, much closer than other bots I've tested previously (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
It puts its 18,000Pa of suction power to good use, with my carpets looking fresh and clean after a single run on its highest suction setting. It did a better job than what I saw in my Roborock Qrevo Edge review despite 18,500Pa of suction. And its roller mop was quite impressive compared to the mops pads I’d gotten used to previously, and that’s despite Ecovacs saying there’s no pressure applied by the roller on the floor.
There’s also a detergent dispenser on board and use of the soap is automatic provided you toggle it on in the app – Ecovacs says there’s always a ratio of 200:1 detergent and water mix in the pipeline to ensure the correct usage. Even without detergent I found my floors were left stain-free after every mop – in fact, it was better than I experienced in my Narwal Freo Z10 review that, at the time, I said had excellent mopping skills.
In four weeks of testing, the X8 Pro Omni got entangled in a cable just once because the side brush pulled a low-hanging wire towards the bumper, but otherwise its obstacle avoidance is very good. Even more impressive is its overall navigation – it invariably took the path of least resistance in my apartment, which meant it got its tasks done relatively quickly and, importantly, without consuming too much battery life.
Even the base station performance is top notch, with the onboard bin getting cleaned quite well each time it empties, and the wet-roller cleaning is impeccable. Water consumption is also lower than any other robovac I’ve tested before – I’ve previously had to refill the clean water after every full cleaning cycle in my small inner-city apartment, but this time I’ve had to do so once every four or five sessions (depending on its routine).
All in all, this was excellent performance from not just the robot vacuum, but I commend Ecovacs for streamlining its app experience as well. It’s much nicer to use, with plenty of customization options to suit your personal cleaning needs. Importantly, these custom routines are now very easy to access.
It's relatively noisier than some of its newer competitors, and it can't perform the climbing feats of the more expensive Dreame X50 Ultra, but if you value excellent cleaning performance above all else, I'd find it very easy to recommend the Deebot X8 Pro Omni – and it's often discounted.
It doesn't necessarily stand out visually, but the gold accents lend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni some class (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: price & availability
Available since March 2025
List price: $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499
Incurs ongoing costs for dust bags and detergent
There are quite a few all-in-one robot vacuum cleaners at the same price point that Ecovacs Robotics is selling the X8 Pro Omni, but I think the Deebot can justify its premium cost on its feature set and performance.
It’s listed for $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$2,499 at full price but, at the time of writing, US and UK customers could pick it up for $899.99 / £999 respectively directly from the Ecovacs website. In Australia, it has dropped to AU$2,199 previously, but I suspect there’ll be better discounts around the world during major shopping events like Black Friday sales. It’s also available from select third-party retailers, including Amazon.
This price gets you not just excellent performance (explained below in detail), but you also get an impressive set of features, including voice assistant and Matter integration for a smarter home setup. With that in mind, I think the X8 Pro Omni is well priced compared to some of the other robovacs on the market, although Ecovacs has cheaper models that clean really well, as proved by the Deebot T30 Omni.
As an example of competitor pricing, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra cost $1,499/ AU$2,499 (unavailable in the UK) and is a good machine, but has 12,000Pa of suction compared to the Deebot’s 18,000Pa. Matching the suction power at 18,500Pa is the Roborock Qrevo Edge, but I found it hard to recommend at its list price of $1,599.99 / AU$2,799 (unavailable in the UK) based on its performance alone. On the other hand, Ecovacs' own Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has 18,500Pa suction, the Yiko voice assistant and promises good cleaning at a lower price point of $799.99 / £799 / AU$1,799.
If you want more suction power, you’ll have to pay a lot more. For example, the Roborock Saros 10 with its whopping 22,000Pa of power will set you back $1,599.99 / £1,499.99 / AU$2,999 at full price, but is often discounted to match the X8's retail cost. The Dreame X50 Ultra Complete with 20,000Pa of suction is also expensive compared to the X8 Pro Omni, coming in at a list price of $1,699.99 / £1,299 / AU$2,999, but it can climb low steps that many of the newer machines can't.
As with any other hybrid robot vacuum, there is the ongoing cost of purchasing dust bags and detergent to take into consideration, although the latter is an optional add-on but I can see the need for it in homes with toddlers and pets. Unlike other brands, though, Ecovacs doesn’t supply a bottle of detergent in the box – at least not in Australia, where the testing for this review was conducted, due to “customs issues with international shipments” – so that’s $49.98 / £44 right off the bat for two 1L bottles in the US and UK (frequently discounted), but the same two-pack isn't available in Australia where a 1L bottle retails for AU$37.50.
The antibacterial dust bags come in packs of three and are available directly from Ecovacs Robotics for $24.99 / £17.99 / AU$29.90 at the time of writing.
Despite the ongoing cost, I think the Deebot X8 Pro Omni balances its feature set, performance and price well, but I’d recommend picking it up during a sale as it’s frequently discounted.
• Value score: 4 / 5
The three-prong button on the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni doesn't look functional, but it has three tasks it can perform when needed (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: specs
Suction power:
18,000Pa
Onboard bin capacity:
220ml
Dust bag capacity:
3L
Clean water tank capacity:
4L
Dirty water tank capacity:
4L
Reservoir capacity:
110ml clean; 95ml dirty
Mop lift:
10mm
Noise level:
up to 75dB
Battery capacity:
6,400mAh
Runtime:
up to 228 minutes / up to 240sqm (2,580 sq ft)
Charging time:
4.6 hours
Dimensions:
Robot = 353 x 351.5 x 98 mm; base station = 350 x 477 x 533 mm
Weight:
Robot = 5.3kg; base station = 7.6kg
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Design
Gold accents give it a classy look
Extending side brush and wet roller mop
Taller than the average robot but lacks a turret; tall but slim base station
I only had to take the robot out to see that Deebot X8 Pro Omni exudes class, thanks to some gold-colored accents on the otherwise black machine. Unlike the Narwal Freo Z10 that I reviewed prior to the X8 (which was a 11kg weight straight out of the box), the Deebot comes packed in layers, which makes it very easy to set up.
Robot design
Once you remove the wash tray from the top of the box, the next item to emerge is the X8 robot. The first thing that distinguishes it from many other robovacs is the lack of a top turret that typically houses the navigation tech. In the X8 Pro Omni, though, all the necessary sensors are on the front and the sides.
The lack of a turret means the X8 can roll under many low-lying pieces of furniture, although it's doesn't have the slimline form factor of the Roborock Saros 10R – it's a little taller, standing at 9.8cm/3.8in compared to the Saros at 8cm/3in, so there needs to be a minimum clearance of 10cm/4in for the Deebot to clean where many other robovacs can't.
A black plastic disc with the Ecovacs logo in gold covers the top of the robot, with a cutout to show off a gold three-pronged button. There's a tiny power icon in the center of the button to indicate that it's functional, but it's easy to miss and can appear purely decorative, although it lights up when in use and charging. Its functionality is listed on a large piece of cardboard inside the packaging: a short press to start or pause, a double press to extend or retract the wet roller, and a three-second long press to send the bot back to its dock. In the four weeks I spent with the machine, I never found the need to use the button – the robot does everything seamlessly.
Also under the top cover is a removable 220ml/7.4oz dustbin whose filter can be taken out for regular cleaning, plus a toggle switch for power, a Wi-Fi indicator light and a QR code to begin your app setup.
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After four weeks of use, there was barely any hair tangled anywhere (just one strand around a large wheel) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The V-shaped bristles of the central brush are very effective at avoiding entanglements (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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The wet roller was a lot more effective at streak-free mopping than circular mop pads (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
On the front of the robot are LiDAR sensors that it uses for mapping your home, while a camera also peeping through the same front window adds visual information that’s paired with artificial intelligence (AIVI) to navigate around obstacles. Along the sides are edge sensors that prevent it from banging into a wall or furniture, yet allowing the bot to get really close for effective cleaning. A mic and speaker are also housed within the front window.
The back of the robot has two charging points, but there’s also a water compartment inside with a clean capacity of 110ml and 95ml for dirty mop water. While you never have to worry about the water reservoir after setup, it can be released using an inset lever.
The side brush extends, but given the Deebot X8 Pro Omni travels very close to obstacles, it even managed to clean corners (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As with nearly every other Deebot I’ve tested (and many other brands besides), the underside of the robot houses the central bar brush that sports bristles arranged in a V shape to help it gather hair and fur without itself getting entangled. A single side brush towards the front of the bot rotates at varying speeds automatically depending on the size of the debris it senses – it slows down for larger pieces, similar to some of the high-end Roborocks. It can also extend out to reach into corners and clean along edges – both of which it manages to do better than many of its competitors because the robot itself gets really close to walls.
The rear of the undercarriage is dominated by a wet roller rather than circular mop pads which, according to Ecovacs, spins at a speed of 200rpm and has a scraper in its holder that constantly cleans out the dirty water as it rotates. 16 nozzles keep it supplied with clean water (and detergent if you’re using any).
The main wheels are quite large and, for the first time in any robot vacuum I’ve tested, I found them to be quite noisy when traveling over the tiles in my home. The sound was akin to very hard or brittle plastic moving over a rough surface, but in my time testing the X8 Pro Omni, I didn’t notice too much wear and tear on the wheels to account for the sound. A small omnidirectional caster wheel completes the robot’s physical setup.
It's easy to remove the onboard bin in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni to clean out the filter regularly (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Base station design
The base station itself isn’t much to write home about and is quite similar to several other models on the market. However, the gold accents on the lids of the two water tanks and branding on the front of the dock makes it look quite smart. The tanks have a 4L capacity each and are very easy to lift up, refill or clean out, then replace back on the dock.
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Water tanks are easy to access and fill or clean (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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There are plenty of parts you can wash out if you want to, including the soap dispenser (on top of the tanks) and the wash trays (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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Even the robot's onboard water compartment comes off easily of you want to give it a quick rinse (the inside filter can get grimy) (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Below the tanks is a covered nook that houses the detergent dispenser and a 3L dust bag. The dispenser is very easy to slide out and refill, while changing the dust bag is also very intuitive. It’s the cover for this nook that takes a little effort to remove each time you need access to either of its two inmates – it clips in very tightly indeed and you'll need to pull it with some force from the bottom of the panel.
Under the covered nook is the cavity for the robot, which sits on a washing tray. Inside the cavity, on the rear wall of the base station, you'll notice nozzles and charging points that keep the robot doing what it needs to do.
The base station is about as tall as many other brands offer, but it’s a little slimmer than, say, a Narwal dock. It will still need a decent amount of space to house, with enough clearance on the top to allow you to remove and replace the tanks.
• Design score: 4.5 / 5
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Performance
Excellent vacuuming on high suction; top-notch mopping at most waterflow levels
Arguably one of the best edge cleaners in the business
Very good navigation and obstacle avoidance
The X8 Pro Omni for this review was tested in a 40sqm/430sqft inner-city apartment in Sydney, Australia, with the single bedroom fully carpeted, but the rest of the rooms featuring matte-finish tiles. The bathroom, however, has smoother tiles than the rest of the hard floors and it was part of the full map that the X8 had to clean. There are no stairs in the apartment to test cliff sensors, but there are a couple of low thresholds that were useful to test the X8 Pro Omni’s ability to clear some obstacles.
It’s also important for me to mention that I have no pets, but I’ve always found my bedroom carpet covered in my own (long) hair within 3-4 days of cleaning it, and is usually a very good test for any vacuum cleaner that I review.
Before starting the first cleaning session, I not only set up some custom routines (called Scenario Cleans in the Ecovacs Home app), but I also went through the advanced settings to toggle on some key features, including the carpet-first option as I have mixed flooring. This ensured that no matter what custom cleaning routine I might use, carpets were always vacuumed first to minimize the risk of them getting wet (more on the app experience later).
Overall performance of the X8 Pro Omni was excellent, but it’s important to note that it’s best used for the regular maintenance cleaning sessions that you might need on a daily or a weekly basis. It can’t replace the best cordless vacuum cleaners, but it definitely reduces the human effort and time spent on keeping your floors spick and span.
Water usage in the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni is not a lot compared to other models I've tested (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Vacuuming
Let’s start the performance section with the most basic function: vacuuming. I’ve already mentioned earlier in this review that the X8 Pro Omni was one of the best cleaning machines I’ve tested recently, exceeding the vacuuming performance I got from a Roborock and a Narwal that I tested prior to the Deebot. It really does put the 18,000Pa – which is in no way class-leading now – to very good use, particularly at its higher suction settings.
I usually have to set most robovacs to their maximum suction setting to get a decent clean on the bedroom carpet which, as I’ve described above, can get covered in my own hair within days. It’s been rare for me to see that carpet completely hair free after a single session even using the highest power level on other robovacs, but the X8 Pro Omni was been able to do just that each and every time it’s done a bedroom clean on its Max setting.
The Deebot’s got four suction settings and while I wasn’t particularly keen on the Quiet option which reduces the power significantly, I found the Standard and Strong settings to be perfect for hard floors, not once needing to step it up to Max on tiles.
The Deebot X8 Pro Omni repeatedly does 360º rotations around furniture legs to ensure good cleaning (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
The X8 Pro Omni has a suction-boost option which, as the name suggests, automatically increases power when it detects carpets, but I wasn’t able to notice the dynamic suction from sound alone when it went from hard floor to the mid-pile rug in my living room, although it seemed to do a very good job anyway. The audible change in suction was heard when it was vacuuming tiles in my kitchen, just under a cabinet – go figure.
To check its vacuuming abilities further, I conducted TechRadar’s standard tests of sprinkling tea dust and oats (representing two different-sized debris) on both hard floors and carpets. Doing a Zone clean and set at Strong suction, you can see from the video clip below that the X8 Pro Omni did a fantastic job on the tiles, even sucking up the tea dust from along the edge of the room.
If you look closely, you’ll also notice that the side brush slows down when it detects larger debris (oats) to make sure they all get pulled towards the bar brush.
On the carpet, which was also just a Zone clean done as a separate test, I set the robot to Max suction and found it cleared up the oats very well indeed, although tea dust that went deep into the fibers remained, and is visible in the video clip as a dark patch. I used my finger to loosen the carpet fibers and let the X8 run over it again, and voila, it was all cleaned up.
For both tests, I had the X8 Pro Omni set at moving in the Deep Clean pattern, which covers maximum floor space but time consuming, and I didn’t find the need to go over either of the spots with my Dyson V15s Detect Submarine.
Mopping
This is the first robot vacuum I’ve tested that features a wet roller rather than a pair of rotating mop pads and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Needless to say, the X8 Pro Omni exceeded my expectations and then some with the way it tackled my hard floors. I will go so far as to say this was arguably the best mopping I’ve seen in a while by a robot vacuum.
From shaved Toblerone on the kitchen floor (I was making Toblerone cheesecake at the time) to a partially dried dollop of coriander-mint chutney, I was very impressed with how well it mopped up different (dry) spills.
I specify dry because you really don’t want a robot vacuum to clean a wet spill like cereal milk or curry sauce as everything in the undercarriage will get wet with the sticky liquid or the sauce, including the wheels and side brush. Cleaning the bot after that will be a chore in itself.
It's fun to watch the wet roller slide in and out from under the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni bot (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As with many other robot vacuums like itself, the X8 Pro Omni has three waterflow settings (Low, Medium and High) with a total of 50 levels. The lowest settings would be good for sensitive wood floors but, for me, I’ve always found higher waterflow rates better for my tiles, so I had the Deebot set at level 40 most of the time as I found 45 and 50 made my tiles very wet indeed, while 30 and lower barely left a damp streak.
My kitchen floors, in particular, need regular mopping and, given it’s right beside the dining room, this area of my apartment was a good test for the X8 Pro Omni. I found that in its Deep Cleaning speed and water level set to 45 but no detergent, there was a visible difference on my floor after its first run compared to what the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine had done prior to switching to the Deebot.
In fact, I’m not sure how much difference adding the detergent has done to my floors because it mopped up dusty footprints and dried, dusty water stains very well without any soap, and it did just as good a job with.
The stress test I put the X8 under was mopping up a partially dried dollop of coriander and mint chutney – it took a couple of passes at water level 40 with detergent in the dispenser to mop it up entirely, no stain left on the floor. The issue here was that the rotating side brush scattered a tiny bit of dry chutney away, but given it was set to Deep Clean, the bot moved over the entire zone twice (more on this below in the navigation section), running perpendicular to its initial path, which meant that scattered bit got mopped up later.
I enjoyed watching the extendable roller sneak in and out of the robot as soon as it sensed something on its side. This could be a wall or a furniture leg, but I found that it hardly left a dry spot.
On the product listing page on the Ecovacs website, the brand says there's no pressure applied by the wet roller on the floor, but given how well I saw it mop, I'd be surprised if this spec listing is correct. There's surely some pressure being applied for such effective mopping.
Another thing I love about the roller is that it's streak-free, particularly on the lower or mid waterflow rates. The only time I saw streaks (and not dirty ones, mind, just marks to show a mop has passed) was when the roller was saturated with clean water.
Navigation & obstacle avoidance
With the sole exception of one Zone cleaning session when it took the wrong path out of its dock to get to where it needed to in a different room, the Deebot X8 Pro Omni never once strayed from the path of least resistance.
It’s impressive navigation extends to doing full 360º rotations around furniture legs, and while the side brush didn’t always extend when I expected it to, the robot itself got so close to walls and furniture that I never had cause for complaint when it came to its navigation just millimeters from what is essentially an obstacle.
It’s three different “cleaning speeds” (or its movement pattern in a given space) are a little hit and miss if you really want a thorough job done. The best movement pattern I found was the Deep Cleaning, which means the robot cleans a space twice, first running in parallel lines just centimeters apart, then traveling perpendicular to ensure no spot is missed.
The other two cleaning speeds – Standard and Quick – aren’t bad, but because the parallel pathways are slightly more spread out compared to Deep Cleaning, I found that the occasional hair strand or speck of debris got missed. That said, “cleaning speed” as Ecovacs calls it is apt as these determine how quickly the X8 Pro Omni finishes its cleaning task.
Obstacle avoidance is also fantastic, as you can see from the video above when I conducted TechRadar’s standard test – creating an obstacle course of a slipper, shoe, a cable, socks and a tissue box. It avoided every single one of them without a hiccup, a feat I’ve not yet seen from any robot vacuum I’ve tested to date.
The only time the Deebot X8 Pro Omni got entangled with a cable, it was the side brush that pulled it into the bumper (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
However, during one vacuum-only session in my bedroom, it got entangled in a USB-C cable that had one end dangling close to the floor and the side brush pulled it lower (see above image). I could hear Yiko complaining and a notification popped up on my phone that the X8 Pro Omni needed help. I disentangled it and it carried on with its work after I used a voice command to “restart cleaning”.
During a full-house clean, I shut a door to one room to see how it would react to its map not quite being accurate and it had no issues. It got close to the door, pivoted a little on an axis to see if it could spot an opening, but carried on doing what it needed to in the rest of the apartment without any complaints.
Base station performance
Whether it’s sucking out all the dirt and debris from the onboard dustbin or cleaning the wet roller, the X8 Pro Omni base station performance is so good that it justifies the high price tag this machine demands.
Only the tiniest amount of dirt remains inside the onboard dustbin after each vacuuming run that you, honestly, never have to worry about. The only time you’ll need to remove the small onboard bin is when the filter needs cleaning or replacing, or if something gets stuck inside that requires manual removal (never once happened during my testing).
The dustbag inside the base station has a 3L capacity, so it will last you a long while, albeit that will depend on how often you clean, how large your home is and whether you have pets.
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Using the detergent dispenser is optional, and the 3L dust bag could last a while (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
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With use, the inside of the base station can begin to look a little worse for wear, but it doesn't hamper performace (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Dispensing detergent happened as required, as did filling up the robot’s onboard 110ml clean water compartment. Even pumping out dirty water from the 90ml partition worked well during my testing – you can remove this compartment to clean out the filter inside.
The washing of the roller was impeccable. It looked nearly new after my running it a few times a week for four weeks and the shortest two-hour hot-air drying is more than enough to ensure there’s no trace of dampness that could encourage bacterial or fungal growth. In fact, at the end of my four-week trial period, I found the roller soft to the touch as it was on day one.
The wash tray can also be cleaned out automatically by the machine from time to time, so the only hands-on task you’ll have to do regularly is clean out the dirty water and refill the fresh water. Every couple of months or so, you’ll also need to swap out the dust bag or refill the detergent dispenser if you’ve been using soap for mopping. The ‘health’ of all the accessories and parts is listed in the app, so you’ll know when to do what anyway.
Battery life
Ecovacs says there’s a 6,400mAh battery pack powering the X8 Pro Omni robot, which is rated for up to 228 minutes or a maximum area coverage of 240sqm / 2,580sq ft. In my testing – which admittedly was done in a much smaller space – I found that a number like that is nigh impossible to achieve unless you run the robot at the lowest settings possible, which I doubt anyone will want to do.
In Standard suction and medium waterflow levels during a full 40sqm clean doing a single vacuum-and-mop pass, the X8’s battery dropped to 20%. Bumping it up to Max suction and high waterflow rates, I found the robot needed to go back for a top up at the mains after completing five out of the six rooms in its map – about 78 minutes. Both these tests were conducted at the Deep Clean speed, so more time consuming.
Extrapolating that for Standard or Quiet cleans, you will be able to run the X8 Pro Omni for around 150 minutes, but keep in mind that it boasts dynamic suction as well, so total battery life will depend on how many carpets it encounters or how tough the cleaning job is.
That’s not bad battery life, but it’s not class-leading as models like the Narwal Freo Z10 and Dreame X40 Ultra can outdo the X8. Larger homes will find that a full cleaning task may well require recharging to complete. That said, the X8 is smart enough to learn how much battery it needs to finish a job, so a full-home clean may not necessarily take all day.
• Performance score: 4.5 / 5
No matter the cleaning task, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni performs it well (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: app control
Improved Ecovacs Home app
More streamlined setup for robot and base station settings
Map might need extensive editing, but is easy to do
I’ve previously not been very impressed with the Ecovacs Home app as it wasn’t as streamlined as I would have liked, but that’s changed now – the updated version of the app that I used with the X8 Pro Omni is a significant improvement.
It’s now easier to access the custom cleaning routines – renamed Scenario Cleans from just plain ol’ Scenarios – as they're listed on the homepage of the device, and each of these are also very easy to customize and set up.
To access more settings options, the Ecovacs Home app has always allowed you to ‘Enter’ a more detailed page with your home’s map laid out, but now the robot and base station advanced settings are right there on that same screen – the robot stuff is right at the bottom while switching tabs gives you the base station setup. This is a much better app experience than I encountered only a few months ago from the time of publication of this review.
Mapping with the Deebot X8 Pro Omni is quick and it's remarkably easy to edit the final map (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
As I’ve already mentioned, there’s the Yiko voice assistant on board and, in all honesty, I really don’t see the need for verbal communication with the device, but my inner lazy self took a shine to it for a very short time. All routines and settings work so well, that Yiko doesn’t need to be there, but it was nice to see that it can understand commands better than before.
During my testing, it didn’t comprehend its own name (see the screenshot below where it hears its name as "you go"), but that didn’t stop it from performing the task I asked it to do (pause cleaning). I immediately asked it to restart again – no problem whatsoever.
You can give Yiko back-to-back commands and you'll hear its voice prompts very often, so much so that it can get annoying (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
You’ll also hear a lot of oral prompts every time the robot has to perform a task. This can quickly get very annoying, particularly when the self-empty of the bin takes place because it’s a long, drawn-out message telling you “don’t worry” about the loud noises. There’s sadly no way to turn these off, but you can drop the volume right down to ‘mute’, but this also means you won’t hear when the bot needs help. Thankfully there are app notifications to help with that. The volume is also associated with a ‘ding’ sound the robot makes every time you adjust a setting – these too will be muted if you turn the volume slider right down.
There's plenty of control via the Ecovacs Home app, which has evolved to become more streamlined than before (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
Every setting on the app is well explained and easy to understand in case you want to use it, but I would advise that you take some time to go through all options before you begin using the X8 Pro Omni so that you get the best results possible.
For example, you can set and forget the cleaning sequence for the whole house and, no matter which rooms you choose for whatever custom routine you might have, the X8 Pro Omni will follow that. This can be edited at any time too. As I’ve mentioned before, you can also toggle on carpet-first cleaning in the robot settings, set how you want the auto-empty to take place or how often you want the wet roller washed. You even get control over how long you want the base station to spend drying it with hot air. You’ll also need to toggle on auto detergent use, otherwise the base station won’t use soap even if you’ve filled the dispenser.
There is a lot of control here, although it would be nice to see Ecovacs allow the user to choose how many passes the X8 will do when on an automatic AI-powered cleaning run (it’s always just one in this mode).
• App score: 4 / 5
Should I buy the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni?
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
Compared to other similarly specced models, the X8 Pro Omni is very competitively priced, balancing feature set, power, performance and cost quite well – plus it's often discounted.
4 / 5
Design
It’s a very low-maintenance design with several parts that can be taken out to wash if necessary. And it exudes class. The lack of a turret means it can even roll under some low-lying furniture.
4.5 / 5
Performance
As long as you avoid using the X8 to clean wet spills, it will handle your regular cleaning with aplomb. It will even maintain itself well without too much intervention from you.
4.5 / 5
App control
The updated Ecovacs Home app is a lot more streamlined now and easier to use.
4 / 5
You prioritize good cleaning above all else
Considering the X8 Pro Omni passed all my tests with flying colors, it's arguably the best robot vacuum I've tested to date.
You want as much of a hands-off cleaning experience as possible
While you don't really need the voice assistant, Yiko gives you even more opportunity to not have to lift a finger – literally! Just open the app and ask it to start a cleaning routine (even a custom one) and it will do so.
You have wood floors
There are plenty of waterflow levels here to choose from and I think the lower settings will look after wood floors well. Moreover, the roller minimizes streaks on floors that I've previously seen mop pads leave behind in their wake.
You have low-lying furniture
It's a little taller than the Roborock Saros 10, but even then, the lack of a turret allows it to roll under furniture that has a clearing of at least 10cm.
Don't buy it if...
You don't want to spend too much money
The X8 Pro Omni might be a fantastic robovac but it's a premium one. If you can forgo some of the smart home features like Matter integration and voice assistant, and aren't too fussed about mop pads doing the wet cleaning, you can get similar performance from a cheaper model – in fact, the Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni has slightly higher suction and the same Yiko support, but a lower price point.
You want a quiet robot vacuum
On its higher suction settings, the X8 Pro Omni is louder than similar models from Narwal and Roborock. Moreover, the wheels, when moving over the tiles in my test space, were quite rattly too.
Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review: Also consider
Roborock Saros 10R
Our reviewer called it the "perfect hybrid robot vacuum cleaner even for the most cluttered of homes". Improved navigation and a low profile means it can get to places other robovacs will typically avoid. It's also quiet, has excellent vacuum and mop skills, and it's pretty much a master of its trade. It costs more than the X8 Pro Omni, but it might be a worthwhile investment for some homes. Read our in-depth Roborock Saros 10R review for more details.
Dreame X50 Ultra
Going by the additional moniker of "Complete" in some markets, the Dreame X50 Ultra is a premium model that not only gives you way more suction than the X8 Pro Omni (a max of 20,000Pa), but it can also tackle some short steps in your home and roll under furniture by retracting its turret. Find out more in our detailed Dreame X50 Ultra Complete review.
How I tested the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni
Used three to four times a week for four weeks
Tried various suction and waterflow levels in a 40sqm test space with mixed flooring
Experimented with the Yiko voice assistant and tweaked various advanced settings
It's very easy to recommend the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, despite its higher price tag (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
I received my review unit of the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni in the third of week of July 2025 and spent the next four weeks running it on various settings and custom routines mostly three times a week, but it has done more sessions during the last week when I conducted my obstacle course test.
I found that once all the settings were as I'd want them, the X8 Pro Omni just did what it needed to do without any fuss. During that time, I found it didn't use as much clean water as other robot vacuums (especially compared to the Narwal Freo Z10 I tested prior to it) and, hence, found I didn't need to keep refilling the clean-water tank as much. Of course, that's also because the test space is small (just 40sqm/430sqft) and has mixed flooring with carpet in the bedroom and a large rug in the living room.
I set up four different custom routines, or Shortcut Cleans as the app labels them, and tested each one 2-3 times over the course of the four-week testing period. I also ran single-room and zone cleaning sessions to see how the X8 Pro Omni performs in its auto-cleaning mode.
While I began testing the X8 without any detergent for the first week, I added a small quantity to the dispenser on week 2 of testing.
I put it through TechRadar's usual tests for vacuuming and mopping (using oats and tea from a bag for the former, and a dollop of chutney for the latter). I also conducted our standard obstacle avoidance test, but threw in two types of socks and a tissue box for good measure.
As you've probably already read, the X8 Pro Omni passed all its tests with flying colors, with only the one hiccup when it got entangled in a low-hanging cable during a vacuum-only session.
When I first set eyes on the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer, I saw it as a more advanced alternative to the Philips Hue Play Light Bars, which are designed to sit on either side of your TV and add ambience to your home entertainment setup. The Wall Washer can certainly do that – and with more atmospheric results thanks to its wider projection area – but it can do a lot more, too.
Like the Light Bar, the Wall Washer is a discreet-looking device that's designed to be positioned with its light source shining against a wall, rather than into the room, producing a diffuse glow that (as the name suggests) washes your room with color. However, unlike the Play Light Bar, which can only show one color at a time, each Wall Washer contains three lights, stacked vertically, which overlap to form a smooth gradient.
As the video below shows, the three lights can also dim and brighten independently to create shimmering effects, which is a nice feature if you choose to use a single Wall Washer as a table lamp to set the mood as part of a larger Philips Hue lighting setup.
You can use the Wall Washer via Bluetooth, but to unlock all its features (and to justify its price), you'll also need a Philips Hue Bridge. This small hub device plugs into your router and uses the Zigbee wireless protocol to create a mesh network that connects all of your Hue lights, switches, and cameras to one another, and to the internet.
Provided you have that, setting up your Wall Washer is straightforward. Just select the "Add" option within the Hue mobile app, scan the QR code on the base of your Wall Washer when prompted and then choose a room or zone for it (you'll be prompted to create an area if none already exist). If you have more than one Wall Washer, you'll need to add each one separately, but that takes only a few seconds.
You can add Wall Washers to any room or zone in the Philips Hue app, sync them with other lights, and apply scenes across them all (Image credit: Future)
Once that's done, you can change the color of each Wall Washer by choosing a shade from the app's color wheel. You can also apply a preset color scheme (known as a "scene") from the Hue library; create your own scene by picking colors or importing a picture; or apply an animated dynamic scene such as the shimmering purple effect above.
You can customize your Wall Washer by itself, or apply a scene to all the lights in a room or zone.
Despite its small size, the Wall Washer projects light a long way, and when it was positioned on a table, I found the color reached all the way to the ceiling. If you like the idea of a Philips Hue Signe Floor Lamp, but don't have the space, the Wall Washer would be a good alternative for around the same price. Although there are only three lights in each Wall Washer, the color gradient is totally seamless, as you can see in the image at the top of this review.
As mentioned earlier, the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer can also sync with your TV, extending the colors from the screen in the same way as a Philips Ambilight TV to create a more immersive viewing experience by effectively blurring the edges of the picture.
To do this, you'll need at least one Wall Washer, plus either a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, or a smart TV that's compatible with the Philips Hue Play Sync app. The app was initially only available for selected Samsung TVs, but in February 2025, Signify (Philips Hue's parent company) launched a version for LG sets as well.
The advantage of using the app is that there's less to setup, and you can use it to sync your Hue lights with content from your TV's native apps. If you use a Sync Box, you can only sync with content from HDMI sources.
Image 1 of 3
Colors are natural, and the gradient effect looks seamless when used with an HDMI Sync Box (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3
There was very little lag when I used the Wall Washers with an HDMI Sync Box connected to a set-top box (Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 3
Even in daylight, the Wall Washer lights were effective (Image credit: Future)
As you can see in the video and images above, there's very little latency when using the Wall Washer lights with a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box connected to a set-top box, and colors look natural rather than distracting. The lighting is effective, even in daylight, and the gradient means the Wall Washers create a more seamless look than the Philips Hue Play Light Bars, which can only average out the color on each side of your screen.
The main disadvantage of the Wall Washer compared to the Philips Hue Play Light Bar is that it only stands upright, and it isn't designed to be mounted horizontally. As such, it isn't well suited for use underneath your TV. You'll probably want at least two for a home entertainment setup (and possibly another for elsewhere in the room), which will be considerably more expensive.
If you have just one Wall Washer, it also works well as a wake-up light on your nightstand. The Hue app contains automations that are designed to wake you with a simulated sunrise, with the lamp gradually becoming brighter and the light becoming cooler, reaching full brightness by a set time. I'm very sensitive to light at night, and the Wall Washer is the first lamp I've found that doesn't shock me awake by increasing brightness abruptly. It's more like waking gradually as the sun comes through your tent on a camping trip.
At the end of the day, you can wind down with a sunset automation, which runs the same sequence in reverse. The video above shows the last 20 seconds of a five-minute sleep automation, during which the light color shifts from warm white to orange to red, while gradually decreasing in brightness.
Overall, it's the most versatile smart light I've tested to date, and although it certainly isn't cheap, there's no denying its performance, whichever room you're using it in.
Performance: 5/5
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: price and availability
Costs $219.99 / £169.99 for one, or $384.99 / £299.99 for two
Not yet available in Australia
Works best with Philips Hue Bridge
At the time of writing, the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is available direct from the Philips Hue website in the US and UK, and from Amazon in the US. It isn't yet on sale in Australia, but FAQ pages on the Australian Philips Hue site indicate that its launch there is imminent.
A single Philips Hue Play Wall Washer has a list price of $219.99 / £169.99 (about AU$340), and if you're planning to use the lights on either side of your TV (as shown in some of the photos here), you can pick up a two-pack for $384.99 / £299.99 (about AU$600).
That makes it one of the most expensive Philips Hue lights around, but it's also the most versatile, serving as a filler light to add ambience, a backlight for your home entertainment system, and a wake-up light. Most Hue lights only fill one niche, so the Wall Washer's adaptability makes its price tag more palatable.
For comparison, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar has a list price of $89.99 / £64.99 / AU$129.95 each. If you're considering the Wall Washer as a wake-up lamp, the Philips Hue Twilight (which also has a front-facing LED for reading) costs $279 / £249 (about AU$430).
If you want to use the Wall Washers with your TV, you'll also need a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box and Philips Hue Bridge, so factor these into your budget calculations if you don't already own them.
Value score: 4/5
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: specifications
Wattage
60W
Maximum brightness
1,035 lumens
Colors
2,000-6,500K Hue White Colour Ambiance
Control options
Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant (via Philips Hue app)
Max lights per power supply
3
Connectivity
Zigbee/Bluetooth
Size (H x W)
6.2 x 3.6 inches / 15.7 x 9.1cm
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: design
Each Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is nearly cylindrical, and measures 6.2 inches / 15.7cm tall and 3.6 inches / 9.1cm in diameter. This is considerably shorter than the Philips Hue Play Light Bars, which stand at 11.5 inches / 29.2cm high; but the design of the Wall Washer and its improved LEDs means that it can throw light over a larger area.
The Wall Washer has an aluminum case (rather than plastic for the Play Light Bars), and has a smart-looking matte finish. It's available in black (shown here) or white, so you can pick an option that will blend well with your décor.
The back of the Wall Washer has a flat surface, and contains three Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance lights arranged vertically. That might not sound like much, but the lights overlap in such a way that they shine a super-smooth gradient onto your wall, with no banding whatsoever.
The Wall Washer contains three lights that overlap to create a smooth gradient (Image credit: Future)
This technology, called ColorCast, is the same used by the Philips Hue Twilight wake-up lamp – and like the Twilight, the Wall Washer can be dimmed to an extremely low level for use at night.
You can connect up to three Philips Hue Play Wall Washer lights to a single power supply, although they're only sold in packs of one or two.
Design score: 5/5
Should you buy the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: score card
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
One of the most expensive Philips Hue lights around, but also one of the most versatile.
4/5
Design
Small and discreet, with cleverly positioned overlapping LEDs that produce a super-smooth color gradient.
5/5
Performance
Easy to use, and works brilliantly whether adding ambience to your home cinema, serving as a fill light, or waking you up with a natural sunrise effect.
5/5
Buy it if
You already have some (or are planning to buy) other Philips Hue products
To get the most out of the Wall Washer you'll need a Philips Hue Bridge and possibly an HDMI Sync Box, so if you're not planning to build a whole Philips Hue setup then it's hard to justify the price of this lamp plus all the accessories.
You want a versatile smart light
Unlike some Philips Hue Play lights, the Wall Washer isn't just for use with your TV.
Don't buy it if
You want task lighting
This is a light for creating a mood, not for boosting visibility. If you want something similar for task lighting, take a look at the Philips Hue Twilight, which has the same ColorCast tech, but also has a front-facing reading light.
You want a statement piece
The Wall Washer can create a dramatic effect, but the device itself is designed to be discreet. If you want something that makes a statement, something like the Govee Table Light 2 might work better.
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: also consider
If you're not sure whether the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is right for you, here are two other options to consider.
Philips Hue Play Light Bars
If you only want a light to add ambience to games and movies, the Play Light Bar is a much more affordable alternative. It doesn't project a gradient and it doesn't throw light as far, but if you catch it in a sale then you can pick up a pair for almost half the price of two Wall Washers.
If you want an attractive light gradient for your walls but aren't interested in syncing it with your TV, this minimalist lamp is a more affordable option.
I connected the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer to my Philips Hue Bridge, and used it in various rooms in my house (alone, and as a pair). First I connected it to a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, which was linked to a digital set-top box, and experimented with viewing different films and TV shows to assess color-matching and latency. The screengrabs above show content from TechRadar's YouTube channel for copyright reasons, but I tested the lights with a wide variety of media.
I also used a single Wall Washer as a fill light together with a pair of Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulbs in ceiling fixtures. I experimented with applying different scenes to all the lights in the room, and creating new ones.
Finally, I tested a single Wall Washer on my nightstand, using the Wake Up and Sleep automations to assess how smoothly the color and brightness of the light can change, and how dim it can become before switching off. I compared its performance to a purpose-made wake-up light.
