Just a few years ago, a sub-£200 robot would have been guaranteed to be useless but the Eufy is far from that. It doesn’t use any map-related cleverness to avoid pitfalls, but it does come with a long length of bendy plastic that you can use to physically block off problematic parts of your home. Do a bit of minor obstacle-removing prep, however, and you should find you don’t even need that. It’s not the most elegant of movers – in fact it’s rather haphazard, and quite forceful – but it does seem to cover the ground well if you leave it to get on with things. It also features automatic floor-type recognition which is rare at this price. Robot vacuums offer the same suction power as many upright vacuums, while the batteries can outlast those found on cordless vacuums, meaning robovacs are among the best vacuum cleaners you can buy right now.
Finally, there’s a No Climb option, which prevents the robot from trying to lift up over obstacles, such as furniture that has support bars. For me, the latter feature proved useful for a coffee table that has dyson robot vacuum an X-shaped set of legs that run across the floor. Released back in 2016, the Dyson 360 Eye has remained one of the most powerful robot vacuum cleaners to date, easily beating much of its new competition.
Until Thursday’s announcement, the 360 Eye’s prototype was hidden, even from Dyson employees, under a black sheet in a display room in Chicago. And Dyson still is keeping the device’s price point under wraps, though its top-of-the-line competitor, the iRobot Roomba 880, retails for $699.99. Ultimately, though the 360 Eye’s real limiting factor is the price tag, which runs $999 in the U.S. (and an even steeper $1,299 in my home country of Canada). That’s a lot of cash, and $100 more than the top of the line offering from iRobot’s Roomba lineup. Other than on the iRobot i7+, you’ll need to empty the bin of your robot regularly – they’re always small.
It boasts a reactive AI system that uses two cameras to detect objects in real time. And with 2,400Pa suction power and a mopping feature , the device is adaptable and prepared for deep cleaning. The dustbin is on the small side at 330ml and we did find it needed emptying after every complete clean (even when the house was reasonably dust-free to start with). However, we liked that the machine comes with a lightweight charging base, it can be folded up when not in use or easily tucked away in a corner. The camera function also helps you to switch from floor to floor, and the variety of detectors onboard ensures that you won’t drop itself off the stairs like a blind sheep.
Of course, those could be trade-show tricks, which is why we’re looking forward to getting the 360 Eye in for more comprehensive testing. Until then, you can read about what we know—and hear about the new robot vacuum direct from Alex Knox, Dyson’s design director. Likewise, while the 360 Heurist offers three suction shark cordless power settings to help almost doubling the standard 40-minute runtime, I’m inclined to believe that a few minutes will still be deducted in real life. Whether it’s worth that much money to pick up a 360 Eye will depend on your commitment to achieving a clean house without being too personally involved in the process.