You can get the robot on its own or with iRobot’s Clean Base auto-empty dock. Several users were unhappy with the occasional connectivity issues, and how the device could lose an entire floor plan from a single piece of furniture shark cordless being moved. A few also noted a design flaw that required repairs, as fur can get sucked into a gap between the brush and housing. Some people reported issues working on black carpets, due to a malfunction with the sensor.
We’re currently testing the Roborock Q5, the replacement for the discontinued Roborock S4, our former pick for the best laser-nav robot vacuum. We’re also trying out the Samsung Jet Bot AI+, another laser-nav bot with obstacle recognition. There are tons more laser-nav robots, with largely similar specs and appearance, including bots from barely there brands, including Tesvor, Dreametech, Viomi, and Honiture. Again, our educated guess is that they all probably work okay and are just more prone to app glitches and less likely to get useful software updates over time than the best brands in this category.
It’s not designed for cleaning high-pile rugs, and may struggle greatly on shag carpeting. The onboard bin is fairly shallow, and may need to be emptied before a cleaning cycle is completed. If you do not empty the bin or check for tangled hairs regularly, it will affect the performance of the robot vacuum. In fact, a full dyson robot vacuum bin will result in it dragging any mess around the floors rather than picking it up. The Neato D9 provides a solid cleaning performance, scoring a respectable 92.79 overall on our tests. It picked up almost 93% of kitty litter carpet, which ranks it above the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, and its predecessor, the Neato D4.
The most essential function of a vacuum is suctioning up unwanted spills and debris. I’ve tested Roborock’s version of this model, the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra as well as the Ecovacs Deebot X1 Omni (which also has its own built-in voice assistant). Right now, I’m not ready to recommend these, not because they’re not good but because they are incredibly expensive — well over $1,000 each, even with sales. And the technology is still new enough that I’m not sure how they’d hold up to heavy use.
There are a few caveats when purchasing a robot vacuum this cheap, though. For starters, the iLife V3s Pro is slow, taking more than 90 minutes on average to clean our test space — others took less than 30 minutes. Also, it can’t be controlled from your smartphone, so you have to use the included remote control, and you can’t connect it to Alexa or Google Assistant to turn it on or schedule cleanings.
The cleaning tool for maintenance is installed in the dustbin, so it can’t get lost or misplaced, but the dustbin must be manually emptied each time. Like the many full-size Miele vacuums we’ve tested and included in our roundups of the best canister vacuums and best stick vacuums, this robot is sleek and maintenance is very easy. The iRobot Roomba is equipped with a laser sensor that directs it around obstacles and walls. It also has sensors on the underside of the device that detect changes in elevation, allowing it to transition from bare floor to carpet. It has beater brushes like a conventional vacuum cleaner to loosen and collect dirt, as well as suction that sweeps the dirt into a storage compartment. Top robot models have a proprietary VSLM feature — Vision Simultaneous Localization and Mapping — that takes snapshots as the Roomba works to guide the unit in an efficient path throughout the room.
The battery life will generally range from 60 minutes with more basic versions to about 120 minutes at the higher end. Those who want their Roomba to cover more square footage may prefer a model with a longer battery life, or perhaps two robots to cover different zones or floors. For our hard floor straight-line pickup tests, large and small debris is deposited onto a marked area of the floor (based on the width of the opening of the robot vacuum’s nozzle). Then each robot vacuum is allowed 10 minutes to pick up the debris from the floor and the weight of the dustbin is taken to find how much debris is picked up by each. Straight-line pickup tests on carpet are done in an enclosed area where we deposit mixed debris including potting soil, sand and rayon fibers meant to mimic hair. Each robot vacuum is allowed to clean the carpet for a specified length of time, and the weight of the dustbin is taken to find out how much debris each robot can pick up.