Roborock Saros 10

We've reviewed a lot of robot vacuum cleaners over the years and they can basically be divided into two different categories; those that push the boundaries of what a robot vacuum cleaner can do and those that deliver decent, if not outright satisfactory results, but without being innovative in the same way. Both can do something, especially when we're talking about something as pragmatic as a vacuum cleaner.

{Roborock Saros 10} is not your {Qrevo Curv}. Its dock is square and although it has {AdaptLift}, it has a more conservative appearance. Still, it's described as {Roborock}'s absolute top model, so it's safe to say it all got a little confusing pretty quickly.

So perhaps it's worth clarifying what the {Saros 10} can actually do. It offers 22,000Pa of suction, far better than the {Qrevo Curv}, and like {Ecovacs} and others, {Roborock} has now managed to eliminate the protruding LiDAR system by actively folding it into the unit, so it's now just 7.98 centimetres high, making it much easier to get into tight spaces. There are brand new versions of {Roborock}'s truly amazing navigation systems called {RetractSense} and {Reactive AI 3.0}, which are great ways to establish that {Saros 10} can easily recognise obstacles, navigate around them, and provide an effective clean even if you haven't fully "prepped" the living room floor. You have the new {VertiBeam} system that scans vertically to see which objects can be vacuumed and which cannot, and the new {FlexiArm Riser} ensures that even though the vacuum is still round, it can reach into corners and along mouldings.

In fact, it also has the {AdaptLift} chassis that allows it to break thresholds of up to four centimetres, so this is actually a big step forward from the {Qrevo Curv} in pretty much every way - if you squint and look at the specification list.

On top of that, there are a lot of powerful features that are actually designed to solve the problems I most often encounter when testing robotic vacuums. The {DuoDivide} main brush is two separate brush heads with a gap in the centre, which means that as hair is filtered around, it will eventually slide off either one brush head or the other. The new {FlexiArm Riser} side brush can raise and lower itself to avoid collisions and is far more thorough than before. And oh yeah, we only measured 55dB when cleaning floors, which is far better than {Ecovacs}' main alternative.

And then there's {VibraRise 4.0}, which is actually a comeback of sorts for the mop pad instead of the two, separate rotating mops we've become used to in flagship models. Instead of scrubbing, it vibrates 4,000 times per minute and can apply over 8N of pressure to rub off the worst stains. I've actually seen a difference here on fresher stains, where the {VibraRise 4.0} seems to be faster at getting rid of things like tomato sauce spilled by my two boys on the floor at dinner.

And then there's the fact that {Saros 10} is 100% charged in just 150 minutes, and that the app appears extremely responsive and directly in line with, for example, {Dreame}'s flagships. In other words, {Roborock} may be overstuffing their own line-up, but they know how to make a very, very impressive robot vacuum cleaner. The {Saros 10} is impressive, it just is, and probably better than pretty much everything else besides {Dreame}'s {X50 Ultra}, and that's not a bad place to be.