It seems that the big robotic quacuum manufacturers all met and decided that what we really need is a bot with a mechanical arm. One that can move mess out of its way when it cleans, and even sort your mess and move it where it should go. We saw a couple of arm-equipment robot wacuum at this year’s CES event, where everyone shows their upcoming launches-but roborock, everyone surprised by announcing that its own model was not just on the crazy inventory stage, it would actually be in sale within the year.
Shill forward for a few months and the Saros Z70 is actually available to buy. So does it deliver its potential, or has Roborock rushed it through before the technology is ready? Is this innovative bot ready to compete with the rest of the best robot vacuum on the market? I’ve spent the last two weeks testing it out-you can get the full low-down in my Roborock Saros Z70 Review.
While not perfect, there are plenty of good things about it – including a few who surprised me. Read on for 3 things I loved at this practical Robovac, plus 3, which I think still need work if it will be really useful.
3 things I loved
1. Pinking is excellent
The hardware part of the PINCER arm is very well designed. In my tests, I found that I could remote the robot over to a bit of mess and ask it to pick it up, and it would – almost without failure – recognize it and adjust its positioning and pincer so it could pick it up. I could then resume control and run the bot where I would have messed up to go.
Should the pickup fail, Roborock has included manual adjustment options so you can operate your arm yourself. These are intuitive and precise, and the grip is gentle but firm. The arm also sticks nicely behind a hatch when not in use, so it can’t get caught on anything while bot is on his travels. There is great potential for people with limited mobility here.
2. There are plenty of security measures
Most people I talk to about this Robovac seem afraid that Omnigrip will be excessive and try to clear away the cat. Roborock has built -in lots of security features to make sure this does not happen. First, all arm features are off by default, so nothing will happen at all until you specify exactly what you want it to do.
It is only designed to try to clear very specific objects after identifying them using roborocks (generally excellent) object recognition technology, and the arm has a weight sensor that prevents it from lifting objects over 300 g. Success rate. Finally, there is a physical ’emergency stop’ button on the robot itself and a children’s lock.
3. It is easy to use
This is a new and potentially scary bit of tech, so Kudos has to go to Roborock to make it impressively available. It has placed the Robot Arm Options Front and Center in the Companion app, and encourages users to explore and become familiar with them. Plus, the controls themselves are logical and intuitive.
4. It is an unexpectedly good security camera
A lot of high-end robot vacuum can act as home security cameras, but you are a little limited by the fact that your vision is on the ground surface. Here, Roborock has added a camera on the arm itself. Not only can the arm reach much higher, it can also tilt vertically and thus offer a much more expansive field of view than if you used the front -mounted camera alone. Of course you can only spy on what happens Inside Your home, yet useful.
3 things that need to be improved
1. It does not work alone
While the remote-assisted twinkling worked very well in my tests, the Saros Z70 should really be able to clean up without help if it is really useful to most people. Theoretically, you can ask the robot to identify items suitable for clearing while you are at a whole home clean, so once done, go on another race to pick them up and put them in a designated place.
Unfortunately, this bit doesn’t really work yet. It seems that all the conditions must be absolutely perfect for the process to be successful. So bot should see the goods and properly identify them, then be able to find them again, then pick them up successfully and then find their way to the right move. I have not yet administered a race where one of these factors does not fail.
Roborock also told me that the process has a lower success rate on the rug than hard floors due to a “hardware restriction”. It feels like a significant warning.
If something seems to be stuck on the arm, all other features are locked until you manually reset it by pressing physical buttons on the robot. For example, on one occasion during my tests, the arm picked up a sandal, so when it turned with it, the sandal was caught on a door stop, and the strap twisted, so when the bot tried to drop it, it couldn’t. I had to save it before I could continue. It is probably a logical security measure, but it is not ideal to have to physically get involved to resolve the case.
I hope the automation features are improving with updates, but right now this bot can’t really be left to clear you.
2. It can only pick up a few things
At the time of writing, the list of supported items is very short – sandals / light slippers, socks, small towels and crumpled tissue paper. It makes sense that Roborock would be careful about adding more objects because it must be convinced that the bot can properly identify them and not end up trying to seize something it shouldn’t. But it limits its utility a bit, just as the weight (and presumably size) restriction.
It’s not so much roborock’s fault as a limitation of the form factor. Logically, it follows that bot can’t tackle anything too big or heavy. But it still affects how useful such a design can be in the longer term.
3. The price
Currently, Roborock Saros Z70 is coming with a price tag of $ 2,599 / AU $ 3,999 (UK Price TBC, but potentially around £ 1,950 based on what it costs elsewhere). It is the most expensive Robovac we have tested, by some margin and out of reach of most people. Currently, it is the only robot vacuum on the market that has a robotic arm, so an eye -watering list price is not surprising. However, I’m not sure I would buy it at that price, at least until some of the problems were ironed out.
Because the robot vacuum market is competitive where new models are released regularly, I am used to seeing good deals and prices fall fairly quickly as even better bots hit the market. There seems to be more arm -equipped Robovacs in the pipeline from other brands, so if the idea shows a hit, we can see that a more competitive price landscape is emerging. However, I suppose it will take a while.
