It’s a great day for iRobot. The brand behind what used to be the best robot wacuum in the industry has scrapped almost all of its fleet of Roombas and replaced it with five brand new bots. The new Lineup introduces some pretty big upgrades that hopefully would make iRobot again the formidable player it was once in the robot vacuum world.
Here is an overview of the features I am most excited about in the new Roomba range, plus a few developments I am less sold on.
#1. Lidar (finally!)
It’s taken iRobot too long to get on board with Lidar, but better late than never. Lidar is basically industrial standard for robotic vacuum navigation and generally agreed to be far better than the older sludge method found in iRobot’s old bots. Its introduction means that the new Roombas should offer faster, more reliable navigation and mapping. There are also more practical benefits – this means that the robot can navigate in the dark, for example rather than requiring a light source. (Go to our Lidar vs vslam article for more about how the two technologies are compared.)
#2. Improved mop pads
In line with the upgraded aesthetics, none of the new combination robots have the laid -back mop pad that had so far been iRobot’s phone card. In its place on the ‘Plus’ models (405 and 505), two rotating disc -shaped pillows are the approach, which are favored by large parts of the market now, and the one that has generally proven to be more effective in cleaning in our reviews.
You can even kick out to one side to offer more efficient edge mopping – a feature included in some Premium -competition models. The mop pads can lift up to 1 cm to cross over blankets or blankets, and the withdrawal static pillow is still present at Combo 10 Max for those who are still concerned about moist rugs.
Note that this improved moping setup is not present on the basic Roombas (105 and 205), which simply has a static, D-shaped mop pad. However, they come with automatic carpet detection, which means they should not try to bud your blankets.
#3. A characteristic, friendly new look
It’s less of an important thing, I assume, but I’m also a big fan of what the new lineup looks like. Robot -Vacuums are generally quite generic these days, and iRobot has acknowledged that perhaps shiny black or white plastic may not be everyone’s aesthetic choice. The new bots have a design that the brand has called ‘grid’ – geometric, rational, iconic and dynamic.
It may sell it a bit, but I think the mixture of matte and shiny finish looks friendlier and more likely to fit into softer interior decoration than your average bot. I also appreciate that iRobot has gone out of its way of creating a look that is characteristic of the brand – that way it is one step ahead of the competition.
#4. Better dust handling
For some people, ‘dust management’ may not seem very exciting. I am writing about vacuum cleaners as a big part of my job and I suffer from a dust allergy, so I assume I am more invested than most. There are a few interesting developments here.
The first is that the dust bag in the auto-empty dock can automatically seal itself when it is fully-good news for allergic, because there is now a zero option for the allergens to sneak back into the air once they have been sucked up.
The second is that one of the Bots – Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo – is designed to compress the dust in its onboard garbage bin. This means that it can contain far more waste than usual without the need for a voluminous dock. For people with small homes and no room for a massive auto-empty dock, it actually looks very interesting.
#5. A new app
I didn’t have huge complaints about iRobot’s original app, but the brand has restarted it to go with its shiny new bots, and the new and improved look even better.
You can set custom cleaning routines, get estimates of how long the current task will take to clean and access insight into the rooms that need the most attention. Because we now have Lidar, it is also possible to see your bot as it is about its cleaning routine, rather than having to guess where it is and what it is up to.
#6. Suction specifications
This one is small but important for the customer experience: Irobot will hopefully again share the maximum suction power for each model, in Pascals. This is something that the brand stopped doing a while ago and claimed that it is not all-and-end-all and that things like the roll sign play a huge role in how well a robot cleans.
Although they are not wrong there, it is still a very useful guide to how sucking a bot can be and without suction specifications it was difficult to make sense of the Roomba series and even more difficult to place its models in the wider market.
I say ‘hopefully’, because even though this was part of my first briefing, the marketing material I have received since has not succeeded. Instead, they say things like “70x more suction” (it’s compared to the Roomba 600 series that was launched over a decade ago). SUKK.
Based on my initial notes, the new models have 7,000 in suction. It is not quite up there with the competition, but still a decent amount for the prices that iRobot charges. Combined with an effective design (we have always been fans of iRobots double rolls), it may well be plenty to give good maintenance clean of the average household.
#7. Names that make sense
Another dilapidated upgrade in terms of customer friendliness is that iRobot has overturned its name conventions. The new fleet is separated in Roomba, Roomba Plus and Roomba Max models, after a good> better> best setup so you can actually have an idea of how the set -up compares.
There may be some confusion with those who remember that in the old system meant ‘plus’ that there was an auto-empty dock, while this does not mean it. Generally, however, I prefer it far rather than the mess of J-something, i-Somethings holder, is it one in or aj anyway? – It preceded it.
2 Innovations, I’m worried about …
#1. Bots without raised puck
Lidar here is called ‘ClearView’ and appears across all models. Interestingly, iRobot has removed the raised puck of 205 Dustcompactor Combo to give a more streamlined design. This model uses the same Lidar technology, but it is switched into the front of the robot. The problem is that the puck is there for a purpose; To allow bot to ‘look’ around and navigate exactly. Moving the Lidar technology on the front of Robovac means a much narrower field of view.
Other brands are also experimenting with removing the puck, but all those I have encountered have introduced new technology to compensate for the more limited field of view. E.g. Has the Dream X50 Ultra Complete and Roborock Saros 10 (reviews in -depth) a puck that can retreat into the robot’s body as it approaches an area of limited height but pops up again when the space permits.
Roborock Qrevo Slim and Saros 10R completely remove with a puck, but for this the brand has constructed a whole new navigation method completely, called Starsight, to ensure that navigation is not compromised. I’m no engineer, but they certainly wouldn’t go to all those problems if you could just chop the puck off without influence.
The iRobot spokesman I was chatting with assured me that there would be no compromise in the navigation accuracy – they told me they tested two bots, one with the puck and one without, and they both behaved in the same way. I really want to be interested in testing this out and looking for yourself.
#2. The continued presence of Combo 10 Max
My other weak misgivings is that the current ‘Max’ segment consists of Combo 10 max. It was only launched in July 2024, so maybe iRobot felt it was too early to scrape it. But what should be the shining star in the Roomba fleet is it coming.
It was generally not well received-we awarded it a less than ideal 3-stars in our Roomba Combo 10 Max Review, where our tester complained about painfully slow mapping (no Lidar here) and cleaning of the understandard. Both of these aspects have been improved in the new Plus models that look far more promising to me.
Generally, however, it is promising news from iRobot, and I appreciate that the brand has been brave enough to accept that what it did not work and go for a big reboot. I am excited to get these new models into my apartment and test the new features for myself.
