Robots walk among us and for a long time, I’ve started to be blown away about how modern technology now allows us to clean our carpets and hard floors. You may not realise but some robot vacuum cleaners are now so advanced, they can use AI to identify obstacles, carpet, how dirty your floors are and can even wash and dry the mop that it’s attached to.
In comes to Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra which retails at a staggering £1499 (some earlier models are currently on offer here at Amazon) which is far more money than any of us would like to spend. Despite its price tag, the S8 MaxV Ultra is perhaps the pinnacle of robot cleaning technology if only hampered by availability in the UK and occasional bugs which could be ironed out in software updates.
READ MORE: I tested a Proscenic cordless vacuum which rivals the Dyson V12 and is £370 cheaper
READ MORE: We test Dyson and Dunelm handheld vacuums against Aldi's cheaper version and there is one clear winner
Setup and design
The S8 MaxV Ultra is a big and heavy robot so be prepared when you’re setting it up. It comes with a large base station and dock, the robot itself, a quick-start guide, power adapter and snap-on ramp that connect to the dock. The robot itself is all connected with accessories so there’s no need to worry about doing anything with it when you unpack it.
Millions blocked from iconic iPhone app forever after 10 years in major shutdown
The robot comes in at 33cm in diameter and stands four inches tall with the dock coming in at 47 centimetres tall, 41 centimetres wide and 42 centimetres in depth so make sure you have space in your kitchen.
Here comes the biggest issue with the S8 MaxV Ultra which I will continue to elaborate on throughout this review. The power adapter supplied was an EU plug which meant I had to get an EU to UK adapter when testing it out. Hopefully as more availability comes to the UK, this should not be a problem.
The Roborock Q7+ Max (left) next to its bigger S8 MaxV UltraSet-up was extremely easy - thanks to the quick start guide - which involved filling up the clean water tank which attached to the dock and filling up the floor detergent. After sending the robot to the dock, linking the phone to the Wi-Fi was a bit fiddly which involves putting a QR code on your phone in front of the Roborock which didn’t seem want to connect. We worked around this by manually entering our Wi-Fi information through the app and voila – we were all set-up and ready.
Cleaning and features
For a hefty 1499 Great British Pounds, you can be sure that Roborock has packed the S8 MaxV Ultra with as much technology as you can possibility think of. Like we mentioned in our Q7 Max + review, the S8 MaxV Ultra comes with LiDAR navigation which maps your rooms (and can clean them first time) so it can intelligently decide where to go and clean.
The S8 MaxV Ultra is a cleaning monster with 10,000Pa of suction power, Reactive AI 2.0 camera which can detect obstacles like wires, animals, shoes and other things which may trip the device up, dual brush rollers, a side mop to clean edges, built-in voice control and it can lift the mop when it detect carpet.
That’s only touching the surface and Roborock has managed to pack into such a small device and considering this is a cleaning device, it is absolutely staggering. That’s not even mentioning the dock which washes, dry and cleans the mop, empties dust and collects dirty water from the cleaning. It’s an utterly amazing feat of engineering.
But how does it clean? We mapped out our bottom floor which included a hard floor kitchen and corridor as well as a low-piled living room. The first run was impressive, and we could immediately see just how cleaner our living room was including the kitchen. The improved suction compared to our Q7 Max+ was clear to see and the mopping neatly made sure the floor was spotless.
Edges also appeared to be cleaner than before thanks to the S8 MaxV Ultra’s extendable brush which detects edges and captures any leftover debris. I even placed Rice Krispies on multiple areas in the living room and kitchen which was swifty sucked up by the S8 MaxV Ultra. We also dropped some a small spoonful of butter onto the hard floor which was easily tackled.
The mopping on the S8 MaxV Ultra was brilliant in our hard floor tests
The 10,000Pa suction from the device definitely cleaned out carpets wellWhen it came to avoiding objects, the S8 MaxV Ultra does a good job at identifying objects but sometimes falls short.
It managed to avoid large wires left around the living room and kitchen as well as shoes being left in random places but occasionally stumbles on pet bowls and water trays. It tends to ram into them, back up then occasionally want to ram into it again before backing off and judging it as an obstacle.
Millions of iPhone owners urged to check 'hidden mode' that can keep you safe
Cleaning the entire bottom floor of my house took around 30 minutes and since cleaning five times since then, we’ve noticed how better the S8 MaxV Ultra has gotten at cleaning perhaps thanks to its SmartPlan AI which maps out the ‘optimal’ cleaning path.
After the cleaning, we also saw how well the dock cleaned the robot’s mop and we were quite impressed. The dock regularly cleans and dries the mop after every clean or how often you decide to set the cleaning schedule on the app.
Battery life is also impressive with around 100 minutes worth of cleaning which is perfect for middle-sized homes.
App features and voice features
One thing that impressed us is how vast and customisable the Roborock app is. The app allows you to customise how you clean, where you clean, specific areas where you want to clean and regular routines.
The Roborock app also shows you the layout of your home as well as highlights obstacles and furniture that it avoids and identifies. We found the identification to be solid during our testing.
You can also get the robot to find your pet so it can avoid it as well as control it with an on-screen remote control so you don’t need to worry about it skipping areas that you want. You can even view exactly through the eyes of the robot vacuum which is a great little feature.
The Roborock app allows you to customise exactly where, when, how and what you want cleaning
The S8 MaxV Ultra maps out your home to a very precise detailThe S8 MaxV Ultra also comes packed with voice-control features. Like speaking to Alexa, you can say “Hey Rocky” and then choose rooms to clean or mop. The included manual and the app comes with a handy list of commands you can give the device.
During our testing, the voice controls worked great and Roborock recently announced that it is the first robot vacuum achieved Matter certification meaning it can work with third-party devices like Amazon’s Alexa and more.
Pricing, accessories and conclusion
The S8 MaxV Ultra is the pinnacle of robot vacuum cleaners. It is the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max of cleaning robots with all the most up-to-date technology pushing inside a brilliant device.
It cleans rooms and leaves rooms spotless, and its built-in AI is a great feature which can only get better with time. Like we mentioned in our Q7 Max+ review, software updates regularly get published to the devices so we can only see it getting better.
Our biggest issue is the availability of the device – and other Roborock devices – in the UK. At the time of writing, you currently can’t get the S8 MaxV Ultra (yet) except through Amazon EU but this is expected to change soon as stock increases and we will keep you updated. This also echoes for spare accessories which we can’t find right now.
And at a price of £1299, it’s an expensive purchase especially for a robot vacuum cleaner – very expensive in fact but for the features you get, you can understand the price tag.
There are plenty of cheaper alternatives. We have complied a list of the best robot vacuum cleaners that you can explore which are within more reasonable price tags.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
