Corners and straight lines represent the main difficulties for robot vacuum cleaners. Roborock may have found the solution with its new S8 Max Ultra models presented at CES.
What we expect from a vacuum-mopping robot is that it cleans the floors properly for us. A seemingly simple task but not always obvious for these small, round-shaped devices most of the time and which, in fact, struggle to get alongside furniture and get through corners. To overcome this difficulty, there is no shortage of ideas. Dreame uses an extendable arm for mopping on its L20 Ultra (read our test) and Ecovacs tried to adopt a square shape for its robot with more or less success (read our test). Roborock, one of the main players in the market, is trying a new approach with its S8 Max Ultra models announced today at CES in Las Vegas. Available in two versions, this new robot, still round, adopts two innovations. The first is based on a side brush head mounted on a telescopic arm called FlexiArm Design. Not stupid since it allows you to sweep in corners and bring dust and waste towards the belly of the device where they will be shamelessly sucked up thanks to the most powerful motor to date developing a suction capacity of 10,000 Pa on the MaxV model (8000 pa on the Max model). According to Roborock, this system would allow corner coverage of up to 99%. We can bet that this brush head will not behave like that of the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni by dispersing almost everything in its path.
For washing, again the edges of furniture and plinths will not be forgotten with a small rotating side mop called Extra Edge. Unlike the L20 Ultra model from Dreame, this one is not mounted on a mechanical arm but remains fixed. All that remains is to wait for the tests to judge the effectiveness of this duo.
Finally, the S8 MaxV Ultra model differs from its little brother by the presence of a camera on the front to provide video surveillance, detect objects but also identify the condition of the floors such as the unexpected presence of liquid during a cleaning phase. aspiration for example, in order to automatically adapt one’s behavior. This model also includes a voice assistant (soberly called HelloRocky) and supports the Matter protocol.
The device’s docking station also benefits from something new. It also comes in two versions. The first carries the clean water and drain tanks as is customary. The second connects directly to a water inlet and outlet and therefore has a more compact size. However, its availability in France has not yet been announced.
The S8 Max Ultra are at the top of the range of robot vacuum cleaners. The S8 MaxV Ultra model will be the first marketed in France at a price of 1,499 euros from April. The price of the S8 Max Ultra is not yet known.