I was shocked by the specs and offerings of this compact robot vacuum that doesn’t even come with a docking station! The G10+ has an enormous 1-liter dustbin (most robot vacuums have an onboard dustbin that is about half that size), and the dustbin has an internal compression paddle inside and a UV light. It continually compresses and disinfects everything it picks up—3i claims that you don’t have to empty it for up to 60 days, but that test lab is much cleaner than my house. Still, going for a week without emptying an onboard dustbin in my very messy home with multiple kids and a dog is remarkable.

At 18,000 Pa, the suction is more than twice as strong than most other vacuums at this price point, and the lidar navigation much more accurate. It also has AI-enabled ApexVision and DirtScan to identify obstacles and particularly dirty spots. It did not get lost in a week’s worth of testing and I was particularly surprised by how good it was at edging, catching the dust bunnies that tend to pile up in front of my dryer. Also, the dock has a base on it so unlike our previous pick, the Tapo TP-Link RV20 Max ($200), it never gets knocked off the dock and fails to charge. It is almost an inch taller than the RV so it did occasionally get stuck under one of our low sofas. However, despite the need for an occasional rescue, I was startled by the number of flagship features offered at a very affordable price.

Ecovacs launched its new flagship Deebot X11 Omnicyclone at IFA 2025 with several standout features. First, it has a bagless waste disposal system, with a canister that cycles debris in a circle to keep it from clogging—you know, like a Dyson vacuum. As someone who has spent many a night on the kitchen floor unclogging the auto-empty tube with a chopstick, I appreciated this. It also has a new fast-charging system with frequent top-ups to prevent long runtime cycles, which I also noticed. Many high-end smart robot vacuums, like the Roborock Saros Z70 below, can take until mid-afternoon to finish running a cleaning cycle in my large house, complete with recharging. The Omnicyclone is usually done by noon.

The Omnicyclone has a few other features that I’ve seen on other vacuums by now, like a climbing driving wheel that gets it out of my fireplace hearth, Matter compatibility, and AI-enabled smarts that switch cleaning modes on different parts of my house. However, I have three small dings against the vacuum. The lid is very sleek-looking, but it falls off and is annoying to replace every time I have to check the roller. Second, the driving wheels sometimes get confused if they’re on different surfaces, so I have to tap them to remind them where they are and that they work. And finally, the station lets you switch between the regular cleaning fluid and heavy-duty cleaning fluid for grease or big messes. However, the heavy-duty solution is not searchable on Amazon for some reason. (We reached out to the company and you can find it here.)

I still really like Dreame’s stair-climbing robot vacuum, although I think that bagless, clogless emptying and fast recharging are two practical considerations that make the Ecovacs a better choice. However, this is the best vacuum for pet hair for another reason. Yes, it has double roll brushes to reduce tangling, plus side arms to edge-clean more effectively, in addition to the usual large-capacity docking station with clean and dirty water tanks, self-emptying bag, and hot-water mop washing.

But Dreame’s software is very impressive. The vacuum’s sensors let the AI-enabled app accurately identify obstacles, floor surfaces, and extremely dirty areas—it’s the most effective dirt- and obstacle-identification system I’ve tried. Whenever I skipped a day or two of cleaning, the X50 Ultra reminded me that particular areas of my house had “a high degree of dirtiness” and prompted me to run it again. Anyone who has a pet knows exactly where exactly the areas that have a “high degree of dirtiness” are in your house. (For cat owners, it’s probably around the litter box; for me, it’s near my dog’s bed where she likes to chew up sticks.) It’s one of the smartest robot vacuums I’ve ever tested, outside of the Matic, although I did have to ensure the self-emptying function was working from time to time.

This year at CES 2025, we saw a robot vacuum that can (theoretically) use its Omnigrip extendable arm to pick up your socks and put away your trash. When I set up the Saros Z70, I also designated a shoe storage zone and set up the included Roborock storage box where the robot vacuum would theoretically be able to drop socks, crumpled tissues, and other items.

Without the arm, the Saros Z70 is an effective household cleaning companion. The AI-enabled SmartPlan has developed an effective cleaning pattern for my first floor, detaching the mop pads to vacuum before reattaching them to mop my kitchen, laundry, room, and bathroom floors as the final step. It has cleaned up an entire kitchen floor sprinkled with powdered sugar. Battery life is a bit shorter than Saros 10R ($1,600), the version without the robot arm; it runs for about two hours before it needs to recharge. The main problem is that OmniGrip still has a ton of limitations. The vacuum can’t pick up clutter beyond a fairly limited assortment of tissues, shoes, socks, or items under 300 grams. It recognizes my flip-flops only if they’re on hard surfaces, not carpet, and it fails to bring the shoes back to the shoe storage area. Most days, if I leave clutter out, the vacuum will start out to get it, then note that it has failed to complete sorting and return to the dock. I will continue to run the Saros Z70 this year to see if further software updates make it easier to use, but right now this robot vacuum comes with a pretty big caveat.

It’s a robot vacuum! It’s a stick vacuum! It’s “the world’s first whole house cleaning combot” (combo bot), released with much fanfare by Ecovacs sub-brand Yeedi in September 2024. It’s also the one-stop vacuum solution I didn’t know I needed. Combining a stand-alone robot vacuum with a HEPA-filtered hand vacuum and stick vacuum attachment on one 20 x 20 x 15-inch charging console, this setup leaves its owner with absolutely zero excuse for having a dirty floor.

The robot vacuum and its accompanying app are exceedingly user-friendly, having accurately mapped out 835 square feet of vacuumable space on our first floor in about eight minutes. (It can map five separate zones.) However, despite its ability to lift itself about three-quarters of an inch, the robot tended to get tangled in many things during its 85-minute cleaning cycle over the six weeks I tested—cords, rug fringe, a semicircle of loose shoes—necessitating a pre-cleanup each time it was deployed. It also didn’t do the greatest job on deep-pile carpet; I vacuumed up a fairly respectable amount of lint, dirt, and cat hair with an upright vacuum immediately after it was done. It did, however, perform perfectly well on hardwood floors, and its advertised ZeroTangle technology, present on both the robot vac and stick vac, was successful in keeping long hairs from binding up the V-shaped rollers. The hand vac (which comes with brush and crevice nozzles) had similar suction power. While it wasn’t always easy to remove the stick vac attachment, it was sufficient for dispatching small messes like spilled dirt, and I appreciated the LED lights on the front of the stick vac attachment for seeing what needed vacuuming in low light.

Both the robot vacuum and hand/stick vacs self-empty into a 1.5-liter clear canister on the console, which has a simple screw-top lid for emptying. The stick vacuum attachment also sports a mop head with a 240 milliliter fluid reservoir, but for some reason, the mop head fits on backward, behind the vacuum head, so it’s awkward to use and difficult to apply even pressure. I used it once and can’t see using it again. It’s also not compatible with any smart home systems. However, I still can’t believe how much more I’m vacuuming in general with this system. Even though it takes a fairly significant outlay of space, this system is less expensive and less bulky than buying all three vacuums separately—a no-brainer for most people on a budget. —Kat Merck

The Eufy E20 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) was one of the most exciting things I saw at CES 2025. It’s three vacuums ingeniously and conveniently housed in one—a robot vacuum whose innards can be clicked out to make a light and maneuverable stick vacuum, as well as a hand vacuum. It all clicks back onto a tiny dock with a self-emptying bin and has an astonishing price, given that robot vacuums with half this functionality retail for almost twice as much.

However, the compact size and convenience have some costs. The dustbin is tiny, about half the size of what you might find in other robot vacuums, which necessitates almost constant emptying for my 1,000-square-foot first floor. When it’s a stick vacuum, emptying it by hand by rotating the cup is a little gross, and emptying it by sticking it back into the dock is irritating. Also, it only auto empties as a stick vacuum when it’s been running for more than 10 minutes at a time, and in my house, I can fill that tiny dustbin in 5 minutes. However, if you have a small house or apartment where you need to save space—or if you don’t have multiple dogs and kids filthying your house almost every second of every day—then I highly recommend this. It’s adorable, cheap, convenient, and compact.

As we said before, Yeedi is the more affordable sub-brand of Ecovacs, which makes other robot vacuums we like. Like Ecovacs, it has a broad line-up of robot vacuums at different prices. When I first tried Yeedi’s vacuums, the navigational software was abysmal, but the company has won my most-improved award since then. WIRED reviewer Ryan Waniata found that the cheaper Yeedi C12 Pro+ ($300) got lost or stuck about 20 percent of the time, but I didn’t have problems when I tested this higher-end model.

The M12 Pro+ has a few standout qualities. At 4- and 3.5-liter capacities, the clean/dirty water tanks are just ginormous—you won’t have to switch them out too often. It has an extendable arm for cleaning out nooks and crannies and a decent 11,000 Pa of suction. It has dropped in price than the Eufy X10 Pro Omni (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which was our original pick here.

Note: Dyson is releasing a new robot vacuum next year, so we recommend holding off on this vacuum if you can.

We’re including Dyson’s robot vacuum because, given Dyson’s other stellar vacuums, many of you will be considering it. WIRED reviewer Chris Haslam notes that when compared to the original Dyson 360 Heurist, the new robot vacuum is wider, flatter, and considerably more powerful, with a spin speed of 110,000 RPM (up from 78,000). There’s a flashy digital display and a much-improved dustbin removal and emptying system, and the filter is easy to remove and clean. Dyson claims its vacuum has up to six times more suction than the competition.

Haslam liked the new “triple-action” brush bar (soft nylon for large debris on hard floors, antistatic carbon-fiber filaments for fine dust, and stiff nylon bristles for carpet), which sweeps right up to the edge of the room. However, its navigation capabilities left something to be desired. On hard floors and in rooms with no obstacles, it managed perfectly, but chair legs and rugs defeated it. A whole host of other brands, including Roomba, Eufy, and Ecovacs, have had no problem in Haslam’s home. If you have a house with an open floor plan and very little furniture, the 360 Vis Nav’s eye-watering price might be worth it. Otherwise, it’s simply not good enough.