Battle of the robot vacuum mops: Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra versus DreameBot X30 Ultra

There are an absurd number of robot vacuums available today, but based on my investigating of dozens of bots, just a fistful of manufacturers are leading the pack erstwhile it comes to innovation, choice, and truly good cleaning machines. These include Roborock, iRobot, and Dreame. Each has late released fresh flagship models: the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, the DreameBot X30 Ultra, and iRobot’s Roomba Combo J9 Plus.

I’ve reviewed the Combo j9 Plus, and I inactive urge Roombas if you’re looking for either a high-end robovac or a budget bot, in large part due to their repairability, ease of use, and reliability. But the competition is getting very good, and with iRobot’s future looking shaky following its break up with Amazon, I figured it was time for a deeper dive into its strongest competitors. Here, I pit the X30 Ultra against the S8 Max V Ultra to see which 1 is the best.

The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra ($1,799.99) is simply a robot vacuum and mop with a charging dock that fills the robot’s onboard water tank, cleans and dries its mop pads, and empties its onboard dustbin. It features a whopping 10,000Pa of suction and a camera for obstacle detection and avoidance. Its mop vibrates up to 4,000 times a minute to scrub your floors and raises up to 20mm to avoid carpet.

The S8 MaxV has a fresh flexi arm that pushes its spinning side brush out further to get into corners better and a side mop that helps clean along edges. A fresh on-device voice assistant can take direct commands, so you don’t request to usage the app or a third-party talker to control the robot (although it works with Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts). It’s besides one of the first robot vacuums that will support Matter, although that feature hasn’t been turned on yet.

The DreameBot X30 Ultra ($1,699.99) has many of the same features as the S8 MaxV Ultra, including a charging dock that auto-empties, washes the mops, and fills the robot’s water tank, plus a camera for obstacle detection. It has 8,300Pa suction and uses dual spinning mop pads that it can automatically remove erstwhile it vacuums — my favourite feature. It can besides lift the mops if needed (up to 10.5mm).

Uniquely, the Dreame can extend its mops out to scope baseboards and even under low furniture, as far as 4cm; this is amazingly effective at getting up grime from edges.

I let these 2 bots conflict it out in my home over 10 days, investigating their cleaning prowess, mopping chops, navigation skills, and unique features — specified as an arm and mops that do the splits. I besides evaluated the plan and usability of their multifunction charging docks and how well they meet their promise of hands-free cleaning. I put their companion apps through their paces, diving into all the settings and features these machines offer in their quest to clean your floors. Read on to find out which 1 came out on top.

While Roborock has redesigned its dock into something smaller and more aesthetically pleasing (it was the first to release a multifunction dock, and those early days were characterized by hulking monstrosities), it’s inactive 1 of the ugliest out there. Dreame, on the another hand, has perfected the stylish dock look, and while it’s bigger than Roborock’s, it’s much prettier.

Dreame’s dock is besides somewhat more functional. While both models will wash the mops with hot water and dry them with heated air, which helps deal with the odor and mess, Dreame has small wipers that clean the mop area for you, whereas Roborock’s mop tray needs manual cleaning. However, Roborock has the option to connect straight to your plumbing, doing distant with the bulky water tank-look entirely. You do request to get a specific model for this, which costs $100 more. While Dreame sells an add-on kit to its existing model for this function, it’s only available in Asia. A North American model — the X40 — is coming later this month, but it costs nineteen 100 dollars.

Both models usage lidar to map and navigate your home. They both mapped the home rapidly and accurately and responded correctly to requests for room-specific cleaning and region cleaning — meaning they didn’t get lost. These robots both have front-facing cameras for AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and they both nimbly avoided fake dog turds, socks, shoes, and bundles of cables.

However, each had weak spots. The Dreame successfully sucked up a pile of Cheerios, which the Roborock thought was an obstacle, but the Dreame got stuck on a stray iPhone cable that the Roborock dodged. Roborock besides loves to eat pencils. In the end, though, they were both seldom derailed compared to non-camera-powered robots I’ve tested, and that’s the biggest benefit of AI-powered obstacle avoidance unless you regularly let your pet poop in your house.

This is the first Roborock since the excellent S7 MaxV Ultra to feature a camera for object detection (all the another models usage 3D obstacle detection, which is not as effective). But Roombas with the same feature are inactive the best at knowing what’s in its way and successfully avoiding it or cleaning it erstwhile necessary. besides worth noting: if you have a bed skirt or fabric around your sofa, lidar-powered robots will see it as a wall, whereas a VSLAM-powered model, like the Roombas, will push right through and clean under your bed.

Both bots have super suction power and did an excellent occupation getting up all last bit of larger debris, specified as rice and oatmeal, on hard floor. But Roborock’s dual-brush strategy did a better occupation on carpet, and its rubber roller plan means little hair tangle. Dreame sent me its fresh $50 anti-tangle tri-cut brush (sold separately) that cuts the hair, and I didn’t gotta deal with any tangles, which was nice. But the Roborock was tangle-free without buying an extra accessory, and its dual brushes did better at getting dirt and hair up off the carpet.

Roborock’s flexi arm is besides a large upgrade. It’s designed to aid the bot clean corners better by reaching the spinning brush out to swipe up the dirt. I have

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seen this in action at CES

, but it happens in the flash of an eye, and despite spending quite a few time hovering over the bot, I never actually saw it work in my home. But the debris I put in the corners to test it was gone, so I guess it worked?!

Auto-cleaning modes are a fresh feature I’m starting to see on high-end robots. They destruct the bother of having to set circumstantial cleaning modes for different rooms — specified as cleaning the kitchen and entryway twice but the dining area once. Both Roborock and Dreame have versions of this AI-powered cleaning mode. Dreame calls it CleanGenius, and Roborock’s is SmartPlan. I found them both very useful for just hitting go and not having to plan the way but inactive ending up with spotless floors.

These modes besides turn on a feature that sends the robot back to clean areas it determines that request more attention. This was hard to test effectively in the time I’ve had with them, but it’s an interesting feature I’ll be keeping an eye on. Anything that involves little of me spending time with an app and more of the robot doing things on its own is simply a good thing.

I truly liked Roborock’s “Recommended Routines,” personalized cleaning sequences that again mean little programming by you. There’s an After Meals 1 that tackles the kitchen and dining area and a Pet Supply option for cleaning around pet food areas (the robot can identify pets, pet beds, and pet bowls), along with a fewer another useful options.

Dreame’s auto-detachable mop pads are inactive the best way I’ve seen to deal with the “how does a robot mop and vacuum without messing up your carpet” conundrum. erstwhile it’s cleaning carpet, it goes back to its dock, takes off its mop pads, then goes and vacuums. Genius. It can besides rise its mop to about 10mm if needed to save time, so it can inactive traverse carpet to mop further distant rooms. Roborock’s mop isn’t detachable, although you can manually remove the pad itself. It does lift a lot higher, up to 20mm, but there’s inactive a chance of contaminating high-pile carpets unless you tell it to avoid carpets.

Dreame’s dual oscillating mop pads besides do a better occupation of getting wet messes off the level than Roborock’s single flat pad. While Roborock’s mop vibrates up to 4,000 times a minute, Dreame successfully removed all the dried ketchup and OJ in my tests, whereas Roborock left a trace behind.

The another thing Dreame does very well is clean baseboards and edges. It uses a “MopExtend RoboSwing” technology that extends its mop out to scope the baseboard and besides swings the robot toward the edge to push the mops under things like my fridge and dishwasher, getting the grime that another cleaning methods miss. Roborock’s Extra Edge Mop system, fresh on the S8 MaxV Ultra, does give the bot a bit more mopping scope — a tiny spinning mop pad extends somewhat out from the right of the robot, but it’s not a patch on the Dreame.

These high-end robovacs have a dizzying amount of features accessed through their apps; which is where you set up the map (name rooms and add furniture to aid the robot realize your home better). This was easy to do on both, and they have very akin apps.

However, Roborock’s app is more refined, more stable, and somewhat more user-friendly. Both have so, so many settings menus to dive into to customize everything from how frequently the bot washes its mop and erstwhile it empties its bin to which direction it cleans your hardwood floors (yes — you can choice “along the grain”). But Roborock makes it easier to get to what you need. It besides never crashed on me, whereas Dreame’s frequently showed the robot offline or made me wait a while before I could access it.

One neat feature is that both can act as roving home safety cameras. Roborock will even go look for your pet (although it failed to find my 80lb pup erstwhile he was sitting right in front of it — to be fair, it was dark, and he looks like a rug). You can besides drop in on the robot’s camera and see and talk to people in your home — yes, that’s as weird as it sounds, but there could be a usage case. The camera feature is not enabled by default on either Dreame or Roborock and requires a set of actions and a code to access it remotely.

Only Roborock has built in voice control — a fresh feature with this model. The wake word is Hello Rocky, and it worked very well, responding promptly and knowing my commands. You do gotta wait a beat after activating it to say the command, which takes a bit of getting utilized to. Dreame can respond to voice commands from Alexa, Google Home, and Siri shortcuts (as does Roborock), but the single-purpose usage here makes the experience much better.

Hello Rocky gave me much more control than any of the third-party integrations. I could ask it to empty the bin, skip here, halt drying, and more, along with all the standard commands like clean the kitchen and go back to the dock.

Finally, Roborock supports Matter, which gives it an edge. While no of the major smart home platforms support robot vacuums in substance yet, most have said they will soon. The fact that Roborock’s S8 MaxV Ultra is already Matter-certified means you’re ready for that future if and erstwhile it arrives. Dreame has said it will support substance in its newest vacuums but has not made any announcements about the X30.

Both robots execute exceptionally well at mopping and vacuuming, and their all-singing-all-dancing docks make level maintenance virtually hands-free. But the Roborock beats the DreameBot overall thanks to its superior vacuuming performance, easier-to-use app, and built-in voice control. Its dual roller brushes, side brush, and 10,000Pa suction demolished all the dry dirt in my tests. And while the Dreame is better at mopping, the Roborock is inactive very good.

If mopping is what you truly want, the DreameBot’s oscillating mops do a better occupation with wet spills and dried-on gunk, like ketchup. The mop removal feature meant I didn’t gotta worry about my white, high-pile carpet at all. If you have quite a few carpet or high-pile rugs scattered around your home or like the nicer-looking dock, Dreame may be a better choice, but otherwise, the Roborock will suit you very well.

If you are sold on these bots but can’t tummy the price, both brands have cheaper models that do almost as much. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra costs $1,600 and has lower suction power, no camera (so no AI-powered obstacle detection), and no voice assistant or Matter. Dreame’s erstwhile flagship model, the L20 Ultra, is presently $1,500 and slightly better in a fewer areas. It does have lower suction power but can remove its mops and extend them (though not as far as the X30). However, its auto-emptying wasn’t as reliable.

I should note that Dreame has just announced the X40 Ultra, which will be available for an eye-watering $1,900 and will have a model with a direct water hookup. The X40 besides adds a flexi arm — just like Roborock’s — and 12,000Pa of suction. But it inactive only has 1 roller brush, and the brushes are key to cleaning. Also, yes, I do think these robots are breeding.