The Roborock Saros 10 Is Great (but It's Not My Favorite Roborock)

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At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, Roborock announced it was changing the naming convention for its high-end robots to SAROS (I’m told this is not an acronym for anything). A lot of attention was paid to the Saros Z70, which has an "arm" that can pick items up, but Roborock also released two additional robot vacuums—the Saros 10 and Saros 10r. I’ve had the 10 running in my home for a few weeks now, and it's a great peek into the future of floor-cleaning robots, as it has many features we saw all over CES.

Overall, I was pleased by the Saros 10; it’s clearly the successor to the S8 line from Roborock, with a number of improvements, and while I thought it was much better than many other robot vacuums I've tested recently, I didn't think it was better than other Roborocks currently out.

The Saros 10 has sleek metal build

For the last few iterations of robots, Roborock has relied on molded black or white plastic with metal accents. Recently, it diverged from the boxy shape most robot docks offer with the Curv, which lives up to its name with a soft arc to the design. The Saros 10 looks downright futuristic, leaning heavily on polished metal with curvy white (or black) metal accents. Unlike other brands that are building docks that look like skyscrapers, the Roborock docks continue to be a bit wider but lower to the ground, able to tuck under more spaces. 

Under the hood of the 10 is the dirty and clean water tank, which each hold about four liters of water. A panel on the front of the dock pops open to reveal the vacuum bag and dedicated dock for a cleaning solution. Even better, this is simply a container; you don’t have to purchase brand-specific cartridges; you can use whatever solution you want, although obviously Roborock advises you use theirs. 

The robot itself is thinner than previous versions of this brand or others. While I’ve lifted much of my furniture to make it easier for robots (or myself) to clean, the Saros 10 even snuggled under the middle of the couch that sags a little. 

The LiDAR tower on the Saros 10 is retractable

The way the Saros 10 manages to be so thin is by starting to move away from LiDAR, the mapping system almost all robot vacuums have used for the past year or two. This light-based technology required a small tower (that looks like a button) on robot vacuums in recent years that made it a bit taller. The 10 makes that tower retractable, so when the robot is navigating in spaces that are a little tight—say, under a table or couch—it disappears into the robot. At that point, the robot relies on cameras, lights, and a little AI. 

This isn’t too unusual; most robots are going in this direction, getting an assist from AI and onboard cameras that help distinguish what is in front of a robot, and whether they should ignore it (such as if your pet had a recent accident) or traverse it (say, a cord). Roborock has a lot of fancy branded words for this new navigation and AI, but ultimately, it means the robot can work at night, in tight spaces, and is less likely to get stuck. 

The Roborock app experience remains great

Like its predecessors, the Saros 10 comes out of the hulking box put together; all you need to do is plug it in and dock the robot. It paired within seconds by scanning a QR code on the robot itself, and as soon as I loaded up the water tank it was ready for a maiden voyage. 

Usually, this initial visit is where the robot leaves the dock, and using LiDAR, creates an uncomfortably accurate linear map of your space within seconds just by “looking around.”  The Saros 10, perhaps due to the additional power of the cameras and AI, took a less cursory look around, poking its nose into every corner of the room. What it revealed at the end was a map that, yes, was accurate in terms measuring the space, but also layered in information that no other robot app had caught in such detail. 

For the first time, every piece of furniture, every rug, and every cord was laid out in the app. It doesn’t understand that the obstacle it is encountering is an air purifier, but it nailed the shape of it in the app. This is important for two reasons: First, having accurate landmarks in the room makes creating cleaning zones much more accurate—usually they’re a guess. Second, it shows how useful that AI is, since identifying correctly what the robot is encountering means that it can more accurately decide how to deal with that item. A low pile carpet needs different pressure than tile floor. 

All the other aspects of the Roborock app that I love, including pin-and-go feature, which allows you to pin a spot on the ground and the robot will go there and, if you’d like, clean it. I also love the remote control feature, which turns the app into a remote for the robot, so you can direct it wherever you like.

More suction doesn’t translate to a better vacuum

Over the last few weeks, meeting with the engineers who made lots of the robots that debuted at CES, I was able to truly nerd out on the sorts of details most people would find banal. Among them, the design of the sweeping arm for the vacuum has changed to be two pronged instead of three, and it swings out, away from the robot to gather more dust and get closer to the wall. And while other robots vacillate between one roller or two, the Saros is the first I’ve seen to feature a split roller design, which Roborock says will all but eliminate hair getting caught up in the machine. 

I found these elements to work well to gather detritus off the floor, whether from a rug, carpet, tile, or wood. While it did a good job, I didn’t think it did as well as the Curv or the Narwal Freo Z. 

More interesting, the Saros 10 has a stupid amount of suction power: 22,000Pa. That’s more than twice of most of the robots we saw last year, and yet, to be honest, it didn’t seem to make a big difference to me. I’ve asked engineers why the Pa is going so high—and does it even matter—and at least one admitted to me that it was mostly for marketing purposes. You shouldn't ignore this number when shopping for a robot, but it shouldn't be the deciding factor either.

Saros 10 returns to the mop pad

The main difference between the previous lines—the S8 and the QRevo line—was in the mops. The QRevo line features two spinning pads, while the S8 line has one vibrating mop pad. I’d always preferred the pad because it simply cleaned better. But as more and more robots moved to spinning pads, I reconsidered. After thirty minutes of the Saros 10 mopping with its one vibrating mop pad, I remembered how much better they worked getting real grime off the floor. 

In the case of the Saros, this is aided by two additional factors: First, the 176° water that is constantly cleaning the pad. Second, the chassis on the robot—basically the robot itself—can lift its front end. While this is intended to help it navigate spaces better, it has also been leveraged to exert pressure on the backend of the robot, where the pad is, and thus, the mop gets better contact with the floor. 

The Saros 10 doesn’t climb stairs (but it thinks it does)

Another company, Dreame, introduced a “stair climbing” robot this year (which, for the record, can only climb two-inch tall inclines). The thing is, the Saros 10 can’t be far behind, as it repeatedly climbed thresholds in my home that approached two inches. That means your robot can get itself into a lot of trouble. Mine kept falling off a tall threshold that no other robot could do more than bump into. The point of the chassis lifting isn’t to climb stairs (yet); it's to help your robot get over cords and other obstacles in the way. It’s interesting to watch the robot try to navigate space using the AI on board. In many ways, it’s aspirational, attempting to do more than it should. 

That’s where the AI is actually useful, even if you’re a skeptic like me. Each time the robot ventured out, it got better. It was clearly learning about both my space and my belongings. 

The bottom line

The Saros 10 is probably a better investment than many other robots in its price range ($1,399 when it comes out Feb. 10). I don’t think it’s a better robot than other Roborocks. If you needed to buy one tomorrow, I’d likely recommend the Curv; but if you can hold off, I’d wait to see how the Saros Z70 (the one with the arm) gets reviewed.