Roborock Qrevo Curv review: Ahead of it

Regardless of the brand, robot vacuum cleaners tend to mature at the same rate. Everyone came out with zero tangle rollers at around the same time, we saw two robovacs with arms at CES, and even Dreame now has its own take on climbing stairs in the same way the Qrevo Curv does. The difference between them lies in the finer details and the execution.

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv takes many already commercialised features and improves upon them in subtle, but wholly effective ways. Its new DuoDivide anti-tangle brush fixed quirks from previous iterations, the 18,500Pa suction power is more powerful (and quieter) than any other robot vacuum we have tested, and the larger threshold clearance has proven to be useful in ways I didn’t anticipate. On the winding road of robovac innovation the Qrevo Curv isn’t just cresting, it is well ahead of the curve.

Fitted out as both a vacuuming and mopping robovac, the Qrevo Curv is pretty close to replacing your stick vacuum. On an open wooden floor, a single pass at moderate suction picked up around 96% of medium debris and 99% of small debris in our testing. On carpet the performance isn’t quite as good, picking up 98% of medium debris, and 93% of small dander. The main hold outs on carpet are along the edges.

Despite having advanced edge cleaning technology, the Qrevo Curv does struggle cleaning up against walls on carpet. During testing our small and medium particles would get stuck in the dip where the carpet and the walls meet. While on hard floor the FlexiArm Arc Side Brush is able to whip loose debris out from the edge for the robovac to suck it up, this doesn’t work quite as well on carpet. Still the clearance rate is excellent, even if you will have to whip out the handheld vac to get into tight corners.

Mopping on the other hand excels along edges. The same FlexiArm Arc technology allows one of the dual rotating mop heads to extend out and get right up to the edge on hard floors. At times it seems like the mopping along the edges works better than it does in the middle of the floor. That could just be the additional friction of the downwards pressure from the mop grazing against the wall (or chair leg), but freshly mopped edges look absolutely pristine after a single pass from the Qrevo Curv.

On open floor the Curv fares a touch less favourably. One mopping pass with a high water flow picks up 95% of wet messes like tomato sauce, and sticky messes like honey. After a second pass that goes up to 97% for both, but there is still a residual film left behind that could benefit from a once over with an electric mop. This is just about standard from any robot vacuum at this price point. These devices have come a long way and mopping in particular has improved, but you’ll still need to do a little bit of your own labour if you’ve made a significant mess at home.

What struck me the most while letting the Qrevo Curv roam freely is just how quietly it operates. Apart from the device announcing its next move like “cleaning mop” and “returning to dock”, I barely noticed it ambling around the house. What's more impressive is that my dog hardly noticed either. She is pretty vocal about her taste in robot vacuums (she doesn’t like Eufy, and has a love/hate relationship with Ecovacs), but she has been entirely non-chalant about the Curv. For households with young children, or discerning pets who value peace and quiet, this bodes well.

On pets, the Curv includes the redesigned Duo-Divide anti-tangle roller. While older Roborock vacuums use a dual roller system to decrease hair and fur tangles, the Duo-Divide is more like a single roller with a gap in the middle. In previous reviews we noted that while the old anti tangle system did result in less tangles, it also left furballs around the place. I hoped this new design might stop this little quirk and it did. For the most part at least. The gap in the roller, coupled with the higher suction power seemingly allows the fur easier passage into the vacuum. While on older models I would find multiple hair balls scattered around after a vacuum, I have only found one during my time with the Qrevo Curv. 

Probably the most interesting innovation in the Curv is the one I have found the fewest practical applications for. The AdaptiLift chassis allows the robovac to lift itself up and over 4cm high thresholds. It has been hailed as a step towards robovacs climbing stairs, and while that isn’t entirely true, it does somewhat change how the device approaches cleaning.

Going over small thresholds of around 1-2cm the Curv uses the same lift and veracity as it does for larger ones. It backs up, lifts itself and accelerates towards the edge. It makes me laugh, but it isn’t entirely necessary for a floor joiner it could easily just roll over. It uses this same approach when it comes across things stacked on the floor. I’ve seen it try to mount a few books, but most commonly it plays around on the drum pedals from my partner’s drumkit.

Any other robot vacuum has treated these in the same way it would treat a chair leg and simply ignores it, but the Curv is adamant about trying to vacuum and mop on top of them. Honestly, I don’t hate it. It isn’t something I have ever thought to clean, so the robovac’s insistence is strangely helpful even if it is confusing. 

I doubt this was the practical application Roborock was going for with AdaptiLift technology. On site you can see it coasting over a thick, sliding door kind of base which looks like a threshold between an apartment and its balcony. Apart from this example, I can’t think of any other 3-4cm rises in your typical home that you’d need a robot vacuum to get up and over. I’m happy to be proven wrong - seriously, email me with your examples.

Realistically, I think this feature exists simply because it can. Roborock is the first to bring something like this to market and that counts for something.

Roborock sets the bar for what mapping and intelligence should look like on robot vacuum cleaners. The Curv is no exception, and while it isn’t entirely perfect the device can be trusted to roam free without needing to pre-clean beforehand.

Its object detection and object avoidance is said to be reliable on objects at least 3cm large. While this is larger than other robot vacuums, the Curv can actually handle much smaller. Cables, stray shoe laces, and raggedy dog toys remain safe from its grips for the most part. I have only had to chase it around the house to reclaim one of my pup’s small rope toys, but apart from that it has reliably ignored anything strewn across the floor. 

Its adaptive, real time object detection is relatively responsive as well. If I move an object into its path within around 30cm it is able to change its course to avoid it. Anything less and the pair are likely to collide, but even so the bump is never that hard. It hardly makes a noise when hitting a door, and you’re more likely to jump at the mop extending out to clean around your foot than at the impact.

Practically speaking this means you can easily set and forget the Qrevo Curv. Chances are you can rely on it to do its job while you’re out of the house, without causing any additional carnage in its wake. For a hands-off cleaner, it ticks that box.

Retailing for $2,799 the Qrevo Curv is a pricey robot vacuum, but not quite as pricey as they come. Last year plenty of robot vacuums, the S8 MaxV Ultra included, hovered closer to the $3,000 mark, so it is nice to see the premium price-point drop just a little bit.

The device is available from a range of retailers across Australia, but the pricing is consistent regardless of who you decide to shop with.

Whether you’re looking for something practical to help around the house, or you’re a bit of a nerd and want to check out the latest in robotics, the Qrevo Curv won’t disappoint. It has some hefty specs and its practical performance absolutely lives up to the high bar the company has set for itself. Our testing shows it should be able to carry out all routine floor maintenance in your home without much help from you. At a consumer level, the Curv sets a new standard other robot vacuums will need to live up to.

From a techier, geekier side, the Curv is also a novelty. It is the first iteration in a new generation of robot vacuums aimed at tackling the dreaded stair problem in the home. It doesn’t quite hit the mark, but it is fun to watch it use the new technology to problem solve in unexpected ways.