Roborock Saros 10 review: Skinny, smart, and off the charts

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, I saw the new Saros range in action. The Saros Z70 was obviously the talk of the town, because who can resist a claw that literally gives you a hand with your laundry? The Saros 10 was the underdog. It cleaned around awkwardly shaped table legs with ease, and watching the AdaptiLift chassis versus a high-pile carpet was impressive.

On the show floor, the Saros 10 is flawless. How does it measure up in the home? Although it has its foibles, the Saros 10 exceeded expectations.

We’re a clean household. We keep our benchtops tidy and our shoes on a rack in the garage. But the hamartia of our home is the dogs that don’t stop shedding. Vacuuming is a daily occurrence, even though their days are mostly spent soaking up the sun or sheltering from the world beneath a blanket. 

The Saros 10 is at its best when it’s let loose on hard flooring. The floor seems to sparkle after outsourcing the vacuuming and mopping to our new live-in robot. We have the luxury of floors free from paw prints and fur with minimal maintenance. It empties the dustbin and self-cleans the mop with 176-degree water, so you can rest assured your floors will remain clean. Even after cleaning up sauce-based spillages, coffee, dirt, or any other debris your pets have strewn in from the backyard. 

The VibraRise 4.0 mopping system uses dual-spinning mops that vibrate 4,000 times a minute. When it approaches the spill, it’ll also lift the Omni wheel and apply extra pressure. The result is a deeper clean you don’t have to wait for. While it did take slightly longer for thick, sticky residues like honey, the shine was immediate when cleaning up liquid and sauce-based spills. 

When it comes to carpet, the Saros dropped the ball. I often had to manually set it to re-do the main bedroom because it was too taken on whatever was happening underneath the bed. Half of the space underneath the bed is used for storage. The other half is where the Saros would spend a large chunk of its time. After a re-do, it was hunky dory, but rerouting it in the middle of a cleaning job felt tedious.

While the Saros 10 has excellent mapping and is quick to reroute around toys plonked in its path, when it comes to human obstacles, it doesn’t know how to act. It can move out of your way if you approach in an open area, but confined spaces are a different story. I’ve frequently been swept by the FlexiArm brush while prepping dinner in the kitchen. You’ve got two options: stand still, and it’ll move around you. Unless you’ve got a low tolerance for frustration while cooking. Then, your only option is to leap out of its way as it quickly tries to form a new path. This new path will likely result in a second FlexiArm tickling.

The Saros 10 is a state-of-the-art robovac. As such, it uses an industry-first dual transmitter solid state LiDar, which simply means it can see and identify what obstacles are in its path. It can accurately identify toys, pets, and cables, but it frequently mislabels everything else as pet waste. It’s quite an experience seeing that little poo icon and rushing to clean it up, only to find the robovac circling a pair of jeans. 

While it can quickly identify and avoid most items, cables and cords are its greatest weakness. We’re a family of gamers, so an ethernet cord runs the length of the upstairs hallway. Even with it taped to the side of the wall and labelled as a no-go zone, the Saros just couldn't resist chewing up and stumbling over the thick blue cord. Though it's slightly frustrating supervising a high-end vacuum, it’s a small con in a long list of pros. 

Vacuuming under low-clearing furniture with a stick vacuum is a pain in the neck. So much so that the gap beneath the TV unit would go uncleaned for weeks. The motivation to move such a hefty unit is so low. The Saros expertly traversed irregular spaces like circular pot plants, chair legs, and low-clearing furniture. I was impressed with how easily it got itself in and out of tricky spots. Instead of the standard 2D LDS, the Saros uses 3D Time of Flight (ToF) tech to gauge and navigate the depth and height of spaces. This means it can understand which pieces of furniture are too low, and clean around them as needed. 

The Saros 10 is a sleek, sophisticated robot that feels like a fun but functional decoration in my home. The shiny metal dock is genuinely nice to look at and doesn’t feel like an eyesore that could be replaced by a decorative plant. The cord management behind the dock can feel awkward at first, even with the dedicated cord storage area. Though, once it's out of sight, it's out of mind.  

The Saros 10 comes out of the box raring and ready to go. Just plug in the dock, scan the QR code in the app, and fill up the clean water tank. In the app, you can establish no-go zones, areas with varying floor types, and order which rooms you want cleaned first. You can also schedule the Saros to clean at the same time each day. I set it to vacuum and mop each night after dinner, so every day starts by thinking, ‘Wow, whoever cleaned the floors last night has an eye for detail.’ 

Aside from some minor kinks, the Saros 10 meets the expectations it sets on the show floor. The vacuuming and mopping performance is off the charts, and it effortlessly cleans tight corners and low-clearance furniture. It can also identify and avoid most obstacles in its path, except for human feet. It does have a habit of mislabeling obstacles and chewing cables, but these are small issues in comparison to how sparkly your floors could be.