Summary
- The Roborock Saros 10R excels when it comes to vacuuming and mopping.
- This flagship robovac has outstanding mapping and navigation capabilities and respectable battery life to boot.
- The Roborock app, a pain point for a lot of smart home tech, is also the perfect companion tool for customizing your vac’s behavior.
I’ve reviewed my fair share of robot vacuums over the last few years, and the Roborock Saros 10R is the best of the bunch, bar none. With its next-level cleaning capabilities and numerous in-app customizations, my upright vac has finally been able to take some vacation days.
Roborock Saros 10R
Upgrade to the next level of cleaning with Roborock Saros 10R. Equipped with the groundbreaking StarSight™ Autonomous System 2.0, Saros 10R ensures uninterrupted cleaning with unparalleled 3D mapping. With a height of 7.98cm, it is the slimmest Roborock ever and features a liftable chassis and Dual Anti-Tangle System for maintenance-free cleaning.
- Excellent vacuuming and mopping results
- Terrific mapping and navigation tools
- Fantastic companion app
- Good battery life
- Quiet operation
- One of the most expensive bot vacs on the market
- Can still get stuck (albeit rarely)
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Price and Availability
The Roborock Saros 10R is the company’s 2025 flagship bot vac that costs a whopping $1,600 and is available in black and white colorways. As of the publication of this review, the vacuum is available to purchase at Amazon or directly through Roborock.
If you’re not into the Saros 10R’s mopping feature but don’t want to pass up the Saros’ exceptional vacuum capabilities, you can save $100 by going with the Roborock Saros 10. This model doesn’t come with mop pads, and the dock doesn’t feature any kind of water tech. But do keep in mind that the Saros 10 uses a less advanced LiDAR scanner than the Saros 10R model.
A Low-Profile Design for Getting Under Beds and Couches
When you’re spending upwards of $1,500 on a robot vacuum, you’ll want it to look as sleek, modern, and unobtrusive as possible. The Saros 10R easily checks all those boxes, in my opinion, a feat shared by both the bot itself and its multipurpose dock. Measuring just 3.14 inches from top to bottom, I love the fact that Roborock was able to house all LiDAR tech in a solid-state fashion. This is why the Saros 10R doesn’t have to have a turret-mounted scanner, giving you those extra few centimeters for getting under furniture like beds, couches, and tables.
The vac is 13.8 inches wide and 13.9 inches from front to back, and the 10-in-1 charging dock measures 19.21 x 18.7 x 15 inches (HWD) and weighs 25.5 pounds. The dock was simple to assemble and easy to move around my apartment. Ultimately, I settled on a corner spot right next to a lounge chair to give the Saros 10R a centralized disembarking point.
The build quality of the Saros 10R is terrific. The textured plastic that makes up much of the chassis is tough as nails and looks great, too. I also appreciated the glossy topper where you’ll find a couple of buttons and status LEDs. I was able to get the Saros 10R up and running in less than 5 minutes, and it took about 50 minutes for the bot to create a map of my 1,300-square-foot apartment, complete with room and obstacle labels.
In addition to the vacuum and dock, other box contents should include an AC power cable, mop pads, an additional dust bag, and user manuals.
The Best Mapping and Navigation I’ve Seen to Date
When it comes to navigation tech, the Saros 10R is one of the most innovative robot vacs I’ve ever seen in action. As mentioned, the solid-state LiDAR system (billed as the StarSight Autonomous System 2.0) eliminates the need for a top-mounted scanner but also gives the vac a significant boost in mapping and navigation prowess.
Frankly, I dread the initial setup of a robot vac, as lesser models take much longer to finish mapping my floor plan, and I often have to make changes to the final map. But the Saros 10R completed the first-time map sweep in record time and nailed all the nooks and crannies of my home. Other than drawing a couple of virtual walls and setting a No-Go Zone for my home office in the Roborock app (for iPhone and Android devices), I thought the final map was in great shape.
The Saros 10R is loaded with all manner of cameras and sensors. There are RGB and infrared lenses on the front of the vacuum, plus a second IR camera on the back. The Saros 10R also features a side-mounted VertiBeam Lateral Obstacle Avoidance system to prevent the robot from banging into odd-shaped furniture, wires, clothing, etc., plus a drop detection system to keep it from plummeting downstairs.
Through the weeks I tested the Saros 10R, I loved watching its object detection and avoidance tech working hard in real-time. Whenever the vac was approaching an in-sight obstacle, it would immediately slow down. If it were an object it avoided before, it would just glide around it. If new objects were discovered on its route, the Saros 10R would briefly stop, identify, avoid, and then continue cleaning. On the rare occasion when the bot would actually collide with an item or a limb (I did this intentionally), the impact was extremely light.
Roborock’s AdaptiLift Chassis also proved effective in several scenarios. When crossing carpet thresholds and transitioning between different carpet and rug heights, the Saros 10R is able to lift itself to cross barriers up to 0.39 inches in height. I only had one issue with this feature when my girlfriend came to fetch me because the Saros 10R had been attempting to climb the rounded feet of my guitar stand. Long story short, it got stuck and I had to bail it out.
A similar “lifting” failure occurred when the vac attempted to summit the beefy surge protector under my girlfriend’s desk (the bot likes to climb!). This is the reason I decided to ban Dexter (of course we named it) from the office.
Give This Vacuum a World Record for Cleanliness
The Saros 10R is the most powerful robot vacuum I’ve ever tested. As of the publication of this article, the 20,000Pa of suction power Roborock was able to hit with this model (and the Saros 10) is one of the best suction ratings in the industry.
When starting a new clean, you can direct the Saros 10 to clean the entire home (or floor), individual rooms, or designated zones. You can also set the vac to Vacuum, Mop, and Vacuum + Mop modes and can use the Roborock app to create custom cleaning schedules and routines. There’s also an AI SmartPlan mode that uses AI technology to decide precisely how the Saros 10R will be cleaning your home on a particular day. I used this mode a number of times and discovered some interesting results. The Saros 10R seemed to pick up on the fact that I’m a late riser, so when it would fire up at 11 am to go on its programmed daily sweep, it would save the bedroom and master bath for last.
Delivering up to 20,000Pa of suction is quite the feat for a bot vac, and the Saros 10R features five vacuum settings: Quiet, Balanced, Turbo, Max, and Max+. About 80% of my apartment flooring is plush carpeting, with linoleum and tile in the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway. On average, it would take the Saros 10R about 50 minutes to clean the entire home, and that includes mopping (more on that in a second). I was able to get fantastic results when set to Turbo but needed to switch to Max+ for a vacuum experiment: the ole’ dump-a-bunch-of-oats-on-the-carpet test.
I made an S-shape with a banana-flavored packet of Quaker Oats (pictured above) and drew a cleaning zone around it. When set to Turbo the Saros 10R picked up about 75% of the oats; I switched to Max+ to finish the job. There wasn’t much in the way of oats left over, with just a fine dusting on a few surface-level carpet spots.
Considering the Saros 10R isn’t my heavy-duty Shark upright vac, I was more than satisfied with these vacuuming results. I also thought the mechanized side-sweeping brush did a solid job of scooping dirt and crumbs away from baseboards and around appliances.
I can’t exactly say I’ll be parting ways with my tried and true Swiffer Sweeper, but if you need to get up some light staining on hardwoods, tile, or linoleum in a pinch, the Saros 10R’s mopping system is one of the best on the market. The multifunction dock comes with two 3-liter water tanks (one for the clean, the other for dirty) and automatic sanitizing and drying for both mop pads.
While the mop pads will raise to 10mm to avoid being dragged across carpeting, this wasn’t enough to clear my carpet. This meant that the Saros 10R would drag damp mop pads across the floor. My solution: I had to manually lift and place the vacuum in the room I wanted it to mop, and when it was done, I would pick it up again and put it in front of the charging dock.
Enough Battery Life to Almost Finish a Three-Hour Movie
According to Roborock, the Saros 10R should last up to 3 hours on a full charge. The company also claims it should take the vac about 2.5 hours to recharge completely. These are numbers I can 100% stand behind. I had mentioned that it took the bot about 50 minutes to clean my apartment, because that included a recharge break. That’s right: the Saros 10R is smart enough to know when its battery is getting low, at which point it will automatically proceed back to the dock. You can also manually command the Saros 10R to head back to the dock.
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One note here: the multifunction dock pulls a ton of power when emptying the vac’s dust tank, enough for a tall floor lamp to dim and strobe whenever it was time to fill up the dirt bag. This probably has more to do with my apartment’s electrical, but I still thought it was worth talking about.
Using the Roborock App and Assistant Features
This isn’t the first time I’ve used the Roborock app, but by golly was it the best! This intuitive app is packed with features, settings, and more customizations than most of us will ever need. But knowing all of these toggles and automations are available shows just how much Roborock wants device owners to take control of their cleaning experience.
Many of the most essential features and UI elements are located right on the home dashboard, including a widget-style breakdown of the square footage your Saros 10R tackled in its last cleaning session, how long the session lasted (in minutes), and how much battery is left. An interactive map of your floor plan is the main feature on this panel, a blueprint you can easily customize by tapping the Map Edit icon (located below the elapsed time indicator).
You’ll also find all the main cleaning settings for the Saros 10R on this home panel, with additional customizations tucked away in the main settings menu. These are accessed by tapping the three horizontal dots icon at the top-right of the home page. This is where you’ll set up vac and mop schedules, adjust dock settings, get maintenance tips, and more.
Want to know what my favorite sleeper hit feature of the Saros 10R is? Remote viewing. When you tap the little camera icon below the “Map Edit” button, you’ll enter a Remote View mode that uses the front-mounted RGB camera to give you a real-time view of what your vacuum is up to. You can also manually pilot the Saros 10R, as well as interact with family and pets via its two-way audio system.
The Saros 10R can also be controlled with Alexa and Google Assistant devices and even includes a built-in Roborock assistant, codename Rocky. I was able to successfully use Alexa voice commands and the Alexa app to start and stop the Saros 10R and was also able to create an Alexa Routine that fired the vac up when my smart lock was unlocked.
Should You Buy the Roborock Saros 10R?
I get it: the Roborock Saros 10R is painfully pricey. But over the last few years, time and time again, I’ve proved to myself that when it comes to premium hybrid vacs like the Roborock Saros 10R, you truly get what you pay for. And while that $1,600 may hurt in the short term, consider the hours of time and energy such a capable bot vac can save you.
I can count on one hand the number of times I fired up my traditional upright vac over the two or so weeks I tested the Saros 10R.
Is it overkill? Sure, probably for some folks. That being said, I’d rather have a robot vacuum that has every bot vac feature known to man, on top of killer navigation and cleaning tech, than a $200 third-party device that enjoys ramming into walls and furniture.
Looking for more robot vacuum write-ups? Check out our reviews of the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra and the Dream X40 Ultra?
Roborock Saros 10R
Upgrade to the next level of cleaning with Roborock Saros 10R. Equipped with the groundbreaking StarSight™ Autonomous System 2.0, Saros 10R ensures uninterrupted cleaning with unparalleled 3D mapping. With a height of 7.98cm, it is the slimmest Roborock ever and features a liftable chassis and Dual Anti-Tangle System for maintenance-free cleaning.
