INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   This may not be something I talk about a lot in our reviews but I grew up with pets, my grandparents had them, my parents have them and naturally I have them as well (4 to be precise) and if you also happen to have pets at home you know just how hard it is to keep it clean. However, at the end of the day it's not so much a matter of just how hard it is (you can always clean) but a matter of just how long it takes and if you're working most of the day (and night) there's not nearly enough free time for everything. Now if there's something I’ve always liked about the electronics industry is that it keeps inventing ways to take everyday chores (household ones primarily) off your list resulting in more free time for other activities (more free time to rest or spend with your friends and family is always a good thing, right?). Robot vacuum cleaners were created for this exact purpose and although it took nearly 23 years since the very first model made its debut in the market for them to reach high popularity levels the time is finally here. Roborock is one of a handful of companies who have made a name of themselves solely by manufacturing Robot vacuum cleaners and since they launched their latest S6 model last month today I’ll be checking it out.

   Founded in July 2014, Beijing Roborock Technology Co., Ltd. (Roborock) specializes in the research, development, and production of robotic home cleaners and other cleaning appliances. Roborock’s HQ is in Beijing, with R&D and branch offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen—where our engineers, designers, scientists, and manufacturing experts collaborate closely throughout development and testing. We strive to create innovative products addressing various household problems, making life more comfortable with the development of cutting-edge technology. Even though (or perhaps because) the home robotics industry is so new, many products coming to market that don’t showcase the true potential of the industry. At Roborock, our team is committed to showing the world what’s possible when you have a robot to help you at home. Our team comes from companies like Microsoft, Huawei, Baidu, Foxconn, and other industry giants. We have diverse educational backgrounds and experience in different fields like algorithm development, electronic engineering, mechanical structure design, and manufacturing. Our vision is to create truly functional and durable products, helping people enjoy a life made possible by high technology.

   As its name clearly suggests the Roborock S6 (currently available in all black, white silver and white bronze colors) is the successor to the very successful S5 model (although the S6 was developed based on the improved S55 model - wonder if we'll see a S66 model soon) released early last year. Still even though both models sport the same 2000Pa maximum suction (via a 1500RPM fan - according to Roborock this is enough to even lift AA batteries from the ground), 5200mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack, 480ml dust bin capacity, Wi-Fi connectivity, LDS laser navigation (300rpm rangefinder), mopping function and a large number of features in general (including app control, carpet pressurization mode, zone cleaning and high precision mapping - up to 98%) the brand new S6 is not only 50% quieter but it's also 20% faster largely thanks to the 32-bit quad core processor used (again always according to Roborock internal tests). Both models are also suitable for use in areas up to 200m2 and share the same rated power (58W) but the S6 comes packing a grand total of 14 sensors (including an accelerometer, odometer, infra-red cliff sensors and a compass) located on all sides (360 degrees sensing). So, is this the Robot Vacuum to get? Let's move forward with today’s review and find out.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roborock S6 comes packed inside a white box that has all three available colors at the front right beneath the company logo and its main features and above the color selection.

 

 

On the right side of the box we find several drawings showcasing the S6 bundle whereas on the left we again find the main product features.

 

 

The main product features are also showcased at the rear of the box via three images.

 

 

Every single piece of the bundle is safely packed inside plastic bags and in a piece of cardboard.

 

 

Along with the Roborock S6 the box also contains a charging dock, power cord, damp-proof mat, adjustable water tank, mop mounting plate, two mop cloths, 10 disposable mop cloths, air and water filters and the user manual.

 

 

THE S6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since testing the S6 inside the lab wouldn't make much sense i decided to take pictures of the S6 where it would be tested, at home (not to mention that white on white is a bad combination). The exterior of the Roborock S6 is made almost entirely out of plastic and measures 358 in length, 353mm in width and 96mm in height.

 

 

There are three buttons on top of the S6, the center button which is also the on/off/start cleaning button (also doubles as a battery level status LED), the spot cleaning button (cleans a 1.5m2 square area around the S6) and the home button (sends the S6 back to its charging base).

 

 

Underneath this round plastic cover Roborock has placed the laser distance and height sensors.

 

 

The rear of the device is perforated (air outlet) and as you can see the S6 features wall sensors on both sides.

 

 

At the front of the device we find the recharge sensor (the entire front is actually a bumper which goes in and out whenever the S6 pushes against something).

 

 

In order to access the dustbin, you will have to open the top of the unit as seen above (the Wi-Fi activity LED and the reset button are located just over the dustbin).

 

 

The dustbin comes ready with a removable and washable air-filter.

 

 

Right next to the dustbin we also find a small cleaning tool for the main brush (there's also a small cutting tool on the other end to remove things entangling the main brush or any other part).

 

 

Turning the S6 over we see where most of its equipment is located.

 

 

Here we find a removable a side cleaning brush (some Robot vacuums feature two but Roborock opted for one), the removable main brush, two large wheels, 6 cliff sensors (2 at the front and 2 on each side), two charging contacts and an omni-directional round wheel.

 

 

The main cleaning brush looks like it wouldn't have any problem with pet hair (we'll put that to the test later on).

 

 

The main brush also has two brush caps, one on each end (needed to mount the brush into its place).

 

 

The charging base (also made out of plastic) measures 232mm in length, 160mm in width and 115mm in height (damp proof mat not included).

 

 

As you can all see the rear of the charging base opens up to route (and even to store) its power cord.

 

 

To properly use the charging base, you will also need to mount the damp-proof mat on it as seen above.

 

 

The adjustable water tank and the mop cloth can be mounted at the rear of the S6 (the water tank has 3 main parts, the small wheel visible above, a rubber cap (which you will need to open in order to fill the tank with water) and a small switch which can be used to adjust the water flow rate (low-medium-high).

 

 

This is how the dustbin looked after just 10 minutes of cleaning my house (seems effective right?).

 

 

MI (MIJIA) HOME APP

 

 

 

 

 

 

The control app requires you to either register an account or sign-in using your Facebook account.

 

 

After this is done and the S6 is turned on you can search for new devices.

 

 

As you can see Roborock is using the same app as Xiaomi does so there's a long list of available devices here (of course you need to select the S6 in either window to proceed).

 

 

If you encounter problems with connecting to the S6 you can reset it by pushing the home and spot cleaning buttons.

 

 

We had no issues during pairing and so the entire procedure took less than a minute to complete.

 

 

The device also allows you to pick a name for the room where the S6 is located at.

 

 

Once the setup procedure is complete the S6 will be listed under the main app screen.

 

 

Via the Mi Home app, you can also check for firmware updates so our tests were performed using the 3.4.5_0412 version.

 

 

The app has several available settings for you to adjust including two special ones (map saving mode which is still in beta and carpet mode).

 

 

Under the care tab you can check the current life/status of the various S6 components (of course these are estimates based on the how long the S6 has been used).

 

 

If you want the S6 to start cleaning automatically during specific hours you can set that up in the DND tab.

 

 

There's also a handy remote control function (buttons/joystick) from where you can move the S6 yourself.

 

 

Took over 30 minutes for the S6 to map the 1st floor of my house and as you can see you from the above screenshot you can also choose between quiet, balanced, turbo and max suction modes.

 

 

As mentioned earlier the life/status screen for the various components is not very accurate so after using the S6 for 2 hours during day 1 of our tests the life/status tab estimated almost 3 hours of use.

 

 

Of course, the app also allows you to setup no-go zones on the map and divide it into several zones (after that you can command the S6 to clean specific zones).

 

 

TEST RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robot Vacuums may be home appliances but they are very advanced ones so we thought about running some tests like we do with most electronic devices. So here you can see the maximum cleaned area during our tests (single pass, start to finish), total battery life (in quiet/balanced/max modes) and noise levels again in quiet/balanced/max suction modes (since I also have two regular vacuums at home I also recorded their levels so you can all have something to compare the S6 with). Of course, this testing methodology may vary slightly if we end up getting many more Robot Vacuum models (for example not all may have the same suction modes) but if that happens, I’ll be sure to update this section.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

   A while back Xiaomi invested in Roborock so if you think you've seen some of their models being sold under the Xiaomi brand name you are not wrong since they do. Still Roborock is a whole different company to Xiaomi and we do think this really needs clarifying cause we too at first thought that Xiaomi and Roborock are one and the same. With that out of the way there are three things that stound out about the Roborock S6, its powerful suction (quite impressive really), battery life (which toped at 172 minutes during our tests at quiet suction mode - Roborock reports up to 180 minutes of battery life so we were glad that the S6 came really close at that - still that may also depend to the type of floor) and its sensors which although not perfect (if you have many chairs in your house however even those can't perform miracles so you will need to take them out of the way) did manage to cover a very good percentage of the 1st floor of my house. Noise levels are also very good (although on some floors the wheels may get noisier than the suction fan itself) and the same applies for the mopping function (however due to the somewhat small water tank it's far from perfect) and the front bumper which was put to use more times than I can count. The only small downside has to do with the charging base since it leaves the S6 completely vulnerable to things like dust and yes pets (some Robot Vacuums have closed charging bases to avoid these issues - they do take more space however). Overall, we are all very pleased with the Roborock S6 (especially me since I found a way to clean my house even while I’m at the lab) so all that's left is to see just how much you need to spend to get it.

   The Roborock S6 was officially announced on the 7th of last month (that's also when our sample was shipped) and is currently among the most advanced Robot Vacuums in the world. Being among the best however also means that it's not exactly what we'd affordable and so it currently retails for USD599/539.10Euros from Gearbest.com (should also be available on Amazon soon). The good news is that this price tag is not far off compared to what the S55 costs right now so if you were thinking on getting the S55 the S6 is obviously a better choice. Again we were completely surprised by the performance of the Roborock S6 and although we don’t think that any Robot Vacuum can beat the level of cleaning people can perform still they are a very good alternative if you don’t have enough time to clean and that alone is worth the hefty price tag which is why we give the Roborock S6 our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Size / Height
- Suction Power (2000pa)
- Battery Life (5200mAh / Up To 3 Hours)
- Noise Levels (Always Compared to A Regular Vacuum)
- LDS Laser Navigation (Mapping Accuracy)
- Mopping Feature
- Number of Sensors (14 In Total)
- Charging Base Size
- Control App

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Cost Of Parts (For Some)
- Charging Base Size (Vacuum Is Exposed)