Roborock Saros Z70 review: The robot vac with the grabby arm (which doesn’t work)

Price When Reviewed

$2,599

Best Prices Today: Roborock Saros Z70

The Saros Z70 – the robot vacuum with the grabby arm – was one of the stars of this January’s CES, the biggest tech trade show of the year. And I was genuinely thrilled to get a model to test at home.

However, this review has been difficult to write. We want to applaud brands who take a big swing and produce devices that are genuinely exciting and different from rivals. But there’s a tendency in the tech world now to rush devices to market before they’re ready, when they’re stuck somewhere between thrilling concept and finished product.

And that’s the issue with the Saros Z70: it’s an excellent robot vacuum with an incredibly cool feature that’s unlike anything else that’s available. The problem is that the feature doesn’t really work.

Design and Build

• Surprisingly low profile
• Huge, feature-packed dock
• Cleans with warm water and detergent

Given what’s under the hood, the Saros Z70 is a surprisingly low-profile machine, measuring less than 8cm (3.14 inches) from the ground. The only giveaway that it’s radically different from your average robot vacuum is a mirrored panel on top, which opens to let the arm unfold.

The robot’s matt black finish and glossy panel is repeated in the dock, which is sleekly designed to fit in with modern décor, and would be at home in a minimalist kitchen or hallway. There are two colour options: black or silver.

But even as full-service charging stations go, it’s huge. It’s 48cm tall (18.9 inches) and wider than most rivals at 37.5cm (14.8 inches), plus you’ll need to factor in the ramp in front that the robot sits on. Altogether, you’ll need a big space to house it.

Still, the dock does absolutely everything you could want it to do. It empties the onboard dustbin; removes and attaches the mop pads, depending on whether it’s vacuuming carpet or mopping a kitchen floor; refills and empties the onboard water tank with warm water; dries the mop pads in hot air; and cleans the dock itself with hot water.  

There’s also a detergent tank from which it’ll automatically add detergent to the onboard tank. Because I’m testing it in a flat with engineered wood flooring, I didn’t use detergent while testing, but it didn’t affect the quality of the cleaning.

Performance and Features

• Genuine set-and-forget vacuuming and mopping
• Inbuilt voice controls
• Granular cleaning settings

Setting it up is straightforward. You’ll need to attach the ramp and let the robot charge, then download the Roborock app and create an account. Pairing takes place using a QR code and, in my test at least, the process was quick and painless.

Once it’s up and running, the robot will loudly narrate everything it does. You might want to let it chatter away for a while until you get used to what it’s doing and why (for example, it might return to the dock during a clean to empty and refill its water tank). But once you’ve got the hang of it, there’s a setting in the app to silence it, which you may find to be a blessed relief.

But if you prefer voice controls to using the app, its onboard voice assistant Rocky will respond to commands to start or pause cleaning, clean a specific room, and more. I tended to find the app quicker and easier to use but that’s partly because I feel stupid talking to a machine, especially if I have to repeat myself over music or the TV. Bellowing at a cleaning disc on the floor does not represent the seamless technological future of my dreams.

The Saros Z70 is one of the best bots I’ve ever tested for maintenance-free cleaning

In its first outing, it’ll map your home and you can then edit the map for accuracy (dividing rooms, for example). Later on, it’ll identify pieces of furniture and add them to the map, so you can request spot cleaning around individual pieces of furniture.

You can also set up exclusion zones. I’d recommend doing this for any areas with a lot of messy cables. The Saros Z70 is equipped with state-of-the-art Lidar and 3D time-of-flight tech for navigation. And, although its obstacle recognition and avoidance is generally very good, it can still struggle with some forms of low-profile items, such as coiled cables and wires.

The app is well designed, easy to use and gives you granular control over cleaning patterns and schedules. You can clean individual rooms, around pieces of furniture, schedule cleaning for after meals, and specify different cleaning modes for different rooms.

You might consider buying the Z70 in the hope that, between its obstacle avoidance and robot arm, you won’t have to pick up anything on the floor before you run it. You would be disappointed. That’s because, while it does navigate carefully around items that are left out, it still sometimes catches them once they’re out of view of the sensors. And I’ll come back to the success of the robot arm later on.

But robot vacuums are built for cleaning. So, how does this one do? The Saros Z70 is one of the best bots I’ve ever tested for maintenance-free cleaning. The dock even keeps itself clean and needs minimal intervention.

However, one of its selling points is its anti-hair wrap measures which, in my home at least, don’t work. My household contains two people with long hair and a gigantic (evil) cat who sheds all the time, so it’s life in difficult mode for this kind of tech.

Indeed, the brush roller became matted with hair in a very short space of time and had to be cut away. The only plus is that the roller is easy to remove and replace.   

The robot’s low profile means it can reach a lot of hard-to-get-to spots around the home, and thanks to its extendable mop pad and spinning sweeper, it does a good job of getting right into corners and along edges.

It wet cleans using spinning mop pads which exert enough pressure to remove sticky stains. Plus, as it refills and empties itself, and cleans and dries its mop pads, you can literally just specify a clean and let it get on with it – which it will do to a very high standard.

Finally, its incredibly strong suction (22,000Pa) means that it’s one of the relatively few robot vacuums I’d trust to give carpets a proper clean.

It’s also a great climber, thanks to its AdaptiLift technology, which can raise the chassis to cope with small steps and elevated thresholds of up to 4cm. There’s a raised threshold between the corridor and the bedroom in my apartment and it’s stumped a number of robot vacuums – but the Saros Z70 crossed it with ease.

But none of these benefits are really the reason you’d be buying it.

Robotic Arm

• Can (theoretically) tidy away shoes and crumpled paper
• More fun than useful
• Remote control option

The headline feature of the Saros Z70 is its robotic arm, which is complete with a gripper. Roborock calls it the OmniGrip 1.0 and it can pick up small objects with a weight of up to 300g, such as socks, tissues, pet and baby toys, and light shoes.

It has “five-axis” movement, which means it can extend and move in five different directions from a rotating base. 

It’s actually quite heart-rending, in an inept Pixar character sort of way

If you have an interest in tech, this is a genuinely exciting feature. Yes, it really can spot and pick up objects from the floor! Yes, it can carry them without damaging them! Yes, it’s cool as anything to see it in action!

But is it useful? Not so much.

The robot comes with a bin that the Saros can see. Pick a spot for it in your home, add it to the map and, after it cleans, the Z70 should be able to drop in crumpled tissues or paper left on the floor.

There’s also an option in the app to add a zone to your map for the robot to tidy away any shoes or house slippers that have been abandoned.

But it doesn’t always work. Sometimes, the robot will pick up a sock, hold it proudly aloft for a while, then deposit it down in the same spot. It’s actually quite heart-rending, in an inept Pixar character sort of way.

Not only is it unreliable, but the only times I needed to rescue the robot was when the arm was extended. When it was tidying up some shoes in the bedroom, it on one occasion navigated into a radiator, and another time into a mirror, and both times it shut down and had to request a rescue.

As for using the bin, I repeatedly threw paper and socks on the floor and the robot merely navigated carefully around the rubbish while it cleaned, then trundled back to the dock, leaving them on the floor and the bin empty.

If you’re considering buying the Z70 as a cool toy, I should note that you can remotely control it via the app, viewing through the onboard camera. This does mean that you can talk to and interact with your pets remotely (which may or may not terrify them) and use the robot to bring you items – as long as they’re bits of paper or shoes lying on the floor – which again is fun, but not hugely useful.  

Price and Availability

In the UK, the Saros Z70 has an RRP of £1,799, although it’s currently available from Amazon for £1,699. In the US, its MSRP is $2,599 but you can currently buy it from Roborock for $1,999. It’s still full price on Amazon.

Even at these reduced prices, it’s still at the top end of the market when it comes to robot vacuums. And although the rest of the features of the robot and dock are excellent, you’re paying a lot more for a robotic arm that, while undeniably awesome, is buggy and ineffective.

You can get a similar feature set, minus the arm, for much less if you go for the Dreame X50 Ultra. Or, you can check out our other top recommendations in our round-up of the best robot vacuums we’ve tested. We’ve also got recommendations for the best budget models.

Should you buy the Roborock Saros Z70?

I love the innovation. I was even won over by the wonky way it drives into a mirror while holding a flip-flop. But should you buy it? No. Not unless your wallet is overburdened with cash and you need to spend it on a fun, high-tech toy.

At this stage, we don’t know if robotic arms are a dead end or the way forward for robot vacuums. But it’s incredibly cool to have this kind of technology in your own home. In some ways, it seems more astonishing that it works at all than that it doesn’t work well.

It’s possible that the Z70’s robot arm functionality could improve with software updates. There’s even talk of compatible cat toys coming. But that doesn’t constitute a reason to buy it now and, in its current state, I can’t recommend it.