TechRadar Verdict
The 360 Eye is a great first attempt at a robotic vacuum cleaner from Dyson. It delivers the same exceptional build quality we’ve come to expect from the brand, and looks set to be a significant competitor to iRobot’s Roomba line. It’s got a couple of quirks however, one of which is that its height means it can have trouble fitting under furniture.
Pros
- +
Quiet operation
- +
App is easy to use
- +
Compact width
Cons
- -
Not the most thorough clean
- -
Tall height
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Dyson has always been a company that's keen to sit on the cutting edge of consumer technology. It was the first manufacturer to sell bagless vacuum cleaners in the 1990s, and since then has turned its attention to products as wide-ranging as washing machines and even hairdryers, in the shape of the Dyson Supersonic.
Given its vacuum cleaner specialization and high-tech ambitions, it’s perhaps surprising that Dyson took as long as it has to get into the robotic vacuum cleaner market, given that iRobot’s Roombas have been around for over a decade.
But in 2016 Dyson finally released the Dyson 360 Eye. It’s compact, it’s quiet, and it’s easily controlled by a companion app. It also costs a whopping $999 (£799, around AU$1,270).
It's another dependable piece of technology, the likes of which we’ve come to expect from Dyson. But can it do enough to stand out against iRobot, which has to date dominated the robotic vacuum market?
Design and build quality
Looking at the Dyson 360 Eye compared to, say, the iRobot Roomba 980, the machine seems a great deal more compact, although this is only true of its width. The cleaner is just 23cm wide, which is a great deal narrower than the Roomba 980’s massive 35cm.
This small girth is, in theory, great if your home is filled with narrow gaps that the 360 Eye needs to squeeze through. This wasn’t much of a benefit for us, but depending on the layout of your home you might find it more helpful.
However, the downside of this lack of width is the robot’s height, which at 12cm is taller than the Roomba’s 9cm. This ended up being more of an issue for us, as it meant the cleaner was unable to fit underneath one of our raised sofas that the Roomba had no trouble with, but again whether this is an issue for you will depend on the layout of your home and its furniture.
On the top of the device is a single button for starting and stopping the machine, which also doubles as a status indicator light that informs you when the robot’s bin is full, its battery is low, or it’s encountered an error. It’s neatly designed, and does exactly what you need it to do.
In the center of the top of the device is the titular ‘Eye’, which views 360 degrees around the Dyson and allows it to find its way around your home. This sounds impressive, but in practice we found the machine was about as efficient at finding its way around the house than other cleaners.
Underneath the machine is the device’s single brush bar, which sweeps the floor as the 360 Eye drives around. This bar stretches almost the entire width of the machine and can be easily removed for cleaning.
The Dyson 360 Eye comes with a charging station that you set up against a wall. The station is certainly minimalist, consisting of a couple of charging pads on the bottom and a four-square pattern on the top that enables the Dyson’s ‘eye’ to locate it. The station’s plug even has built-in cable management, to allow you to tuck away the power chord no matter how close the station is to a plug.
Unlike with the Roomba 980, you don’t get any additional devices to place around your house to tell the Dyson where to clean. It will do an entire floor, with no option to limit its scope aside from physically placing barriers.
Overall we like the functional design of the 360 Eye, although we do wish it looked a little more modern overall. Dyson’s signature grey plastic might have looked space-age back in the 90s when the company was first making vacuum cleaners, but it’s starting to look a little dated compared to modern appliances.
Maintenance
For a machine that's designed to get into every dirty nook and cranny in your home it should come as no surprise that the Dyson 360 Eye accumulates its fair share of dust and dirt on its internals.
Thankfully the whole machine has been designed to be taken apart so that you can easily clean each piece, which you can do with little more than running water.
The item you’ll spend the most amount of time cleaning, not surprisingly, is the device’s dust bin, which is at the front of the machine and which is removed using a small release catch on the top of the machine. Just pop the bin off, take out the filter, and you can easily empty the bin. It’s also easy to detach and clean the device’s air filters.
Finally, the brush bar can also be completely removed, which we found invaluable for removing the longer hair that became entangled around it over time.
Maintaining the Dyson 360 Eye is as painless as it could be, and it’s refreshing to see a company focusing on allowing you to clean parts rather than simply replacing them when they get dusty.
You’ll have to replace these parts eventually, but the robot’s design makes it easy to take care of them and maximise their lifespan.
Companion app
Like other robot vacuum cleaners, the Dyson 360 Eye comes with a companion app which you can use to schedule regular cleans. You have the option of scheduling cleans on different days at different times that repeat from week to week.
The app will also give you information about the Eye's past activity, including detailed floor plans of your house. It’s interesting information to look at, but in practice your floor plan is unlikely to change much between cleans.
It’s nice to have the additional functionality the app provides, but if you’re anything like us you’re likely to set the 360 Eye to do a daily clean at the same time and never open the app again.
