Robot vacuum cleaners are now a dime a dozen and the old adage of "you get what you pay for" certainly holds true with these handy appliances. For example, you can spend AU$299 on a basic model like the Ecovacs Deebot N20 and get a decent cleaner for hard floors, but it will struggle on carpets and will not self-empty.
On the other end of the scale is something like the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, which is the current flagship for the popular robovac manufacturer and it carries an RRP of AU$2,499 but, for a limited time only, is down to AU$1,997 at The Good Guys.
That's quite the price difference, but trust me when I say that paying the extra cash is well worth the investment if you're after a full-featured robot vacuum that will do your regular floor cleaning for you without you needing to do more than lift a finger... and clean out its water tanks every now and then.
You see, I've just spent four weeks doing my Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni review and was very impressed with not just its cleaning prowess, but found its smart home integration could be handy for some users as well.
I honestly didn't expect a lot from the Deebot X8 Pro Omni when I first set it up as I'd been slightly disappointed by the previous two premium all-in-one robot vacuums I'd tested (from other brands, not Ecovacs). I was thrilled to be proven wrong, so much so that I'd be tempted to recommend it even at full price, but as I said in my review, it's a better buy when discounted, like right now at The Good Guys.
That's because you'll get better bang for your hard-earned buck from it at a lower price, given its rather long list of features, most of which are actually useful – and that includes Ecovacs Robotics' own voice assistant Yiko. With AI integration, Yiko is much more like a chatbot – aka a little more conversational – and can easily handle back-to-back commands.
The flip side to that is Yiko really is very chatty, so much so that I had to mute it to stop hearing the repeated voice prompts every time it started something, whether that was a cleaning run, emptying its bin, washing its mops and pretty much everything else!
I also didn't expect Matter support to be available on the X8 Pro Omni and that means you can set up a complete smart home with other connected devices, all controlled via a single Matter hub.
There's even Google Assistant and Alexa voice support, but enough about its smart features, let me tell you about what matters the most: cleaning.
At that, the X8 Pro Omni does a very commendable job – it earned its TechRadar Recommends badge for good reason.
Its 18,000Pa of suction isn't class-leading as there are other (more expensive) robovacs with upwards of 20,000Pa of power, but I found it cleaned hair off my carpets very well, albeit at its Max setting. What it does better than pretty much every other robot vacuum I've tested is travel so close to skirting boards and furniture that its extending side brush actually cleans along room edges and corners.
It's the same while mopping, too. The extending wet roller does a very good streak-free job on hard floors, although I would advise against using any robovac to mop up a wet spill. That's because the liquid will get all over the undercarriage of the bot, including the wheels and brushes, plus coat the onboard dustbin (including the filter). I've been there and done that, and cleaning everything out to prevent performance issues is pretty much mission impossible.
I didn't even have any issues with navigation and obstacle avoidance, although I've seen other people complain about that online. The robot never once got lost, but it did tangle itself on a cable once in the four weeks I was testing it. I even set up an obstacle course for it and it didn't swallow a sock or a cable in its path – it didn't even push things around as I've seen other bots do!
The base station, too, is very powerful, sucking out practically everything from the onboard bin, and doing a very good job of cleaning and drying the roller. I found it doesn't guzzle as much water as other robovacs I've tested, so the frequency of refilling the clean-water tank is less. So all you need to do is make sure the dirty water is cleaned out regularly so it doesn't grow its own ecosystem inside.
Use of detergent is optional and there's a dispenser in the base station, but note that a bottle does not come in the box with the machine. If you're willing to spend that extra cash, soap dispensation is also automatic once you toggle it on in the app.
Speaking of which: the Ecovacs Home app, too, is much improved and more streamlined. It's easy to set up custom cleaning routines and all the advanced settings are well explained.
The entire floor-cleaning experience with the X8 Pro Omni is excellent, because all you need to do is put your feet up and let it do the dirty work. It doesn't hurt that it can be had for a decent discount.
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