Roborock has taken all the best bits from Shark and Dyson vacuums and put them in one mega-vac – and I can't wait to try it

• Roborock has launched the H60 stick vac, with auto-empty dock option
• Features include a flexible wand, laser headlights and powerful suction
• Expected to be available in US, UK, AU and elsewhere; pricing TBC

Roborock is currently best known for its robot vacuums, but word has reached my ears that a new manual stick vac series is set to join the brand's range, and it looks to be an amalgamation of all the most popular features from today's best cordless vacuums.

There are six models in the new lineup: the H60, H60 Pro and H60 Ultra standalone vacuums (each with higher specs than the last), all three of which are also available as 'Hub' versions with an added auto-empty dock.

Let's take a look at the special features on offer. First up, the wand can be released to bend forward to 90 degrees, enabling you to clean right under furniture without having to get down on the floor – although the guy in the press pics has decided to do so anyway. This is a feature closely associated with the best Shark vacuums. It looks like it only appears on the non-Hub models – for reasons I'll explain in a sec – and has the added bonus of allowing you to fold the vacuum up for more compact storage.

At the business end you'll find a floorhead equipped with a bright green light. This is designed to create big shadows on any dust or dirt lurking on the floor, which otherwise might get missed. Dyson popularized this feature, and so far other brands' headlamp efforts have failed to match up in terms of effectiveness (and most have avoided the green color, perhaps to avoid appearing too similar to the original). However, Roborock's wide, angled beam of light looks very promising indeed.

Super storage

Perhaps the most striking addition here is the auto-empty charge dock included with the H60 Hub vacuums. Pop the vacuum on the dock and everything in its bin will whoosh out into a larger dust bag in the base – this is sealed and has a capacity of either 2L or 3L depending on which model you go for. The auto-empty process here is complete in an ultra-speedy 10 seconds.

Roborock has made the vacuum wand telescopic so the dock doesn't need to be awkwardly tall (I assume it also makes it impossible to incorporate the forward-bending mechanism, which is missing on the Hub models). Conveniently, the brand has also added detail tool storage to the hub, so everything is in the same place.

Auto-empty docks are very common with robot vacuums, and gradually starting to appear at the top end of the manual vacuum cleaner market too. So far it's mainly Shark embracing the trend, although Samsung's premium vacs also have auto-empty docks.

As well as keeping the vac charged up and ready to go at all times, the dock removes the need for messy and regular manual emptying. This means brands can get away with a slightly smaller onboard dust cup – which in turn means a lighter and more streamlined vacuum overall. (I don't have dust capacity or weight details for the H60 series yet.)

Back to basics

It's not all bells and whistles; the basics look very solid too. On the top-of-the-range H60 Ultra model there's a maximum of 210AW of suction – not quite up there with the best Dyson vacuums, which top out at 280AW, but very decent nonetheless. T

here's also a promised 90 minutes of cleaning on a single charge with the Ultra, which is up there with the longest runtimes on the market. It looks like the battery is removable, to allow you to extend runtimes by hot-swapping for a backup battery, too.

Elsewhere there's a promising-looking range of detail tools, and a thorough five-stage filtration system to ensure the air getting kicked out the back of the vacuum is as clean as possible.

I'm a big fan of Roborock's other cleaning gadgets – the brand crops up repeatedly in my guide to the best robot vacuums, and it features amongst the best wet and dry vacuums on the market too. I'm excited to see if it can impress as much with its manual models.

I'm also intrigued to know what kind of price point we're looking at. We're light on specifics here – my brand contact told me that while the H60 Series vacs are expected to go on sale in a number of territories including in the US, UK and Australia, no pricing information is currently available.

I know they're being positioned as 'premium', but pricing varies wildly at this end of the market – Shark's fanciest model (the PowerDetect Cordless) is a sort-of affordable $429.99 / £499.99, while Dyson's top-end Gen5detect is $949.99 / £769.99, and Samsung's Bespoke AI Jet Ultra comes in at an eye-watering $1,099.99 / £1,199.99 (at list price, at least). Where will Roborock position its offerings?

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