If you’ve not heard of layered lighting, you’re in for a treat. Sure, a single ceiling fixture is the easiest way to illuminate a room, but adding a variety of light sources in different places in a room — a technique known as layered lighting — can completely change the way your home looks and feels, making it more inviting and more practical, without the need to redecorate.

To find out why layered lighting is worth trying, and how you to get started, I spoke experts from lighting companies Paulmann, Govee, and Philips Hue . Hue and Govee are two of the biggest names in smart lights, while German company Paulmann produces a range of rechargeable lights that attach to backplates mounted on the wall with screws or adhesive — ideal if you rent or don’t want to get involved with wiring.

“We believe lighting should do more than simply illuminate a room,” explains Jerry Lin, Product Manager at Govee. “A well-designed environment combines different layers of light to create depth, balance and atmosphere, helping people adapt their spaces for any moment of the day.”

Tom Amelung, Junior Product Manager at Paulmann Licht, agrees that lighting is about much more than just function. “It shapes mood, enhances texture and brings colors to life,” he says. “Without a considered lighting scheme, even the most beautifully designed interior can feel flat and uninspiring. When thoughtfully layered, however, lighting creates depth, adds warmth and brings balance and harmony to a room.”

Think beyond the ceiling

So what are the layers that you should be thinking about? “At its core, layered lighting is about combining four key types of light: ambient, task, accent and decorative, so that they work together seamlessly,” explains Philips Hue’s spokesperson. “The result is a home that not only meets practical lighting needs, but one that also adapts effortlessly to different activities, moods and times of day.

Your central ceiling light can be part of that mix, but you need to think beyond it. “Introducing table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights or light strips adds dimension, highlights architectural features and furnishings, and enhances the richness of colors and textures throughout the room,” adds Hue’s lighting expert.

Amelung suggests trying spotlights as well, thinking outside of the standard grid arrangement that you might already have in your bathroom or kitchen. “A uniform grid of spotlights might feel like the easy option, but it often creates flat, overly bright spaces,” he says. “Instead, position lights based on how the room is used.”

That doesn’t mean placing lights directly above seating, though — lights placed directly over your sofa can be harsh and uncomfortable when you’re trying to relax. The same is true in a bedroom, where softer lighting is a better option to avoid making the space feel clinical.

“Place lights above worktops, not behind you, to avoid casting shadows while cooking,” adds Amelung. “Directional options, such as Paulmann’s directional recessed and spotlight options, are ideal for targeting key areas.”

Smart ideas

Smart lights are particularly effective for layering thanks to their versatility. Using connected light fittings lets you transform a space throughout the day without moving anything around. Want to use a corner of your living room as a study during work hours, then use the whole space for relaxing in the evening? With smart lights you can do exactly that, helping delineate spaces that serve multiple purposes.

“One of the greatest advantages of smart lighting is its ability to transform a space throughout the day without requiring any changes to the room’s layout,” says Philips Hue’s spokesperson. “Instead of moving lamps, changing bulbs or adjusting fixtures manually, smart lighting allows you to easily adapt brightness, color temperature and ambience to suit different activities and moods.”

Your home — and the way you use it — is unique, and smart lights let you personalize your layered lighting setup to suit the way you live.

“With intelligent features such as Govee DaySync, your lighting can automatically adjust its temperature and brightness to match your daily routine, shifting naturally from morning to evening,” says Govee’s Jerry Lin. “At the same time, advanced color management systems such as Govee LuminBlend+ let you explore more lighting experiences, from subtle pastel tones to immersive ambient scenes to strike the perfect mood every time.”

Ultimately, smart lighting gives people the flexibility to create spaces that feel more connected to the way they live,” says Lin.

Go for it!

Are you feeling inspired? I asked Philips Hue where I should start if I want to begin experimenting with layered lighting tonight.

“When layering a room, the use cases could be many,” said Hue’s spokesperson. “Say, for example, in a bedroom – a layered set-up might look like an overhead fixture for clarity, bedside lamps for reading, soft accent lights for atmosphere, and hidden strip lights that trace architectural lines.

“Once everything is dimmed, the room feels cohesive rather than cluttered, with each source playing a distinct role.”

Ready to go? Each expert has suggested four products to help you begin experimenting with layered lighting, including recessed spotlights, table lamps, floor lamps, smart ceiling lights, and gradient light strips. Want even more inspiration? Take a look at our complete guide to the best smart lights.

Lights for layering

RunStar 4E Body Scale: One minute review

The RunStar 4E is an affordable smart scale that costs little more than a standard set of electrical scales. Considering it measures more than 20 different body composition metrics, the low price becomes even more impressive. As you’d expect at this price, there are limitations though, with the inability to measure composition accurately (fat-to-muscle ratios and so on) being the most glaring one.

Despite these shortcomings, everything, from app setup to using the scales, is smooth, straightforward, and wonderfully intuitive. Connecting the scales to the companion app is quick and easy thanks to a robust Bluetooth signal, and the option to create multiple users within the app is a nice touch for a family of my size and stage.

The weight measurement consistently measured around 0.4% more than the pricier RunStar 8E SmartScan Pro, which isn’t a massive deviation. For almost all the other measurements, the RunStar 4E adopts a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) measuring method through four metal sensors located on the top panel of the scale.

BMI measurements were almost identical every single time compared to the 8E SmartScan Pro (probably because it's a mathematical calculation not dependent on the electrodes), but almost all other composition measurements offered up a deviation of between 3 and 30%. For these reasons, it’s not likely to make it into our best smart scales guide. That said, for the price, the RunStar 4E is a respectable set of scales for weight and quick BMI calculation.

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Specifications

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Price and availability

• $33.54 / £31.00
• Not available in Australia
• Budget-friendly smart scale

At $33.54 USD / £31.00 GBP, the RunStar 4E Body Scale is incredibly affordable as far as smart scales go. It might lack full body measurements for fat loss and fitness and muscle gain, but for that pleasure you’ll have to part with a lot more money and shoot for something like the RunStar 8E SmartScan Pro, Withings Body Scan series, or Wyze Scale X.

A comparable option in terms of price and features would be the Vitafit Smart Bathroom Scale, which scored a respectable four stars in our testing. Positives included the easy connection, extremely fast results, and the comprehensive app. Our reviewer had some concerns over accuracy, but overall it’s a solid choice.

The scales are FSA and HSA eligible, which means US users are able to use them in conjunction with designating pre-tax money to be taken from pay and put towards paying medical expenses.

• Value score 4.5/5

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Design

• LCD display with color graphics
• Compact and lightweight design
• Powered by 3x AAA batteries

At the heart of the RunStar 4E is a bright LCD display that provides an easy-to-access readout of six metrics: weight, body fat, BMI, muscle mass, body water, and bone mass. The display cycles through these with a few seconds given over to each stat. Unfortunately there’s no way to move to a specific metric using on-device controls, although the full list is available in the accompanying app.

At 11.02 x 11.02 x 0.78 inches and 3.17 pounds, the smart scale is both compact and lightweight. As a result, finding a suitable spot for it in a bathroom or bedroom shouldn’t be a problem. It can also be easily stowed on its side in a cupboard while not in use.

The scale is covered in 6mm tempered glass, which protects against scratches and cracks, neither of which I suffered despite my children doing their accidental best to inflict a dent or two. Underneath you’ll find four anti-slip silicone feet.

Quick and effortless connectivity is via Bluetooth, and power is delivered courtesy of three AAA batteries. USB-C charging would have been better for the environment, but with minimal power required, I don’t envisage getting through too many batteries.

• Design Score: 4/5

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Features

• 22 reportable metrics including weight, BMI, and muscle mass
• App supports multiple users

The RunStar 4E boasts an impressive feature set for such an affordable scale, or at least it would be if the extras were more impressive. At its core, the scale is capable of measuring over 20 metrics, including weight, BMI, body fat percentage, body mass, muscle mass, body water rate, bone mass, and visceral fat. Six of these are visible on the smart scale itself, while the full set is reported in the Starfit RunStar app.

To accommodate families, the Starfit app enables users to set up multiple profiles, one for each family member. By entering the height and target weight of each person, the app is able to provide more accurate and informed reporting. The app also tracks measurements over time and plots them on a chart for trend analysis.

• Features Score: 4/5

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Performance

• Quick results on-device and in-app
• Accurate weight, BMI, and metabolic age
• Some inaccuracies consistently reported

The first thing to note is that the RunStar 4E is quick. In a matter of seconds the scale is able to measure over 20 different body composition metrics and display them instantly in the app. There’s no waiting around for calculations to be made and zero lag when the display is cycling through the six core metrics.

Weight, as you’d expect, is measured prior to all the body composition elements. Having measured myself hundreds of times, I found that the 4E regularly mismeasured my weight by around 0.4% compared to the RunStar 8E SmartScan Pro and, indeed, my rudimentary pair of digital weight scales. It would be unfair to judge the scales too harshly for this small deviation, especially given the price.

According to research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, one study conducted on smart scales shows a median margin of error of around 0.3kgs, so I can forgive it some small deviation. That said, if you’re requiring absolute accuracy, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

BMI was also consistently measured more or less accurately, with deviations of only 0.5%. If you’re only concerned with quick measurements such as weight and BMI, then the RunStar 4E won’t cause you any problems.

Getting into the specifics, musculoskeletal-related measurements using BIA include muscle, muscle mass, and skeletal muscle rates. The first two measured around a 3% deviation from the 8E SmartScan Pro, but it was the skeletal muscle rate which was most concerning, measuring a deviation of nearly 15%.

Unfortunately variable results continue with fat-related metrics. Compared to the SmartScan Pro, body fat percentage, subcutaneous fat, and body fat mass all reported a massive 30% deviation.

Despite comparably poor results on some metrics, it’s worth remembering that most of these are specialized measurements, and to expect too much from a smart scale that costs $33.54 / £31.00 might be a little unreasonable.

That said, it would be preferable for consumers if smart scale manufacturers would only include metrics that they could report on accurately. The RunStar 4E also measures consistently with itself, which means it can still be trusted as a weight loss tool assuming you allow for the margin of error.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Scorecard

RunStar 4E Body Scale: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

My family (two adults and three children) has been using the RunStar 4E for three months. We’ve used it to measure and track all types of metrics, including weight, BMI, and muscle mass. I carried out comparison tests with the more premium RunStar 8E SmartScan Pro. In addition, I’ve used every feature of the app to give the smart scales a thorough testing.

First reviewed: July 2026

• Philips Hue accidentally leaked a new Pro TV lightstrip on its own website
• There are no details of its price or release date yet
• A new Philips Hue Play Sync camera is expected to launch soon

I love Philips Hue lights, and I particularly love Hue lightstrips — so I'm excited by an accidental leak that indicates a new Pro lightstrip is coming to your TV.

The leak was spotted by the excellent Hueblog, who discovered the following text on the US Hue website: "Check out Philips Hue Play gradient strip lights and Play gradient strip light pro." There isn't currently a gradient strip with the 'pro' suffix, so this appears to be a new product that's coming very soon.

I hope so, although I worry about the "pro" bit because that usually indicates a premium price. But if it uses the same tech as the spectacular Hue Omniglow lighting strip I reviewed earlier this year, it could be a stunning addition to your home cinema or gaming setup.

Philips Hue Play Gradient Strip Light Pro: what to expect

The Philips Hue Play system synchronizes your smart lights and bulbs, enabling you to change the lighting with music or to reflect what's going on in a game, TV show or movie. The Gradient Strip Light models are designed to go on the back of your TV and deliver a similar experience to an Ambilight TV, extending the colours from your screen onto the walls and ceiling.

I'm a huge fan of Hue Play – I've been using it since the first-gen Play Sync box was released in 2019 – but the individual LEDs are very visible. If the Pro version were to be closer to the Omniglow, which delivers seamless gradients without the LEDs being visible individually, that would be a great upgrade. Although I suspect it's likely to be pricey too: the Omniglow has an RRP of $139.99 / £119.99 / AU$279.99 for the 3m model.

At the moment details are non-existent, but we do know that Hue is getting some more Hue Play products imminently: the Hue Play Screen Sync TV camera is expected to launch very soon as a more affordable alternative to the clever but expensive Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K. As with the Sync Box it'll mirror your display to your smart lights and bulbs, but you won't need to connect any devices to do it as it'll simply watch what's on the TV.

• Solar energy just had its best-ever month in the UK
• Rooftop panels and farms provided 14.4% of the country's electricity
• The record comes ahead of the legalisation of plug-in solar kits soon

Our gardens may be wilting in this exceptionally dry, sunny summer in the UK, but one thing that is benefitting from all the rays is solar panels. Solar energy just had its best-ever month for supplying power to the grid — and plug-in solar panels are aiming to keep that run going when they become legal later this month.

Alongside solar farms, rooftop panels — which are surging in popularity — helped provide an impressive 14.4% of the UK's electricity in July (via The Guardian). That's 50% more than this time last year, according to National Energy System Operator (Neso) data, and helped to power the fans and air con units we're all relying on to survive while working from home.

The record comes from a combination of two factors. The incredible amount of sunshine we saw in July helped — the UK bathed in around twice the amount of sunshine hours that it usually gets on average at this time of year.

But it was also powered by the popularity of solar panels, which many are installing to help cut their energy bills in the UK. The country saw more solar power installations in the first half of 2026 than in any similar period for 15 years, while last year saw the highest total number of solar installations (269,000) ever recorded in a calendar year, according to government data.

Those figures include ground-based solar farms, but a significant proportion (just under a third of the UK's total solar power) is provided by rooftop panels. However, with these panels still prohibitively expensive for many, eyes will now be turning to the legalisation of plug-in solar kits from August 27.

Can plug-in solar add some extra shine?

It's unfortunate that plug-in solar panels weren't legalised a few months ago, when they could have contributed to these record UK solar energy figures.

Still, the UK government made the welcome announcement last week that these plug-in solar kits — which can send electricity into your wall socket without needing professional installation — will become legal from August 27. That's good news if you've felt frozen out of solar due to its cost, a lack of roof access or the fact that you're renting.

The Statutory Instrument 2026/848 clears the blocks that previously prevented UK residents from buying self-installed, ‘plug-in’ solar systems. The August 27 date is more of a legal landmark, so it isn't clear exactly when these kits will go on sale. But you can expect to see them in the likes of Lidl, Currys and Amazon soon, when they'll apparently cost around £400 and could save households up to £70-£110 a year.

While many have argued that plug-in batteries could be the real home energy revolution (they were left out of the government's new legislation), the combination of this new solar energy record and the legalisation of plug-in solar kits later this month means that renewable energy is having a big moment.

"Fifteen years ago, solar energy was a footnote in the electricity mix," said Chris Hewett (Chief executive of Solar Energy UK). "Now it is a major player, delivering homegrown, cheap, clean and reliable energy."

“The UK is firmly in its second solar boom, joining the trend we’re seeing worldwide, as households and governments look to it as a low-cost and local alternative to oil and gas,” added Frankie Mayo, a senior analyst at Ember.

The UK is still well behind Germany when it comes to balcony solar (which is called 'Balkonkraftwerk'), as you can see in the graph above, but at least the country's sun-powered potential is now finally on the charge.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: one-minute review

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max seems like a slam dunk in the robot vacuum space. Positioned right in between the budget and upper mid range sections of the market, it delivers strong vacuum and mopping performance that make it capable of tackling a wide variety of messes in your home.

With LiDAR technology, its mapping is excellent and the robot vacuum does a great job of navigating unexpected obstacles that it might encounter during a clean. The design isn't the most exciting, though it still has a good range of features like an extendable mop arm and automatic carpet detection.

The dock is large, which might make it tricky to fit into smaller homes, but it's pretty capable as well, with hot water washing and air drying capabilities to keep the mop pads clean between uses.

It's all underpinned by a competent app that's easy to use and offers key functions such as being able to schedule cleans, restricting the robot vacuum to certain rooms, and allowing you to customize the vacuuming power and amount of water used by the mop.

The elephant in the room is that my unit developed a fault after a year of testing, occasionally spilling water during a mop pad clean. It's unfortunate and, even though it doesn't seem widespread, makes this model difficult to recommend unreservedly.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: price, range & availability

• List price $999.99 / £499.99 / AU$1,199
• Launched late 2024
• No longer available in Australia
• Limited stock in the US

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max has a list price of $999.99 / £499.99 / AU$1,199, and is readily available via the brand’s website in the UK. It often receives discounts too, taking the price down by £100 or so around major sales events. At this price it sits neatly between the budget and upper mid range price brackets, coming in much more expensive than under $300 / £300 / AU$500 favorites like the Roborock Q7 M5 but cheaper than the likes of the Eufy X10 Pro Omni, which goes for $799.99 / £799 / AU$1,699.95.

That latter model is a good point of comparison here, as it also features mop and similar LiDAR sensor setup. With this in mind, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max is very solid value - especially if you get it at that reduced price point. Accessories like replacement brushes, dust bags, and mop pads are all available via the Xiaomi website at pretty reasonable prices too.

Unfortunately, this model seems a lot harder to come by in the US. You can find it on Amazon, but it goes for an eye-watering $999.99 and stock appears limited. At this price it’s significantly worse value and you would be better off spending less on an alternative. Its list price is AU$1,199 in Australia, but it appears to no longer be available either through Xiaomi's own store, or Amazon.

• Value for money score: 3/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max specs

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max: design

• Raised LiDAR puck
• Extendable mop arm

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max isn’t pushing any boundaries when it comes to its overall design, but honestly that’s not such a bad thing.

It looks like your average robot vacuum, which is to say a big plastic disc with a chunky bumper at the front and a whole host of sensors. The most prominent of these is a big LiDAR sensor that sits in a little raised puck on the top, though there are others designed to spot obstacles or prevent the vacuum from falling off ledges.

Despite the basic look, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max has a bunch of useful features including two mop pads, one of which can be extended on a little arm for edge cleaning. The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max is also capable of detecting which kind of surface it’s on, raising the mop pads when it goes over carpet to prevent any accidental stains.

Coming in at13.39 x 16.54 x 22.17 inches / 340 x 420 x 563mm, the docking station that it comes with is absolutely ginormous which could make it awkward to fit in smaller homes, but there are some good reasons for this size. Firstly, you’re getting a large 135.3oz / 4l clean water tank (removed for filling by simply popping up the lid on top of the dock) and a slightly smaller but still sizable 128.5oz / 3.8l tank for dirty water storage.

Xiaomi says that this is more than enough water to clean 2,152.8 square feet / 200 square meters on a single fill, and while my testing area was considerably smaller, I can say that it didn’t need refilling across multiple cleans.

The dock also has a hot water system to help wash both mop pads at 131F / 55C - a temperature that Xiaomi claims reduces odours more effectively. It dries the mop pads using hot air, a process that takes a few hours and produces a small level of sound akin to a desk fan.

There’s also a generous 84.5oz / 2.5l dust bag, which Xiaomi says only needs emptying once every 75 days in a three-person household with one pet. This seems like a very generous estimate to me, and your mileage will vary depending on your specific level of household mess. This bag size is on par with much of the competition, such as the aforementioned Eufy X10 Pro Omni, so you can expect similar performance to those models.

One feature that I particularly appreciate is the ability to remove parts of the dock for cleaning, including the little tray where the vacuum sits while charging. This isn't something that you will need to do regularly, but my previous robot vacuum tracked a decent layer of grime in its dock over the years and was comparatively pretty tricky to clean.

My only real complaint from a design standpoint is the vacuum’s incessant need to narrate what it's doing. By default it frequently declares 'start to dry the mop pad' and similar phrases in a loud, annoying voice. It's disruptive, though mercifully can be turned off in the app.

• Design score: 4/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: performance

• Good navigation
• Deals with multiple surfaces well
• Base station pump developed issues

I've been using the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max for a year now, and can say that it handles most daily cleaning tasks well. Its navigation capabilities are excellent and map that it generated of my cleaning area was spot on. I have the base station in the corner of an L-shape hallway and the robot never struggles to find it, even when it's been cleaning the handful of adjoining rooms.

Setting room boundaries works excellently too — if you want to restrict cleaning to a specific defined area, the vacuum won't stray beyond it. It also deals with unexpected obstacles like closed doors or moved furniture well, bumping into them once or twice and then adapting its path smartly. You don't need to worry about multiple surfaces, either. Every time I spot the vacuum going over the rug in the middle of a mop cycle, the pads are automatically raised as it detects the soft surface to prevent damage.

The vacuum picks up small debris and cleans up small spills with no sweat, and for a more intensive task I doused my kitchen floor with oats, cereal crumbs, flour, ketchup, and pretty much anything else that I could find in the cupboard.

How did the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max fare? I sent it out on the most intensive possible cleaning mode and it made a commendable dent in the mess. The oats, crumbs, and flour were masterfully hoovered up with the exception of a few survivors in the hardest to reach corners of the room.

The ketchup was more of a challenge, and at first I was pretty worried that it wouldn't be able to overcome it: the mop pads smeared it in a thin layer over the middle of the floor at first but, sure enough, after multiple visits to the base station in order to clean itself and to refill its water tanks, it was all gone after a few runs. I did spot some red residue in the grouting between tiles, but this took just a few seconds for me to wipe up.

It's the kind of performance you would want from a mid-range robot vacuum. It's not a total replacement for doing the cleaning, but it does decrease the need for big cleans.

That said, my unit has developed a major issue over long-term testing. Sometimes when the vacuum cleans its own mop pads (either at the start or during a cleaning task) the motor that's meant to suck away all the dirty water doesn't kick in. This means that dirty water starts to accumulate in the base station, eventually overflowing and spilling out onto the floor.

It's frustrating (and pretty gross), and I'm struggling to resolve the issue by cleaning the water sensors, fiddling with the base station, and so on. Anecdotally, a family member bought Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max a few weeks after seeing my one, and it developed a similar fault within just a couple of months. It was, after some back and forth, repaired by Xiaomi.

Looking online, it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem, though I've still been able to find at least a few others who report the same thing. Users on Facebook and Reddit also seem to have had luck getting their vacuums replaced via Xiaomi's support service, though I suspect I can't go through this route with a review sample.

For this reason, I would recommend buying from Xiaomi directly rather than through reseller if you do chose to pick one up, as you otherwise will likely have more trouble getting support if issues do arise.

• Performance score: 2.5/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: app

• Easy to use
• Scheduling features
• Different suction levels

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 is compatible with the Xiaomi Home app. It's easy to use and has plenty of features, including the ability to view the map generated by the robot, and its location real time. This is on top of the option to start cleans in specific rooms, schedule cleans, or clean the mop pads.

You can view the battery level, and change cleaning modes. These include basic vacuuming, mopping, vacuuming and mopping, or vacuuming before mopping. You can increase the water output too, with three levels to choose between, but bear in mind that this will increase how quickly you will need to refill everything.

I didn't encounter any bugs within the app, and it remained quick and responsive during my year of testing. The fact that you have to set up a Mi account is a bit annoying, but otherwise it offers everything you could from robot vacuum companion software.

• App score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max?

Buy it if… 

Don’t buy it if… 

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: alternatives to consider

How I tested the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max

I tested the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max in my home for over a year, using it to clean a hallway and two large rooms on a weekly basis. It cleaned a wide variety of messes in that time on a number of different surfaces, namely carpet and tiled flooring. I fully utilized the companion app in order to evaluate its performance and compared the overall experience to other robot vacuums that I own.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2026

Planning a summer getaway but worried about leaving your house for a few weeks? While statistically you are more likely to suffer a break-in during the winter months when it’s much darker, summer also presents an ideal opportunity for burglars. Even if you're at home there are increased risks, especially if you leave your windows open to get some fresh air into the house during a heatwave.

Of course, there are basic steps you can take to reduce your risk such as asking a neighbor to take in your mail and packages, and making sure windows are closed when you go out. But technology can help big time too. What’s more, you don’t have to spend a fortune on all the gear. Whereas once you had to spend thousands on security cameras and PVRs (personal video recorders) that had to be professionally installed, now you can buy cameras and video doorbells for a fraction of the price that can be controlled easily via your smartphone.

Starting simple

The trick is to start simple. A good idea if you are going away for a long time is to have an indoor camera focused on the most vulnerable part of the house where a burglar is most likely to break in — such as a back door. I’ve got a Nest Cam IQ Indoor focused on my patio doors leading out to the garden. I like it because it can record when it hears sound (such as glass breaking) as well as motion.

However, there are other cheaper models available from companies such as Amazon-owned Blink and Ring as well as lesser-known, but popular, Chinese brands such as EZVIZ, Reolink and Aqara.

Focused on the front door I have a tiny Blink Mini 2K+ which also provides a chime for the Blink video doorbell so we can hear it ringing in the house. Usually, I switch the motion sensor off on the Blink Mini during the day because it’s triggered every time a family member opens the front door which can be a bit of a pain. However, when I go on holiday I switch the motion sensor on just in case.

One important consideration is how footage is stored — either locally on a MicroSD card or in the cloud. Personally, I prefer storing footage locally on an SD card, although the downside is that you will usually have to buy a card separately. The advantage of local storage is that not only is it generally more secure (there have been cases of servers being hacked and private security footage being leaked), it also often works out cheaper in the long term.

That’s because many home security companies will charge you a monthly subscription fee to store all your recorded footage and access advanced AI-driven features such as facial recognition and text descriptions of videos.

While these features may be vaguely useful, especially if you have lots of people coming to the door, for the vast majority it’s probably not worth the monthly fee.

Let’s go outside

Obviously, no discussion of home security is complete without talking about outdoor cameras and video doorbells. Whether it’s summer or winter, these devices are invaluable when it comes to optimizing your home security set-up and helping to prevent burglary.

Choosing the type of outdoor camera you want is largely down to personal choice and the type of property you live in. Generally speaking, outdoor cameras should be mounted reasonably high on your property to give you a better view and to prevent theft.

Many offer a wide viewing angle of between 130 and 180 degrees, while some of the latest models, such as the latest IMOU AOV PT, are pan-and-tilt models that detect and track movement automatically.

Want a security camera to act as a deterrent to an opportunist burglar? Then it’s worth considering a device with a powerful built-in spotlight and loud siren. If there are two things that burglars hate more than anything else, they're excessive noise and light that draws attention to what they are up to. Reolink’s Solar Floodlight Cam covers both bases with twin spotlights either side of the camera and an integrated 110dB siren.

Going solar

Unlike indoor cameras, which usually plug into the mains, powering an outdoor camera is a little more challenging. Although some are designed to plug into the mains via a waterproof housing, most now rely on either disposable/rechargeable batteries and/or solar power. Indeed, solar-powered cameras, such as the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam mentioned above, have become increasingly popular in the UK particularly as summers have got hotter and panels have become more efficient.

While many of the latest outdoor cameras comprise separate solar panels that need to be mounted separately and plugged into a USB-C socket on the camera, others such as the IMOU Cell 3C come with a solar panel built in. Chinese company Baseus even has an innovative solar-powered camera, the Baseus Security S2, that boasts an innovative rotating solar panel that moves as the sun moves in order to maximize power to the camera.

Deciding how to power your outdoor camera isn’t the only factor you need to consider either. You also need to think about the technology you are going to use to transmit video clips to your phone’s security camera app. While for indoor cameras this is usually WiFi, for outdoor devices getting a connection between the indoor router and outdoor camera can be more challenging — especially over distances of around 30m.

One option therefore, may be to buy a device that offers dual-connectivity, including Wi-Fi and cellular (usually 4G), such as the IMOU AOV PT or Eufy 4G LTE Cam S330.

Optimizing your setup

So you’ve got your outdoor camera. What next? Well, now begins the process of optimizing it for your security needs. Generally, most outdoor cameras are far too sensitive and record far more footage than you actually need to look at. As a result, you could find your entire time on holiday viewing footage of someone walking past your house, or a car whizzing by, instead of enjoying quality time away.

Not only is this highly annoying, it could really waste battery power — something that's both costly and time-consuming, especially if you have to climb up on a ladder to take the device down to recharge or change the batteries every couple of weeks.

Within the app, it’s therefore a good idea to set the motion detection zones so that the camera only records footage captured on your property and also reduce the sensitivity settings too so the camera isn’t recording too much footage. If you know you are going to be away for a set period of time then it’s probably a good idea to ensure the camera can detect motion 24/7, but when you are home you may want to use the menus so it only records at time of the day when you know family members or flat mates aren’t going to be entering or leaving the property (such as night time).

When it comes to video quality, most outdoor cameras now offer at least 1080p video quality. However, some such as the Baseus Security S2 and the Reolink Altas PT Ultra, offer stunning 4K picture quality. While this is great, especially if you want to zoom in on close ups of a potential suspect, most of the time it’s probably unnecessary. By reducing video quality you will be able to store more footage on the SD card/in the cloud and not consume as much power either.

For night-time monitoring, standard infra-red (IR) night vision provides clear monochrome visibility in total darkness while a colour night-vision option uses advanced low-light sensors or built-in LED spotlights to capture colour details after dark.

Video doorbells — it’s good to talk

Think someone may be intruding on your property while you’re not around? All security cameras that I’ve ever tested (probably over 50 now) feature two-way audio so you can, if you so wish, talk directly to the intruder to tell him or her to get off your land. And they can also talk back to you, of course, using the built-in microphone.

Some of the latest models even generate automated messages or use different voices so the person doesn’t actually know who they are talking to (for example the Aqara G100 indoor/outdoor security camera lets you turn your voice into that of a robot or clown.) It’s a feature that some women and teens in particular might find reassuring, especially if they don’t want a man to think they are at home by themselves — though I can’t help thinking of Kevin McCallister in the film Home Alone.

Essentially video doorbells take the technology one step further by enabling you to speak directly to people who press the button, even if you are sitting on beach sipping a strawberry daiquiri on your summer vacation (as with the G100, Aqara’s G410 Doorbell Camera Hub also allows you to disguise your voice). Invented by Ring’s founder Jamie Siminoff back in 2013, video doorbells have really taken off in the last few years with most home security manufacturers now producing models.

Usefully, not only do video doorbells enable you to talk to whoever comes to the door as if you were at home, they can also be set up to detect and record nearby movement just like standard outdoor security cameras. The only real difference is that, whereas outdoor security cameras often have a wide viewing angle and wide aspect ratio, video doorbells tend to offer a much squarer field of view — often 1:1 — so you can see whoever is at the door more clearly.

Advanced functionality

For those looking to replace their traditional doorbell, video doorbells are a great solution. With many models, it’s even possible to use existing doorbell wiring to power them, rather than having to rely on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Many come with separate plug-in chimes so you can hear the doorbell clearly inside the house with a choice of customizable ‘ringtones’, ranging from classical music to Christmas carols.

That’s not to say that video doorbells are the perfect security solution for everyone. They’re not. Often, I’ve found there is quite a lag when you are talking to someone and if you live on a busy street it can be difficult to hear what they are saying. To counter this, some models, including those from Ring, enable you to play automated responses to the visitor, a bit like an old-fashioned answerphone — for example, ‘please leave the parcel outside’ or ‘call back in an hour’s time’.

Another issue is that with subscription services such as Ring Pro you can spend up to $19.99 / £15.99 a month on premium features such as person, package and vehicle alerts, video descriptions and 180 day video playback. At least with a Blink video doorbell it’s possible to store clips on the Blink Sync Module 2 hub using a separate USB drive while the TP Link Tapo D235 is one of the few doorbells with integrated MicroSD storage (it also offers free AI smart detection to distinguish between vehicles, pets and people).

Complete security solutions

Looking for a more advanced security solution for when you go away over the summer? Most manufacturers will allow you to view several cameras via their app. However, if you want to put different types of security devices together — such as locks, lights and a burglar alarm — then you will need a more advanced setup.

For example, one advantage of the Aqara G410 video doorbell is that it’s actually a fully-fledged smart home hub with a built-in Matter bridge and Thread border router that can be used as part of a smart home ecosystem such as Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Smart Things.

Owned by Amazon, Ring products including cameras, video doorbells and burglar alarms can easily be controlled using Alexa routines with footage viewable via Echo Show devices. Furthermore, Ring Alarm also supports certified third-party products via the encrypted Z-Wave network, including smart locks from Yale, Schlage and Kwikset. This means you can lock/unlock doors, manage guest PIN codes and trigger automated security routines (such as arming the alarm when the door is locked) all inside the Ring app.

Securing your home for summer

With the summer holiday season well and truly upon us, and houses left empty as we down tools for a well needed break, now is the time to think about securing your home. While traditional precautions — such as securing windows, clearing letterboxes and locking away garden tools (including ladders) — remain essential precautions, modern technology can help too.

Protecting your home against burglary needn’t cost the earth either. You can now buy indoor cameras focused on vulnerable parts of the house for less than $70 / £50 while most outdoor cameras and video doorbells cost between $120 / £100 and $250 / £200. And while subscription charges do push up prices, often these aren’t necessary — especially if you can store footage locally on an SD card or USB drive.

Ultimately, combining the latest tech solutions with solid physical security will give you the peace of mind needed for you to truly unwind, ensuring your home remains a well-guarded fortress while you enjoy your break.

It's typical, you wait for ages for a home energy revolution and then two come along at once — or at least that's what appears to be happening in the UK.

You've probably heard about the first landmark moment. 'Plug-in solar' hit the headlines last week when the UK government announced that small, solar panel kits that feed electricity directly into your standard home socket can legally go on sale from August 27.

That's a big deal. Plug-in solar means that millions of people who have traditionally been locked out of generating their own clean electricity — renters and flat owners, for example — will be able to join the residential solar party, albeit on a more modest scale.

But not everyone was celebrating wildly with biodegradable confetti. Across the country, energy nerds bemoaned one glaring omission in the government's new legislation — a legal pathway for 'plug-in batteries'.

For many, these small home batteries — think a mini Tesla Powerwall that plugs into a standard wall socket — are the "real game-changer", as Octopus Energy and Anker both described them to me. That's because they promise to be even more accessible than plug-in solar and act as a money-saving brain that makes your home an active part of a smarter UK electricity grid.

Bold claims indeed, so I spoke to four of the biggest players in this burgeoning space — Anker, Octopus Energy, EcoFlow and Windfall Energy — along with the UK government to find out when plug-in batteries might be coming, what the drawbacks are and, most importantly, how much you can really expect to save...

When are they coming?

The main premise of plug-in home batteries, like the Windfall Battery above, is simple — they charge automatically using cheap-rate electricity (usually at night), then discharge that electricity around your home during more expensive peak-rate periods. "Even without solar panels, a plug-in battery delivers meaningful savings through grid arbitrage alone," Anker Solix's EU CEO, Kelvin Cao, tells me. Savings estimates range from between £100-£400 per year, depending on your battery, tariff and usage.

Great, so when exactly will they become legal in the UK? When I asked the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the official answer was predictably vague. "We are rolling out plug-in solar, which will be quickest to reach the market — helping to bring bills down for good," a DESNZ spokesperson said.

The DESNZ told me its main focus right now is plug-in solar kits and that plug-in batteries have their own technical and regulatory hurdles, which it's currently investigating. Still, there are hopes that grid-connected batteries that plug into your wall socket could be legalised within the next year.

Several big players are quietly preparing plug-in batteries — which are already available in countries like Germany — for a UK launch. Anker, for example, has built a page for its Solix Solarbank 4 that clearly explains the benefits of plug-in batteries, should they become legalised in the UK. "We are eager to support the rise of the plug-in era in the UK and become part of its evolving energy landscape," Anker Solix's EU CEO, Kelvin Cao, told me.

Octopus Energy also recently announced that its new plug-in Nook Cube battery will go on sale sometime in 2027. More confident on the timescale is Windfall Energy, a London startup that's designed the best-looking piece of home energy kit I've seen for a while, the Windfall Battery.

"I was at a roundtable with a Minister of Parliament about a month ago, and everyone there was pretty much calling for batteries to come hot on the heels of plug-in solar," Windfall Energy's co-founder Rob Hallifax told me.

So when is Windfall expecting to start selling its 2.5 kWh home battery, which has an RRP of £1,200 and had previously been slated to ship in autumn? "Winter is more likely now. We want to time it with the plug-in regulations. It’s looking like the end of this year, early next," he added.

Why now?

You'll probably have noticed that the UK has been on an energy rollercoaster that can technically be described as 'not fun'.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, inflation-adjusted gas and electricity prices were actually stable or even falling. But there was a huge spike for both in early 2022 and they've never returned to pre-energy crisis levels. Electricity prices are still 13% higher than in January 2020, according to the UK government, and they continue to move in the wrong direction.

Plug-in batteries promise to be, if not a cure, then at least a much-needed pain killer for our energy bills headache. They're emerging now because of three things — falling prices for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, the easing of electrical regulations in some regions (Germany created the world's first dedicated plug-in solar product standard in late 2025), and soaring wholesale gas prices that are reflected in the graph above.

As Anker's Kelvin Cao tells me, this has "reshaped how European households think about electricity". Unfortunately, that double-digit increase in energy prices is also "unlikely to come down any time soon". That's why Germany started the trend, and the UK is (hopefully) about to follow.

So how exactly do plug-in batteries save you money? "There’s two parts to the price saving," Windfall Energy's co-founder Rob Hallifax tells me. "The simple one is just the price arbitrage. So if you're paying 10p at night and 30p in the day for electricity per kilowatt hour, then you buy it at 10p, use it when it's 30p, you're saving 20p per kilowatt hour," he says.

That part's pretty simple — with the Windfall Battery, this 'buy low, use when prices skyrocket' approach makes up about £168 of its promised £250 per year savings. But there are also extra savings from getting your plug-in battery really singing in tune with the electricity network.

The UK grid acts a bit like a giant smart thermostat, signaling when the system needs more or less electricity, and the idea is that energy suppliers could follow by telling plug-in home batteries when to charge and discharge. Smaller plug-in batteries would likely be capped at an 800W output (without professional installation), so wouldn't be exporting power to the grid. But they could still play a role in balancing demand.

This makes tariffs the second big factor in the money-saving potential of plug-in batteries — and that's something Octopus Energy has been a UK leader in.

"The energy sector overall has not really embraced the fact that you can just offer different types of products to different types of consumer customer groups," Alex Schoch, Group Director for Flexibility at Octopus Energy, tells me. "Of our eight million customers, 1.2 million are on some kind of smart tariff," he adds.

Octopus Energy told me there could potentially be dedicated plug-in battery tariffs or bolt-ons for existing ones. If you've ever been baffled by choosing the right energy tariff, this could also get simpler thanks to plug-in batteries.

"I equate it to the evolution of mobile phone plans," Octopus Energy's Alex Schoch tells me. "First, they were incredibly generic. Then they got so complicated that Carphone Warehouse came into being just to explain the complexity. And now we’re at a stage where we create hyper-personalised plans based on your needs as a consumer. We’re on that same journey when it comes to energy".

But doesn't this also demand a lot of trust in energy companies? Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax agrees, but thinks falling bills will ultimately convince consumers. "It's their (consumers'] battery, they're in control of it, but the energy company is controlling it a bit to help them maximize the savings," he says. "The consumer has to trust that the energy company is doing this to save them money, and I think that will come when they see their bills go down," he adds.

What's the catch?

Clearly, plug-in batteries won't be a magic wand for everyone's bills, even if the batteries could be subsidised or even given away for free by the UK government to lower-income households, as the i Paper reported recently (the DESNZ declined to comment on this when I asked).

For most plug-in batteries, the payback period (the time it takes for savings to cover the cost of the battery) is expected to be around 3-4 for years, so not exactly a financial quick fix. The Windfall Battery promises annual savings of £250 (with an RRP of £1,200), while Anker tells me that the larger Solix Solarbank 4 on a dynamic tariff like Octopus Agile could save you just under £400 per year. That battery has no UK price yet, but retails for €1,999 in Europe (around £1,700).

The other concern raised by skeptics is safety. Is allowing potentially millions of households to connect batteries to their electricity networks without professional installation really a good idea? Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax acknowledges that it's an understandable concern. "People see a battery, and they think of scooters and fires, and there some valid concerns. Obviously, safety is critically important, and just one battery fire would be one too many," he says.

"But modern batteries are generally extremely safe,' he adds. "There are some studies out of Germany now where they compare batteries to EVs and other home appliances. One headline is that they’re typically about as safe as a washing machine," he adds. The other common comparison is with fan heaters, which are legal in the UK but carry a higher risk of 'user error' incidents than plug-in batteries.

Still, the added complexities of grid-charging batteries mean some agree with the UK government's top-dipping approach. EcoFlow, one of the biggest global players in home batteries, is among them. "We're aware and completely understand that these things take time," Lorna Wallace-Smith (EcoFlow's Head of UK PR) told me. "The fact that they were able to move forward with at least one step is is great" she added.

But hasn't Germany's rapid adoption of both plug-in solar and home batteries shown it's safe? "I think that's something we should learn from, as well as not fast-track into something without knowing it's absolutely built for UK homes," she added.

Could they outshine solar?

Despite these concerns, it seems clear that plug-in batteries have the potential to eclipse the more complex plug-in solar kits in the UK — and most of the experts I spoke to agreed.

"They are the fundamental great equalizer," says Octopus' Alex Schoch on plug-in batteries. "It’s such an important thing for renters because you can then take it with you to your next place," he adds.

"I think in the next couple of years we will see plug-in batteries really be the transformational scale deployment. I think it has the potential of being a mass market thing even faster than solar," he predicts.

Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax naturally agrees when comparing plug-in batteries to their solar equivalent. "There are 28 million homes in the UK and about half of them are either rented or flats and small homes. So more people could get them, millions, and there’s also the benefit to the grid and to the system," he says.

There is one other obvious comparison with an accessory that's cheap, easy to use and promises to save you money. "We use air fryers as quite a good example. Four or five years ago they just came from nowhere and suddenly half the country has one," he says.

But wouldn't an 'air fryer' level of popularity also cause a problem for plug-in batteries? After all, a lot of their money-saving potential comes from tapping into today's so-called 'delta' between cheap-rate and peak-rate electricity. If plug-in batteries help to solve the imbalance of today's grid demand — and tariffs are adjusted to reflect that — could that start to diminish their savings potential?

"I think yes and no," says Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax. "So maybe in 50 years the whole grid will be sort of perfect. I think the fundamental thing is that if you have renewable generation, that's always going to be variable. That's just the nature of the world. And so somewhere in the system, storage has to be part of it," he adds.

Octopus Energy's Alex Schoch agrees that such a change would be a long way off. "In theory, yes." he says in response to my pessimistic scenario. "But I would actually say the length of time here is measured in decades, not in a sub-decade quantum," he adds.

However, he does note that a similar process is already happening. "We've had such an explosion of solar in the UK over the last few years that now during Spring and Summer, a lot of the cheapest wholesale price electricity times are actually late morning, early afternoon, mid afternoon, and no longer overnight," he notes.

Charging ahead

The legalisation of plug-in batteries in the UK appears to be a matter of 'when' not 'if'. As a flat owner in south west London with no roof and only a limited appetite for plug-in solar, I'm right in the target market — and will certainly be interested when that moment comes.

But it also won't be an impulse buy where I snap up the first thing I see Amazon. "The biggest pitfall to avoid is making decision on price alone," says Anker's Kelvin Cao. "Now that plug-in solar has regulatory approval, the UK market will attract a wave of low-cost imports, some of which will be excellent and some of which will not. This will be a similar problem once the plug-in batteries are legalised," he warns.

"A battery that cuts corners on cell quality, protective engineering and compliance with applicable safety standards might look more attractive on its price tag, but it will not deliver the same reliability over the 10 to 15 years that a household should reasonably expect," he adds. In other words, buying cheap could backfire when it comes to savings.

So what exactly should you look for when plug-in batteries are legalised? "As a baseline, consumers should look for durable LFP battery cells, a high cycle life, robust protection against weather and corrosion, and integrated safeguards against electrical and thermal risks," Kelvin Cao says.

"They'll probably also say that the product must be listed on the Energy Networks Association (ENA) Type Test Register to demonstrate that its protection settings meet G98 requirements," adds Windfall Energy's Rob Hallifax.

A real-world view

A large number of early adopters are already getting a taste of the benefits of a battery-only setup. One of those is TechRadar contributor Mark Pickavance, who wrote our EcoFlow Stream Ultra X review (which is well worth a read).

I caught up with him to see how it's going and he continues to be impressed. He told me that his monthly energy costs are down by about £40 a month with his setup (which was installed with the help of an electrician), and you could get most of that from a single Ultra X.

The only problem is that this stuff can get addictive. "I started with the premise of using just a battery, but once you have one the logical progression is solar. However, for people renting, it's the ideal solution, and if you use an Economy 7-like tariff (Octopus Go), you can take a chunk out of your costs," he said.

The arrival of plug-in solar from August could, then, be a good dry run of what to expect when plug-in batteries arrive. The big differences between residential buildings between Germany and the UK could mean plug-in solar doesn't quite take off in the same way in the UK, but Anker's Kelvin Cao remains bullish.

"This is no longer a niche movement. Germany passed one million officially registered plug-in solar systems in 2025, with around 430,000 new systems registered during that year alone," he notes. If plug-in batteries follow a similar pattern in the UK, that could have big consequences for energy bills — and the UK's grid as a whole.

• Existing ban on drones and routers extended to "advanced" robots
• FCC has confirmed that robot vacuums are included
• No effect on products already authorized by the FCC for US sales

The US's latest ban on foreign hardware is coming for an unlikely target: robot vacuum cleaners and likely robot lawn mowers too.

The ban comes via the White House, which has extended its previous ban on foreign-made drones and Wi-Fi routers. The ban now includes foreign-made power inverters and "advanced robots" on the grounds that they pose a national security risk to the US.

If you're finding it hard to imagine Russia rigging your vacuum cleaner, or Iran invading the US via an army of lawnbots... yeah. Us too.

How will the ban on robot vacuum cleaners work?

The ban doesn't outlaw the use of robots that you already own, so you're not going to have to hand over your robo-vac to the authorities. However, it bans the sale of "advanced robotic devices".

The definition of advanced robotic devices refers specifically to "autonomous mobile robots, humanoid robots, and quadrupeds" that can move around, avoid obstacles and weigh 4.4lbs or more including any ground station or docking station. Many robot vacuums and lawn mowers meet those criteria, and the FCC has confirmed to PC Mag that the ban does indeed apply to cleaning robots.

This is bad news for the big robot brands such as Ecovacs, Roborock and Dreame; the top five US robot vacuum brands are all Chinese, and therefore fall under this ban, so we contacted them for comment.

"We are aware of the FCC’s recent update," Eric Villines, Chief Communications Officer at Anker Innovations (the parent company of Eufy), told TechRadar. "Based on our current understanding, the new rule does not affect the continued availability, use or support of products we currently sell in the United States. Those products remain available and will continue to receive updates and customer support,

"Like others across the industry, we are seeking further clarity on how the rule will be applied to future products, and we will keep our customers informed. We remain committed to complying with all regulatory requirements in every market where we operate."

Several other smart home brands declined to comment at this early stage, but we get the general impression that this news might have come as something of a surprise.

Can you keep using your robovac?

There is one bit of sunshine in this cloud, however: the ban is not retrospective, so if a robot already has FCC authorization to be sold in the US that's fine. The ban does not prevent retailers "from continuing to sell, import, or market relevant models approved previously."

That said, PC Mag identifies a separate FCC order that says existing robot vacuums and similar products "may continue to receive software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to US consumers at least until January 1, 2029." If the FCC decides not to extend that then it's just put a countdown clock on any new Chinese-made robot vacuums sold in the US.

For the affected manufacturers, the next step will be to lobby the FCC in the hope of gaining an exemption for some or all of their products: after all, there's a big difference between a self-driving, self-cleaning mop and a robot dog capable of carrying an AR-15. However, so far there haven't been any exemptions for major Chinese drone or router manufacturers so the future is not looking very bright for the affected companies.

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Robot lawn mowers are emerging as one of the most exciting smart-home categories. The concept has been around for a while, but in the past two years we've seen advances in technology that are making them more helpful and more user-friendly than ever. Finally, the barriers to entry are coming down, and lawnbots are starting to look like a feasible option for even the least tech-minded amongst us.

To find out more about what's going on in this growing space, I spoke to KK Yin, marketing director at major lawnbot brand Mammotion. We chatted about the most impactful shifts in lawnbot technology, the hottest trends, and the hurdles the industry still needs to overcome.

Cutting-edge edge cutting

For KK, the big feature that hasn't quite been nailed yet is edge-cutting. Even if you have a great robot mower that does a stellar job trimming your grass, its usefulness is limited if you then have to get out a trimmer to take care of the edges. "Edge trimming remains one of the biggest challenges, especially along walls," says KK. "The key is balancing cutting performance with safety."

If you're trimming along the edge of a flat path, it's relatively easy — certain mowers are designed to straddle the path edge, with the blades underneath trimming the grass at the boundary line. However, that doesn't work when trying to trim next to a wall. "The lawnmower can get as close as possible, but the cutting disc being set back from the mower's edge to maintain a safe clearance prevents the mower from cutting close enough to walls," KK continues.

Lots of brands have been working on a solution, and it typically takes the form of an edge-trimming module that attaches to the side of the bot, with smaller blades in a protective casing.

On the Luba Mini is an edge-cutting disc that can trim as close as 5cm (1.97 inches) from a wall — a distance KK admits might not be close enough. "Five centimeters is not very far from the wall, but still some users want us to make it perfect so it can cut maybe even down to one centimeter," KK says.

"We're exploring more flexible solutions," he continues. "For example, when mowing alongside a wall, the cutting disc could potentially extend slightly out of the mower's body for a cleaner edge cut. In open areas or during ride-on-the-edge mowing, it would retract to maintain a safe clearance beneath the mower. So that is the direction and also the challenge in the future."

Tackling tricky terrain

Another major lawnbot trend that's been emerging over the past year or so is all-wheel drive (AWD). This helps lawnbots tackle tricky or uneven terrain, as having all the wheels individually powered means that if one or two end up off the ground, or struggling to get traction, the others can help the robot escape without requiring manual intervention.

AWD can also help the lawnbot retain its grip when scaling especially steep lawns. KK notes that in the European market, and Germany especially, lots of houses stand on slopes, where this boosted climbing ability comes in handy.

All-wheel drive is usually indicated by an 'AWD' on the product's name, and it appears in Mammotion's advanced Luba line — you can see the LUBA 3 AWD scaling an astroturf mountain in the video above.

The brand has also been looking at upgrading its bots' climbing ability and mowing speed, and is keen to figure out what the next advancement might look like. "We can see some other companies are exploring other things like independent steering," says KK. "Maybe that is a good solution for difficult terrain. So we are also thinking about how to combine this technology."

Better tech in smaller bots

Initially, Mammotion kicked off its lawnbot journey with its premium Luba series. Later on, the Yuka Mini arrived — a smaller, more affordable bot that's designed for yards 500 to 800 square meters in size. It proved to be the big winner in Europe during the recent Amazon Prime Day sales.

"I think when we started, our premium product line helped us build trust in our technology — things like the all-wheel drive and the positioning system and the efficiency. So customers believed our brand could bring some of that technology to an entry-level lawnmower," muses KK.

The Yuka Mini is a good fit for European yards, which on average are 300 to 500 square meters in size. "Many robot lawnmower brands spend a lot and have a different product strategy for European regions, because many of the users have already accepted this innovative product for their lawn care. For example, they know about the positioning systems and how all-wheel drive compares with rear-wheel drive. They want their robot lawnmower to do more things — not only mowing, but also edge trimming."

In the US, where the average lawn size is much larger than in Europe, the focus is a little different. "I think most US users still prefer a ride-on or traditional lawnmower. I think they're still looking for an efficient robot mower that can cover their large lawn," says KK. "The US is at a different stage, and what customers require is different.

No-fuss installation

Navigation tech is perhaps the area that has moved on most quickly and has had the most impact on lawnbot usability. It was only a few years ago that boundary wires were required; now they're all but obsolete.

Initially, the technology to take over was RTK. This is satellite-based positioning, and it requires a separate RTK receiver to improve the accuracy of the satellite data. Not everyone wanted to set up a receiver in their yard, leading to a shift to centralized receivers that could serve massive areas at once. Mammotion calls this NetRTK.

Either way, the system relies on satellites, which means it has some limitations in yards where there is coverage from trees or buildings. Most recently, we've started to see LiDAR being used. This is the navigation approach used in robot vacuums, and just like with RTK, there are pros and cons when used in lawnbots. LiDAR works by bouncing light off objects to build up a picture of its surroundings, which is great when there are objects around but less useful in wide, open spaces with nothing to bounce off.

"You know, like we always say, maybe laziness is the best way to improve the technology!" says KK. "For our users, if they're happy with the intelligence of the robot lawnmower, then they want an easier installation, or even no installation at all. So that's why they really like our NetRTK, because they don't need to install an antenna. Or some users will choose LiDAR, which doesn't need an antenna at all."

The real shift is less to do with using one specific navigation approach over another, and more about moving to a situation where multiple navigation technologies can work alongside one another.

"We want to think about the final result of the positioning system," says KK. "Many users don't want to compare which positioning method is good. They just use it; that's enough. They don't need to know more about it. So that's why we came up with Tri-Fusion, which combines the advantages of RTK and LiDAR and even AI vision. We believe this can cover all environments for a residential user."

A few robot mower companies have started experimenting with similar concepts, where the bot can swap between different approaches depending on the situation. If satellite signal drops out under some trees, LiDAR can swoop in to save the day and get the lawnbot back on track, for instance. Cameras (often backed by AI) form the third pillar, enabling the bot to recognize objects and understand if it should mow close to them or steer clear.

There are problems still to solve in the world of robot mowers, but let's not forget that just a few short years ago, we were still painstakingly laying boundary wires and watching the lawnbot bounce haphazardly between them. Now, the issue is whether a bot can trim quite close enough to the edge of a wall, and if it's smart enough to tell a soccer ball from a lounger. We've come a long way.

Brilliant bots

We've tested plenty of impressive lawnbots at TechRadar. Here's a taster of some of our favorites — hit the View details button for a link to our full review for each.

For years, residential solar power in the UK has focused primarily on larger installations, comprising photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof and an inverter for converting DC (direct current) power into AC (alternating current) for use in the home. Indeed, according to government data, the UK now has approximately 1.7 million residential rooftop installations with 2025 the strongest year on record with around 269,000 installations completed.

It’s remarkable progress. Yet for many in the UK, this type of installation remains out of reach for several reasons, including cost, or lack of roof access if they live in a block of flats. If they’re renting, their landlord/landlady might not allow them to install solar panels permanently on the roof.

That’s all set to change with new government legislation. Under Statutory Instrument 2026/848, which formally comes into force on August 27, 2026, legal and regulatory hurdles that previously blocked self-installed, ‘plug-in’ solar systems are set to be cleared.

By officially creating a legal category for what are officially called 'plug-in microgenerators', this landmark legislation allows standard UK BS 1363 three-pin plugs to be approved for feeding electricity into a home socket. As a result, for the first time, millions of people living in flats with balconies will have a viable, low-cost option to generate their own clean electricity.

Looking to Europe: the rise of Balkonkraftwerk

Of course, while plug-in solar is new to the UK, it is already well-established across the rest of Europe. In Germany, for example, where these installations are known as Balkonkraftwerk (or balcony power plants), there are officially 1.2 million registered balcony installations — though the actual figure is probably nearer 1.5 million when you take into account unofficial installations.

Balcony installations are proving particularly popular with renters – those who were historically excluded from rooftop solar power until reform to German tenancy law in 2024 gave them the explicit right to install balcony panels without needing landlord approval. As a result, reports German news site Denkstrom, waiting lists emerged in big cities such as Munich and Berlin for equipment in the months following the reform.

Nor is Germany the only European country to have embraced balcony installations. In Spain, where two thirds of people live in apartments, balcony solar power is also taking off, saving up to 30% on a household’s typical electricity bill. “The beauty of the solar balconies is they are flexible, cheap and plug straight into the domestic network via a converter, so you don’t have to pay for the installation,” Santiago Vernetta, CEO of Tornasol Energy, one of Spain’s main suppliers, told The Guardian.

Gaining UK industry support

Whether balcony solar power technology proves as popular in the UK as other European countries remains to be seen. However, with millions of flats across the UK, including an estimated 380,000 homes in England with a balcony, plug-in solar power certainly has the potential to expand renewable generation beyond rooftop installations.

Driving the rollout of plug-in solar within the UK government is Martin McCluskey, Minister for Energy Consumers within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). In June he met up with high street retailers and supermarkets including B&Q, Currys, Amazon, Lidl, Asda, Screwfix and Wickes to prepare market-compliant kits for the official August launch. "We’re delighted to be working with DESNZ to bring plug-in solar panels to the UK market. With energy bills continuing to rise, enabling the safe roll-out of these products will mark an important step for consumers across the UK,” said Michelle Gorringe-Smith, Director of New Categories at Currys in a recent press statement.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to make renewable energy more accessible to people around the UK," Added John Boumphrey, Amazon’s UK and Ireland Country Manager. "Amazon is the largest corporate buyer of carbon-free energy in the UK.. Enabling households to generate their own power with self-install plug-in solar panels is a practical step that supports household budgets and delivering against net zero goals.”

Major energy providers have also welcomed the regulatory change. Chris Norbury, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, describes the removal of regulatory red tape as an “encouraging step toward giving consumers more control over their energy use”.

Similarly, Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy said in a UK government statement: “Every solar panel, heat pump and battery cuts bills and boosts Britain’s energy independence.” Furthermore, these industry perspectives align with the wider objectives set out in the UK Government's Solar Roadmap, which details plans to expand solar capacity across domestic, commercial and ground-mount sectors to meet national clean power targets.

Payback time

Under the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's (DESNZ) interim product specification, compliant solar power consumer kits must meet very strict criteria. This includes a microinverter (which converts direct current electricity into alternating current electricity) which can’t feed more than 800 VA (Volt-Amperes), roughly 800W, into the home at any one time.

Systems must connect via a standard BS 1363 three-pin UK socket using a manufacturer-supplied, non-rewireable moulded plug with a fuse rated at no more than 5A. Typically, most kits will comprise two 400W panels, each measuring around 1.7m x 1m in size and weighing around 20Kg. However, the regulations allow up to four panels with a combined rating of 2,000W. The inverter still limits the output to around 800W, but the extra panels can help the system generate more power during weaker sunlight.

While working out exactly how long it will take to get a return on a solar panel investment is far from an exact science, most of the commentators I spoke to for this article thought it would take under five years for a system costing between £300 and £600.

“Our modelling suggests that three to five years is a realistic payback period for many sensibly priced, well-positioned systems,” Ben Bowyer, creator of PluginSolarCalculator.com told TechRadar. “The government’s own estimate is around £70 to £110 a year in savings, but I think that’s actually quite cautious. Our figures suggest many suitable 800W installations could save closer to £95 to £155 a year,” he added.

Andreas Pierrie, founder of bespoke solar installation price comparison site Go Solar Today, was even more optimistic about ROI when asked. “For someone with a south facing balcony, you're looking at a payback of roughly two to three years, which is genuinely good for a solar product,” he asserted.

Lack of battery storage

However, it’s not all good news. While the new legislation will help consumers save some money by turning their systems into ‘plug-in microgenerators’, one key limitation is that batteries are excluded from the initial plug-in framework. Instead, the product specification covers generation-only systems and does not permit integrated battery storage.

The government likely adopted this cautious approach to prioritize safety, as lithium batteries store chemical energy and require strict compliance to prevent hazards such as thermal runaway. Including battery storage would also inevitably have slowed down the roll out of the initial phase of the technology. Go Solar Today’s Andreas Pierrie explains the reasoning behind the phased rollout by noting that the UK is simply following the German approach.

“The UK is copying the German playbook by starting narrow, getting the simple version working and trusted, then widening the rules over time,” he said. “Walking before you run is reasonable when you're opening up self-generation to millions of homes for the first time... The instinct to be careful with batteries is completely understandable.”

How long the lack of battery storage in the solar panel specifications will last is open to debate. Just a few weeks before the final specification was revealed, Octopus Energy announced the Nook Cube — a 2KW battery that plugs into a standard socket - which perhaps indicates a future opening up of the legislation to include battery storage.

Exporting energy for free?

For now at least, one of the main limitations is that any solar energy generated during the day that isn't used immediately by household appliances flows back out into the local grid. Because these small microgenerators do not automatically qualify for the Smart Export Guarantee at launch (unlike solar-powered rooftop installations), this means you are potentially exporting daytime energy to utility companies for free.

“That battery storage can’t form part of a compliant plug-in solar system during this first stage of the rollout is probably my biggest disappointment with the rules announced by the government so far,” admits PluginSolarCalculator’s Ben Bowyer. “A battery would let households store spare solar power generated during the day and use it later in the evening, when electricity use is often higher."

"The biggest limitation is the lack of integrated battery storage, meaning any electricity you don't use immediately is typically exported rather than stored for later," adds Robin Edwards, Property Buying Agent at property-finding company Curetons. "That reduces the financial benefit significantly, particularly for people who are out at work during the day when panels generate the most power.”

However, while disappointed by the lack of battery storage, PlugIn Solar Calculator’s Ben Bowyer admits people often underestimate how much power their home uses even when nobody is actively switching anything on. “Fridges, freezers, routers, and standby devices, create a constant background demand known as the household baseload that a well-positioned plug-in solar system can frequently cover during brighter parts of the day.”

To maximize savings without a battery, consumers can shift flexible energy use, such as running washing machines or dishwashers in daytime hours when the sun is shining.

Simon Turek, Chief Executive of graphene nanomaterials company Haydale, also explained how households can pair plug-in solar with heating solutions. “By moving to efficient forms of electric heating, it’s possible to achieve savings within your overall energy cost, because generation during the day could be used for heating purposes in winter months,” he told TechRadar.

Cladding exclusion

Unfortunately, lack of battery storage isn’t the only limitation of the new legislation. Before purchasing a plug-in solar kit, consumers must consider several practical and regulatory rules. For example, users cannot mix and match panels, cables and inverters from different suppliers. Systems must be purchased as complete tested, manufacturer-certified packages listed on the Energy Networks Association Type Test Register. This requirement ensures that all connected hardware meets rigorous domestic electrical standards.

Kits must also plug directly into a wall socket using the manufacturer-provided cable. The use of extension leads, multi-way block adapters, travel adapters, or plug-in RCDs (Residual Current Drives) is strictly prohibited to avoid electrical overloads. Furthermore, installation is prohibited on timber balconies, timber cladding, aluminium composite cladding, high-pressure laminate cladding, or buildings undergoing fire safety remediation. Understandably, these restrictions are designed to mitigate fire and safety risks across high-density residential properties.

Renters and leaseholders must also obtain permission from their landlord or freeholder before installing panels on shared or exterior structures. Users are also legally required to notify their local Distribution Network Operator via a G98 notification form when connecting a system. This notification process ensures that regional network operators maintain accurate records of micro-generation capacity across local distribution grids. Compliance with these administrative steps is mandatory for all system owners.

Beyond administrative rules, there are also practical considerations around installing heavy solar panels. Because individual panels weigh around 20kg each, experts strongly recommend treating the setup as a two-person job, advising consumers to get professional help if there's any uncertainty regarding structural anchoring, working safely at height, or load-bearing capacity. Makeshift fasteners like cable ties, string, or tape are strictly banned and approved mounting hardware rated for UK wind and snow loads must be used.

As Ben Bowyer candidly admits: "Balcony installations still give me the shivers, especially the thought of someone lifting one of these panels over a railing 10 floors above the ground."

Power to the people

With the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of ending any time soon, the push to legalise plug-in solar technology is welcome news to millions of flat dwellers and renters wanting to reclaim some control over their mounting utility bills. Importantly, by enabling households to create their own microgenerators by connecting small-scale panels straight into standard wall sockets, the framework provides an accessible route to lower electricity costs. With solar power in place, users could save up to 30% on their electricity bills with typical kits paying for themselves within three to five years

.However, the legislation is far from perfect. Because the initial rollout focuses purely on daytime generation without integrated battery storage, users must adapt their daily routines to make the most of the power while the sun is shining. What’s more, by establishing an 800W AC output limit and capping panel capacity at 2,000W, the framework really only covers continuous household baseload demand from refrigeration and standby appliances, rather than being able to power your entire home with solar.

Still, it’s a decent start and it’s likely the legislation will be expanded to include battery storage over time. As Christopher Burd, Managing Director of solar installation company SPS PowerBuild told TechRadar: "The energy transition is ultimately about people taking control of their own power. Enabling households to generate clean electricity directly from their living spaces represents a fundamental shift in how we think about urban resilience and domestic independence." Literally, power to the people.

The world of robot vacuums has come a long way. I've been testing and writing about these puck-shaped home helpers for over two years, and during that time I've watched suction specs skyrocket, bots sprout legs and pincer arms, and docks transform into formidable, self-sufficient cleaning stations. Robot vacuums are looking cleverer and more useful than ever.

I wanted to get an idea of where the industry is headed, and what the next generation of robovacs might look like. So I rounded up representatives from some of the best robot vacuum brands to get their insights — and it's clear from what they told me that this smart-home segment is going to get even bigger… and even weirder.

• Update: After this article was published, it was announced that the FFC would be banning robot vacuums made outside of the US. Read the full story here.

Complete cleaners

The obvious place to start is with the cleaning itself, and there's one point that my interviewees all agreed on: it's no longer all about the suction specs. "Customers are looking beyond headline suction figures and realizing the performance of robot vacuums is the combination of a lot of features," says Michael Meng, President of Dreame's robot vacuum division.

Nowadays, customers are looking for better cleaning, rather than just outright power, and robovac brands have been happy to oblige, with all manner of inventive solutions.

Roborock, for example, has been working hard to make sure no corner goes uncleaned. "We see a massive push for ultra-slim designs that don't sacrifice power," says Ricky Ma, general manager for Europe and America. "People want a device that can finally clean the forgotten spaces under low-profile furniture — couches, beds, and cabinets — where dust and allergens traditionally accumulate and remain out of reach for bulkier robots."

The brand's newest bots use an innovative navigation system that doesn't require a raised puck to sit on the top surface. Roborock — alongside Dreame — has also experimented with pucks that can extend or retract, periscope-style, depending on the vertical height available.

Mopping functions have been the subject of much attention, too. Wet cleaning is nothing new — in fact, these days you might struggle to find a model that can't mop — but I've been seeing an increasing preference for roller mops rather than flat mop pads (either of the D-shaped or disc-shaped variety). The benefit of a cylindrical mop is that the dirty water can be scraped off, and clean water added in, as the robovac goes about its mopping business.

"One development that particularly excites me is the introduction of roller mop technology, which helps ensure floors are continuously cleaned with a fresh mop surface," says Reena Patel,

Floorcare Category Manager at iRobot, the brand behind Roomba.

Faraz Mehdi, managing director at Eufy, agrees. "Users increasingly care about whether the robot is actually cleaning with a clean mop and truly removing dirty water, rather than just spreading mess around," he says. "Real-time self-cleaning mopping makes a meaningful difference."

Eufy is also looking into improving filtration. In manual vacuums, Dyson has popularized multi-step filtration systems, which make use of cyclones to separate waste particles of different sizes. However, that hasn't really carried over into robot vacuums, which typically have a much more basic setup.

Eufy's AeroTurbo filter setup is significantly more complex. "We’re interested in airflow and dust-separation systems that help deliver more sustained suction performance, especially in homes with carpets and hair," explains Faraz. "One of the biggest pain points in the category is that cleaning performance can fall over time as filters clog, so technologies like multi-cyclone separation matter because they improve long-term consistency."

Dreame has made particular strides in innovations focused on getting right into edges and corners. "No matter how powerful a robot vacuum is, dust and debris collect in corners and along edges where brushes simply can't reach. It's one of those problems that sounds minor until you actually look at how dirty those corners get," says Michael Meng.

Its newest bot — the X60 Pro Ultra Complete — has 'UltraExtend technology', which enables the mop pad to kick out up to 7 inches / 18cm from the robot body, and the side sweeper brush to unfurl, E.T.-style, to reach up to 4.7 inches / 12cm.

The design is inspired by human limbs. "When you extend your forearm, your reach increases significantly," Meng explains. "We applied that same principle to our robotic arm design — engineering it to fold and unfold in a way that mimics natural arm movement."

Intertwined with cleaning performance is battery function. "A robot vacuum that runs out of power mid-clean is more frustration than solution," says Meng. "Consumers with larger homes or open-plan layouts need a robot that can complete a full clean in a single charge — or intelligently return to dock, recharge and resume exactly where it left off. Battery efficiency, combined with smart charging and resume functionality, has become a key purchasing consideration for households of all sizes."

Mind the (performance) gap

Even with all the performance advancements, it's still the case that a robot vacuum-mop won't clean as well as a manual vacuum could. Robovacs are winning on convenience, but not on cleaning power. The long-term aim is to catch up. "The first step is to close the cleaning performance gap — reaching, and eventually surpassing, handheld devices," says Faraz from Eufy.

Longer-term, he sees things progressing to a point where robot vacuums can tackle not just vacuuming and straightforward mopping, but a wider range of cleaning demands.

"Technologies like roller mopping, steam cleaning, and multi-cyclone systems are maturing," he points out. "In the next five to 10 years, robot vacuums will take on true deep-cleaning capabilities — thorough carpet washing, high-temperature steam disinfection and floor sanitization. The kinds of tasks that currently require dedicated equipment or professional services will gradually fall within the robot vacuum remit."

The trump card robot vacuums already hold over manual cleaning appliances is that they take care of the job on their own. It makes sense, then, that continuing to improve automation is a key focus for all the brands I spoke to.

"In the 12 years we have existed as a company, trends have shifted constantly," says Roborock's Ricky Ma. "Currently, the primary trend is 'zero-maintenance and zero human intervention', where users expect a robot to not only vacuum and mop but also self-clean, self-dry, and navigate complex environments without human intervention."

"The biggest challenge is making advanced automation feel completely effortless," adds SwitchBot's co-founder Richard Mou. "Our goal is to reduce the number of times users need to think about their robot."

iRobot's Reena Patel points out that this focus on autonomy is reflected in iRobot's sales patterns. "We've seen consumers become more willing to purchase premium robot vacuums to deliver a genuinely hands-off experience," she tells me. "Consumers are increasingly prioritizing features that save time, such as self-emptying and self-cleaning docks, advanced mopping systems, and intelligent obstacle avoidance."

A big part of the equation when it comes to true autonomy is maintenance. "People increasingly expect higher automation," says Eufy's Faraz Mehdi. "Features like auto-emptying, mop washing, drying, and anti-tangle systems are becoming much more important because users want a robot that genuinely reduces housework, rather than creating a new maintenance routine."

The ultimate aim is robovacs that don't require you to get involved at all — as Mehdi puts it, "zero manual intervention, end to end", including "full-chain self-maintenance, so the user never needs to maintain the machine itself."

Self-maintenance is one thing, but for a robot to operate without a human chaperone present, it also needs reliable navigation and object avoidance skills. These are essential if it's not going to get lost, stuck or tangled in something.

"Accurate navigation is the foundation of an effective robot vacuum," says Dreame's Michael Meng. "Advanced LiDAR and AI-powered object recognition allow modern robots to avoid obstacles in real time.... Smart robots should not be trapped or stuck easily, so they can work on their own without users to rescue them."

I've never met a robot vacuum that's not desperate to jam itself up by chowing down on any charge cable it can get its wheels on, so here I'd like to put in a personal appeal for more focus on low-level object avoidance.

Time to step up

When it comes to robot vacuums making their way around unassisted, the ultimate hurdle to overcome is stairs. The more premium of the current fleet of bots tend to come kitted out with something akin to small stilts, which raise up the body of the vacuum and enable it to maneuver over tall room thresholds.

However, traversing an actual flight of stairs requires an altogether more involved approach. "It sounds like a simple problem, but for anyone living in a multi-story home, it's one of the biggest limitations of robot vacuums today," Meng notes.

As far as I'm aware, there are just three brands who have offered some kind of stair climbing solution, and they're all represented in my pack of interviewees. For Dreame, it's the Cyber X — essentially a stair-climbing pocket into which a robot vacuum can dock when it needs to change floors. Think of it like a stairlift for robovacs. Eufy's MarsWalker takes a similar approach.

Roborock's Saros Rover is rather different, with its two long, spindly legs that enable it to scale not just steps but all kinds of uneven terrain. Ricky Ma sees it as a major breakthrough in bots that don't require human intervention. "The future of this category is exciting and we can't wait to show everyone what we have to offer," he enthuses. I saw the Rover in action at CES 2026, and it was a complete departure from any robot vacuum I've seen before. At that point, it was still at prototype stage — I'll be watching with interest to see how things develop.

Future-gazing

So far, I've been focusing on developments that have already started to take root. But what about the longer term? I asked my interviewees their predictions for what the robovac market might look like in five to 10 years' time, and they had some intriguing answers.

Eufy believes autonomous decision-making is going to change the game. "Robot vacuums will reach a level of intelligence where they can genuinely understand the home environment, identify different types of dirt, and autonomously choose the optimal cleaning strategy," Faraz Mehdi predicts.

Roborock is planning along similar lines. "Robovacs are rapidly shifting from an appliance to a smart cleaning partner. The most important shift will be greater physical intelligence," says Ricky Ma. "The ultimate goal is to build an intelligent cleaning partner that can spot the need to clean even before the user has time to ask the product to do so."

Further to this, a few of the execs I interviewed envision about a future where robot vacuums are no longer lone rangers, but work seamlessly alongside other smart appliances.

"Rather than operating as standalone devices, they will become increasingly connected with the wider smart home ecosystem, working more intelligently with other devices," says Dreame's Michael Meng.

Meng also sees a future where robovacs are far from the only autonomous helpers in the home. "While the familiar robot vacuum will remain an important form factor, its capabilities will extend well beyond floor cleaning," he says. "Advances in technologies such as robotic manipulation and embodied AI will enable these robots to interact more naturally with their surroundings and take on a broader range of household tasks."

SwitchBot's Richard Mou has an even more fully formed vision for the future: "I think we'll stop thinking about robovacs as a standalone category and instead see them as part of a broader family of home robots," he tells me.

"As embodied AI and humanoid robotics continue to mature, robot vacuums will contribute proven capabilities like autonomous navigation, environmental perception, and home mapping, while future humanoid robots build on those foundations to take on a much wider range of household tasks. At SwitchBot, that's exactly how we see the future — creating intelligent home robots that work together as one ecosystem rather than isolated devices."

Prepare yourself for the home robot takeover — and for an even cleaner home.

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit: One-minute review

The TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit is a feature-packed 4K outdoor security camera that delivers many of the perks usually reserved for pricier models, including solar charging, pan-and-tilt coverage, color night vision and local microSD storage.

That last feature means you won’t need to pay for a subscription for video playback and download, but there are still some great (but non-essential) features in the paid Tapocare subscription, especially if you plan to expand your home's security with more than a single camera.

The Tapo app is also easy to use, and the C660 Kit will slot in alongside other Tapo smart home gear like lights, plugs and more to form its own smart home ecosystem. On the other hand, if you have other smart devices in the mix and would prefer a hub to control them all, Alexa has the strongest support, while Google Home only works with voice commands and video streaming to smart displays and TVs. There’s no native support for Apple HomeKit.

While it doesn't necessarily stand out in a crowded market with its design, the white casing looks sleek and stylish, and the IP65 waterproof rating means the C660 Kit is dust-tight and can withstand low-pressure water jets from any direction (aka rain, splashes or hose spray).

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit review: Price and availability

• Starts at $169.99 / £179.99 / AU$299 for a single camera unit
• Available in multipacks of 2, 3 and 4-camera bundles
• Optional Tapocare subscription plans start at $3.49 / £2.99 / AU$3.99 per month

The Tapo C660 Kit costs $169.99 / £179.99 / AU$299 for a single camera unit, although multipacks of 2-, 3- and 4-camera kits are available either as set bundles or as part of a build-your-own package option directly from Tapo as well as through third-party retailers like Amazon.

While you may not need a subscription package, especially if you use a single camera unit, Tapocare might well be worthwhile for some users. It offers cloud storage, extended video clip history for up to 30 days and enhanced notifications, with plans starting at $3.49 / £2.99 / AU$3.99 per month for one camera on the Basic Tapocare tier. Prices increase as you add more cameras.

You can also buy the camera on its own without the solar panel under the TP-Link Tapo C560WS name for $99.99 / £109.99 / AU$199.

• Value: 5/5

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit review: Specs

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit review: Design and installation

• Sleek black and white color scheme
• Straightforward installation with easy-to-follow instructions
• Recommended mounting height is between 2.5m and 3m (8-10 feet)

The Tapo C660 Kit has a sleek white plastic body with black accents around the lens, with IP65 rating for dust ingress protection and resistance to low-pressure water jets from any direction. This means water from rain, splashes or hose spray will be fine, but it won’t withstand immersion and pressure washing.

The solar panel is just the right size relative to the camera — it isn’t small and subtle by any means and it’s definitely noticeable once installed, but it isn’t too imposing either. As mentioned above, there is a rubber flap underneath the camera lens concealing the power button, a reset button and a microSD card slot.

Installing the Tapo C660 Kit is straightforward thanks to the easy-to-follow instructions included in the box. You start by drilling holes where you want to mount the base plate, then slot the camera in. The solar panel is screwed on top, then plugged into the camera’s USB-C port located on the bottom.

It’s worth taking some time to think about where you want the camera placed before you install it, though. While the Tapo C660 Kit can pan and tilt the camera, getting the full view of an entire space isn’t guaranteed if it’s mounted too low since it doesn’t tilt upward. TP-Link recommends mounting it between 2.5m and 3m (8-10 feet) and in a location where the solar panel gets the most sunlight throughout the year.

TP-Link also recommends that the camera shouldn’t point at swaying trees and other moving objects like vehicles and pedestrians to prevent an avalanche of notifications, but if it’s unavoidable, the C660 lets you set motion detection zones via the app to reduce or minimize notifications of movement within those zones.

One thing to note about the installation is that the camera has a manual power button tucked away beneath a flap under the lens. Unlike other security cameras that power up automatically when plugged into a power source (like the solar panel or a USB-C cable), this button needs to be switched on before mounting (especially when it's in a hard-to-reach height) and pairing with the Tapo app.

Pairing the camera to the app is quick and straightforward, with only a few setup options at the beginning, like Wi-Fi connection type (2.4GHz for longer range or 5GHz for better video streaming quality, both using the Wi-Fi 4 standard), assigning the camera’s location and even the icon you want displayed in the Tapo app home screen.

• Design: 5/5

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit review: Software and smart home support

• Tapo app is intuitive and easy to use
• Alexa has full support, while Google Home is limited
• Motion detection zones move with the camera instead of a fixed area

TP-Link’s Tapo C660 Kit natively integrates with the Tapo smart home app, allowing the camera to slot into any existing Tapo smart home ecosystem that might include lights, plugs, switches, robot vacuums, door locks and more.

If you have devices from other brands and use a smart assistant to consolidate them into one interface, the camera supports Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Alexa supports both live footage playback and voice commands, while Google Home only supports voice controls and video streaming on select devices. Apple HomeKit isn’t supported, but alerts and automations can still be done through Siri via iOS shortcuts enabled through the Tapo app.

The app works well, with an intuitive interface using tiles to show all your Tapo devices, with dedicated tabs for the different gadget categories (like cameras, vacuums and 'Smart' for automations). You can play the live feed and adjust settings by tapping on the tile for the camera (or cameras if you have more).

Camera settings include two-way audio, a toggle for the built-in spotlight and adjustments for panning and tilting the camera. There’s also an option to 'save' a set camera position via 'Viewpoints' and easily access those positions without manually adjusting each time. Those views can be used for automations, too.

To try out the feature, I set the camera to monitor the rear of the house instead of the driveway and front stairs for just a few hours during the day, and it would activate as scheduled each time. Patrol Mode also lets you move the camera between those set positions, but the Tapo app warns that this mode may impact the camera motor’s longevity.

One annoyance I found with the Viewpoints feature was that the motion detection zone that I set also moved with the camera and there’s no option to lock it to a specific spot. Thankfully, I didn’t have to move my camera too often for that to personally impact me, but I can see it being inconvenient for some users.

Adding to the motion tracking is a setting subject detection like person, pet or vehicle, and it can also be set for different motion detection zones as well.

• Software: 4/5

TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit review: Performance

• Crisp 4K image quality from 8MP lens
• Built-in spotlight provides color at night
• Solar panel keeps the unit running 24/7

The Tapo C660 Kit captures videos through its 8MP lens with 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, with a frame rate of 15 or 20 frames per second. The recorded video clips were crisp and detailed when viewing live or when playing back previously recorded footage. It was clear enough for me to see details like faces, vehicle license plates and larger text from further away, while the 18x digital zoom provided more detail than lower-resolution cameras.

It managed to retain detail in brighter areas and the video wasn’t washed out, like when direct sunlight was hitting the driveway. There’s built-in wide dynamic range to prevent overexposure in bright sunlight or underexposure in dark shadows.

Motion tracking was responsive, and the C660 Kit could track me moving when I was walking quickly, running or cycling (although I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fast runner or cyclist to try and avoid the tracking). I also liked that the camera automatically reverts to the original position after detecting movement, so I didn’t have to adjust it manually as some security cameras require you to do.

At night, the f/1.6 aperture takes in enough light to provide a clear image, and the built-in spotlight adds more low-light visibility. There’s also an infrared sensor as an alternative to color night vision. While I found both modes were able to detect movement almost instantly, the image quality isn’t as crisp as daytime mode, but it was still decent enough to be clear and fully visible.

The built-in microphone produced clear audio and was loud enough for a conversation even when I wasn't at home.

The solar panel kept the battery topped up, with the camera almost always running at 100% apart from some overcast days. It was only when I switched on 24/7 Capture (which frankly most people won’t need) that the solar panel struggled to keep the camera charged, and I eventually had to bring it indoors (it can be removed from its base plate easily) for a top-up via a USB-C cable.

In a different test, I tried running the camera without the solar panel plugged in, and the camera ran uninterrupted for just over 2 weeks before it needed charging.

The Tapo C660 Kit isn't necessarily the cheapest 4K security camera, but having local storage via a microSD card makes it a great value option compared to others that require a subscription to access cloud storage for recorded footage. It supports up to 512GB, though you'll need to purchase the microSD card separately as it doesn't come with one in the box.

TP-Link says that’s enough for around 16 complete days of recording, which is plenty for most people. Local storage means you can also back up those recordings to your home computer or another drive for redundancy. The Tapo app also lets you password-protect the microSD card for an extra layer of security.

Accessing footage from the card is easy through the app, and notifications reliably link to recordings with almost no delay after the camera detects motion. Video playback is also very smooth in the app. If you prefer cloud storage, you can opt for the aforementioned Tapocare subscription and choose a plan based on the number of connected cameras you plan to have.

Other features in Tapocare include 30 days of encrypted video storage for events, rich notifications and video summaries.

• Performance: 4/5

Should I buy the TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the TP-Link Tapo C660 Kit

I installed the Tapo C660 Kit to a porch post on my property for a few months to get a sense of both its recording capabilities and whether its solar panel would keep the camera’s battery charged.

I tested all the settings, but had the alarm and spotlight mostly turned off to avoid disturbing neighbors, only doing one-off tests to see if they perform as advertized. I would also check captured footage whenever I got a push notification.

The smart home integrations were tested with smart displays (a 2nd-gen Google Nest Hub and an Amazon Echo Show 5) in addition to the Alexa and Google Home mobile apps.

First reviewed July 2026

• Google is expanding Gemini Live to the first-gen Home Mini speaker and Nest Hub smart display
• It rolled out in Gemini for Home early access, and requires a Google Home Premium subscription
• Google also increased Gemini's conversation memory window to 15 minutes

It’s a great day to be an owner of older Google smart home devices, now the company is rolling out Gemini Live to its two of its OG models.

Yesterday (July 23) Google unveiled a slew of Gemini for Home early access upgrades on its support page, but the one that has everyone talking is the arrival of Gemini Live, which is coming to the first-gen Google Home Mini speaker and Google Nest Hub smart display.

The update marks the next step in Google’s plan to expand the ubiquity of its live AI chatbot, which the company rolled out to the Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub, and Nest Hub Max devices in October 2025. The new Google Home Speaker comes equipped with Gemini Live out of the box.

For users who are still going strong with their first-gen Google devices, we imagine this upgrade will be welcomed with open arms, but the one catch is that Gemini Live is paywalled behind the Google Home Premium subscription service, which costs a monthly fee of $10/ £8/ AU$15.

If you already have Google Home Premium and are part of the Gemini for Home early access program, you can now start conversations with your Home Mini and Nest Hub devices by saying ‘Hey Google, let’s chat’. The chime will indicate that Gemini is listening, and you can ask it anything such as recipe ideas, suggestions for an upcoming trip, or dive deeper into the most niche topics.

In addition to Gemini Live’s expansion, Google has upgraded Gemini’s conversation memory window to 15 minutes. “You can ask Gemini a follow-up question to a topic that was discussed during this window, and Gemini will understand the context,” the company details.

It’s refreshing to see that Google hasn’t completely given up on its early smart speakers and displays — even if the hardware is aging. Not often do you see tech giants acknowledge that old devices are still widely used, and Amazon is a classic example of this.

A few months back, the company came under fire for ending support for Kindles released from 2012 and earlier even though there’s a whole community of bookworms that still rely on these models — so Google is doing a better job than Amazon in that regard.

Signed up to Google Home Premium but unsure how to join the Gemini for Home early access program? We’ve got you covered.

First, you’re going to need to request early access, and you’ll need to make sure your Google Home app is updated to the latest version. From there, launch the app and tap your profile image or initial at the top right, select Home settings, and then Early Access. Follow the steps to request early access, and you’ll receive a notification when Gemini for Home becomes available for your devices.

You can also check region availability and other information on the Google Home and Nest help page.

• Ring had launched an updated Outdoor Camera and Peephole Camera 2K
• They will both go on sale in August 2026
• The Outdoor Camera is £99.99 (about $130 / AU$190), and the Peephole Camera is £79.99 (about $110 / AU$150)

Ring has announced two brand new smart security cameras, one for mounting outdoors and one for installing into the peephole of your door.

Let's start with the outdoor option first. The new Ring Outdoor Camera (2nd Gen) is available in both wired and battery versions. It has a wide-angle lens (140 degrees horizontal and 85 degrees vertical), and delivers 2K resolution with up to 6x enhanced zoom. It has B&W night vision, customizable privacy zones and motion detection, and you can talk to visitors via Live View and Two-Way Talk. If you subscribe to Ring Protect you can also get intelligent alerts and the ability to scroll back in time to rewatch footage. Wi-Fi is single-band Wi-Fi 4 using the 2.4GHz frequency band.

One of the big selling points here is easy installation: it's simple to mount the camera and it's designed to cope with temperatures from -20ºC to +50ªC, although Ring says the camera may temporarily turn itself off if it's in direct sunlight during extreme heat conditions.

The Ring Outdoor Camera (2nd Gen) has a list price of £99.99 (about $130 / AU$190) and it'll be available from August 12, 2026. Pre-orders are open now.

Ring Peephole Camera 2K: this peep is fairly cheap and fits in doors that are quite deep

The new Ring Peephole Camera 2K is more stylish than its rather boxy predecessor, with a more triangular shape and a good-looking speckled finish. It fits through the space where you'd normally have an optical peephole, and there's no need to drill, run cables or do anything at all as it's completely wireless and runs off a rechargeable battery. It's designed to fit peepholes from 12mm to 14mm in size and go through doors between 32.5mm and 60mm.

I think this is going to be particularly popular with flat dwellers, especially renters who can't make any physical changes to the property: simply unscrew the optical peephole, install the camera, and you can take it with you when you move. Don't forget to keep the original peephole somewhere where you can find it again, though.

Like the new Outdoor Camera (2nd Gen) the resolution is 2K with up to 6x enhanced zoom, Live View and Two-Way Talk, but there's no night vision here so you'll need to make sure the door is facing a well-lit area. Ring says its camera is tuned for low-light conditions, but this camera doesn't see in the dark like the Outdoor Camera does.

The field of view is 140 x 140 degrees to deliver 'head-to-toe' visuals, and the quick release battery is easy to remove for charging. Wi-Fi is Wi-Fi 4 on the 2.4GHz frequency band.

The Ring Peephole Camera 2K will be available from August 19, 2026, and pre-orders are open now. The list price is £79.99 (about $110 / AU$150).

Computing is so ubiquitous that we often see more than one in most households, including laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, smartphones, tablets, and so on. But there was once a time when that certainly wasn't the case. In that context, some comments made by industry stalwarts of the past may appear like massive miscalculations.

Ethics in AI

The late Ken Olsen was the co-founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), a major company in the mid-20th century that produced a series of minicomputers over the decades in which it operated until its decline in 1998.

Despite being a key part of the computer industry, Olsen was adamant that the computer was something isolated to the enterprise — delivering his infamous comments in 1977 at a convention of the World Future Society. There are, however, two very important caveats.

Firstly, computers at the time were either gigantic mainframes or minicomputers that needed specialized staff to manage. Secondly, Olsen later claimed his words were taken completely out of context.

Smart living

Olsen claimed he wasn't referring to the sort of computers we see today in homes like desktop PCs or laptops, but actually the then-futuristic proposal of a master computer that would automate different functions around the house.

What the executive was referring to was what we now understand as the smart home. However, regardless of the context, his comments still missed the mark — as the rise of smart home technology has been a very exciting development during the 21st century.

That said, the vision of a fully automated and intelligent home has proven massively prohibitive, partially due to cost, partially due to hardware, and finally due to slow interoperability and integration. That latter element, however, is finally something that's been changing thanks to the Matter smart home standard.

Top PC accessories (for the computer you apparently don't need in your home)

Robot lawn mowers are growing in popularity, and with good reason. They're getting more advanced in features, easier to set up and use, and can be a huge time- and effort-saver... provided you pick the right model. There are plenty of options to choose from, spanning a range of prices and capabilities, and if you're new to the lawnbot world then it can be tricky to figure out which one you need.

This article is here to guide you through that process. I've pulled together five big questions to help you narrow down your options. And for added expertise, I've enlisted the help of KK Yin, Marketing Director at leading lawnbot brand Mammotion, whose insights you'll find throughout the piece.

#1. Do I need all-wheel drive?

"Everyone has a different environment for their lawn. So the first thing a customer should do is choose which kind of power system they need — for example, all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, or some the brands have front-wheel drive," says KK.

Rear-wheel drive will be perfectly fine if you have a relatively even and flat lawn, and will have no issue scaling relatively gentle inclines. However, if you have a very steep or uneven lawn, all-wheel drive (AWD) will help ensure the lawnbot maintains its grip without churning up your grass. Front-wheel drive is really only for flat lawns, and is a less common power system.

AWD tends to be reserved for larger, more premium robot mowers. However, at the start of this year Segway Navimow launched compact AWD model, with the suggestion that it would treat your turf more gently.

#2. Does my lawn have shaded areas?

Next, KK suggests figuring out which navigation method is best suited to the environment. "A customer should look at if they have shaded areas, the house is tall or they have trees in the garden. If they do, I suggest they don't choose an RTK positioning system. They should maybe choose a LiDAR model," says KK.

There are two major navigation systems for robot mowers. RTK, which uses satellites, can work very well if the lawnbot has a wide, uninterrupted view of the sky. However, if there are obstructions — such as those listed by KK — in the way, these can block the signal and lead to the lawnbot getting lost.

LiDAR is the system used by robot vacuums, and is relatively new in the robot mower market. LiDAR builds a picture of its surroundings by bouncing light off objects, so it's not well suited to wide-open lawns with no objects in them.

Broadly speaking, RTK will be a good choice in big, open yards, whereas LiDAR might be a better fit if you have a smaller, more cluttered yard. LiDAR models are often pricier, so if you can get away with an RTK bot, you might prefer to go with that option.

#3. How big is my lawn?

Many lawnbot models are available in a few different iterations aimed at different-sized lawns (typically indicated by a number after the product name). The difference is usually the battery capacity — a bot designed for a larger area will have a bigger battery, enabling it to cover more ground before having to return to its dock to recharge, thus making it more efficient.

"I think most users figure out that in one week they will mow maybe two or three times. So they need to work out how long it will take a product to mow their lawn once," suggests KK. With that information, you can work out if your mower will be efficient enough to keep up with your grass-trimming demands.

#4. Do I have more than one mowing zone?

"The next point, I think, is about multi-zone management," says KK. "Not all people have one big lawn — it's divided by the house, or the garden is split into different areas. That means they need to manage more than one mowing zone."

Pretty much every lawnbot will be able to mow multiple separate lawns, with the ability to create different maps in your app. However, some have more advanced multi-zone capabilities than others. One bot might be intelligent enough to handle a schedule where the lawnbot spends the morning in Zone A and moves to Zone B in the evening, and it might even be able to work out the optimal mowing patterns and cadence.

#5. How much setup do I want to do?

If you end up with a satellite-based lawnbot (see point #2), you might need to decide between a bot that comes with a separate antenna and one that does not. This RTK station is required to make the satellite information more accurate — so satellite positioning on its own might tell you where a bot is to within a meter or two, but add in a separate RTK receiver and it's more like centimeters.

Traditionally, you'd have this receiver in your own back yard. This adds an extra level of complexity to setup — the reciever needs to sit high up, with direct line of sight to satellites in the sky, and it also needs a power source. However, increasingly, we're seeing lawnbots that use a big, centralized RTK receiver that covers a large area. Mammotion calls this NetRTK. It's definitely a more low-effort option.

There are further features to look out for if you want the most straightforward setup. Some modern robot mowers have cameras and AI features that enable them to instantly create a map of their location, so you can just pop it on the floor and it'll be able to start mowing pretty much instantly. KK suggests these kinds of features are more of a nice-to-have, and advises focusing on the first four points first.

Reviews round-up

We've tested plenty of excellent lawnbots at TechRadar. Here's a taster of some of our favorites — tap the 'View details' button for more information, plus a link to our full reviews.

• Philips is rumored to be launching a new camera-based Hue Sync device for its TV backlights
• It removes the need for a pricey Hue Play HDMI Sync Box
• The 'Sync Screen' would be the first camera for the Philips Hue Play system

Philips Hue could be working on a new device for syncing your TV’s color palette to your backlights, giving you another option for illuminating your entertainment setup

Fabian of Hue Blog attended an online presentation hosted by Philips, and spotted a new Hue Sync device with an integrated camera that looks strikingly similar to rival devices like the Nanoleaf 4D.

The new gadget could be called ‘Sync Screen’, and may be unveiled at IFA 2026 in September. We don't know how much it will cost yet, but considering Philips Hue is a premium brand, it's likely the new device will sit in a higher price bracket than its competitors.

Just like other camera-operated TV LED lights, Philips’ version mounts to the top of a TV or monitor, and captures the color movements of the movie, show, or game on the screen. This movement is then processed and synced with backlights mounted behind the display.

From the image shared by Hue Blog, it seems that the Philips Sync Screen camera will only have one lens, but will likely be a fish-eye one to capture your entire TV screen — just like those used by rival devices.

You will almost certainly still need a Philips Hue Bridge to link the lights and camera to one another, but because the system camera-operated, you won't need a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or Hue Sync TV app subscription, which could make it a more tempting proposition.

As mentioned, Philips isn’t the first smart home giant to offer TV lighting gadgets like this, which aim to make your TV and gaming experiences more immersive by extending the colors from the screen onto the surrounding walls.

In addition to the Nanoleaf 4D light strips, the Govee StarPal Pro and the more recent Govee TV Backlight 3 Pro models are all camera-operated — the latter having a dual-camera system to capture more of your TV screen or monitor.

Philips has had quite an eventful 2026 already. In March the company unveiled its new OLED TVs, which are also the first native models for Dolby Vision 2, as well as its beautiful yet expensive ceiling light that mimics natural daylight. We’re just a mere two months away from IFA 2026, and I think the best is yet to come.

A new Google Home Display might be on the cards, but sticking to the traditional smart home hub format seems like a missed opportunity. What I really want to see this year is a new version of 2023's Google Pixel Tablet — and it would be a much better fit for a modern AI-powered smart home.

Google hasn't officially announced a new smart screen, but I think it's only a matter of time. Last year, Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer for Google Home, said the company was still committed to the smart display format. "If you think about the properties of a smart display: a microphone, which means audio in, a speaker, so audio out. It’s got a screen, which complements a voice modality, you can interact with it and visualize information," he told The Vergecast.

"As I see where Gemini for Home is going and Gemini more broadly, all of the things Google is investing in building, for me it feels like almost the ultimate form factor to be able to deliver a really great home experience. So, that’s why we are going to continue to invest in that category, so I think it’s going to be awesome."

A smart home hub can be so much more than a speaker, screen, and microphone though, as the 2023 Google Pixel Tablet demonstrated — and I think a new version of that device would be an even better platform for Gemini than a Google Home Display.

The smart home untethered

If you're not familiar with the Pixel Tablet, it's essentially a full Android tablet specifically designed for use around the house. It doesn't have great battery life, and there's no SIM card slot for mobile data, but that's not a problem when you're never straying outside range of your home Wi-Fi network, or taking it far from its dock.

At first glance it looks just like a Google Home Display, but there's one big difference: while the Home Display is all one unit, the Pixel Tablet's screen lifts off its magnetic dock so you can carry it from room to room.

Unlike a Google Home Display, the Pixel Tablet isn't just a hub, either. Although it can be the heart of your smart home, providing quick access to your lights, switches, robovacs and cameras with quick voice controls, it's also a fully-featured Android tablet, with access to the whole Google Play Store. That means you can install your favorite web browser, stream movies from Netflix, or spend hours on YouTube on its 10.95-inch display. It has a reasonable front-facing camera as well, so it's ideal for Zoom calls with the family from the comfort of your sofa.

My Pixel Tablet lives on my kitchen table, where it serves as both a smart home hub and a second TV, letting me stream shows via BBC iPlayer at breakfast time, or use YouTube Music to play music while I work. The tablet's built-in speaker is quite tinny, but the one housed within its dock sounds surprisingly rich and well-balanced.

When it's time to make dinner, I can simply pluck it from its dock, stand it on the kitchen counter, and load my recipe app of choice, then in the evening, I can crash out on the sofa, adjust the lights, and finish my daily Duolingo session. You can't do that with a Home Display. Sounds good? It is — and it's now discontinued.

A smarter Pixel Tablet

So what would a 2026 Pixel Tablet look like? Well, apart from having Gemini pre-installed (naturally), it needs to function as a Thread border router, and its speaker needs a boost to bring it level with the new Google Home Speaker. Its 2,560 x 1,600px screen resolution is already respectable though (for comparison, the larger Amazon Echo Show 11's screen is 1,920 x 1,200px) and its weight doesn't matter considering it's not intended to travel outside the house, so I wouldn't worry about slimming it down much.

It would be nice to see a lower price, though. The original Pixel Tablet had a list price of $499 / £599 / AU$899, which is a hefty fee for a smart display. A cheaper Pixel Tablet might be wishful thinking, but considering you would need a Google Home Premium subscription to get the most out of Gemini, a lower asking price would make it a more tempting proposition.

There's a chance that Google might surprise me with a Google Home Tablet that can roam from room to room, but somehow I doubt it. Apple's vision for the future seems to involve multiple screens scattered throughout your home, while Amazon Echo devices are so affordable, it's easy to justify buying one for each room. We'll have to wait and see.

Eufy Omni S2: two-minute review

Eufy’s latest flagship robotic vacuum and mop, the Omni S2 is a hugely impressive appliance that combines excellent mopping with brilliant vacuuming to create one of the best home cleaning systems you can buy. It also self-cleans so thoroughly that, after several weeks of daily use, the dust bin, rollers and mop still looked like new.

The Omni S2 uses warm water to clean its spinning mop as it goes, while also scraping away dirt and using cyclone technology to whisk dust more efficiently into the onboard bin, instead of leaving it to clog up the filters. Water is ozonated in the base station to further improve cleaning performance, and there’s an integrated detergent system too.

The robot itself can even be fitted with a fragrance diffuser, which makes your room smell nice after every clean; three different scents are included in the box and, along with the detergent, and can be replenished from Eufy’s website.

It navigates well, mostly avoiding contact with walls and doors while driving very closely to all manner of obstacles without pushing them around, driving over them or ingesting them. The S2 is good at climbing over raised carpets, rugs and door thresholds — something the Omni S1 struggled with – and the app does a great job of quickly mapping your home, with a simple editing system for labeling every room correctly, and even adding virtual furniture.

I was impressed by how quiet the Omni S2 is, even with its powerful Cyclone mode engaged, and how the base station doesn’t sound like an Airbus when emptying the robot. It’s a very expensive product, but one that looks good and performs extremely well.

Eufy Omni S2: price and availability

• List price: $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,299
• Launched: March 2026

Just two years on from the launch of the Omni S1 Pro, Eufy now has the Omni S2. This is now the company’s flagship robotic vacuum and mop, with a price, performance and feature set to match.

It carries a recommended retail price of $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,299, making it £300 more expensive than the S1 pro, which remains on sale. That’s an awful lot of money for a vacuum cleaner — especially when

Eufy’s own range of robovacs starts under the £150 mark, and one of my favourites — the X10 Pro Omni vacuum and mop — is a comparative snip at £599.

What does the extra £1,000 get you with the S2? More power, of course, with greater suction thanks to Eufy’s new AeroTurbo 2.0 tech, improved intelligence, greater threshold clearance, a more powerful mop, better computer vision, a self-cleaning mop, electrolysed water, integrated detergent and even a built-in fragrance system with three included scents to pick from.

An additional cost to bear in mind is Eufy’s replacement parts kit. The brushes, bags, mops and rollers of all vacuum cleaners need replacing, so ongoing costs aren’t unusual, but Eufy likes to charge plenty. A complete kit for the S2 is £79.99. Premium parts for a premium robovac, I suppose. More welcome is Eufy’s new two-year warranty, which applies to all robot vacuums launched in 2026 and doubles the previous coverage.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Eufy Omni S2: specifications

Eufy Omni S2: design

• Docking station with charger, dust bag, water tanks and mop drying
• Rotating, self-cleaning mop
• Integrated detergent and fragrance supply

The S2 has a similar but more refined look than its S1 predecessor. The subtle bronze tint to sections of the robot and docking station give it a premium aesthetic that blends nicely with the futuristic lighting in both the clean water tank of the dock, and the robot’s onboard dust bin.

Taller than many docking stations, but significantly more elegant than most, the Omni S2’s appearance helps to justify its lofty price tag — and that’s further aided by the display and touch controls on top of the dock. These are handily located to press without stooping down to the robot itself, while the screen is useful for checking on the robot’s status and spotting error messages.

Short of making you a cup of tea while the robot cleans up, the S2’s docking station does absolutely everything. It charges the robot, empties its dust bin, replenishes its water supply (and even ozonates fresh water before it’s fed to the mop), cleans the mop with water heated to 70 degrees centigrade, dries it with hot air, refills the detergent tank, and has enough dust bin capacity for up to a claimed 68 days between bag replacements.

The robot itself is almost circular, with a central roller that’s claimed to be 100 percent tangle free, a pair of spinning side brushes, and a roller mop that self-cleans, slides outwards by 1.5cm to reach into corners and even an onboard fragrance supply to make your home smell nice. The S2 includes three different fragrances in the box, but these are a bespoke design so replacements can only be bought from Eufy itself. The same goes for the detergent bottle too, while thankfully the 2.5-litre dust bags are generic.

I like how the Omni S2 looks. Its design is more sophisticated than that of the S1, and I can imagine it neatly complementing the lavish houses of its deep-pocketed buyers. And while tall, at 670mm (26.4 inches), the docking station is relatively slim.

The robot is also relatively short, at 85mm. This compares favorably against taller, bulkier robovacs like the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI, which towers over the Eufy at 110mm and is less capable of cleaning beneath low furniture.

A welcome design upgrade for the Eufy Omni S2 is its ability to now clear door thresholds up to 4.2cm tall, up from just 2cm for the Omni S1. I was often left frustrated by that robot’s inability to drive up from exposed floorboards to a carpeted neighboring room, but have had no such issues with the S2.

• Design score: 5/5

Eufy Omni S2: performance

• Impressive vacuuming
• Excellent mopping
• Strong improvement over the S1

From the setup process and mapping, to vacuuming, mopping, navigation and self-cleaning, the Omni S2 is a triumph. You might say it should well be for the massive price tag, but even in 2026 it’s rare for such a complex new product to impress so universally. Where the Eufy Omni S1 struggled in some key areas — navigation, threshold clearance and sometimes even vacuuming — the S2’s performance is close to perfect.

Yes, it’s an ultra-premium product with a price to match. This is right up there with your Leica camera, Rimowa suitcase and five-figure turntable. I imagine the typical Omni S2 owner is the sort of person who wouldn't blink at splashing out on a pair of Apple AirPods Max 2 at the airport because they forgot their first-gens at home. They’d probably deal with a flight delay by picking up a new Swiss watch, too.

And that’s absolutely fine. Whatever the product, there’s always something that happens to sell the most expensive one, and for robotic vacuums that just so happens to be Eufy with the Omni S2. That doesn’t inherently count against it, because there are always customers happy to pay a premium for the one they like, or not really care about the cost because the S2’s spec sheet, design and feature set already put it at the top of the market.

What matters is how it performs in the real world, and how that compares to user expectations. Naturally, mine were at an all-time high and the S2 mostly delivered. The vacuuming performance is noticeably better than with the S1, and after a month of testing I still smile at the neat stripes vacuumed into my lounge carpet — and at how pleasant the S2’s fragrance system makes every room smell.

Eufy has improved navigation since the S1, and now the S2 is smart enough to not vacuum over the tasselled ends of a rug. It also automatically detects rug and carpet thickness, then raises itself by up to 50mm (1.97 inches) to prevent getting stuck in deep-pile fabric. In my testing, the S2 flagged a potentially tricky bit of carpet — which was actually an integrated but deeply contoured door mat — so I could tell it to ignore the concern or permanently avoid it.

Navigation and map creation is generally good. The robot only once got stuck and called for help, and I was impressed by how quickly the S2 mapped the ground floor of my home and did a decent job of detecting room boundaries. I used the app to fine-tune these, and was pleased to see how the S2 had added 3D cupboards, sofas, tables, chairs and other bits of furniture to the map. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s nice to see how the S2 correctly understands its environment.

Eufy claims a maximum suction of 30,000Pa, which is a huge upgrade over the 8,000Pa of the Omni S1 and other Eufy robots like the X10. There are four suction modes — Quiet, Standard, Turbo and Max — three options of cleaning intensity, three water levels, and the option of performing each cleaning task once or twice. As with the S1, the S2 returns to base whenever it needs to empty its bin, clean the mop, replenish its water supply or charge the battery. A mode called AI Automation promises to adjust cleaning strategy based on room type, floor material and cleaning frequency.

The Omni S2 deeply impressed during the first few weeks of general use, keeping hard floors and carpets clean — even after a cockapoo puppy joined our household, and his insistence on helping with garden projects brought a lot of dirt into the house. It was a joy, quite frankly, to have the S2 on hand, ready to clean up after every chaotic evening of dog zoomies.

I also loved how the S2 kept itself clean. Not only is the mop cleaned and dried with every use, but the cyclone-style dust collection ensures the onboard bin is practically spotless after each empty, and the filters don’t get clogged up. The rollers also looked like new after many hours of use, thanks to an anti-tangle design that actually works.

The mopping system works as well as the S1’s — evidenced by the absolutely filthy water collected in the waste tank of the docking station. I’d recommend owners empty this frequently, because if you wait a couple of weeks or so until it’s full, pouring it away is a seriously stinky process.

During TechRadar’s standardized robovac tests the Omni S2 continued to perform very well. These tests include two rounds of vacuuming on both carpets and hard floors, plus an obstacle avoidance test and a mopping test.

Pleasingly, the Omni S2’s vacuum performance is better than its predecessor, the two-year-old Omni S1. Vacuuming up oats from carpet was particularly impressive, with not a single piece being missed (except where I set the target zone in slightly the wrong place).

Before vacuuming

After vacuuming

During these tests I found the quickest, least powerful mode, called Quiet, was indeed very quiet (just 55 decibels on carpet), but the S2 performs best when suction is upped to the Standard or Turbo modes, cleaning intensity is increased from Fast to Standard, and the S2 is asked to perform two passes of the target zone or room, instead of one.

A crumb mix made of flour and crushed biscuit was completely lifted from a wooden kitchen floor using the S2’s standard intensity and suction settings, while on carpet I found Turbo or Cyclone (the most powerful suction mode) was best.

Crumb mix before first pass

Crumb mix after first pass

With that enabled, plus the intensity increased to Deep and the number of passes upped to two, the robot did a superb job.

Crumb mix after first pass

Crumb mix after second pass

The oat test is usually tougher, because robovacs tend to flick larger debris across hard floors with their spinning side brushes. The Omni S2 fell foul of this too, but as ever my advice is to set the robot to vacuum the entire room twice, instead of aiming for a target and kicking it everywhere.

With the right settings applied, the S2 picked up every single piece – and passed the same test with flying colors on carpet too, where flicking debris is less of an issue.

Before vacuuming

After vacuuming

I tested the mopping system with a dried smear of ketchup, which was promptly removed from the wooden floor. The cylindrical mop spins and pivots outwards to reach into the edges of the room, while the robot scrapes it clean and washes it while driving. The mop is then dried with hot air at the base station, which takes several hours but is very quiet.

Before mopping

After mopping

Meanwhile, the S2’s obstacle avoidance saw it drive neatly around a shoe, a sock and a USB cable strewn across the floor. I was impressed by how close it got to each, with moving or ingesting anything.

Overall, the Eufy Omni S2 performed brilliantly. I would recommend using Standard intensity and Standard suction with two passes most of the time, then up the suction to Turbo or Cyclone for a deeper clean. The latter hitting just 70 decibels was also impressive — for context, my Dyson V10 stick vacuum is 90 dB at medium power.

I only encountered one serious problem with the S2, and unfortunately it led to a replacement unit being provided by Eufy. The first S2 performed perfectly for a month, but developed a fault where the robot and docking station lost their connection. Several reboots and lots of advice from customer services failed to find a solution, so a second S2 was delivered and the original went back to Eufy for an inspection.

Naturally, this is disappointing for such an expensive product. But I was impressed by Eufy’s customer service department — which I approached as a customer and not a journalist — and how quickly the problem was resolved. The second unit performed perfectly throughout the rest of my test.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Eufy Omni S2: app

• Easy to use
• Lots of configurability
• Also handles Eufy security products
• Option to charge at night — great if you have an EV tariff

The Eufy app gets better with every revision, and today it’s one of the best robovac apps I’ve ever used. Everything is logically laid out, with just the right amount of adjustability on offer to keep both newcomers and power users happy. The app is quick, responsive and presents everything in a way that’s easy to understand.

I especially like how it adds virtual furniture to your floor maps, which makes it easier to understand the layout and visualize where the robot is. Editing floor plans also works well, with simple tools for splitting, combining and renaming rooms after the robot has created an initial (but not always accurate) map of your home. Multiple floormaps can also be created, making it easy to save a second map for your bedrooms upstairs, for example.

Another feature I like is how pre-defined tasks can be created. I have one called “After dinner”, which tells the S2 to vacuum and mop my kitchen a certain way. A single tap of this from the Eufy app home screen, and the robot gets to work.

Since getting a puppy I’ve come to value Eufy’s child lock function, which disables the buttons on top of the robot – handy for both inquisitive children and dogs alike. I also like the off-peak charging function, where you can configure the S2 to only charge its battery at certain times of day. Since I have an electric car and an EV tariff, I’ve set the robovac to only charge at night, when my electricity is much cheaper.

• App score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Eufy Omni S2?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Eufy Omni S2

I lived with the Eufy Omni S2 for several weeks before writing this review. During that time it was used exclusively to vacuum the carpets and mop the floors of my house. I tested its cleaning abilities, tried some of the included fragrance diffusers, and noted how its self-cleaning systems fared after many hours of use.

I then carried out a number of specific tests to understand how well it cleans different types of debris from carpet and hard floors, how effective its mopping system is, how good it is at avoiding obstacles, and how loud it is.

First reviewed July 2026

Philips Hue is widely known as the best smart bulb brand, but if you're looking to get yourself kitted out with a full Hue setup from the main range, it'll cost you. You might have spotted the brand's Essential range — which looks very similar to the main lineup but comes in at a much more affordable price — and wondered where the compromise is. You can see an Essential bulb on the left of the image above, next to a main range bulb on the right.

This article is here to help you figure out whether the Philips Hue Essential range is right for you, or whether it's better to splurge on the original lineup. We've tested both, and you can get the full low-down on what we thought of the budget-friendly bulbs in our Philips Hue Essential series review. For a quick summary, though — plus links to buy — read on.

Philips Hue Essential bulbs: reasons to buy

Let's start with the good bits about the Philips Hue Essentials range. Here are the main benefits to know about:

✅ The performance is excellent: In her side-by-side tests with the main range, our Homes Editor Cat Ellis found "both were equally responsive, and produced colors that were identical to my naked eye when [she] switched between scenes". The Essential bulbs are based on a different color-matching technology to regular Hue lights, but Cat "had a hard time telling the difference".

✅ They're compatible with the full Hue ecosystem: The Essential bulbs will play nicely with any Hue gadgets you already have, making them a great way to extend your existing smart light setup.

✅ They're much cheaper than the main range: While prices vary depending on exactly which bulb you're buying, generally the Essential models come in around half the price of the main range.

Philips Hue Essential bulbs: reasons to avoid

So what about the downsides? These are the main compromises you'll be making if you opt for an Essential bulb:

❌ The white shades don't match the main range: Essential bulbs have a narrower white light range, which is an issue if you were hoping to add them into a room that already has bulbs from the main lineup.

❌ They can't dim as low: Essential bulbs can only dim to 2%, whereas the main range can go right down to 0.2%. If you want seriously muted lighting, you'll need to shell out a bit more and stick to the main range.

❌ They can't get as bright: Essential bulbs have a lower maximum brightness capacity — they can reach 803 lumens, whereas some of the standard White & Color Ambiance bulbs can hit 1,600 lumens. It's worth nothing that this spec varies by bulb; not all standard bulbs have a higher max brightness than their Essential counterpart.

Philips Hue Essential Starter kits

Most people getting started with a Philips Hue lighting setup will begin by purchasing a 'Starter kit', which bundles some bulbs, a Philips Hue Bridge, and occasionally a bonus Philips Hue accessory. A Bridge isn't essential, but it is a good idea if you want to maximize the potential of your bulbs. There are a few variations available, with different numbers and kinds of bulbs included; I've listed a selection here.

US starter kits

UK starter kits

Philips Hue Essential bulbs

If you already have a Bridge and are looking to extend your setup, or are planning on going without (basic bulb functions can be controlled via Bluetooth), you can buy individual or multipack bulbs. There's a massive range — I've just included a selection here.

Whichever bulb lineup you choose, you'll have to decide between Hue's three light types. White and color ambiance bulbs can emit any one of millions of RGB colors, including a wide range of different white tones. White bulbs emit a warm light at a set color temperature, and White ambiance bulbs can be set to any one of a massive range of cool to warm white lights.

US bulbs

UK bulbs

• A software update bricked Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices
• The bug required a very specific set of circumstances
• Philips Hue has promised free replacements to affected users

Over the last few weeks, reports have emerged of Philips Hue Bridge Pro smart home devices becoming bricked, and it looks like the culprit has now been identified. According to Philips Hue, the fault lay with a recent software update — but the company has won plaudits for what it's giving to customers in order to make amends.

The trouble started in late June when Philips Hue released software update 2071353020, which was intended to include “several small changes” that improved the product’s operations. Yet reports started flooding in that the update had caused people’s Hue Bridge Pro devices to fail and become completely unresponsive.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Philips Hue explained the very specific circumstances that caused the problem: “The issue affects users who disabled automatic software updates, remained on an older software version for an extended period, and then manually installed a firmware update after the update package had been stored on the Bridge for more than 10 days.”

As well as that, the spokesperson noted that “Our data shows fewer than 100 Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices have been impacted.”

Still, any disruption like this is a pain. If you’re affected, not only will you have to wait for a replacement to arrive, but you’ll also have to reconfigure your lights and settings from scratch. That’s the kind of disturbance that is made all the more irritating due to the fact that it occurred after users updated their software — something that people are often encouraged to do in order to get the latest bug fixes and improvements.

Free replacements

While it’s always unpleasant to see a software update brick your device, Philips Hue has attracted praise for the way it’s responded. Not only has it issued a fix, but the company has promised that “We will replace affected Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices free of charge, regardless of warranty status.”

The decision has proved popular with Hue owners on Reddit, who've noted in one popular thread that it's a rare example of "big company actually making good". Another comment noted: “Considering the RAM prices too those Bridges went up in costs too. W to Philips on this one.”

If you haven’t updated your Philips Hue Bridge Pro for a while and think your device could be vulnerable according to Philips Hue's description, it might be worth getting in touch with the company first before attempting to update. The last thing you want is a bricked product on your hands.

And if you already have been affected, don’t spring for a replacement device just yet. You might be able to get a free replacement from Philips Hue, so be sure to explore that avenue first before spending a dime on anything new.

Philips Hue bulbs are a hugely popular smart lighting solution, and with good reason. But if your setup consists only of Hue bulbs (and a hub), you're missing a trick. The brand makes a range of accessories that can make a major difference to how you use your smart lights, and most are very affordable too. I asked the TechRadar team for some of their favorite cheap smart home upgrades, and almost all the answers I got back were Philips Hue accessories, so I decided it was worthy of its own article.

Entertainment Editor Matt Bolton is a big fan of his Philips Hue Smart Button, a compact, simple, wireless switch. "I stuck the Smart Button on my wall next to my regular light switch, giving me a way to control just the lamps in my living room separate to the other lights," he says. "It's so nice and easy, and no rewiring needed."

Matt also makes use of the Philips Hue Smart Plugs, which can be used to integrate non-smart lights into your Hue ecosystem. "I use the Hue Plugs to add little lamps that are too small for Hue bulbs into my lighting setups," he says. "I also use it for my Christmas tree lights every year, so I can plug them in somewhere awkward, but I can still turn them on and off at will."

Senior News Editor Mark Wilson is a big fan of his Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch. This physical switch has four buttons and a dial, and can control nine different actions; it's a more complex alternative to the Smart Button. "I hate using my phone or voice controls for smart lights. My favorite feature is turning the dial to dim my Hue lights — it's so much better than tapping the buttons on other switches," says Mark. "It’s simple to use, while also being really versatile thanks to those four buttons, which can set scenes in different rooms."

Homes Editor Cat Ellis has a slightly different suggestion: if you're finding regular Hue bulbs too expensive, she recommends checking out the much cheaper Essential range. "I put a regular Philips Hue bulb and a Hue Essential bulb side-by-side in identical lamps, and it was almost impossible to tell the difference when shifting colors — I could only really notice a distinction when dialing down the brightness."

A smarter setup

• The Google Home Speaker supports wireless connectivity to the Google TV Streamer
• This gives a simple way to curate your own home theater setup
• You can connect your Google Home Speaker through your Google TV device, or via the Google Home app

Google’s new Home Speaker comes with a slew of much-needed upgrades, but its support for wireless connectivity with the Google TV Streamer is a tool users have been pining for since the company started making smart hubs.

As well as its Gemini-powered smarts and 360-degree audio redesign, Google now lets you to wirelessly pair the Home Speaker with your Google TV device, allowing you to ditch your TV’s built-in speakers and set up a home theater system. Pairing just one Google Home Speaker works, but you’ll get the most out of your setup if you have two.

The company announced its initial plans to develop the feature in 2020 when it unveiled the Nest Audio, its first smart speaker, but the functionality never arrived. “Google Home Speaker now works together with your Google TV Streamer. You can pair up to two speakers with a Google TV Streamer to turn your living room into a mini home theater with spatial surround sound,” the company detailed in a blog post.

Surround-sound systems are integral to most entertainment fanatic’s setups, but they don’t always have to feature a multitude of different types of speakers — some people simply rely on the best sound bars to boost their audio. Though the Google Home Speaker isn’t necessarily suited to seasoned audiophiles, it gives novices an inexpensive and hassle-free way to enhance their streaming experience.

It hasn’t been impossible to hook up wireless speakers to the Google TV Streamer, however, as the option to use the best Bluetooth speakers has always been there. However, because the Google Home Speaker’s function relies on Wi-Fi, the bandwidth is much bigger. This means it also supports Dolby Atmos which, for a cost-effective home theater setup, is quite a fair perk.

Audio champions such as Sonos and Bose have offered wireless connectivity with third-party streaming devices for years, so the Google Home Speaker’s functionality is far from new. That said, it’s only recently that TV manufacturers have decided to jump on the bandwagon and sell speakers of their own.

Over the last 18 months or so, brands including Amazon, LG and Samsung have released their own speakers to allow wireless connectivity with their range of TVs — so Google is playing catch-up here.

How to pair your Google Home Speaker with your Google TV Streamer

Once you’ve set up your Google Home Speaker for regular use, you can pair it with your Google TV device right from the home screen.

Using your Google TV Streamer remote, click the home button and head to ‘Quick Settings’ at the top of the screen. From there, select ‘Audio output’ from the options, click ‘Connect another device’, then select ‘Google speakers’ and click ‘Getting started’.

After this stage, you should see a list of Google Home Speakers connected to your account in a separate window, and you’ll want to select the ones you wish to pair with your Google TV Streamer. Once you’ve done this, tap ‘Next’ and it should complete your setup.

You can also do this from the Google Home app, as Google details on its support page.

Getting started with smart home can feel intimidating, not least because it feels like there's sure to be a hefty cost involved. It doesn't have to be that way, though. I asked the TechRadar team for their top affordable smart home recommendations, and they came through with some real winners. All the gadgets featured below come with the stamp of approval from TechRadar, will make your home that little bit more convenient, and won't cost you more than $50 / £50. Hit the 'View details' button to learn more about each one.

Budget-friendly smart home

• Aldi is launching a new outdoor lamp range
• Each lamp is solar-powered and comes in two styles with three color choices
• The cost just £4.99, making them an affordable way to give your garden a glow-up

We’re seeing more and more affordable tech gadgets appearing in the middle aisles of budget supermarkets these days — and if you’re looking to give your garden a summer makeover, Aldi just unveiled a new range of solar-powered garden lights.

The lineup, which goes on sale on July 9, consists of two styles of outdoor table lamp, mushroom-top and flat-top, both of which are available in three colors: black, mint, and beige, so you should be able to find a colour that fits in with your garden decor.

Each lamp costs just £4.99, making them an affordable way to give your garden a glow-up with Aldi proving once again that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on the best smart lights in order to brighten up your home and garden.

Aldi’s new lighting range isn't, of course, in the same ballpark as smart lights from the likes of Philips Hue or Govee. There’s no app and no controls to fiddle with, and because they’re solar powered, placing them in sunny spots in your garden will ensure they have enough juice to last through a whole evening of outdoor dining or partying.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from national treasure Nigella Lawson is that summer parties aren’t just about good food and drinks — the setting and decor are just as important, and lighting plays a big part in creating the perfect atmosphere.

It’s not only budget brands like Aldi that are jumping on the outdoor lighting bandwagon — if you want app-based features such as the option to change the colour of your lights, the big smart home brands are getting in on the act too.

Govee’s recently released smart string lights marked the brand’s first step into solar lighting costing £119.99. Though this is a little more pricey than the average solar-powered light , Philips stills takes the top spot on the price front — its own Festivia Smart Globe String Lights are one of our favorite garden gadgets for giving your outdoor space an instant lift.

EZVIZ EP4: one-minute review

Fitting a video doorbell or security camera is often a non-starter if you rent or live in an apartment where drilling into the walls isn’t allowed. That’s where the EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer comes in — by fitting through your front door’s existing peephole, it brings almost everything you’d get from a full video doorbell, without any damage that could upset your landlord.

The physical setup is incredibly easy and took me just 10 minutes to complete. After you’ve unscrewed the old peephole, the EP4 securely clamps onto the door without a power tool in sight.

Once it’s running, the footage captured is very clear, giving you a detailed look at anyone outside. The companion app is simple to use and intuitively designed, making it effortless to check live feeds, use the two-way talk feature, or adjust security settings.

When it comes to saving video footage, EZVIZ doesn’t lock you into a subscription plan like some rivals. While the company includes a free trial of its cloud subscription service, you aren’t forced to pay for it afterwards. If you want to skip the recurring fees, you can opt to install a local microSD card (up to 512GB) to store clips locally.

However, the EP4’s AI facial recognition has a notable quirk. Although it's smart enough to identify who is at your door, there’s currently no way to stop the app from sending you notifications when it spots someone you know — including you. Because you can’t tell the camera to ignore certain individuals, you’ll be alerted every time you walk through your own front door.

EZVIZ EP4: price and availability

• List price £229.99 (about $300 / AU$440)
• Available in the UK, but not the US or Australia
• No subscription necessary if you use a microSD card

The EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer is available in the UK for £229.99 (about $300 / AU$440), but I’ve seen it discounted to as little as £159.99 during sales events. It’s not yet available in the US and Australia at the time of writing, but older models are, so hopefully the EP4 will launch more widely soon.

If you want to store your videos at home subscription-free, you’ll also need a microSD card (up to 512GB), so factor this into the cost. If you’d prefer to store footage in the cloud, you’ll want an EZVIZ CloudPlay subscription. After a 30-day free trial, there are three plans to choose from:

• Value score: 4.5/5

EZVIZ EP4: design

• Discreet external camera
• Very simple to fit without damaging door
• Internal screen projects an inch into the room
• Visitors might not spot the doorbell button

The EP4 has two main parts: the camera, which has a cable that threads through the peephole in your door, and a screen that sits on the inside. The camera has a doorbell button below the lens (though visitors might not notice it because it's at an unusual level), a motion sensor at the top, and a speaker and microphone on the side.

It’s compatible with doors between 1.4 x 4.1 inches / 35 x 105mm thick, with a peephole diameter between 0.6 inches and 2 inches / 14mm and 50mm. That’s a wide range, and should be fine for the vast majority of internal and external doors, but it’s worth measuring yours first just to be sure. You can remove the peephole from your door by simply unscrewing it, though if it’s particularly tight, you might need to use a pair of pliers to get it started.

To fit the EP4, start by measuring the thickness of your door using the card template provided, and choose the appropriate pair of screws, indicated by the instruction manual. These will be used to clamp the EP4 onto your door. Peel the paper off the 3M tape on the back of the camera unit, position it on the outside of your door (I recommend using a spirit level to get it straight), thread the screws and data cable through the peephole (you can roll a piece of paper around them to avoid snagging), and press down to secure it.

Then tighten the screws a little, slide the mounting plate for the screen into place, tighten the screws the rest of the way, plug in the data cable, and slide the screen into place. The whole process takes no longer than 10 minutes, and when you want to remove it, there’ll be no damage to your door.

It’s a clever design, and the exterior camera is discreet (it comes with stickers to put on your door if you want to warn visitors they are being recorded), but it’s worth being aware that the interior screen stands about an inch proud of the door, so you’ll need to be very careful if it opens opposite a wall.

You can detach the screen unit to charge it via a microUSB cable (supplied with the EP4) and insert a memory card. It’s a shame there’s no hot-swappable battery — you can’t use the camera and doorbell while the unit is charging — but battery life is quite respectable. EZVIZ suggests up to 120 days, though this will depend on how many times the camera is triggered and how often you use the internal screen to see what’s happening outside.

• Design score: 4.5/5

EZVIZ EP4: performance

The EP4 is an ingenious home security device that provides many of the advantages of a video doorbell or home security camera without needing to make permanent changes to your property. It’s a great pick for an apartment, with excellent picture quality and smart notifications, though it’s worth being aware of a few drawbacks — particularly when it comes to person recognition.

The resolution of the internal screen is fine, and you’ll immediately benefit from a field of view that’s much wider than your original peephole, but it doesn’t do justice to the EP4’s 4K camera. To see footage in its full 4K glory, you’ll need to use the Ezvizlife app, which also gives you access to all the EP4’s settings, as well as event history, saved recordings, call logs, two-way talk, and static photos.

Footage in the Ezvizlife app is incredibly sharp, and there’s very little lag between events happening outside and the camera starting to record. You’ll notice a delay when using two-way talk, but it’s only a couple of seconds, and no worse than some much higher-end video doorbells we’ve tested here at TechRadar.

When a visitor uses the doorbell, you'll receive an incoming-call-style notification that you can choose to reject or answer to start two-way talk. It's also possible to start two-way talk at any time through the app if you can see someone at the door.

Want to keep your identity private? The app gives you two options: ‘Uncle Tone’, which deepens your voice, and ‘Clown Tone’, which makes it high and squeaky, both of which work well and will effectively disguise your voice if you don’t want to be recognized. Personally, I would prefer an option that doesn’t sound quite so cartoonish, but they’re a welcome feature nonetheless.

I found the fisheye-correction option particularly useful during my testing, along with the AI person-shape recognition, which correctly identifies subjects even when they’re wheeling a bike or carrying a large object that might obscure their body shape.

When a person is detected, the camera will send a notification to the EZVIZ app, and start recording a 10-second video clip, which will be saved on an SD card or in the cloud, depending on which storage option you’ve chosen. You can also choose to watch through the camera live at any time, trigger a recording, or capture a still image.

You can also export videos from your logs at any time, which is very useful if you're unfortunate enough to need them as evidence for the police.

EZVIZ is a Chinese company, and although the app has been localized quite well, some parts are still confusing. For example, if you attempt to toggle a feature that’s still in beta, you will see a notification reading: “The current status of this detection is closed. Please enable the corresponding algorithm in the intelligent detection before enabling this function”.

For me, the biggest drawback — and the one that holds the EP4 back from a better score — is the implementation of facial recognition. In an ideal world, you wouldn’t receive a notification when your own face is detected, and you could disable alerts for other members of your household as well, so you’re only alerted when a stranger arrives. Unfortunately, that’s not an option with the EP4, which notified me that “Cat appeared” each time I arrived home from work.

Facial recognition works very well, and even identifies a person wearing a cycle helmet and sunglasses, but at the moment, the implementation seems back-to-front. In fairness, though, the feature is still in beta, so perhaps the developers at EZVIZ will make that change before its full launch. For now, it's a real problem.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Should you buy the EZVIZ EP4?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

EZVIZ EP4: also consider

If you're not sure whether the EZVIZ EP4 is the right security camera/doorbell for your home, here are two other wireless alternatives to consider.

How I tested the EZVIZ EP4

I installed the EZVIZ EP4 on the door to my apartment, having first unscrewed the original peephole. I used it for two weeks, adding myself and my husband as 'familiar faces' halfway through. I used the two-way talk function to speak to him when I received a notification that he had arrived, and we used the doorbell function to speak to one another. I kept recordings on a microSD card once the seven-day cloud storage trial expired, and used the app to review recordings, export videos, and capture still images.

At the end of the test period, I removed the EP4 and replaced my door's original peephole. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed July 2026.

Blink Outdoor 2K+: two-minute review

Blink has become the brand you recommend to people who don't really want a security camera. Cheap, painless, owned by Amazon, and a forgiving field of view. The catch was that previous 1080p pictures turned to mush the moment anything moved, or the sun went down.

The Outdoor 2K+ fixes this by capturing would-be crims at 2560 x 1440 in its top "Best" setting. There's 4x zoom for closer inspections, noise-cancelling two-way audio making doorstep conversations less of a shouting match, and an improved low-light sensor that holds color as the light fades before switching to infrared black-and-white. Drop to 1080p 'Standard' or 720p 'Saver', and you'll claw back a bit of battery life.

Blink quotes up to two years from a pair of AA lithium cells, and while I can't fast-forward through two summers to prove it, a fortnight’s daily use barely dented the gauge. There's a USB-C port if you'd rather wire it to the mains with Blink's separately sold weather-resistant adapter, an IP65 rating shrugs off wet weather, and it’s compatible with the existing Outdoor 4 accessory range, so floodlight mounts and battery packs carry over.

Setup should be the usual Blink doddle. Scan the code, follow the app, pair the Sync Module, done in under 10 minutes with no cabling and no electrician. For a first-time buyer, it's about as low-friction as home security gets, although we did encounter some teething problems connecting the kit to a home Wi-Fi network.

Then you discover the real kicker. The Outdoor 2K+ ships with a new Sync Module Core rather than the old Sync Module 2 we were supplied with, and the Core has had its USB port removed. That port was the whole point for subscription-averse buyers: plug in a flash drive, store clips locally, pay Amazon nothing.

Without it, the free experience reduces to live view and motion alerts, while saved recordings, person and vehicle detection and the smarter notifications all sit behind a Blink subscription that starts at £2.50 (about $3.50 / AU$5) a month and rises to £8 (about $10 / AU$20) for unlimited cameras. An older Sync Module 2 still works if you own one, but most people buying this won't.

It leaves the 2K+ in an odd spot. As a camera, it's the best budget outdoor option Blink has made. As a package, it's less optimal. Judge it on the camera and battery life alone, and it's a comfortable recommendation. Judge it on the small print, and you’ve got a new monthly bill the old model didn’t demand.

Blink Outdoor 2K+: price and availability

• List price: £89.99 / $99.99 / AU$119
• Launched October 2025
• Available in the US, UK and Australia

Pitched at the affordable end as ever, the Outdoor 2K+ slots in alongside the cheaper Mini 2K+ and the Blink Arc — a mount that pairs two Mini 2K+ cameras for a panoramic view — as part of the brand's 2K refresh. The one-camera kit includes the Sync Module Core, two AA lithium batteries, and a mount, so nothing essential to buy on day one — unless you want your footage saved anywhere, at which point the maths changes.

That's the rub. The headline price buys you a very capable camera and a deliberately hamstrung storage situation. Anyone who bought the Outdoor 4 specifically to dodge a subscription should know the goalposts have moved, because the bundled module no longer takes a USB stick. Frequent discounting means the camera itself rarely costs full RRP for long, which softens the blow, but the ongoing cost is the number to watch.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Blink Outdoor 2K+: subscription costs

Blink has two subscription tiers to choose from, both offering unlimited cloud storage for recordings for up to 60 days (up to 30 days in the EU and UK). Monthly or yearly billing is available.

• Blink Basic: $3.99p/m | £2.50p/m | AU$4.95p/m
• Blink Plus: $11.99p/m | £8p/m | AU$15p/m

Blink Basic includes support for one device, motion-event recording, live-view recording, instant video access, video sharing, person detection, and photo capture. Blink Plus includes all Basic features, along with unlimited device inclusion, moments capture, notification snoozing and 10% off Blink devices.

Blink Outdoor 2K+: specifications

Blink Outdoor 2K+: design

• Compact and easy to place
• IP65 weatherproofing
• Sync Module Core changes rules

There's nothing here to frighten the neighbours. The 2K+ keeps Blink's small, squared-off black housing, the kind of camera that disappears into a porch corner or sits on a windowsill without announcing itself. It's light, the bundled mount screws to a wall, and you can equally stand it on a flat surface and forget about it.

The IP65 rating earned its keep through sporadic summer showers and wind with no fogging or dropouts. Power comes from two AA batteries hidden behind a sealed cover, or bypass them with USB-C and an optional weather-resistant power adapter, if you'd rather not think about batteries at all.

Like the Sync Module 2, Blink’s bundled Sync Module Core is a similarly small puck minus a USB connection.

• Design score: 4/5

Blink Outdoor 2K+ performance

• 2K is a visible upgrade
• Color night vision is useful
• Smart features cost extra

The Blink Outdoor’s 2K output greatly enhances the chances of identifying strangers. I set it to watch a back garden, and it did an able job of capturing my faux break-in attempts. The 4x zoom is digital, so it softens as you push in, but it's enough to pick up distinguishing features or marks.

Low-light performance is the other win. An improved sensor holds color as daytime fades, while garden lights and street lamps keep footage useful. Let the light go entirely, and it reverts to black-and-white. For genuine color after dark, you can add Blink's separate Outdoor Floodlight Mount.

Motion detection was razor-sharp, even if the default settings felt overzealous. Definitely adjust sensitivity and activity zones in the app to avoid being swamped with notifications about plump pigeons and swaying flora… unless you’re aiming for Springwatch in forensic form.

This is also where the subscription cost bites again: person and vehicle detection — the features that stop your phone buzzing every time a fox crosses the lawn — only switch on with a Blink plan.

Run it free, with the Core module, and you're left with motion alerts and a live view, which is a thinner experience for a 2K camera. As ever, there's no way to view footage on a computer or browser; it's the phone app or nothing.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Blink Outdoor 2K+?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Blink Outdoor 2K+: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Blink Outdoor 2K+ is the right home security camera for you, here are two others to keep in mind.

How I tested the Blink Outdoor 2K+

• Tested at a domestic property
• Mounted outdoor
• Assessed video, night vision, audio, and battery

I lived with the Blink Outdoor 2K+ as a normal household would, mounting it to watch the back garden. I ran it through all three resolution modes, checked color night vision against lit and unlit spaces, and held two-way conversations to judge the audio. The two-year battery claim is, by definition, untestable in weeks, so I've reported Blink's figure and my short-term experience rather than pretending otherwise.

For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

I've reviewed a few robot vacuums in the last year sister site Tom's Guide, but I'd yet to try one from powerhouse brand Ecovacs Robotics. With several excellent reviews already on TechRadar, including those by my colleague Sharmishta, who swears by the brand and rated the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni very highly, I was eager to get stuck into my own assessment of the Deebot T90 Pro Omni, which launched in March this year.

On paper, it came across as the perfect pet-friendly robot vacuum. It touted an impressive 30,000Pa suction power across hardwood and carpeted floors, and as a mum to two Border Collies, cleaning up fur every day was my #1 priority.

It also didn't help that I fell pretty hard for The T90's looks (more on that below), but I was anxious about its price — $899.99 / £899 / AU$2,299 seemed rather steep, especially in Australia where I'm based, for a T-series Deebot that's typically been the more mid-range option to Ecovacs' X-series flagships. But then you get what you pay for, right? Or so I thought.

After using it for three months, I was left with an expensive robot vacuum that still looks lovely in its corner but doesn't quite fulfil the rest of its promises.

It's a looker

If you’ve often considered a robot vacuum, but have been put off by the large, rather unsightly docking stations, then you’ll be pleased to learn that the Deebot T90 Pro arrives with the newly enhanced Ecovacs station. The dock and station's combined footprint is slim, and it can easily be placed under a counter or table if you want to store it away. But given its Nordic-inspired, fabric-like design, Ecovacs clearly didn't intend for the T90 to be hidden, especially in homes with minimalist aesthetic settings. Personally, I quite liked the new off-white color as it complemented my apartment decor.

Unlike some other Ecovacs' robot vacuums, the T90 Pro Omni's bot neglects a turret completely, opting for a LiDAR sensor at the front of the machine, so it can get under furniture without issues. In place of a turret sits a loosely placed fabric-like lid that can, sadly, get dislodged when bumped into with some force.

However, the fact that both water tanks are fully concealed within the dock is a big tick for me, as it means I never once had to catch sight of dirty water throughout the day. The trade-off to this is that you can't see if either tank is full or empty. If you set the robot vacuum to clean everyday, then you’ll need to regularly check the tanks to see if they need filling or emptying.

I found I was consistently emptying and refilling the water tanks after every other clean despite its 4L capacity and the mopping area in my apartment is the living, dining and kitchen (my bedrooms are carpeted). I'm also a little surprised that the dirty-water capacity is so much lower, I was expecting it to be around 3L. What that means is, if you live in a large family home, you'll likely need to clean out the dirty mop water between each session too — beats the purpose I think.

Looks can be deceiving

It's lovely design aside, the T90 Pro struggled from day one, starting with its initial floor mapping. As I've already mentioned, my single-storey apartment has a mixture of carpeted and hardwood floors and a relatively straightforward floor plan, which most robovacs I've tried can get right the first time. Nevertheless, it took six mapping sessions to finally achieve an accurate map of my home.

I'll take some of the blame here, as the one map error was my fault after leaving my built-in wardrobe open, but I wanted to believe that after considerable daily use, the bot would update the floorplan on its own — I suppose I was expecting too much from Ecovacs' software there.

Even after the T90 had mapped my home accurately, I still had to make significant edits in the app to get all the rooms marked out correctly, something I've not had to do with other brands.

I made sure all carpet areas were marked out and, despite that, the T90 Pro Omni repeatedly mopped the bedrooms when in Auto mode to do a full-house clean. The only way to avoid this was to start setting up Room or Zone cleans every single time. In other words, the Auto Mode, for me, was redundant.

Aside from the copious amounts of remapping and wrong floor recognition, the T90 faltered when it came to vacuuming up pet hair. Despite its high suction power, I found that the T90 consistently left pet hair on even my hard floors (struggling even more on carpets), and I had to do a follow-up clean with my Dreame U20 which, even as affordable cordless option without a lot of suction, does so much better.

This really was my biggest disappointment because Ecovacs' Blast suction promises improved airflow for the best clean and I saw no evidence of that here. Moreover, a lot of the pet hair got entangled in the central bar brush and its wheels, meaning the bot itself required constant maintenance.

Mopping was a rather unfortunate experience too, especially after all those trips to and from the tap. My wood floors were left streaky and some spills were ignored by the AI stain recognition. My colleague Sharm much prefers the roller mops to the rotating discs on robovacs, but I'm not convinced... yet.

Random starts was another issue I had to face with the T90 Pro Omni — it would just start cleaning on its own, even when there was no voice command or a schedule set up.

There was a silver lining in all this, though: despite being a little basic compared to other robot vacuum apps I've used, the Ecovacs Home app was fairly easy to use (after the remapping shenanigans of course) to set up custom cleaning routines, schedules, suction and waterflow rates.

The easy-to-use app doesn't make up for everything else that went wrong though.

So, what now?

Look, I'll be honest — I was hard-pressed to find something positive to say about the Ecovacs Deebot T90 Pro Omni. A nice design and a decent app will only take my over user experience so far.

I wasn't looking for perfection; I just needed a robot vacuum that do the daily cleanup so I didn't have to and, in that one task, the T90 failed as I had to vacuum again anyway.

And this isn't the first time a Deebot has disappointed — my colleague Sharm wasn't particularly enthused by the older Ecovacs Deebot T50 Max Pro Omni either. TechRadar's recently published Ecovacs Deebot X12 Omnicyclone review also doesn't look very encouraging.

So what's going on at Ecovacs Robotics, one of the pioneering robovac brands? The company's been pumping out new models in quick succession over the last few years, with three alone announced at CES 2026, but it just feels like software and performance issues aren't being fully tested before release to market. Maybe it's time for Ecovacs to slow down, take a beat, and perhaps learn from its mistakes before releasing another suite of subpar products.

I'm still keeping faith that the brand will impress me one day, it's just not going to be with the T90 Pro Omni.

• Google Home Speaker users are reporting early issues
• The voice assistant is taking up to 60 seconds to respond to requests
• Google has said it's working on a fix, but there hasn't been any updates

Google has only just returned to smart hubs with its new AI-powered Google Home Speaker, six long years after the company released the Nest Audio — and users are already running into issues.

It’s been barely a week since pre-orders were shipped and those who’ve been excited to test out the upgraded Google Home Speaker have been let down with the device’s performance.

The crux of the issue is the voice assistant itself, which many users say takes a while to respond to their commands. A slew of Reddit posts highlight the same issue, agreeing that the speaker can take between 30-60 seconds before responding, and others have experienced audio cutting out altogether.

While we don’t know how widespread these lagged responses are, the top comment in the Reddit thread above says it’s happening globally. Whether this is the case or not, it’s birthed a lot of frustration among those who have spent good money on the new device — “I’m returning mine” one user writes, while another says “I really hope Google puts more effort into things”.

Looking at the user reactions, it appears that this issue is also prevalent in older devices like the Nest Audio and Nest Mini, so it’s not just the new Home Speaker that’s going through the ringer. Thankfully, Google is doing something about it.

Amidst the backlash, the official u/GoogleNestCommunity replied to the Reddit post with the following; “We're aware of an issue causing increased latency or timing out. We are working on a fix ASAP and will circle back once this is resolved. Thanks for your patience”.

Though Google’s acknowledgment provides some sort of reassurance that a fix is on the way, the company hasn’t provided any details on how it intends to address the issues or when users can expect to see an improvement. At this rate, it’s still a waiting game, but this isn’t the only run-in with criticism the Google Home Speaker has faced since its launch.

Repairability could be hindered

When Google officially announced the new Home Speaker in October 2025, I was thrilled to see a new speaker was on the way just as much as the next person, but there’s one setback which an early unboxing video addresses.

The Google Home Speaker has a fixed power cable, meaning you can’t disconnect it like you can with the majority of the best smart speakers. It may sound like we’re splitting hairs here, but the unboxing video highlights the repairability problem that comes with not having an unpluggable power cord.

These issues aside, the Google Home Speaker isn't totally devoid of positives. According to the same unboxing video, the speaker’s accompanying app has a lot of appeal and the overall audio quality is pretty solid — so it’s nice to see that Google has adhered to its 360-audio upgrade promises.

You can find all manner of deals during Amazon Prime Day, but you can always count on the eponymous retail giant to knock a decent amount off its own range of smart home devices — its Echo Dot speakers being one of them.

My humble little Echo Pop is still working and for the most part, its performance and features are satisfactory, but I feel a change is coming, and that change might just be the Echo Dot 5th Gen — one of the best smart speakers you can get.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Some Prime Day discounts can be restricted to the US and UK respectively, but that's not the case for the Echo Dot. Amazon US has knocked $20 off taking the smart speaker to a reasonable $29.99 (was $49.99), and Amazon UK has a similar offer, with the speaker going for £28.49 (was £54.99).

Today's best Echo Dot (5th Gen) deals

The bog-standard Echo Pop has been my loyal smart home companion for a few years and while it's done me good, I fear that it's served its time. If you're in the same boat as me, the Echo Dot 5th Gen could be the answer.

The main upgrades with this Echo Dot is the room temperature sensor, which is a great for customizing your Alexa routines — you can get the smart speaker to run certain functions when your room reaches a particular temperature. For example, if it gets too hot and you need some shield from the sun, you could set it to control your smart blinds to correspond with the heat changes.

Although it's a significant upgrade from other basic smart speakers, the Echo Dot is still a simple and easy-to-use model which is perfect if you don't enjoy spending loads of time getting used to a new piece of tech in your home.

On the sound-front, it packs a bass that's boosted compared to its predecessor, but we did mention in our review that it's a smart speaker first, and audio system second. That said, this shouldn't be much of an issue if you're using it to fill the silence in a small space where you won't have the volume as loud as a standard Bluetooth speaker.

All-in-all, the Echo Dot 5th Gen is a solid upgrade if you've been using any of Amazon's older models until now. It also a great smart hub for connecting other devices in your smart home ecosystem, and now that the new Alexa+ voice assistant is in early access, it means you don't have to upgrade to Amazon's latest Echo Dot Max or Echo Studio to make the most of its smarts.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & De'Longhi
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: up to 25% off SSDs & games
• Grand Theft Auto 6: pre-order now
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

Panic purchasing isn't something I'd often recommend, but all too many Prime Day sales have gone by where I haven't made up my mind before the clock struck midnight. Not this year; now, I'm making big girl decisions... after texting my partner for a sanity check, that is.

When I reviewed the Echo Dot Max, I wasn't 100% sold on the speaker at its list price. At $99 / £99, it's not quite good enough in the audio department, and while benefits like Alexa+ compatibility (as well as Early Access) and a fresh design language are nice, they're still not selling points for most customers.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Two features that do make all the difference, however, require you to have more than one speaker. Right now, that's a lot cheaper, as the Echo Dot Max is $64.99 (was $99.99) at Amazon US and £59.99 (was £99.99) in the UK.

The first such feature is my main motivation: setting up a stereo pair, which drastically improves the audio quality and really shows the speaker's abilities. I heard two Echo Dot Max speakers in this setup for the first time a few weeks after writing my review, and for me, it's the de facto way to enjoy Amazon's latest Echo Dot.

The second is Amazon Home Theatre, which allows you to connect up to five Echo Dot Max or Echo Studio speakers plus an optional Echo subwoofer to Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd-gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd-gen), or Fire TV Cube (3rd-gen). This isn't a key driver for me; I do have a compatible Fire TV Stick, but I also have pretty nifty speakers already.

Amazon Prime Day Echo Dot Max deals

I'm really, really pleased with myself for this decision; and to top it off, my new speaker is in Glacier White rather than the slightly garish Amethyst (read: bright purple) colorway I got before. I'm hoping when in the same room they'll yin and yang eachother a little bit, but if not... I guess I'm getting a third one come Black Friday!

Also consider...

Still not 100% sold? That's fair; even at its record-low sale price, it's not as cheap as the alternatives from Amazon, and you might want more from your smart assistant like a screen or even fuller audio.

Whatever the case, I've made up a quiz below that will pair you with your perfect Amazon Echo speaker, so make sure to use that as your guideline. Just act fast before the sales end!

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

Robot vacuum deals this year aren't quite as good as they used to be; as interest wanes due to lofty list prices and continued difficulties to raise the bar of cleaning quality, robovacs can be a tough sell. That being said, some are outstanding, and this year for Amazon Prime Day, the best robot vacuum I've personally tested is on sale.

• See all of today's best Amazon deals

Right now, you can save big on the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete, which launched at $1,799 last year before its price drop to $1,149.99; and right now it's $884.99 at Amazon. In the UK it launched at £1,199, then dropped to £749, and it's now £659 at Amazon.

While the list price drops contribute massively to the savings, a $265 / £90 discount is still noteworthy. That being said, it's still an expensive purchase, and if you don't need an "all the bells and whistles" robovac, you could be better off with one of the below models under $500 / £500.

Best Dreame X50 Ultra Complete deal today

Dreame's X50 Ultra Complete was the best robot vacuum I tested last year, earning it a near-perfect 4.5-star rating in my review, and at this hugely discounted price, it's the deal to beat this Prime Day in the premium robovac category.

If you don't need something as high-specced as the Dreame X50, check out my top three picks below, which have all been tried and tested by team TechRadar.

Best budget-friendly alternatives in the US

Best budget-friendly alternatives in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

Don't get me wrong, I love my dog. He's a really, really good boy. Maybe the best boy? I don't know, I haven't met all the dogs. Yet. But I what I don't love so much is his hair, which seems to shed at such a rate that it's astounding to me that he has any left at all.

It's been an absolute blessing, then, to have spent two years testing vacuums for TechRadar. I've tested all kinds of vacuums, at all kinds of price points, but the one I've clung on to is the Roborock Saros 10. It arrived in my home in spring 2025, and since then it has been a vital tool in my anti-hair arsenal. It gets sent out cleaning every night — and it hasn't let me down yet.

• View the full UK Amazon Prime Day sale / US Prime Day sale

Despite being one of my most-used gadgets, I found it a little hard to recommend at list price (a cool £1.5K at launch). Since then it's attracted a number of deals, but none so good as the current Prime Day discount: the Roborock Saros 10 is now £699.99 at Amazon (down from an adjusted list price of £1,199.99). At that price, I would absolutely recommend it, as it's one of the very best robot vacuums I've ever used — and, like I say, I've used plenty.

Shoppers in the US get a slightly different deal: the Saros 10R is now $884.99 at Amazon (was $1,599.99). That's another all-time-low price on this sister model, which comes equally well reviewed (by another dog owner). These are amongst the very best Amazon Prime Day deals I've seen.

If you're suspicious of such a hefty discount, don't be. The robot vacuum market rattles along at a rate of knots, with multiple new models released each year (the two bots showcased here have officially been replaced by the Saros 20 and Saros 20 Sonic), That means models like this might be considered old news, even though they've only been around a couple of years.

The rate of appreciable improvement has slowed, though, so while the specs in the newest models might be technically better, you'll likely struggle to see much — if any — difference in the performance. That's true in the case of the Saros 20, which I also tested.

What's so good about the Roborock Saros 10?

Why do I love the Roborock Saros 10 so much? It's an ultra-capable all-rounder that requires minimal effort and maintenance from me. The vacuuming is efficient and effective, and the navigation and object avoidance is reliable — even when faced with the complicated corner of my kitchen that includes a thin rug, a table and multiple dining chairs, and also acts as the dog's preferred toy discard area. The mopping is also effective and thorough, clearing pawprints and smudges with ease.

The dock is also a standout. It auto-empties the dust cup, and has enough oomph that I've never experienced a hair blockage during this process (not true of all self-empty robovacs I've used). It'll also top up the onboard water tank from its larger dock reservoir — adding the right amount of cleaning fluid as it does so — and clean and dry the mop pads when it's done cleaning. Opting for a slightly older flagship model is my #1 tip for saving money when shopping for a robot vacuum.

What's the difference between the Saros 10 and 10R?

The Roborock Saros 10 and 10R are very similar in terms of specs and performance, but there are a couple of design differences. The first is that the 10R uses a different navigation system; one which doesn't require a raised LiDAR puck. So instead of a puck that can pop up and down, there's no puck at all. On test, we found this robovac navigated just as accurately as the 10. Both bots are the same height, and both are equally good at cleaning under the sofa.

The second difference is the mop pad style. While the 10 has a vibrating, D-shaped pad, the 10R boasts two, spinning pads. If I had to choose, I'd say I slightly prefer the dual mop-pad setup, but there's barely anything in it. In terms of wet cleaning, neither of these robot vacuums will let you down.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

There are huge savings on Blink home security cameras this Amazon Prime Day, but don't rush to grab one just yet. Although basic features are included with Blink cameras — live view and two-way-talk — for anything more advanced you'll need a Blink subscription in addition to the cost of the camera itself, which adds up over time.

• Shop more Prime Day deals at Amazon US
• Shop more Prime Day deals at Amazon UK

That's not the case with all home security cameras though, and here I've rounded up my top five Blink alternatives that give you local storage, plus features like AI facial-recognition, object-tracking, and pre-roll all without any extra payments.

1. Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K

The Baseus Security S2 isn't the only solar-powered security camera we've tested, but it's the only one with a photovoltaic panel that rotates around its body to follow the sun, ensuring it captures as much light as possible throughout the day. It looks strange, but in our tests, we found it worked brilliantly, noticeably extending the battery life.

During tests, the S2 produced very few false alerts. This not only prevents you from being bombarded with unnecessary phone notifications, it also means recording is triggered only by genuine events, extending the cam's battery life. Images are superbly detailed during the day, and the spotlight is excellent for illuminating the garden at night to ensure high-quality footage in the dark, too.

The Baseus S2 is also one of the most affordable subscription-free security cameras we've tested. The camera itself has a nice little Prime Day price cut, and the absence of fees for storage and advanced features mean it almost certainly works out cheaper overall.

If you're on a strict budget, take a look at the Baseus Security S1 instead. It's available for about half the price of the S2 and has the same rotating solar panel. However, it records at only 2K and has 8GB built-in storage rather than up to 256GB via a microSD card.

Read our full Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K review

2. Reolink Altas PT Ultra

The Reolink Altas PT Ultra earned four stars in our review thanks to its crisp video recordings, pan-and-tilt functionality to cover an extra-wide area, and local storage for your video. Although it's somewhat bulky, it looks smart and didn't worry our neighbors unnecessarily (always a plus).

The camera can automatically track subjects such as people and animals, or you can pan and tilt it manually using the app, if there's something in particular that you want to keep an eye on. There's a pre-record option, too, similar to the one you'd get with a dash cam, which captures footage continuously in the background and saves the 10 seconds that were recorded before a trigger event.

You can store your videos to an SD card, or to an encrypted Reolink Home Hub. The Home Hub comes with 64GB storage, expandable with up to two 512GB SD cards, which should be more than enough. Cloud storage is available if you really want to pay for it, but there's really no need and all the standout features are available free of charge.

Read our full Reolink Altas PT Ultra review

3. EZVIZ EP4 Peephole Door Viewer

This little camera threads through the peephole in your front door, giving you a wide-angle view of the area beyond in sharp 4K on an internal screen, and on your phone. It's a clever design that means there's no need to drill any holes, and is ideal if you live in an apartment and/or rent.

Installation is a piece of cake (I had it fitted and working within 10 minutes during my tests) and you'll receive alerts to your phone when motion is detected. This will trigger a 10-second video recording, which can be saved to an SD card in the display unit. The AI person detection works very well, but what impressed me most was the facial recognition. Just upload photos of friends and family, and you'll be notified when they arrive. Ideal if you want to be sure that the kids have got home safely, for example.

It doubles as a doorbell too, offering two-way talk and even a voice changer so you can stay anonymous if you prefer — all subscription-free.

Read our EZVIZ EP4 Peephole Door Viewer hands-on

4. Eufy eufyCam 3 S330

The eufyCam 3 S330 is a full security system designed for large properties, and even businesses. It consists of a set of cameras (the starter kit includes two, and additional ones are available to purchase separately) plus a HomeBase unit that connects them all to one another, and to your home Wi-Fi network.

Your videos are stored within the HomeBase unit, which comes with 16GB of storage that you can expand up to a colossal 16TB by plugging in an external hard drive, so you don't need to pay for cloud storage and your data is safely saved indoors.

Although it's a 'prosumer' system partially aimed at businesses, we found it easy to install and set up for the average user. Each camera has a 135-degree field of view, and a bright floodlight that can be triggered by motion at night for full-color footage, and a top-mounted solar panel so you don't need to take them down for frequent charging. Subject detection is excellent (and available without a subscription), though on the standard settings it proved so sensitive that it sometimes also mistook a person's reflection for someone else in our tests, so it's worth taking some time to tinker with the settings.

Read our full Eufy eufyCam 3 S330 review

5. Aqara Camera Hub G350

Don’t be fooled by this camera’s cute looks, complete with removable bunny ears. Despite looking like a gadget for kids, it’s actually a very advanced piece of kit with a motorized base which provides a 360-degree field of view with zero blind spots. This is paired with a dual lens setup that allows you to track a subject (human or animal) using the wide-angle lens or zoom in to an area of detail using the telephoto lens. A 9x hybrid zoom is provided which really does allow you to get close up to your subject with reasonable picture quality.

There's advanced subject-detection, but what really impressed our reviewer Chris Price was the AI-powered sound recognition which can identify noises like a dog barking or a baby crying, and send you notifications accordingly.

It also acts as a Zigbee hub and Matter controller, meaning it can serve as the heart of your smart home. All the key features are available subscription-free, and there's no need to pay for cloud storage; just slide in a microSD card and you can keep all your recordings safely at home. A few features are only available to HomeGuard members, such as AI video search, but only a couple.

Read our full Aqara Camera Hub G350 review

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Father's Day: up to 50% off gifts & drinks
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

• Alexa+ has turned a little scary in one household
• A simple counting task enabled a creepy voice
• Some other users are reporting similar bugs in the AI

If you're already worried about the potential dangers of AI chatbots, this one probably isn't for you: an Amazon Echo user has reported Alexa+ "breathing and making guttural sounds" while engaged in the supposedly innocent task of counting to 40 (in Spanish).

There's video evidence on Reddit (via Android Authority), and it's pretty spooky to listen to — so only click the play button if you're sure you want to hear a disembodied AI-generated voice that sounds somewhat possessed.

According to the user who posted the video, they asked Alexa+ to count up to 40, which prompted the strange sounds. It's not an ideal response, especially as there were two five-year-old kids listening who just wanted a simple countdown.

Apparently, the original poster was then able to get the same thing happening on a separate Amazon Echo in another room. "Needless to say, the Alexas in my house are now unplugged and I've reported the whole thing to Amazon," they report.

A little bit too expressive

While it's possible that some kind of user error or AI fakery has produced this video, it's odd that it would happen on two different devices — and there's at least one other user in the Reddit thread saying they've experienced something similar.

It's almost certainly down to a bug in Alexa+: the new and upgraded AI assistant is intended to be more conversational and more expressive, and in this case it seems to have gone too far (in the same way that AI chatbots can introduce hallucinations and tangents when writing out text).

When pushed, Alexa+ itself said that "something in my environment" must have caused the glitch, though it's not clear what that something might be. Perhaps it's the ghost of Alexa past, which Alexa+ has now replaced.

The Reddit reactions describe the speaker as "haunted", "terrifying", and in need of an exorcism, though the fix is likely to be no more complicated than a tweak to the Alexa+ AI model from Amazon's side.

• A Google Home Speaker is revealed in an early unboxing
• The sound quality and app interface are reportedly impressive
• However, the power cable can't be removed from the device

The brand new Google Home Speaker is about to finally go on sale, but an early unboxing video posted online reveals a design decision made by Google that a lot of users are likely to be less than pleased about: the power cable can't be removed.

You can check out the unboxing over on Reddit (via Android Authority), which shows off the aesthetics of the device that we've known about since the first official reveal last October — as well as giving us the revelation about the power cable.

The Nest Mini device that the Google Home Speaker is more or less replacing does have a removable USB-C power cable, which means when it's not in use, you can tidy it away more easily. On the other hand, the Nest Audio — another speaker now discontinued since the new model arrived — has a fixed power cable.

It seems that a removable power cable is something that quite a few smart speaker owners care about. "This is a nightmare for repairability, for which I am a massive proponent," writes the original unboxer.

Some positives, one negative

As per the information supplied in the video, the Google Home Speaker comes with a USB-C cable that's around 5 feet (1.52 meters) in length that can't be unplugged. There's a 30W power brick on the other end that can be removed.

On the plus side, our unboxer reports that the sound quality from the speaker is good, that the app component has a "cool" interface, and that setting up the device is straightforward — apparently it takes less than 10 minutes.

As with the Nest Mini, there are apparently touch controls available on top of the speaker, as well as hidden lights to report status information and volume levels. On the whole the first impressions from this user are positive ones.

It's just the power cable situation that's drawing criticism: "the non-removable cord killed it for me" writes one poster (who is apparently worried about cats playing with the cord), while the original poster says they're "extremely disappointed in the engineers". Another comment takes a dim view too: "The reason is always money."

• O2's 2G networks set to be pulled from 2029 in line with industry
• 4G and 5G networks are more secure and more efficient
• Some IoT and connected systems still use 2G

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has become the latest UK mobile operator to announce plans to shut down its legacy 2G networks, beginning in 2029.

At the same time, VMO2 said not having to look after 2G networks will free up more resources to look after, and improve, 4G and 5G network capacity, speeds and reliability.

The company already started shutting down its 3G networks in 2025, with a national cutoff planned as soon as this year, but 2G networks remained open in the meantime.

VMO2 to start pulling 2G networks from 2029

EE is also turning off its 2G networks from 2029, with VodafoneThree following suit in 2030.

While VMO2 promises to warn customers to help them identify affected devices and migrate to more modern networks, most smartphone users are unlikely to notice an impact because modern smartphones rely on 4G and 5G networks instead.

But IoT devices, smart meters, payment terminals, alarm systems and other crucial infrastructure has traditionally used 2G networks.

"While most customers won’t need to take any action at all, some businesses might need to start planning for this now," CTO Jeanie York explained.

The industry-wide 2G shutdown ultimately falls under government plans to strengthen telecoms security, following concerns over supply chain risks, cyberattacks and the general security of critical national infrastructure.

VMO2 also disclosed the environmental benefits of the shutdown. Though its 2G networks only carry 0.5% of all VMO2 mobile network traffic, it accounts for more than 10% of the company’s total cell site energy consumption. The company declared that its 4G and 5G networks are 10x more efficient.

Ring video doorbells always get deep discounts for Amazon Prime Day, but the savings might not be quite as impressive as they first seem. Although the up-front cost might be low, you'll need a Ring Home subscription to get the most out of your new purchase, and that can really add up over the years. That's not the case with all video doorbells, though, and here I've rounded up my top five picks that give you full functionality without the monthly fees.

• Shop more Prime Day deals at Amazon US
• Shop more Prime Day deals at Amazon UK

The key is that all the video doorbells here let you store videos on a microSD card. Some brands offer cloud storage if you really want it, but it's definitely not necessary. Some doorbells (like the EZVIZ EP4 I'm testing right now) also include newer features like facial recognition that you'd usually expect to be part of a paid membership plan.

All of these doorbells have been tested, reviewed, and given the seal of approval by our team of home tech experts, so you can be confident you're making the right choice.

Eufy Video Doorbell Dual

Eufy's smart-looking device is an excellent option if you're looking for a subscription-free video doorbell on a budget. The Video Doorbell Dual records video at 2K, which is just fine for us, and is loaded with advanced features like package detection and the ability to play pre-recorded voice messages, all with no membership necessary.

It has an infrared sensor that detects visitors' body heat, while a radar motion detector scans for movement. Better yet, its software includes AI person-recognition, and during our tests, it was able to accurately identify and label visitors in our video clips. We didn't receive any false positives, and the detailed app notifications meant we could tell who was calling at a glance, without even picking up our phone.

All your footage is stored locally on the HomeBase 2 (bundled with the doorbell), which provides 16GB for your clips. You can buy cloud storage if you really want to, but there's no compelling reason to when you can keep control over your own videos and access them for free.

We didn't love having to take the doorbell down to charge it (there's no swappable power pack), but it can be connected to existing doorbell wiring if you'd rather not run it from its battery.

Read our full Eufy Video Doorbell Dual review

SwannBuddy 4K

Swann makes some of the best video doorbells and best home security cameras we've tested here at TechRadar, and they all have one big selling point: there's no subscription plan necessary to save your videos or to use their most advanced features. Although you can pay for cloud storage if you really want to, it's not necessary at all.

The Swann Buddy4K is also a fully-fledged home security camera with features like motion detection and the ability to differentiate among subjects such as people, pets, cars, and packages. All of this is included with the initial cost of the doorbell (unlike devices from brands like Ring, which charge a regular fee to unlock such features).

"It’s possible to store videos by type – particularly handy if you want to find out when a parcel was left on the doorstep," said our reviewer Chris Price. "Alternatively, you can store videos in chronological order on the built-in MicroSD card."

The doorbell's AI assistant (which generates custom voice responses for visitors so you don't have to speak to them) was still in beta when we reviewed it, but even without it, it's an excellent device that comes highly recommended for helping secure your home.

Read our full SwannBuddy 4K review

Philips 7000 Series Video Doorbell

The Philips 7000 Series boasts impressive video quality, great viewing angles, and a generous 8GB of onboard storage.

It boasts dual cameras to give a clear view of both visitors and any packages they may leave on your doorstep. Its 2K resolution will be ample for most homes (4K doorbells are now widely available, but usually burdened by subscription fees), and during our tests, we were thoroughly impressed by how sensitive it was to motion. In terms of responsiveness, it was up there with the best home security cameras. Night vision is crisp as well (the doorbell is equipped with infrared sensors).

We found installation refreshingly straightforward, with a choice of mounting plates so you can choose one to suit your home, and it can be used with existing doorbell wiring or wireless from a rechargeable battery.

The 7000 Series isn't the cheapest video doorbell around, but its price is competitive considering how much you're getting. It's around the same as the Ring Video Doorbell 2, which requires a membership to save and review video footage.

The only other drawback for us was a slight lag we noticed during two-way talk with visitors. Otherwise, the 7000 Series is hard to beat (though it's not currently available to buy in the UK).

Read our full Philips 7000 Series Video Doorbell review

Aqara Video Doorbell G4

Aqara is well known for its excellent subscription-free video doorbells and home security cameras, and the Video Doorbell G4 ranks among the best. It works with all the main smart home platforms, which is quite rare, can run from a battery or be used wired, and is packed with extra features that you'd normally expect to come with a hefty subscription fee, such as subject-identification and customizable motion-detection zones.

You can store your videos on a microSD card installed in the doorbell chime supplied in the box, but Aqara also offers a free cloud storage plan that saves 7 days of recordings at no charge. You can pay for extra online storage if you really want, but there's no need.

Its field of view is narrower than you'd get with a Ring doorbell, and its picture isn't as sharp, but it's still a great budget option — and one that could get even cheaper on Amazon Prime Day.

Read our full Aqara Video Doorbell G4 review

EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer

The clever little EZVIZ EP4 is marketed as a security camera, and it does serve that purpose, but it does double-duty as a video doorbell, with a large push-button on top that triggers a notification on your phone when pressed, allowing you to see and speak to the person at your door via the EZVIZ app.

This is a great option for anyone who rents or lives in an apartment, because there's absolutely no drilling required, and when you want to move out, you can simply remove it and take it with you. Just unscrew the peephole from your front door, and you can install it in seconds. I used it at home and had it up and running within 10 minutes. Removing it is even quicker, and it did no damage to my door whatsoever.

The 4K picture is sharp and vivid, whether you're viewing it on the internal screen or within the EZVIZ app. The camera has AI person-detection, and can alert you when someone is at the door even if they've not pressed the bell. It can also use facial recognition to let you know when certain individuals have arrived.

There's no subscription required (videos can be stored on an internal MicroSD card), and for me, the only significant drawback is that the camera's field of view isn't wide enough to see packages on your doorstep. Note that the EZVIZ EP4 is currently only available in the UK.

Read my hands-on with the EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Father's Day: up to 50% off gifts & drinks
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

Smart locks have come a long way in recent years and are now incredibly easy to install and use. Gone are the days of drilling holes in your door and wondering whether the lock would actually open when triggered. The best modern locks can be fitted over your existing deadbolt, and are fast, quiet, and dependable. They work seamlessly with the rest of your smart home tech, and are so convenient that they just blend into the background.

• Prime Day smart lock deals in the US
• Prime Day smart lock deals in the UK

It can be tricky deciding which one to buy, though, so I've put together a quick roundup of the three best models we've tested in the last year. Smart locks are usually region-specific, so if a particular model is only available in the US, I've recommended a comparable model for UK home-owners — and vice versa.

Best of all, every lock in this listing is on special offer for Amazon Prime Day, with most of them down to their lowest prices ever.

1. Lockly Visage Zeno Series Smart Lock

The best smart lock we've tested for homeowners in the US, the Lockly Visage Zeno Series is a good-looking, streamlined device that you'll be proud to have on your front door, and is noticeably smaller than previous models.

It's a piece of cake to install and use as well, particularly when integrated with Apple HomeKit. Our reviewer, Lance Ulanoff, who awarded it an impressive four and a half stars out of five, praised its on-board Wi-Fi, which means you don't need a separate hub, and the way Apple Home Key allows for proximity unlocking; pull up in your driveway, and the lock will open automatically, when the appropriate setting is enabled. It just makes life easier, which is the whole point of a smart lock.

Lance and his partner were impressed by the way FaceID "just works" with the Visage Zeno Series, and fingerprint recognition proved well-implemented as well. It's even quieter than most other smart locks, adding to the whole premium experience.

Read our full Lockly Visage Zeno Series Smart Lock review

2. Ultion Nuki 2025

Our reviewer James Day called the Ultion Nuki 2025 "the most well-rounded smart lock available in the UK right now" when he tested it earlier this year, explaining that it removes the friction that usually turns people off the idea of smart home security. Built-in Wi-Fi means there's no need for a separate hub, it's easy to install, and it responds almost instantly when triggered.

Its app is well-designed too, and support for the Matter standard means it will work nicely as part of a mix-and-match smart home

It carries anti-pick, anti-bump, and anti-drill credentials, meets Police Preferred specification, holds Master Locksmiths Association approval, and is backed by a £5,000 burglary guarantee, which Brisant says it has never had to pay out on.

This particular Nuki lock is designed for UK doors — if you're in the US, take a look at the Nuki Smart Lock & Keypad 2, which is very similar in terms of looks and features, and is now just $198.50 (was $269) for Prime Day.

Read our full Ultion Nuki 2025 review

3. Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite

Yale is one of the biggest names in smart locks, and is offering great Prime Day deals on locks for all types of doors in the US and the UK.

The Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite is made for the British market and fits over your existing lock cylinder, so there's no need to drill, making it a sensible choice for renters and anyone else who's apprehensive about taking power tools to their front door. It supports Matter-over-Thread, so it'll work nicely with the rest of your smart home devices, and there's no Yale-specific bridge necessary.

In use, our reviewer found it "unremarkable, in the best way". It simply works, responding quickly to app and voice commands, and its auto-unlock feature proved a great time-saver. The motor isn't silent (it whirrs in a business-like manner), but there's no lag, and it's effortless to use.

Read our full Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite review

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Father's Day: up to 50% off gifts & drinks
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Price & release date

• List price: $1,299.99 / £999.99
• Released March 2026

The Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal comes in at $1,299.99 / £999.99 — while it’s far from cheap, it’s pretty good value for what it offers. That being said, there are other robot vacuum cleaners with equally impressive features and better software at a similar price point.

Plus, you’ll need to maintain some parts of the vacuum; in particular, refills for the multi-floor cleaner ($13.99 / £14.99) and the odor-neutralizing puck ($9.99 – $14.99 / £7.99 – £15.99), as well as the usual replacement for things like side brushes and mop pads. Over time, these can add up, but you’ll scarcely find a robovac that doesn’t come with added costs at similar prices these days.

• Value: 4/5

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Design

Out of the box, you’ll find the vacuum, base, power chord, an anti-odor puck, one refill bottle of Shark’s multi-floor cleaner, two side brushes, plus the usual array of instructions and warranty documents.

The base stands at 17 x 18 x 14 inches / 43.2 x 45.7 x 35.6 cm, and comes in either black or white — mine was the latter, and I think it looks a lot more premium than the tackier black colorway. Enclosed in the lid of the base are the 2.74-litre / 96.65oz clean and 1.18-litre / 41.62oz waste water tanks, which lift out easily thanks to the retractable handles, as well as the bagless dirt compartment — I really appreciate that Shark opted for this so there’s one less thing to routinely replace.

You can remove the container with the press of a button situated on the side of the dock, and it’s also HEPA-filtered. There’s also a set of two filters you’ll need to clean every 1-2 months, depending on how often you use your robot vacuum, and a slot for one of Shark’s anti-odor pucks should dusty smells be an issue for you.

The vacuum itself is a fairly standard, rounded 2-in-1 robot vacuum, but a little tall and hefty at 5.35 inches / 13.6cm tall. The top houses its raised puck for LiDAR sensing, which works in tandem with the front of the device, where the cameras and other sensors, including a camera as well as LED and UV lights, to navigate your home and spot messes ripe for cleaning.

If you’d rather not use the app, you can use the four touch-sensitive buttons to activate mop and vacuum modes, send the vacuum home and connect to the Wi-Fi. A soft bumper surrounds the edges of the vacuum to prevent damage from any collisions, which are remarkably rare thanks to its top-tier obstacle avoidance, and you can remove its dust bin and mop plate from the rear of the device.

On the underside, you’ll find the wheels, brush bar, side brush, and a singular, flat mop pad. These aren’t my favorite type — a rondel will typically offer a deeper clean, better post-clean drying and less water waste. However, Shark has designed the robot vacuum to wiggle this mop pad to agitate dirt, which goes some of the ways to make up the difference.

Of note is that the vacuum seems to be a total dust magnet. I have mine placed beneath a desk, where I wouldn’t expect excessive levels of dust — however it’s constantly lined with a thick layer of the stuff.

• Design: 4/5

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Performance

Setup for the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal is pretty simple; using the app, you’ll connect the vacuum to your Wi-Fi, give it a name (I loved some of the suggestions like Clean Latifah), and after that, the robot vacuum will run its first mapping pass. Broadly, mine was accurate; my apartment has a slightly tricky layout for robot vacuums, including a half-tiled, half-carpeted kitchen-living room, and lots of doors to dodge.

After this first pass, the app will offer you a second mapping run, this time to detect flooring types. If you plan to regularly mop hard floors and have carpets or rugs to avoid, make sure to get this out of the way during setup; I couldn’t find any way to update this map after the fact.

Cleaning tests

I performed my standard pickup tests using oats, cornflour and brown rice to compare performance to other robot vacuums I’ve tested, and the results were a mixed bag. When setting the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal off for a standard, vacuum-only clean, I was immediately impressed as it zig-zagged across my floors, leaving them visibly refreshed — plus, it’s pretty quiet in action.

On hard floors, it excels thanks to a combination of its side brush, solid suction and the jet of air it blasts at hard-to-reach debris, ensuring floors are spick and span post-clean. On carpet, it’s slightly less impressive, especially in the edge cleaning department, but it still does a decent enough job. Its pickup of larger debris was very impressive on carpet, leaving little to nothing behind, but there was a small amount of powdery debris left behind on my medium-pile rugs — hair, however, is no problem, be it human or pet.

Next up, I tried a regular combination clean with vacuum and mopping, and that’s where my experience with the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal became a bit more mixed. The robot vacuum first fills its water tank at the base, proceeding to concurrently vacuum and mop your floors rather than splitting out the tasks. This helps to save time and battery; however, it does increase the risk of soggy carpets.

To avoid this, the robovac will lift its hind to keep the mop pad from drenching carpets — this reduces its effectiveness on carpets, though, as it crushes the side brush, and sometimes, while navigating, it will spin round and spit water across the floor, too. However, once it reaches hard floors, the results are pretty impressive; the mop pad agitates spills and stains with a back-and-forth scrubbing motion, and will reach into corners to make sure every spot is well-cleaned.

It does use a lot of water, though, and especially if you’re cleaning up larger spills, that means the PowerDetect UV Reveal can leave a streaky mess in its wake. I noticed this even more so when there was lots of debris to vacuum up during the clean; the PowerDetect UV Reveal left a clump of soggy oats behind like an owl pellet as well as white streaky marks across the floor, but I wouldn’t typically recommend regularly using your robot vacuum to collect large volume spills anyway. I have especially reflective kitchen tiles, so I noticed this a lot; on my less shiny bathroom tiles, it wasn’t as much of a problem.

Powering up to a higher suction or mopping setting does result in a more thorough cleaning job, especially on carpets, but it’s worth noting that this seems to make the excess water usage more noticeable.

Object detection and navigation

When the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal works, it really works, but I encountered a fair few bugs and limitations that do impact its overall effectiveness — for example, when doing a combination clean, it sometimes skips cleaning certain areas and rooms, or neglects to clean areas I’ve specifically asked it to.

Its LiDAR scanner makes accurate room maps, though they’ll be a bit odd-looking if you have lots of furniture at floor level. That’s unavoidable, to a degree, but I wish it had investigated those areas more closely to find the real edges of the walls; that way if furniture moves around your home, you wouldn’t need to remap.

Its object detection is incredible — perhaps too good, as the robot vacuum avoided my low-hanging (but not floor-length) curtains like the plague, giving wide berth to even the most inconsequential of obstacles. Generally, it’s not too much of a problem, but improved smarts would mean there’s slightly less preparation required pre-clean to ensure your entire floor gets cleaned properly. I was also massively impressed by the ease with which it lifted itself over and cleared thresholds, chair legs, and the like, leading to quicker cleans.

UV detection

After its standard cleaning cycles, the robovac will return to its base, but the cleaning isn’t over quite yet. It’ll issue an ominous warning once it’s refreshed itself: "I detected stains. I'm heading back out to aggressively attack them."

Here’s where the magic of the PowerDetect UV Reveal is really on show; as it cleans, it flares a blue UV light, with which you can see for yourself the stubborn and sometimes invisible stains on your floor, which it will then return to after a standard cleaning run. It was pretty cringe-inducing to watch it navigate areas I hadn’t cleaned recently and see just how much grime was there.

Dock

After the job’s complete, it’ll return for a final time to the base and begin the mop pad maintenance process quietly in the background with just a low humming noise, washing it with hot water before drying it to reduce contamination. In my testing, the robovac lived up to its estimated 3-hour battery life; a 45-minute clean on standard settings dropped the battery by 25%. A full recharge takes roughly 4 hours, and the vacuum won’t perform new tasks when at less than 20%.

• Performance: 4/5

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Software and app

The app is quite restrictive when it comes to home and schedule customization; you can only have one map, so multi-floor cleaning isn’t possible, no-go zones are always rectangular and you can only create two schedules per day.

I also noticed that the robot vacuum would often get confused when it initiated a clean, forging straight to the corner of my living room and spinning there for a good few minutes before figuring out its path to the hallway. On closer inspection, this happened most frequently when I sent it to clean somewhere other than its home room; for some reason, it wanted to head straight through my wall instead of around and through the doorway.

I couldn’t find a quiet mode, either, meaning if you ever wanted to use the vacuum at night or when little ones are sleeping, they might awaken to an ominous threat from your robovac.

These issues, among other software quirks, make for the primary complaint I have surrounding the Shark PowerDetect UV reveal; its app and on-board smarts hold back an otherwise high-performance robot vacuum.

• Software: 2.5/5

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Specs

Should I buy Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal?

Buy it if…

You value well sanitized floors
With its UV detection, the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal offers peace of mind and broadly great results, especially in the mopping department… if you can handle slow-drying floors.

You have pets
Again, the UV detection comes in clutch here for invisible pet messes, but it’s also a deft hand at hair collection.

You have a large home
With its great battery life and efficiency, the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal is unlikely to run out of juice before finishing the job even in larger homes.

Don’t buy it if…

You have lots of wooden floors or shiny tiles

While it’ll clean these floor types within an inch of their life, the residual water and cleaning solution could warp or damage wooden floors and leave streaky marks on particularly reflective ones.

You have lots of carpet
Don’t get me wrong, this is an accomplished vacuum for carpets, but if you want to do combination cleans, you might end up with a few soggy spots left in its wake.

You want to vacuum multiple floors — or other smart features

I liken the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal to a power washer in the hands of a caveman; it’s only as good as the software allows it to be, and with frustrations like single-floor mapping, ignored instructions and

Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal review: Also consider

How I tested the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal

I tested the Shark PowerDetect UV Reveal for two weeks in my home, completing my standardised pickup, edge cleaning and mopping tests in addition to simulating tests for features like UV detection. I used the app, making a map of my home and testing various features like scheduling and room-by-room cleaning tasks, closely observing the vacuum when in use to note any navigation or performance issues during testing.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed June 2026

Naturally, Amazon sales mean great savings on the mega marketplace's own devices, and Echo speakers and displays see some of the best discounts during Prime Day.

I've tested every single Echo speaker and display in Amazon's current line-up, putting them all through TechRadar's review programme to identify which ones are worth the money. Using that experience, I've made a quiz that will recommend the best speaker for your specific needs, which you'll find below.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

If you ask me, the best deal is on the Echo Dot Max, which is my personal go-to for listening to music at home, and I plan to pick up another one to create a stereo system. Right now, it's $64.99 (was $99.99) at Amazon US and £59.99 (was £99.99) in the UK. Not sure whether that's right for you? Take my quiz and once you're done, you can check out all the deals below.

Amazon Prime Day Echo deals - US

Amazon Prime Day Echo deals - UK

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

Amazon's Echo Show displays act as a hub from which you can control your smart home. There are several different options, and the best one for you will depend on your needs and priorities. Below, I'll run through the top options for a range of different customers.

As you'll see below, most of the range is currently discounted. That's because Amazon's latest Prime Day event is underway, and runs until June 26 — based on previous events, these deals should last until then, but won't continue on past Friday. You do need to be a Prime member to qualify for the discounts, but you can you're not a member you can sign up for a free trial (just don't forget to cancel if you decide it's not for you).

• Shop Amazon's full US Prime Day sale / UK Prime Day sale

All clear? Let's take a look at the best Echo Show hubs for a range of different people, or hop to the bottom of the article for a specs comparison table.

I want the Echo Show with the biggest and best screen

All the Echo Show devices have a touchscreen to display information, and via which you can monitor and control your smart home gadgets when you're not using voice controls. The option with the largest screen is the Show 21 — its screen is 21 inches, and full HD. The Show 15 and Show 11 also both have full HD screens, at 15 and 11 inches respectively.

I want the cheapest Echo Show

The cheapest option is the Echo Show 5, which at list price costs $89.99 / £89.99. However, with the current discounts there's a third or more off in both the US and UK, taking it down to $59.99 / £49.99. As you'd expect, this model is the simplest of the bunch. The screen is 5.5 inches (the smallest in the range), with a standard rather than HD display, the camera is just 2MP, and there's one basic speaker. If you just need something simple, though, it should hit the spot — and especially if you'd rather keep things compact, as this is the smallest display in the range.

However, if you want something a bit more advanced, now would be the time to shop higher up the range — hop down to my best-value picks below.

I want the best-value Echo Show

Right now, the best-value Echo Show devices are the Show 8 and Show 11. These sit in the middle of the range, and offer a worthwhile specs bump over the basic Show 5. The 8 has a HD screen and the 11 has full HD, on the speaker front both boast two full-range drivers and a 2.8-inch woofer, and both have a 13MP camera with auto-framing to keep you in the frame during video calls.

Amazon Echo Show specs compared

A home security camera will give you peace of mind, watching over your property, alerting you to any unusual happenings, and capturing video evidence. However, they can also be expensive to run; many systems require a monthly or annual subscription plan to store your video clips, and to unlock features like subject recognition.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Here at TechRadar we've tested dozens of security cameras, including lots without any extra fees. This is a great time to pick one up too, with lots of models likely to be discounted for Amazon Prime Day.

Here I've put together a list of the top five subscription-free home security cameras we recommend, with options for everything from apartments through to large detached properties and even small businesses.

1. Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K

The Baseus Security S2 isn't the only solar-powered security camera we've tested, but it's the only one with a photovoltaic panel that rotates around its body to follow the sun, ensuring it captures as much light as possible throughout the day. It looks strange, but in our tests, we found worked brilliantly, noticeably extending battery life.

In addition, an SD card slot in the bottom means you can save your video recordings locally, without paying for cloud storage. However, the real standout feature in our view is the S2's built-in facial-recognition, which can alert you if the camera spots familiar people nearby. Just upload their photos to the app, and it will keep an eye out for them. It's the kind of advanced feature that would normally only be available as part of a premium subscription package, but here it's thrown in.

During tests, the S2 produced very few false alerts. This not only prevents you from being bombarded with unnecessary phone notifications, it also means recording is triggered only by genuine events, extending the cam's battery life. Images are superbly detailed during the day, and the spotlight is excellent for illuminating the garden at night to ensure high-quality footage in the dark, too.

The Baseus S2 is also one of the most affordable subscription-free security cameras we've tested. Yes, the up-front cost is more than you'd pay for a camera from Blink or Ring, for example, but the absence of fees for storage and advanced features mean it almost certainly works out cheaper overall.

If you're on a strict budget, take a look at the Baseus Security S1 instead. It's available for about half the price of the S2 and has the same rotating solar panel. However, it records at only 2K and has 8GB built-in storage rather than up to 256GB via a microSD card.

Read our full Baseus Security S2 Outdoor Camera 4K review

2. Swann MaxRanger4K Solar

Swann's MaxRanger4K Solar cameras are sold in packs of two or three, bundled with a base station that provides 64GB local storage for your videos, and is expandable with an SD card if you need even more room. If that isn't enough coverage, you can also pick up extra cams to connect to the station.

These high-definition cameras were seriously impressive – especially considering you don't need to subscribe to get the most out of them. Each camera arrives with a tough weather-resistant chassis, and captures super-crisp 4K footage with a wide 105-degree viewing angle. That's great for a camera without pan-and-tilt functionality.

That's not all – the cameras also have a sensor that uses heat and motion to identify people, vehicles, and other disturbances, and labels them accordingly. It's the kind of feature you'd usually only get with a paid security plan, but it's bundled in here – and in our tests it worked brilliantly, accurately identifying triggers.

The app lets you tweak camera settings, including its sensitivity, which is a handy way to extend the battery life of the units. Each cam has a solar panel that allows it to last months between charges, but you'll need to spend some time optimizing settings for maximum effect. The more frequently recordings are triggered, the faster the battery will drain.

Read our full Swann MaxRanger4K Solar review

3. Reolink Altas PT Ultra

The Reolink Altas PT Ultra earned four stars in our review thanks to its crisp video recordings, pan-and-tilt functionality to cover an extra-wide area, and local storage for your video. Although it's somewhat bulky, it looks smart and didn't worry our neighbors unnecessarily (always a plus).

The camera can automatically track subjects such as people and animals, or you can pan and tilt it manually using the app, if there's something in particular that you want to keep an eye on. There's a pre-record option, too, similar to the one you'd get with a dash cam, which captures footage continuously in the background and saves the 10 seconds that were recorded before a trigger event.

Footage is super clear during the day, but we found that the Altas PT Ultra really excels at night. Most home security cameras produce pretty shoddy monochrome video after dark, but Reolink's ColorX technology captures impressive color footage without a spotlight.

Storing your videos in the cloud costs extra, but there's no need when you can save them to an SD card, or to an encrypted Reolink Home Hub. The Home Hub comes with 64GB storage, expandable with up to two 512GB SD cards, which should be more than enough.

Read our full Reolink Altas PT Ultra review

4. EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer

If you like the idea of a security camera to cover the front of your home, but you don't want to (or can't) drill holes anywhere, the EZVIZ EP4 is an excellent option. It's installed through the peephole in your front door, and has a wide field of view that gives great visibility in sharp 4K. I installed it in the front door of my apartment within 10 minutes, and was very impressed by the clarity of the picture on the internal display, and on my phone.

When the camera's motion sensor is triggered, it will send a notification to your phone and record a 10-second video clip, which can be saved to a microSD card. You can choose to pay for cloud storage if you want, but there's no need. You also don't need to pay for EZVIZ's facial recognition tool, which lets you upload photos of friends and members of your family, and then notifies you when they arrive. During my tests it worked very well, despite being in beta. The only downside that was you can't yet choose not to receive these alerts, so you would only be notified if a stranger arrives.

The EP4 also functions as a video doorbell, and offers two-way talk, with two voice changing options for privacy. All in all, it's an excellent option for renters and apartment-owners, and when you move out, you can simply take it with you.

Read my EZVIZ EP4 Wire-Free Peephole Door Viewer hands-on

5. Eufy eufyCam 3 S330 

The eufyCam 3 S330 is a full security system designed for large properties, and even businesses. It consists of a set of cameras (the starter kit includes two, and additional ones are available to purchase separately) plus a HomeBase unit that connects them all to one another, and to your home Wi-Fi network.

Your videos are stored within the HomeBase unit, which comes with 16GB of storage that you can expand up to a colossal 16TB by plugging in an external hard drive, so you don't need to pay for cloud storage and your data is safely saved indoors.

Although it's a 'prosumer' system partially aimed at businesses, we found it easy to install and set up for the average user. Each camera has a 135-degree field of view, and a bright floodlight that can be triggered by motion at night for full-color footage, and a top-mounted solar panel so you don't need to take them down for frequent charging.

Subject detection is excellent, though on the standard settings it proved so sensitive that it sometimes also mistook a person's reflection for someone else in our tests, so it's worth taking some time to tinker with the settings. It includes facial recognition as well, and unlike the EZVIZ camera above, this doesn't rely on a set of photos and can 'learn' to identify individuals over time. The initial price isn't cheap, but when you consider how much you'd need to pay for an equivalent subscription setup, it's good value in the long term.

Read our full Eufy eufyCam 3 S330 review

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Father's Day: up to 50% off gifts & drinks
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone: two-minute review

The Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone arrives in an increasingly crowded robot vacuum market, yet it still manages to stand out thanks to a handful of genuinely innovative features. Chief among these is the OmniCyclone docking station, a bagless dust collection system that uses Dyson-style cyclonic technology to capture detritus without relying on pricy disposable dust bags. As a result, it's a great system for anyone with molting dogs or cats, as long as the bin is emptied on a fairly frequent basis.

The X12's floor sweeping credentials aren’t exactly anything to write home about, mind, especially its performance on hard floor.And while its navigation is mostly precise and systematic, I have seen evidence of it occasionally missing some areas.

However, it's the mopping system that really sets this machine apart. Rather than dragging two damp spinning pads around the floor and potentially smearing dirt all over the floor, the X12 employs an extendable roller mop that is continuously supplied with clean water, while simultaneously collecting dirty water into a separate tank. The result is a far more hygienic clean, particularly on hard floors where conventional robot mops can often leave a thin film of grime in their wake. This model also has a unique FocusJet system that squirts water on deep stains before mopping them up, but I simply couldn’t get it to function as it should.

No question, the X12 OmniCyclone is extremely well engineered and packed with clever technology, but me thinks it might be worth a trip back to the drawing board to fix some of its frustrating anomalies.

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone: price & availability

• List price £1,249 / €1,399 / $1,499.99
• Launch date April 2026
• Availability Worldwide

In the UK, the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone’s retail price is £1,249 but you can purchase it right now direct from Ecovacs or Amazon for a knockdown £949. At this price, the odd glitch in its performance makes it a lot more justifiable. However, if you mainly want a robot vacuum to collect dry debris from hard floors, the X12 still remains difficult to fully recommend, even at this lower price point.

As of writing, US buyers don’t get the same rosy deal as those in the UK – it sells direct from Ecovacs or Amazon for the full price of $1,499.99 – though you can be sure that big discounts will be applied in the not-too-distant future. The same applies to most of Europe, too, where the X12 OmniCyclone is retailing at a quite considerable €1,399.

If the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone feels too specialized for your needs. or you’ve been put off by some of my reported performance issues, there are several strong alternatives on the market. For instance, the Roborock Saros 20 (£1,249) offers a much more balanced blend of hard-floor vacuuming, carpet performance and premium mopping. Likewise, the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete is also an excellent all-rounder with particularly strong obstacle avoidance and cleaning coverage. Finally, don’t discount this model’s predecessor, the Deebot X11 OmniCyclone, which delivers much of the X12’s roller-mop appeal and bagless convenience for a lot less money (£699 to be precise).

• Value score: 3/5

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclon:: specs

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone: design

• Excellent dock with cyclone emptying
• Impressive roller mop system
• Pre-spray system isn’t reliable

I’ll admit that, in this day and age with so many robot vac brands and models on the market, it’s difficult to get too excited about yet another robot vac-and-mop unless it’s bringing a smorgasbord of new tech to the table. Thankfully this one introduces at least three tantalising features that I personally haven’t seen in a robot vac before, and you can read about these below.

As with all robot vacs, setup was very easy because there are only three items in the box: the dock, the robot and the clip-in ramp for the dock. Everything was self-evident, although I will add that there was a surfeit of protective cellophane wrapping on almost every inch of the dock and robot, and I guarantee you will find a piece of cellophane still lurking somewhere that you completely missed on unboxing a few weeks earlier.

Once it was plugged in and ready to go, I launched the Ecovacs Home app and added the robot to my account and Wi-Fi network. I then sent it out on its first mapping run so it could acquaint itself with its new home, and it took a spritely 10 minutes to map my entire floor space of four rooms. The resulting map on the app looked clean and precise and intuitively layout out, though I did have to merge and split some rooms, which is very common and easy to do.

Robot design

The Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone may, at first glance, resemble the vast majority of hybrid robot vacuum leaners, but its engineering sets it apart from much of the competition.

The first thing I should address is that, at 3.85 inches (9.8cm) in height, the X12 won’t be able to scoot under low-slung furniture like the squat Roborock Saros range. However, as is the case with the Saros 10R, this model uses solid-state direct Time-of-Flight LiDAR to navigate so it doesn’t come with an ugly LiDAR turret, and that keeps its height to an acceptable level for most low furnishings.

Aside from its dToF-based navigation system, the X12 also utilises Ecovacs’ AIVI 3D 4.0 which combines an RGB camera and depth sensors with AI processing to detect, identify and manoeuvre around most household obstacles. The camera can also be used to send a live stream to the app and it’s the sharpest image I’ve seen from any robot vac, not that you’ll use it much.

And then there’s something called TruEdge 3D Edge Sensor 2.0, which combines vertical and horizontal lasers to allegedly detect irregular edges, skirting boards, and recessed areas for improved edge cleaning.

Most robot vacs have a pair of manual controls on top of the robot so you can perform a full clean at the touch of a button or, more importantly, tell it to end its cleaning without having to reach for the app. Sadly, this model only has a single on/off button that you press to continue cleaning after a hiccup in its navigation, and press and hold for three seconds for it to return to dock. I personally prefer having two buttons: one to turn it on and off, or pause it mid clean, and another to end the task and return to dock. Had I not checked the manual, I’d never have know its on/off button served two functions.

Heading to the undercarriage, the X12’s single tapered six-inch brush roller makes a very fair fist of dealing with hair tangles by coaxing it towards the tapered end where it’s sucked into the vacuum path. The roller itself is comprised of four soft rubber paddles for carpet beating and two bristled paddles for hard floors.

I’ve been watching suction-power stats of robot vacs for some time, and over the past five years they have has exploded from an average of 2,000–2,500 Pascals to between 20,000 and 36,000Pa for today's flagship models. Mind, suction stats are largely a marketing ploy because real-world cleaning relies much more heavily on brush design and airflow. This model boasts 22,000Pa which is about average for its price range.

One of this model’s most distinctive design elements is the extendable roller mop, which automatically extends one inch beyond the robot's chassis to clean along skirting boards and into 90-degree corners that are often left untouched by standard robot mops. I much prefer a roller system like this over twin spinning mop pads because the roller is continually washed during operation, with contaminated water extracted and transferred to a dedicated dirty-water tank while fresh water is supplied to the roller. This ensures that muck is removed rather than redistributed over other sections of flooring.

The X12’s carpet protection is equally innovative because a protective sleeve rotates beneath the roller, effectively isolating the damp roller and preventing unwanted moisture from transferring to carpet. The mopping system is theoretically further enhanced by Ecovacs’ unique FocusJet Stain Pre-Dissolving technology, which allegedly targets dried-on spills before mopping. This system is said to improve cleaning performance on stubborn messes, but I’ve found it to be very hit-and-miss, which even Ecovacs admits to in a warning written just below the app’s FocusJet setting.

I don’t have any tall thresholds in my home but if you do, you’ll be pleased to learn that the X12 comes with something called TruePass Adaptive four-wheel-drive Climbing System that will, according to Ecovacs, help the robot to scale single thresholds of up to one inch (2.4cm) in height and "navigate continuous double steps of up to 1.57 inches (4cm) with ease".

I wouldn’t say that this model’s battery capacity is especially noteworthy, at least when used extensively. However, Ecovacs says the battery can be restored by 13% in just three minutes to help elongate its operation time if the robot is being pushed to the limits, so that’s a very good thing.

Like quite a few high-end hybrid robotic cleaners, the X12 also uses an AI Agent to "autonomously map your home, identify floor types via intelligent scene recognition, and then schedule and execute a weekly cleaning plan". I personally always turn AI off because I’m human and have a brain capable of setting my own schedules, thank you very much.

Score ref: 3.5/5

Dock design

The Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone’s charging dock combines an impressive range of automation features with styling that looks more like a miniature Art Deco skyscraper from Batman’s Gotham City or Fritz Lang’s Metropolis than a household appliance.

Rather than relying on disposable dust bags, which may need replacing on a two-week basis if shedding pets are in the home, the X12’s dock uses cyclone technology to suck dust and debris from the robot’s small bin into a large 1.69-quart (1.6-litre) collection chamber. To empty, simply unclip it, take it to the kitchen bin and slide down the blue lever. Voila, the debris falls out of the bottom just like a Dyson vac.

As a dog- and cat-owner, I’m a big fan of this type of system because it not only reduces ongoing costs — and environmental waste — but it also helps maintain strong suction performance between the robot and the dock while vastly reducing any issues of clogging that can sometimes occur if the robot has collected too much pet hair.

The dock also houses two large clean and dirty water reservoirs (3.7 quarts/3.5L and 2.85 quarts/2.7L apiece) for the roller mop system which minimises the need for frequent refilling or emptying. It also incorporates two cleaning-solution tanks, including a dedicated one that’s used by the X12’s FocusJet system to tackle dried-on spills and stubborn marks before mopping.

As with most premium hybrid robots, the dock’s maintenance is almost entirely automated so the station washes the roller mop using heated, pressurised water, extracts dirty water into a separate tank and then dries the mop with hot air to reduce rancid odours and bacterial growth. Ecovacs has also equipped this dock with some self-cleaning functions, including automatic cleaning of the washing tray and dirty-water system.

Score ref: 4.5/5

• Design score: 4/5

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone: performance

• Top-notch dock performance
• Very good roller mopping to the edge
• Disappointing hard floor performance

Navigation performance

After a very successful initial mapping run, the X12’s navigation seemed a bit wayward for the first few excursions but improved as the robot seemingly learned the quickest route from room to room.

However, I have been perplexed by some of its behavior in our furniture-cluttered lounge which is a mixture of hard wooden floor and thin rugs. It doesn’t help that the app has so many customizable floor-cleaning options that you’re forced to experiment and the surfeit of carpet settings alone is enough to drive you round the twist as you fiddle and mess about with options like ‘clean carpet first’, ‘avoid fringed carpets’, ‘carpet recognition’, the list goes on.

Possibly as a result of some setting I may have incorrectly adjusted, the X12 has never performed a complete clean of the lounge, at least according to the image of its trail on the app. At first I had ‘AI Agent' turned on, and I never trust AI when it comes to automation because you never know what it’s going to do next. Besides, I prefer to be in control of my gadgets. Anyway, after 15 minutes of online research I noticed a tiny grayed-out ‘exit’ word just below the AI Agent option that had been there all the time. So I turned AI Agent off and breathed a sign of relief. Did it make a difference to its lounge-cleaning navigation? Not much, as far as I can tell.

I’m not really sure what it doesn’t like about my lounge, but for some strange reason it usually misses cleaning the 15 inches of wooden floor gap between two thin rugs and it doesn’t completely vacuum under my sofa, even when I’ve lifted the valence. Instead, it performs one pass under the front edge of the sofa and then leaves.

And another thing… When it started my most recent lounge-cleaning attempt there was a dog bed on the floor, which it deftly skirted around. But when I removed the bed while it was cleaning nearby, I expected it to notice the sudden lack of bed and proceed to clean that area too. But no, it simply went home.

The X12 also has a habit of stalling at the edge of every rug before moving forward. It heads towards the rug at full speed and as soon as a wheel detects a slight incline – we’re talking millimeters here – it stops dead while it assesses the situation before proceeding to cross the rug. No great shakes but it was something I noticed that rarely bothers other bots. Thankfully and despite these slightly confounding anomalies, the X12 has behaved perfectly well in every other room with full clean-ups as one would reasonably expect.

Score ref: 2.5/5

Obstacle avoidance

If the X12’s overall navigation has room for improvement, there’s no such issue with its obstacle avoidance. For this test I set its AIVI 3D obstacle avoidance to ‘high sensitivity’ and used a number of dog toys but also placed two cigarette lighters and a small remote. I was very impressed by how quickly it negotiated a path between them with no collisions to report. At other times the X12’s obstacle avoidance has been set to ‘standard’ and even in this setting it has never ridden slipshod over anything, so I call that a result.

Score ref: 4/5

Vacuuming

I set up two vacuuming tests, one on hard floor, the other on carpet rug using a mix of rice, oats, icing sugar and granola. Test one was on my kitchen hard floor and unfortunately it was a bit of a failure. While this test was extreme, it was no different to every other robot vacuum test I perform on hard floor. Firstly, the act of creating a zone using the Scenario option was far too complicated, but I got there in the end. I went for the full vacuum power, deep clean and two-passes option to give it a better chance.

When it arrived at the zone, it first drove straight over the detritus with its motor off, which was a strange thing to do. It then proceeded to start its cleaning run and collected some of the debris, but left far more behind than it should have done. It also seemed to work haphazardly and made just one pass along the skirting board without cleaning up any of the ingredients. When it finally left the scene, the floor looked in quite a state so I reached for the Dyson Gen5detect, which cleaned up everything in one pass.

I couldn’t tell if this disappointing result was due to sub-par suction power – at 22,000Pa it should pick up debris much better – or if the brush bar is badly designed, but the results for this hard floor test were unacceptable. However, I should add that, during its day-to-day sweeping, I’ve never had too much cause for concern because it has always vacuumed the kitchen and most other hard floor areas efficiently enough. Perhaps I pushed it too far for this test.

Thankfully the rug test was more successful, though I wouldn’t say it was exceptional by any means, especially considering that I had maxed out all the settings. The first horizontal pass clearly showed that it had collected most of the crumbly debris, but it took a return pass and another two vertical passes to leave it fairly clean. I say fairly because most robots leave behind some detritus in a test like this, which is why you should never get rid of your cordless stick vac or any other form of manual vacuum cleaner. While robots are great for keeping on top of things, homo sapiens is thankfully still way more advanced than any robot when it comes to household duties.

Score ref: 2.5/5

Mopping performance

Despite having the X12’s FocusJet activated since installing the product, I have never actually seen it in operation, which has really confused me because I thought that the moment the robot spots a large stain area it jet washes it first to break up the stain and then mops it. But maybe that’s not the case — answers on a postcard please.

For my kitchen mopping test I squirted some tomato ketchup on the floor and adjusted the cleaning settings to Vac and Mop (for some bizarre reason there is no mop-only feature), standard water dispensing, Deep Cleaning, and two passes. As I anticipated given all the mopping tech on this bot, the X12 performed well in this test; indeed better than most spinning mop systems I’ve tested. Yes, it was a bit erratic in its chosen path, but it eventually cleaned the mess up and left far fewer smears than I have normally experienced.

Did it use the FocusJet on this unmissable ketchup stain? No, it simply approached the stain and duly mopped it without once using the squirty jet thing. And yet it did squirt water at least twice on an area with no stains whatsoever.

I personally don’t see a need for this water-spraying function because the task of cleaning a specific stain is a lot quicker if you just grab some kitchen towelling or a proper mop and bucket and do it yourself. The mere fact you need to reach for the app and make an educated guess where the stain is on the map and then wait five minutes while the robot gets ready to trundle over to what you hope is the correct spot, is way too long a process in my opinion. And even when it gets there, there’s no guarantee that it will actually use the water spraying system in the correct place, or even use it at all.

Score ref: 3.5/5

Dock performance

The X12 OmniCyclone's charging dock is among the most capable and innovative docking stations I’ve come across. Its bagless OmniCyclone dust collection system has performed particularly well, emptying the robot's onboard dustbin with no clogging to report, though I will admit that I have set it to empty the bot’s bin several times during its daily routines. Yes, I have had to take the bin to the kitchen bin twice in a month for emptying but even this has been a breeze. In fact, it has a better emptying mechanism than a lot of cordless stick vacs I’ve reviewed.

The dock also automatically washes the roller mop using heated water, removes the dirty water into a dedicated reservoir and then dries the roller with hot air to help prevent unpleasant smells and mould growth. And like most premium models, the dock’s self-cleaning functions also do a grand job of helping to keep the removable washing tray free from accumulated muck.

Score ref: 4/5

Battery performance

The X12’s 4,000mAh battery has a charging time of around two and a half hours. My lounge is roughly 12m² and, according to the app, the double-pass vacuum test in my lounge took 28 minutes to complete, while missing the space between two rugs that I have already mentioned above. After this run the battery showed 54% remaining, which seemed a bit low to me. Anyway, I then set it off to do two vacuum passes at full suction in the kitchen (around 17m²), after which the battery showed just 15%. As a result it headed back to the dock for a top-up before heading out again 20 minutes later to complete the task.

I’ve also noticed it heading back for a near-full top-up midway through an entire house clean and this suggests that the X12 might not be the best model for larger homes. Granted, one is rarely bothered by how long it takes a robot to clean a whole home, but there will be times when you need a quick cleanup in an emergency only to discover that the X12 is too busy charging itself from an earlier task.

Score ref: 3.5/5

• Performance score: 3/5

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone: app functionality

• Relatively easy to navigate
• Far too many custom options
• Some annoying programming traits

At first I thought the Ecovacs Home app was one of the most intuitive and well laid-out robot app I’d come across – ‘very easy to navigate’, I said in my notes. However, in hindsight I think it’s too complex and confusing for its own good. Don’t get me wrong, I love an app that provides loads of customisation but this app tips it into anorak territory with so many custom options available that it’s difficult to know where to start.

This is especially noticeable when you select ‘Robot Advanced Functions’ because advanced they most certainly are. Yes, some are self explanatory but when you tap ‘Carpet Settings’ you’re met with two pages of settings relating to every carpet-cleaning scenario imaginable. As a result you can find yourself in a rabbit hole of experimentations that take ages to carry out because it’s a robot and robots always do things at their own pace – very slowly.

On the plus side, the app does cleverly divide all settings into Robot and Dock, and provides instant access to one’s pre-programmed routines, or Scenarios as Ecovacs calls them. However, it might take you a while to find the area where you create them, and when you finally get there and create your series of personalised routines and name them accordingly – like ‘Lounge Vac’, ‘Kitchen Mop’, etc – don’t just click on ‘done’ because there’s also a faint ‘save’ button on top and if you don’t click that, you may be back to square one. Also, as mentioned above, I had issues trying to turn off Agent Mode which I simply don’t trust, especially given the amount of engineered wood flooring in my home.

This is far from the worst robot app I’ve ever used. In fact it’s quite similar to my favourite Roborock app for functionality and personalisation. But as I said above, I think the IT department went a bit over the top when they designed this app and ended up providing too many options.

• App functionality score: 3/5

Should you buy the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone

I tested the Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone across a typical mixed UK home environment, combining hard flooring, rugs and high-traffic kitchen areas. The focus was on real-world performance rather than lab conditions, including everyday debris such as crumbs, dust, huge amounts of pet hair and sticky spills. I ran multiple cleaning cycles using the highest levels of vacuum and full mopping modes, observing how well it handled edge cleaning, room transitions and obstacle avoidance. Particular attention was paid to its roller-mop system, water delivery and the behaviour of the Focus Jet and OmniCyclone dock during emptying and refilling.

I also assessed its noise levels, maintenance demands and app control usability over repeated use. The aim was to determine whether its headline mopping innovations genuinely translate into better everyday cleaning performance. It mostly did in this regard but there’s definitely room for improvement regarding its overall navigation and hard floor sweeping.

First reviewed June 2026.

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