I reviewed the Roborock robot vac with an arm – it would be brilliant, if only it cleaned better

Introduction

Roborock has always pushed boundaries in the world of robot vacuums, but the Saros Z70 might be its most ambitious effort yet. It promises to do something no other robot vacuum can: pick up stray objects from your floor before cleaning. This is thanks to a five-axis mechanical arm, which can grab things like socks, slippers, and tissues, and move them out of the way before resuming cleaning.

In theory it’s the closest we’ve come to an actual robotic assistant, and I feel the arm makes this vacuum cooler than it usually would be (don’t look at me like that). But as excited as I was, in practice the Roborock Saros Z70 is still somewhat of a work in progress. It excelled at cleaning carpets, but performance on hard floors is inconsistent – and there are clear limitations around the arm’s autonomous capabilities.

There is serious promise here, but early adopters will need patience.

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Design & build: Svelte and subtle

At first glance, the Saros Z70 doesn’t look drastically different to other premium robot vacuums. There’s no obvious arm sticking out, no dramatic redesign. That’s because the OmniGrip arm folds away entirely under a tinted panel, keeping the top of the unit completely flush. Combined with the puck-free navigation system, it means this robot is under 8cm tall and can easily get under most furniture.

The dock is a large, modular unit that handles everything from emptying the dustbin to hot water mop washing and drying. I’ll commend Roborock on the fact this isn’t quite as tall as other docking stations I’ve stuck in my living room, but I’d say that it’s just as wide. This thing is as sleek as a docking station can be, if slightly industrial-looking, and thankfully easy to maintain.

Water tanks are accessible from the top, and the dust bag pulls out from behind a panel at the bottom. There’s even a detergent tank for automatically refilling the bot. I’m a bit miffed Roborock didn’t include this detergent like every other robot vacuum I’ve ever tested, but here we are. I’ll also note that this water tank seemed to drain fairly quickly for the amount I used it.

Flip the Z70 over and you’ll find a rubber roller brush, a lifting mop pad system with dual spinning heads (one of which kicks out for edge cleaning), and Roborock’s usual anti-tangle setup.

The OmniGrip arm itself uses a pincer-style grabber and comes with a secondary camera on the arm to assist with positioning. Overall, it’s an incredibly thoughtful and clever design, even if the arm’s real-world performance is limited.

Features: Everything but the kitchen sink

So what can the arm actually do? It’s strong enough to lift light objects (up to 300g) like socks, slippers, and sandals, then move them to designated areas. Or, it can just pick them up to clean underneath and put them back again. The app lets you choose what objects to pick up and where to put them.

The problem is, it only works well under very specific conditions. After experiencing a few problems, Roborock told me that the object (and robot vac) must be on a hard floor, properly oriented, well lit, and not near a wall. That’s a big asterisk for a headlining feature. You can manually control the arm through the app, but it has the same limitations.

I will say that the arm performs brilliantly, when it works. There were times I caught it lifting up slippers to clean underneath them, so everywhere was free from dust. But that was when it worked. There were plenty of times when it didn’t. Sometimes it would misidentify objects. Other times, it would struggle with grabbing or placing items correctly. On one occasion, it picked up an object only to drop it on itself and trigger an error. Controlled remotely, it worked reliably and was genuinely satisfying to use – when you met its stringent rules for operation.

Still, the potential is obvious. If Roborock can improve the AI to recognise more object types, allow the arm to operate more freely, and make autonomous pickup more reliable, it could change how we think about robot vacuums entirely. But we’re not quite there just yet.

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Beyond the arm, the Saros Z70 is loaded with features. 22,000Pa of suction makes it one of the most powerful cleaners available. But I’m not sure that the raw numbers translate into real-life success here.

Dual mop pads apply consistent downward pressure and lift when needed to avoid wetting carpets. I actually found that by using Roborock’s smart navigation, it detached the mop pads, cleaned carpeted rooms first, then came back to pick up the mop pads and fill up with water. Genius! The mop system can detect when pads are dirty and wash them at the dock using 80°C water, before drying them with warm air.

Navigation works without a LiDAR tower, which contributes to the vacuum’s low profile. It proved very reliable in my home, even in tricky layouts. The chassis is able to navigate thresholds up to 4cm. There’s definitely something satisfying about watching this robot vac give itself a little leg up.

Performance: Mixed results

As a cleaning device, the Z70 excels more the most part. Suction on carpets is excellent, edge mopping is surprisingly thorough, and general navigation is precise. I particularly enjoyed the 3D mapping in the Roborock app where the navigation system can identify obstacles and items of furniture.

In day-to-day use, it picked up almost everything with Turbo mode switched on for all rooms, but a noticeable amount less in Max mode. Where this robot vac struggled was on hard floors – particularly in the kitchen. It just could not seem to reliably pick up crumbs of varying size. At first, I thought this was because it was mopping and sucking at the same time, but switching the mop off had no effect. This is a little concerning in Turbo mode, as the lower modes wouldn’t have had a chance.

Speaking of mopping, the dual mops cover large areas quickly and leave no streaks, and the auto-lift feature reliably prevents wet carpets. However my unit made a persistent rattling noise while cleaning, which I suspect came from the arm or its housing. It didn’t affect performance, but was irritating over long sessions. Yes, I could hear the noise even when the vacuum was in its Turbo mode.

The dock is a workhorse, handling emptying, mopping, cleaning and drying with minimal fuss. It’s a bit noisy during operation, but not excessively so. I’d actually say that its quieter than other robot vacs I’ve reviewed, including the Eufy Omni S1 Pro. Charging is fast, and battery life is strong – easily enough to clean a medium-sized home in one go on the lower modes. But on Turbo mode, it’d have to come home and recharge about 70% of the way through a clean. In fairness, the app does warn you of this when you set it to Turbo mode.

Interface: One of the best apps

Roborock’s companion app is one of the best in the game. It’s intuitive, packed with features, and makes the Z70 easy to control. The arm functions are well integrated into the app, with simple toggles to enable or disable object pickup, custom zones, and sorting bins. There’s a handy remote view mode with camera switching, and you can manually control the arm’s pitch and angle if needed. You can use this remote viewing mode without the arm too, in case you want a mobile security bot while you’re on holiday.

Elsewhere, the SmartPlan mode I mentioned analyses your home and cleaning habits to adjust settings automatically. Or you can get hands-on and tweak suction, water flow, cleaning patterns and more. You can even talk to the vacuum by saying “Hello Rocky,” though I found this more of a novelty than a useful feature. It also wasn’t particularly accurate, which is becoming a bit of a trend with this vacuum.

As expected, Alexa and Google Assistant integration is also included. Roborock still says that Matter support is coming later via an update, but I managed to add my Saros Z70 to the Apple Home app – so it appears to have arrived at least in part.

Roborock Saros Z70 verdict

The Roborock Saros Z70 is one of the most ambitious robot vacuums I’ve ever tested. The built-in mechanical arm takes it beyond simple home-cleaning and firmly into the realm of home assistance. And while the arm isn’t perfect just yet, the fact it exists at all is still a technical marvel. There’s something genuinely exciting about watching a robot vacuum pick up a slipper, clean underneath it, put it back, and then carry on like nothing happened.

The app is superb, and manually controlling the robotic arm feels more like playing a futuristic game than household chores. That said, the arm’s autonomous smarts aren’t quite ready for prime time. The list of objects it can recognise is limited, the conditions have to be perfect, and in testing it failed more often than it succeeded when left to its own devices.

While the Z70 is also one of the most powerful vacuums Roborock has made, performance is a mixed bag. It vacuums brilliantly for the most part, mops effectively, and gets under low furniture that rivals can’t reach. But it seemed to struggle on hard floors.

There’s clear promise here – and Roborock says updates are coming – but for now, it’s a feature you’ll mainly use manually or as a party trick. Add in a very high price, and it becomes a little harder to recommend to anyone other than early adopters.

Roborock Saros Z70 technical specifications

Functions	Vacuum, mop, robotic arm pick-up
Controls	App, Alexa, Google Assistant, built-in voice, Matter
Run time	180 minutes
Dimensions	350x353x79mm, 12.4kg (robot) 381x475x488mm, 4.9kg (dock)

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