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Reading Time: 4 minutesRoborock’s S7 Robot Vacuum with Sonic Mopping has officially hit virtual store shelves, and to celebrate, the brand is offering a week-long early bird discount of $50 off at Amazon, from March 24th through March 30th.
Curious if the S7 is the right cleaning companion for your home? Check out my first impressions of this vacuuming and wet mopping robot vacuum below.
First Impressions: Roborock’s S7 is a Smart and Versatile Cleaning Companion
My first experience with robot vacuums was at my friend’s house, way back in the day. These “smart vacuums” had just debuted, and I watched this device shaped like a Danish butter cookies tin clumsily bump around the room, get stuck under furniture and miss large areas with its random pattern.
Fast forward to today, and the Roborock S7 is putting the vacuums of yesteryear to shame with features that truly warrant the device being called “smart.”
Roborock’s S7 recently earned a CES 2021 Editor’s Pick from me, and I had a chance to preview it in my own home ahead of its official release at the end of this month.
I’ll be writing an in-depth review later, but wanted to quickly share my first impressions.
Up and Cleaning in Minutes
Credit: Roborock
I really like the simplicity of the Roborock S7 — plug in the docking station, insert the mopping element, and it’s ready to go.
The app was equally as effortless to set up. Just a few taps and the S7 was on my Wi-Fi network and synced with the app. All that was left to do was wait for it to charge on its dock.
While it was charging, I explored the app and learned how to adjust suction power, turn on carpet boost, set schedules, child locks and more. The S7 can also be controlled via Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri.
Intelligent Sensing and Excellent Maneuverability
Credit: Roborock
The first challenge that I threw at the S7 was my kitchen because it has weird nooks and crannies. The dishwasher and refrigerator stick out unevenly from the cabinets, and there’s a rolling cart and a mat in the way as well.
The instruction manual recommends vacuuming an area a few times before using the mopping feature, so I set the S7 off on its first dry run (pun intended).
Whenever the S7 is cleaning, it’s constantly scanning and learning the area, and I watched a map being drawn in real-time via the app. From this map view, I was able to add invisible barriers (see the red lines above) to limit the S7’s cleaning area or designate no-go zones.
The S7’s ability to navigate the space was truly impressive. It swung around 90-degree corners, wrapped around table legs and made u-turns in small spaces that would’ve tripped up lesser robot vacuums.
It seemed to get smarter with each pass, relying less and less on its physical bumper sensor. Eventually, it started turn inches before reaching an obstacle and then followed the perimeter of the room.
Credit: Roborock
After an “orientation cleaning run,” the S7 began moving in a horizontal zig-zag pattern, then it returned for a vertical zig-zag pass.
Obstacles aren’t the only thing it can sense, though — it also knows when it’s on carpet versus hard flooring. With Carpet Boost turned on, the S7 increases suction power when cleaning carpet and automatically stops and lifts the mopping element.
Credit: Roborock
A light on top of the S7 indicates which mode it’s in — blue for mopping, white for vacuuming. When the S7 found my fluffy kitchen mat, it perfectly vacuumed just the mat, then moved on to the rest of the hard flooring for mopping.
It did a good job of cleaning up the grease and oils that inevitably jump out of the pan when cooking, and the floor was dry within a few minutes. The only thing that would make the S7 even better is if it allowed the use of a mild cleaning solution. Currently, water is all that’s recommended in the reservoir to ensure the spray jets don’t clog.
Easy Maintenance and Clean-up
Post-cleaning maintenance is also straight-forward. The dust bin, water reservoir and mop element all unclip easily for quick access.
The mop itself is basically a specially-designed terry cloth, and it washes and wrings dry like any other piece of fabric.
Overall First Impressions
Credit: Roborock
I’m quite impressed with the Robrock S7, and can definitely see it as an effortless maintenance solution in between deeper cleanings with a traditional vacuum cleaner.
Its sensing technologies and cleaning versatility offer a lot of performance and value, as well as peace of mind — you don’t have to babysit the S7 because it’s so smart.
Stay tuned for more in-depth thoughts in my upcoming full review.
Andrew Chen
Editorial Content Manager Andrew Chen is a longtime PC gamer, an automotive journalist and an avid deal hunter. His first PC had an 80 megahertz processor with 4 megabytes of RAM, light years away from the powerhouse gaming rigs he builds today. You can follow Andrew's high-speed sports car adventures over at 6SpeedOnline.com. As a Slickdealer for over 10 years, nothing makes him more excited than getting a freebie! Chat with Andrew on Twitter: @slickdealsdrew