CES 2024: New flagship has some hot new features… quite literally
Roborock has used the past few CES editions to whip the covers off of its new flagship cleaner and CES 2024 is no exception, with the Chinese brand unveiling the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra over in Vegas, alongside a whole host of other new devices.
Let’s start with the new top dog though, that picks up the reigns from last year’s flagship – the S8 Pro Ultra – and adds a heck of a lot additions to the spec-sheet.
Most notably, in terms of big picture smart home news, is the fact that the S8 MaxV Ultra brings Matter to the robot vacuum cleaner party; robo cleaners were one of the new device categories added by the CSA back in October, when it launched Matter 1.2.
Guide: Matter smart home
For the users at home though, the big new additions are hardware rather than software based. First up is a whopping 10,000Pa suction rating, by far the biggest we’ve ever seen from a robo cleaner.
And it’s not just the extra suction power that will result in your floors being cleaner; there’s also a new FlexiArm Design Side Brush and Extra Edge Spinning Mop System on board, essentially a robotic arm and extra pad that extend to clean hard-to-reach spaces, with more than 99% corner coverage.
It’s similar to what we’ve seen from the likes of the iRobot Roomba Combo j7+, but a lot more hidden and subtle; it just tucks in at the front next to the cameras and sensors.
When it comes to mopping, the S8 MaxV Ultra takes what was already a winning combo from its predecessors but adds a whole bunch of new features to the mix.
With the new flagship, there’s a heavy emphasis on heat – the new RockDock Ultra not only empties, refills, and dispenses detergent to the robot, but also washes the mop with 60°C hot water and dries with 60°C heated air to prevent odor and mildew build-up.
There’s also a new dock on offer too, that can be plumbed straight into your water supply and waste, much like a washing machine or dishwasher.
VibraRise, the name Roborock gives to the functionality of lifting the mopping pad when carpet is detected, reaches version 3.0 with the S8 MaxV Ultra, adding two vibration modules, 20mm lifting, and 4000rpm high-speed sonic mopping.
There’s also some new Roborock software on board the new flagship including DirTect to recognize different types of dirt and change cleaning settings accordingly, and Reactive AI 2.0 for advanced obstacle recognition and avoidance.
Roborock has also taken a leaf out of Ecovac’s book by adding its own voice assistant to the mix, dubbed ‘Hello Rocky’. Probably gimmicky as heck, but why not eh?
If your budget won’t stretch to the $1,799 that the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra will cost when it goes on sale in April, and you don’t care about ‘How Rocky’, Matter or DirTect features then the all-new S8 Max Ultra (below) might be for you.
It’ll be $200 cheaper than its V-labelled brethren but you’ll also ‘only’ get an 8,000Pa suction (8,000 is still incredibly high in the robo vacuum world.)
Both the new S8 models also offer, like the SwitchBot S10, the ability to connect to your home drainage (much like a washing machine or dishwasher does) to automatically refill and empty the robot cleaner, eliminating the need to manually empty or refill the RockDock Ultra’s water tanks.
New Q Series models
As well as the new S8 big dogs, Roborock has also used CES 2024 to revamp the Q Revo series, with the Q Revo MaxV and Q Revo Pro taking a lot of the killer new features from the new S8 models, but cutting corners elsewhere to keep the costs down.
They both include the FlexiArm Design Edge Mopping System and warm water mop cleaning, but the Pa count is down to 7,000 (again, still super high-end).
‘Hey Rocky’ lives in the Revo MaxV, which also includes Reactive AI obstacle recognition and avoidance.
It’s $1,199 for the Q Revo MaxV and $999.99 for the Q Revo Pro – both of which are out in April.
The last bit of Roborock news from Vegas is the launch of the Flexi Series – Pro and Lite; handheld cleaners that offer simultaneous vacuuming and mopping, so you can do wet and dry in one go.
These look like Dyad successors but have a bunch of new features including DirTect, FlatReach, RevoBrush and SlideTech.
There’s no word on pricing or a launch date for this duo yet though.
