CyberShack Verdict
Roborock Saros 10 - the thinnest, smartest robot vacuum/mop
$2999
Pros
Cons
The Roborock Saros 10 has an imposing mirror glass front cleaning station that dwarfs the 79.9mm high robot vacuum/mop courtesy of its RetractSense LiDAR. It goes under overhangs where few robots can.
Add to that considerable Roborock AI and smarts like a unique third mini rotating edge clean mop, and this is an impressive ‘little’ robot.
What is a Saros?
I’m glad you asked because Saros means 6,585.321 days (18.04 years) between the eclipse of the Sun and Moon. We don’t think Roborock meant anything by the name. No, Potter fans, don’t be tempted to call it Sauron (although it looks foreboding).
The Saros Series replaces the prestigious S8 Max Ultra and sits above the Qrevo series. The Saros Z70 has a 5-axis robotic arm that can pick up obstacles. It is not the lower-cost Saros 10R, which has dual rotating mops, StarSight navigation, and a less functional dock.
Robot vacuum/mop Generation
This is a true Gen 5 robot vac/mop as defined in Five Tips for Choosing a robovac/mop. In fact, we will soon update the guide because there are so many new 2025 features. It is capable of whole-of-home, unattended cleaning.
What is different about the Roborock Saros 10?
- 79.8mm high with a rear RetractSense LiDAR (most are front-mounted) with an overhead height sensor. This is one of the smallest heights still with a true LiDAR LDS.
- AdaptaLift Chassis for 10mm lift over carpet, easier sill crossing to 30mm, and 40cm for window tracks.
- Extendable, liftable and retractable FlexiArm, asymmetrical right whisker
- Split rotating brush for less hair tangle (if any)
- AI 3.0 Obstacle recognition
- Forward and reverse motion (can back out of blind alleys)
- 22,000 Pa suction (maximum Mode) and carpet boost+
- 270ml dustbin and 70ml water reservoir
- VibraRise 4.0 vibrating and detachable platten mop system with vacuum only and vacuum first carpet care
- Side mini mop for almost perfect hard floor edge clean.
- AI mop-again sensor to re-clean dirty areas or work on stains.
- Adaptive Elevation stops the vacuum and lifts the roller, whisker and mini-mop when liquids are detected.
- Matter compatible.
Ultra 2.0 clean station
This is a fully function station.
- 150-minute Fast Charge and intelligent charge
- Schedule off-peak charge
- 80° mop wash (kills 99.99% Staphylococcus) and 60° heated air dry
- Intelligent dirt detection – washes until clean
- Warms water for the robot reservoir
- Automatic detergent dispenser
- Auto mop detach (and reattach)
- Low noise (52-65dB and 72dB dustbin empty)
- Child lock
Mop types: Platen versus rotating mops versus roller mops
Robot vacuum/mops typically have a static/vibrating platen, dual rotating mop pads, or the new roller mop. Each manufacturer will say theirs is the best, and in Roborock’s case, the premium 2024 S8 Max Ultra used a vibrating platten.
Platen or rotating quickly become soiled, requiring a wash every 15-20m2 to avoid dragging dirty water over the floor. But in our opinion, at Gen 5 level, either do a good job. Initially worried about the platten, our panellists soon found it cleaned well.
Roller mops are continuously washed with clean water, and the dirty wastewater is squeegeed off into a separate tank. They never drag dirty water over the floor but frequently return to the base station. Yes, they are slightly better in some circumstances, but also more expensive.
Australian Review: Roborock Saros 10
| Website | Product Page Manual |
| RRP | $2999 – if you are not in a hurry, Roborock has occasional event-related sales |
| From | Roborock AU online Official Store – see grey market warning* |
| Colours | Black |
| Warranty | 2-years. It has a Sydney service centre. |
| Made in | China |
| Company | Established in 2014 with support from Xiaomi, Beijing Roborock Technology (Roborock) specialises in the research, development, and production of robotic home cleaners and other cleaning appliances. |
| More | CyberShack cleaning tech reviews and news |
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
* Grey Market Warning
There is substantial parallel importing (grey marketing). Roborock can only offer an Australian warranty for purchases from its official store or approved retailers—usually Harvey Norman (and sub-brands), JB Hi-Fi, and Bing Lee—but it varies by product. See its website for authorised retailers.
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First Impression
We have mentioned the cleaning station’s imposing front mirror panels (a fingerprint magnet) and the interesting RetraSense LiDAR. Otherwise, it looks like most other premium Gen 5 robots.
The robot is 350 x 353 x 79.8mm, and the dock is 440 x 409 x 470mm. The dock needs the obligatory metre or so front and .5m side clearance.
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Sensors – Yes, it is Gen 5
- Rear mounted 360° 3D LiDAR LDS and 100° rear field of view when lowered
- Front Triple structured light sensor
- Right side VertiBeam lateral structured light sensor
- Front RGB camera
- Dodge fast millisecond response time for obstacles
- Anti-drop sensors
- Carpet sensors
- LED front fill Light
I was interested in the LiDAR being placed at the robot’s rear, as most are at the front or centre. It appears to make no difference to the accuracy and has the benefit of a 360° FOV and a 100° rear view window when lowered. The camera and structured light sensors take over when LiDAR is lowered.
Just a comment on the Saros 10R, which uses a newish solid-state StarSight navigation. It is a fancy name for a dual QVGA dToF with 21600 sensor points and a 21X scanning frequency over LiDAR. StartSight 1.0 was initially developed for the 2024 Qrevo Slim and will 2.0 be used on the Saros Z70.
Which is better – the Roborock Saros 10 with LiDAR or the StarSight 2.0? The former is proven and reliable. The latter is new and explicitly for low-profile robots. I don’t think it matters now, and Roborock has chosen to use LiDAR for its premium Saros 10.
AI Features – Pass
AI implies learning and adapting. The panellists all commented that AI was clearly learning about both their space and belongings over three runs each.
In essence, this is SmartPlan that determines how to clean automatically based on the environment.
But it is also about making better decisions based on the sensor feeds. For example, the Dodge’s fast response to a new obstacle (like your leg when you walk in front of it) is clever.
For now, it has evolved slightly past the gimmick stage, and with firmware updates, it may become a very brainy bot.
Is Roborock’s AI better than the others? No, at this level, it is pretty similar to Ecovacs, Dreame, Narwal, and Eufy.
App – Pass
The app is comprehensive, but it is apparent that AI makes more basic decisions, so it lacks some of the granularity of other brands’ apps. This is not a bad thing—default settings are fine.
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Home Prep – only once
Our guide outlines the best house prep practice. Follow this for at least the quick map and first one-pass clean.
Quick Map – Pass+
It is accurate in measuring the space, but it also collects detailed information.
As expected of a Gen 5, every piece of furniture, rug, and obstacle is shown. It doesn’t necessarily understand what the obstacle is, but with the camera, you can see and make adjustments.
Navigation – Pass
It initially cleans the room edges and then uses a U-shaped pattern to clean in between. Panellists were amused that it usually selected the shortest cleaning path instead of a more logical, longer path. For example, in a hallway, it cleans at right angles to the walls. Navigation improves over time, and I hope Roborock engineers can address this.
Obstacle Detection – Pass+
It understands 108 types of obstacles and how to deal with them. For the rest, it uses AI and the camera to decide how close to clean. Interestingly, a toy dog (doorstop) was identified as a real dog, and it stayed at least 15cm away.
Overall, it found obstacles larger than the minimum size of about 50 x 25cm – a large Lego brick. It sucked our test pencil into the dustbin. It played with a white USB cable for a while and then avoided it.
The camera can show you the obstacles, and you can set up a no-go zone if required.
The Roborock Saros 10 passed the torture test for unattended, whole-of-home cleaning.
Vacuum test – Pass+ on hard floors, Pass on carpet
It has 22000 Pa on Max+, but this is more about bragging rights than real power. Vacuum efficiency is more about the rotating brush efficiency.
It has a split brush that rotates at different speeds to funnel hair into the centre, where suction pulls it into the dustbin without getting tangled. The brush does not beat the carpet (like some), so it is less efficient but does a creditable job.
We test with 4 x 25g sand, rice, oats and Kellogg’s Nutrigrain. The figures are for single/double passes.
- Low Pile: 65/70% – difficulty with sand and static charged ‘tissues’,
- Med pile: 60/62% – ditto
- High Pile: 45/51% – Only with mop platten removed
- Hard floor: 92/97% excellent
Mop Test – Pass
I believed that a platten mop did not do as good a job as a rotating or roller mop. That said, it matched a rotating mop for maintenance mopping.
The robot can also lift its front end to exert extra pressure on the mop pad. This helped with some dried-on stains, but it did not get everything.
If you have a medium or long-pile carpet, identify it in the app and set it to drop the mop at the station and vacuum only. Once finished, it will return to collect the mop and continue cleaning the hard floors.
We found it mopped to a maintenance standard – perhaps a bit more – which is what most robots achieve.
when the robot spins around, it leaves a crescent, which mostly disappears when dry.
Edge and Corner clean – Pass+ on hard floors and Fail on carpet
Hard floors benefit from the mini rotating side mop that cleans right up to the edge. It is groundbreaking. The FlexiArm asymmetrical right whisker does well on medium to large particles but leaves sand and rice in the corners. All round robots have right-angle corner-clean fails
Carpets are poor as the 13cm brush leaves an 11cm gap. The whisker does not work on the carpet. Again, all round robots suffer from this.
Cleaning speed – Pass+
It first cleans the room edges, then cleans the rest. If you enable the carpet vacuum first (no mop pad), it will be a little slower.
A 53m2 hard floor test with 1x pass takes 56 minutes (1 m2 per minute) with four mop station cleanings and 70 minutes with AI cleaning.
We would rather have clean than fast but it does affect the gross floor area you can cover with one battery charge.
Pets – Pass
Our pet-loving panellist was pleased to see dedicated pet programs but commented that they were less comprehensive or effective than the Dreame X50 Ultra.
- Pet Zone definition and deep cleaning
- Quiet Clean (not to alarm pets)
- Automatic Pet Recognition (and stay clear)
- Pet Snaps (photos)
- Pet video call (OK)
- Search for pet (iffy – it searched the whole home, but the pet was sleeping in clear sight)
The split brush is good for long pet and human hair.
Battery and coverage – Pass
The claim is 220 minutes, and that is in quiet mode, with a vacuum only on a hard floor. The good news is that a fast charge takes 150 minutes (test 156 minutes)
Panellists had different experiences. On average, it is about .66% battery life per minute or 150 minutes, and around 150m2 coverage.
Sill climb – Pass+
It had no issues with 20mm sill climbs. It can climb 30mm for a single layer and 40cm for a stepped sill.
Camera – Pass
The front camera is a QVGA 320 x 240, fixed focus, low resolution for still and video images. It uses the LED light for low light and works with the VertiBeam to assist in identifying obstacles.
Privacy – Pass
You can disable any personal data collection, and all images are stored on the device and deleted after use.
Noise – Pass
It ranges from 52dB on Quiet to 65dB on Max+. Noise levels are within spec.
Voice – Pass+
While it can use Google, Alexa, and Siri, Roborock now has Hello Rocky, which has an expanded vocabulary and works on or offline.
Clean station – Pass+
The station has intelligent hot and hot air drying. The robot can return to clean the pad after each room or every 10, 15, 20, or 25 minutes.
The 4-litre clean water tank was about 50% used on 150m2, giving a cleaning area of about 300m2 before refilling. The wastewater tank was about 30% full.
It is a premium station in all respects. The only thing missing is the UV light sterilisation found on some brands.
Omo Roborock Cleaning solution
None was supplied, and we did not feel like trekking to Harvey Norman to buy 480ml for $39. The station has a dispenser that mixes the correct solution.
Our engineer panellist investigates cleaning solutions for all robots. He found it had <5% Non-ionic surfactants, detergent, fragrance colour and benzothiazolinone (anti-microbial).
He advises that it should work with any brand of robot vacuum/mop solution with a 1:200 or 1:300 mix ratio. He also says viscous (thick) or oil-based cleaners (like Tee Tree or Eucalyptus) will damage it.
With the caveat that you may have to experiment with mop water level settings if you see foaming, which he could not find in the app.
Maintenance – Pass
This has about the same maintenance as any robot. You must occasionally wipe the mop clean base and the mini-rotating mop.
There are no accessories on the website yet
CyberShack’s view – Roborock Saros 10 is a highly competent Gen 5 robot
There is a lot going for this, but it comes at a time when we have just reviewed other Gen 5 bots.
- ECOVACS DEEBOT X8 PRO OMNI – new extendable roller mop
- Dreame X50 Ultra – a leap ahead
- Eufy S1 Pro – the robot vacuum/mop that rewrites the book
- Narwal Freo Z Ultra raises the AI bar for Gen 5 robot vac/mops
- Roborock QRevo Master – value Gen 5 robot vacuum/mop
I think you would be happy with any of these. Roborock’s USP is its low profile and chassis lift.
Panellist’s views
We use four test homes, and mine as the reviewer, to test in different environments.
The Roborock Saros 10 was unknown to them. They wanted to see where it fit in with the Max and Qrevo. They knew how to make its measure once I explained this was a $2999 Gen 5. Their comments include:
- All hard floors over one level: I was worried that the platten would not be as efficient as the rotating mop pads, but it did just as good a job. I liked the AI re-clean function, which keeps working at it until it is clean.
- A mix of hard and carpet floors on one level. I was not impressed with the carpet vacuum or its edge/corner clean—there is a big gap the brush cannot reach. But as suggested, I switched to the Vacuum Carpets First (leaving the mop pad at the cleaning station) and enabled carpet boost. It gets more stuff out of the carpet, but the edge/corner clean is still a problem.
- Pet owner—a mix of carpet and mainly hard floors: It has some Pet programs that are better than none on other robots, but I really did not understand how these worked. It avoided our faux Pet Poo and did lift over liquid. More work is needed here because it has a way to go to match the Dreame X50 Ultra Pet programs.
- Two-level—tiles on L0 and medium pile carpet L1 (retired Engineer): There are no issues mapping multiple levels, but you need to move the station to each as it cannot mop wash without it. The medium Pile carpet vacuum was not great, and the edge and corner clean was non-existent. OK, on hard floors. Good obstacle recognition on hard floors but not so good on our cream carpet.
Reviewer
Single-level 30/10/60% carpet/tiles/bamboo hardwood (reviewer—me). I was surprised that the platten mop did as well as a rotary. The hard floors were clean. It was less efficient on grippy tiles. The carpet vacuum efficiency was lower than expected for a 22,000Pa vacuum, but it did pretty well on the second pass. It gets a buy recommendation as a Gen 5 robot vacuum/mop.
Panellist’s summary
- Mop efficiency: Hard floors – as good as a rotary. Textured tiles: cursory wipe over
- Vacuum efficiency: Hard floors – excellent. Carpet – average
- Pet Poo detection: Yes
- Liquid detection: Yes, and brush/whisker lift and vacuum off.
- Obstacle detection: Hard floors – very good for objects larger than 50×25 mm, and dodge mode was excellent
- Edge clean: Hard floor very good. Carpet – no
- Corner clean: Hard floor average. Carpet – no
- Multilevel map: Yes
- Overall clean – Hard floor very good, tiles average, carpet average
- Strengths: Low height, liquid management
- Weaknesses: Carpet but may get better
- Bouquets or brickbats: Seemed to get better as AI got to know the home.
Roborock Saros 10 rating
- Features: 90 – an excellent suite of Gen 5 features
- Value: 80 – it is at a premium compared to other Gen 5’s – wait for the sales
- Performance: 90 hard floors and 75 carpet – average 80. Like the carpet and sill chassis lift.
- Ease of Use: 85 – 2 years warranty is not class-leading. The app is a little confusing
- Design: 90 – innovative retracting LiDAR and mini-mop, but round shape means it must make more passes, which makes it slightly slower.
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