We reviewed the Roborock S6 nearly two months ago now, but there was one big problem for some of our readers at launch; the S6 was only available for purchase in a handful of European countries. That all changes this week as Roborock moves to advance its distribution to the US, giving millions of additional potential customers the choice of purchase the smartest robot vacuum on the market.
Ebay is the distribution channel of choice at the moment for Roborock, and while it may seem a bit unconventional for distribution, Roborock is still offering the normal 1-year manufacturer warranty with the product so you won’t be getting any worse service than you would from another store.
We’ve been a huge fan of Roborock’s value-focused strategy for robot vacuums since the original Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum came to market, which was a special partnership with the then fledgeling robot vacuum manufacturer. The Roborock S6 is the third generation premium-tier robot vacuum from the company and delivers the absolute best experience we’ve seen from the company’s excellent products yet.
The Roborock S6 features an upgraded 4-core processor that’s capable of significant additional processing power over the previous-generation S5 model. This has enabled Roborock to create the most advanced mapping system to date. This isn’t just all specs and talk though, the real-world usage of the vacuum is proof that Roborock’s algorithms and software acuity are leading the pack in several ways on the navigation front.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who has checked out our reviews and comparisons with Roborock’s robot vacuums in the past. They made a name for themselves with the original Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum not just because of the cost, but because the vacuum was so much smarter than anything else on the market. This time around it’s not just about being smarter, it’s also about being more efficient and the positives that come with efficiency.
While the S6 sports the same size battery as the S5, the new navigational smarts allow it to take better paths throughout the house and, on average, will deliver about half an hour longer runtime as a result. It also has a top-up feature that returns the vacuum to the dock when the battery gets low and charges it to 80% before venturing back out again, cutting down recharge time and, thus, overall cleaning time for larger homes.
An additional power savings comes in the side-brush’s ability to change its speed depending on the surface that’s being vacuumed. On hard floors the brush will spin regularly, while it’ll typically be paused on carpeted surfaces. It’s also made of silicone instead of bristles; a new design that’s more durable than previous generations.
Check out our review of the Roborock S6 to see all the things we loved about the vacuum, and a few things we weren’t so crazy about. It’s a fantastic less-expensive alternative to many of the bigger-name brands like iRobot or Neato, and while it offers better navigational abilities than most other robot vacuums, it doesn’t have every feature of some of the more expensive models.