Following last year’s choice between two priorities, Roborock’s new Saros 20 settles on enhanced navigation as a focus of what has become one of the best robot vacuums you can buy.
If you’ve looked into robot vacuums and mops at all, you’ve heard of Roborock. The brand has been building out some stellar products over the years, and the new Saros 20 takes all of that experience and dumps it into a single offering.
Over the past few weeks, Roborock Saros 20 has been tasked with cleaning my home and, put simply, it’s done an excellent job. That starts with the vacuum itself, this year packing impressive 36,000 Pa of suction power – an increase of more than 60%. While most of my home is hard flooring, Saros 20 performed noticeably better in pulling dog hair off of carpeted areas, something I’ve been frustrated about for years with other options. The mop, meanwhile, sticks with dual heads which I certainly prefer over Roborock’s older vibrating mop pad – though you can still opt for that if you wish. It remains an in-depth cleaner with its extending arm to better wipe down corners.
Much of what’s new in Roborock Saros 20 is refinement, continuing to build on major upgrades from past years. But the biggest impact I’ve seen is from the Roborock’s upgraded “AdaptiLift Chassis.” Roborock says this new system can lift the robot over thresholds up to 3.46-inches in height on double thresholds. There’s nothing in my home quite that big, but where I have noticed a difference is in a portion of my living room that has a high threshold followed by uneven stone tilework. Where even Saros 10 needed to leave that as a no-go zone for the sake of ensuring the robot wouldn’t get stuck, Saros 20 breezes through it. It’s a major upgrade for me, addressing a long-time pain point.
That leaves my couch, which is just tight enough to make Saros 20’s 3.13-inch height get stuck underneath from time to time. That couch is the one place where the Starsight navigation system falls a bit short – it’s great at mapping and avoiding obstacles everywhere else in my home.
The other nice upgrade this year is in the “RockDock,” which has been redesigned inside and out. The outer shell has a clean, matte grey look now which looks much nicer, but it still retains the easy-to-access water containers up top. Roborock has upgraded the internals with hot water cleaning and improvements to mop drying. While only time will tell, so far the dock has stayed a bit cleaner than prior models I’ve tested.
The Roborock app remains stellar, offering a map that’s easy to use and features that are readily available. Of course, this wouldn’t be a 2026 product without new AI features, and one of those is “Pet-Friendly Intelligence,” where Roborock will use the on-board camera to snap pictures of your pets, or even search for your pets in the home. It’s a great idea in theory, but I find that most pets, mine included, are more scared of robot vacuums than anything.
As mentioned at the outset, Roborock Saros 20 isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel. Thanks to years of development, it’s already one of the best robot vacuums on the market, but refinements like working on threshold crossing are ones that address long-time pain points and make the experience better for the end user.
If you’ve not upgraded your robot vacuum in a few years, Saros 20 is a great choice.
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