Roborock Q Revo

Ask owners which flagship feature earns its money and almost all of them name the dock that washes the mop pads. The Q Revo keeps that one and drops camera-based obstacle avoidance, the most expensive component to build and the one whose value depends entirely on the state of your floor.

So this is a machine with a specific fit, not a compromise. In a home where the floor is clear when the robot starts, it does what a flagship does. In a home where charging cables, socks, and toys are normal, it strands itself often enough that you start tidying before every run, which defeats the point of scheduling.

Mopping is the two-pad spinning type with automatic lifting for carpet, and the lift height is modest. Low-pile rugs are handled. Anything thick enough to soak means keeping the robot out of that room with a no-go zone. The dock washes the pads with cold water and dries them with warm air, enough to stop them going sour between runs and short of removing ground-in grease, so the pads still want a proper wash by hand every few weeks.

The dock’s five-liter tank covers a large floor plan without attention, and when it does run dry the robot pauses instead of carrying on dry. Clearance is the other thing to check. The LiDAR turret adds height, and the machine will not pass under furniture with less than about ten centimeters of gap, so measure the sofa before assuming it will clean under it.

Firmware updates have been frequent and mostly uneventful, worth saying because budget robots usually disappoint there.