Fast forward to present day and the product range now includes cordless, handheld and robot vacuums as well as hair care, air treatment and even lighting products. If you were asked to think of a vacuum cleaner brand, it’s very likely that Dyson would be the first to pop into your head. The home appliance giant’s products have been around since the early Nineties and are known for their top of the line, bagless vacuum technology. The Dyson 360 Eye is costly, it cannot be denied, particularly against rivalry. Its £800 listing price is higher than any of the other robot-vacuums. The Dyson 360 Eye is among the strongest robot vacuums you can purchase owing to its excellent cleaning and navigating capabilities; however you can find reasonably fitted variants for less cost.
It’s fun stuff to peek at, but the floor plan is unwilling to alter a lot between cleanses. This should stand to reason that the Dyson 360 Eye circulates its good proportion of dust and debris on its insides for a machine built to reach into every dusty single corner in your house. Luckily, the entire unit has been made to be disassembled so that you can just quickly clean any part you want with nothing more than clean running water. Dyson says this isn’t stored or used to inform the vacuum’s next trips – each time it starts up, it starts up completely fresh. But what it does offer is confirmation that your vacuum has covered the area you want it to, since you can see right in the visualization what portions of your floor it managed to clean. Dyson’s design choices have downsides, too; the height of the machine means that it can’t squeeze under couches or low tables to clean those hard-to-reach areas.
The 360 Eye is not the friendliest of all vacuums, because it’s noisy and loud, but it’s still at a nicer level than many others. Dyson does a great deal with his technical efforts, but his exterior product design is also a vital component in the popularity of his products. The 360 Eye irobot vacuum cleaner is no different, and its violet, blue and shiny greys make a strong aesthetic point that is truly complimentary to your home décor. There’s no word on prices nor dates for other regions just yet, but the 360 Heurist will be hitting China come November for 5,490 yuan (about $800).
There are also questions of robustness, explainability, and safety. The ability to make decisions autonomously is not just what makes robots useful, it’s what makes robotsrobots. We value robots for their ability to sense what’s going on around them, make decisions based on that information, and then take useful actions without our input. In the past, robotic decision making followed highly structured rules—if you sense this, then do that. In structured environments like factories, this works well enough.
We are not very familiar with the actual price of the robovac but it is estimated to be around $1,100. The new filing however doesn’t guarantee that Dyson will ever release the 360 Hyperdymium, but there is no harm in keeping our fingers crossed for a potential release date. I used to pride myself on being the tidiest, bleached-out house on the block. But then I had a child, and that all went out the window as I reclaim what little time I have to myself and my mechanical keyboard building hobby. There are certainly Dyson fans out there who will buy a Heurist no matter what. If you cannot abide vacuuming, and only want to do it every couple of weeks to grab any spots a robot might have missed, then perhaps this vacuum is for you.
The 360 Eye came in last place on the rice test, picking up just 2.18 ounces on the plush carpet, 1.85 ounces on the berber-style carpet, and 2.13 ounces on the hardwood floor. At the same time, the Neato Botvac Connected picked up significantly more rice on each flooring surface. To block its path you will have to shut doors or put up barricades. Providing this isn’t an issue you have the Dyson name and up to a five-year warranty to back the machine. It does leave a bad taste in my mouth for the level of clean is does not do. However, as part of a regular cleaning program, the floors can stay clean with regular use.
That’s a whole 1,000 yuan (about $146) less than the 360 Eye when it first entered China in May last year, which is somewhat indicative of Dyson’s robotic ambition while facing the likes of Neato and iRobot. Another reason Dyson’s bot works so well is its companion app. The 360 Eye can connect to your Wi-Fi network, and is then accessible via the Dyson Link app. This will let it regularly grab updates from Dyson and install them automatically, which the company says will improve performance over time.
Many robot vacuums have weak suction, and have more in common with carpet sweepers than stick vacs. The Dyson 360 Eye, however, contains a version of the same Digital Slim motor that powers Dyson’s handheld vacuums—which do a decent job of cleaning dirt and dust. We also looked for robot vacuums that can learn the layout of your home meaning they can be dispatched to clean a certain room or areas in just a few taps. The details of the upcoming product were recently seen in an FCC. The new design in images look much flatter and wider than the former. The design of the previous two models made them unsuitable for the typical households, especially when it came to vacuuming under furniture or in narrow areas.
Given they are unlikely to obstruct or obfuscate a roaming robot vacuum, the majority of these types of cleaners tout their abilities to tackle hard floors. Using whatever navigation system they have, whether it’s automatic smart navigation or via boundary strips, the majority of robot vacuum cleaners on this list are fine with hard floors. Nevertheless, it is always worth checking as some may focus on certain other areas, such as picking up pet hair, over being great on harder floors. WIRED has taken the risk of a premature robot uprising and tested these smart vacuum cleaners, reaping the spotless benefits they bring. You might think all robot vacuums cleaners are pretty much the same, in both features and looks, but they differ quite a lot.
On the plus side, it’s the smartest-looking charging dock-cum-collection bin in the business. Carrie-Ann Skinner is Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has more than two decades of experience in both online and print journalism, with 13 years of that spent covering all-things tech. Carrie specializes in smart home devices such as smart plugs and smart lights, as well as large and small appliances including vacuum cleaners, air fryers, stand mixers, and coffee machines. Some robot vacuums take a methodical path across your floors which ensures the vacuuming process is quick and efficient.