• The Saros Z70 is priced at $2,599, making it one of the most expensive robot vacuums I’ve seen. You can buy two robot vacuums for this price. 
• The most notable feature is the OmniGrip mechanical arm designed to pick up and sort items. It also has strong vacuuming and mopping capabilities, excellent mapping, and the ability to cross thresholds.
• The mechanical arm has several issues, including difficulties picking up objects, navigation problems, and software bugs. There were also connectivity issues during setup. 

Pros

• Good vacuuming on hardwood
• Brush roller does not get tangled with dog hair
• Very low profile and fits under pretty much everything
• Quiet operation
• Works well with pets
• Chassis lift prevents it from getting stuck most of the time

Cons

• Dust bin is too small
• Water tank is too small
• Mopping performance isn’t grea
• Obstacle avoidance needs some improvement
• Expensive at $2,600 at full price

I wanted to love the Roborock Saros Z70. Never before have we seen a robot vacuum with a mechanical arm meant to pick up objects and help you clean before it vacuums and mops. As someone who has three cats, I found this incredibly appealing. I test and write about vacuums for a living. When we first saw the Roborock Saros Z70 at CES earlier this year, we all knew we were witnessing something special.  

CNET even chose it as one of our best of CES awards. I spent several hours with it in New York City during a demo, giving me fairly high hopes for its time and labor-saving potential. 

I tested it at my cluttered apartment for the better part of a month and so did my colleague and lead lab tester, Jared Hannah at his home. The reality is, the Saros Z70 certainly has a lot of promise. It vacuums and mops like a champ, can cross thresholds and obstacles as effectively as the Dreame X50 Ultra, and has great mapping and pet recognition in my home. 

However, when it comes to its signature feature — the robot arm — we found it’s still not ready for showtime. Right now, the Saros Z70 is fairly limited in its ability to pick up very small objects like pet toys and kid’s toys. On occasion, it did recognize and attempt to pick up cat toys it found scattered around my home, but it was never able to succeed at that. Often, it would deploy the arm, then detect my cat or some other object nearby and freeze, blaring “Error 69,” forcing me to manually reset the arm. At one point, it even tried to pick up my standing desk mat before realizing it wasn’t a compatible object and giving up. 

Roborock tells us they are aware of the issues and are actively working on software fixes that will roll out in June and July. Here are my impressions after a month of testing and whether it’s worth its $2,600 price tag. 

My experience with Saros Z70

We tested the Saros Z70 at CES 2025, at a live demo, at our New York City Office space, at CNET’s testing lab in Louisville KY and most recently at my home. My biggest takeaway from my real-world home test versus my other experiences with this robot vacuum is the various issues with the mechanical arm, its struggle to pick up objects, navigation problems, and software bugs. It cleaned great as a regular robot vacuum and mop, but I couldn’t rely on the arm’s sorting capabilities.

“Yeah, it seems like it’s basically a beta version of the arm,” said Hannah, who was testing the Z70 at the same time as me. “They should do a bit more development before it’s ready for the masses. I would get the error if the arm bumped something while moving an object.  It sensed that there was too much resistance, so I think it was doing what it was supposed to, but it seems like that would end up being a common occurrence.” 

• Vacuuming and mopping: Strong performance, good sand/litter/hair pickup; mopping with clean/dirty tanks and hot air drying is effective.
• Special features: The OmniGrip arm is the standout special feature, though currently unreliable. I found operational issues during my home testing. It struggled to pick up certain objects, especially pet toys, but I had much better luck with socks. Not only was the Saros Z70 able to identify my wife’s purple socks and pick them up off the hardwood floor in the bedroom, but it also began to transport them to my designated shoe-drop-off area that’s set up in the foyer. The problem was that partway on this journey, it gave up somewhere between the hallway and the kitchen, dropping the sock, acting like the job was complete, and continuing its regular cleaning cycle.
• Mapping and navigation: It generated a 2D and 3D map of my space, automatically tagging the rooms (bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen), flooring type (hard surface and carpet) and identifying certain pieces of furniture like my couch, TV stand and bed. It also marked notable thresholds in my space where extra effort would be required to cross. You can remap it or tell it to remap a specific room if you’re not happy with the result, but it did a great job for me the first time around. 
• Software and app: The app isn’t the most straightforward tool to use, with a profusion of settings and nested menus that allow you to adjust just about everything the robot can do, from the dustbin emptying and mop washing frequency, to cleaning patterns, obstacle photos, enabling the robotic arm and more. Just about everything the robot can do is customizable, but I wish all these features and settings were a bit more front and center rather than tucked away in the lengthy settings menu.
• Design and aesthetics: Low-profile design, good for fitting under furniture, but can lead to scratches.
• Ease of use: Setup had connectivity issues; once set up, basic functions are easy, but advanced settings are complex.

The specs

• Price: $2,599
• Object weight limit (OmniGrip Arm): 300 grams rated load; approximately 700 grams actual load capacity during our testing.
• Threshold crossing height: Capable of crossing thresholds up to approximately two inches.
• Cleaning time: (Ajay’s apartment, 850 sq ft): 1.5 to 2 hours for a full vacuum and mop session.
• Cleaning time: (Jared’s house, 1,200 square feet): 2.5 to 3 hours for a full vacuum and mop session on the main level.
• Mapping time (Ajay’s apartment, 850 sq ft): 16 to 18 minutes for initial mapping.
• Sand pickup performance on hardwood: 82.46%, this is excellent hardwood performance, falling just shy of our best overall, the Ecovacs Deeboth T30S Combo (85%). 
• Sand pickup performance on carpet (Midpile): 51.77%, this surpasses the Dreame X50 Ultra (44% mid-pile) 
• Sand pickup performance on carpet (Low-Pile): 51.06%, which comes close to matching the Shark Power Detect NeverTouch Pro (54.5%). 
• Voice command compatibility: The app can be connected to Amazon Alexa for voice commands.
• Customizable: The app allows for a wide range of customization, including dustbin emptying frequency, mop washing frequency, cleaning patterns, obstacle photos, and enabling/disabling the robotic arm. 
• Mapping features: The app displays the 2D and 3D maps generated by the robot, allows for room tagging, furniture identification, and setting “no-go” zones. It also identifies pet areas and allows for “Pet Area Cleaning.”
• Wi-Fi connectivity:  The robot needs to connect to Wi-Fi for setup and app control.
• Dual spinning mopping pads: The robot uses a pair of dual spinning mopping pads that attach and detach from the docking station.
• Clean and dirty water system: Uses clean water for mopping and collects dirty water in a separate tank, ensuring cleaner mopping.
• Mopping pad cleaning and drying: Mopping pads are washed and hot-air dried at the base station between cleaning sessions.
• Mopping modes: The “Vacuum+Mop” mode vacuums first and then mops the entire space. There are options for Deep cleaning, Pet Area and an AI-powered SmartPlan. 

CNET’s buying advice

For the time being, I am holding off on scoring, rating or recommending the Saros Z70. While it excels at vacuuming, mopping, and navigation, the core feature – the OmniGrip arm – is not yet reliable enough for me to fully give an opinion on this product as a whole. Roborock told CNET it plans to roll out software updates in June and July that are expected to positively change my experience. Some of the anticipated improvements include improved grab point optimization, smarter sorting optimization, and new pickup categories like sports shoes.

It is hard to ignore the $2,599 price tag. I argue that for the price, you could purchase two or three excellent standard robot vacuums and mops, like the Yeedi M12 Pro+, or a comparable high-performing model such as the Dreame X50 Ultra — both on CNET’s best robot vacuums best list.

If all you care about is strong vacuuming, mopping and obstacle avoidance: The Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo is currently CNET’s “best overall robot vacuum.

Without a fully operational and reliable OmniGrip arm, I can’t justify its value for the cost at this time.

“The arm is a neat feature to watch, but I personally don’t find it very useful,” said Hannah. “ I feel like if the robot is smart enough to avoid obstacles such as shoes and socks, I don’t need it to try and pick them up and move them. As long as the robot doesn’t get stuck on anything during its cleaning cycle, that’s good enough for me.”

If the OmniGrip arm is your primary reason for considering the Saros Z70, I recommend you wait for future software updates or consider alternatives until that feature is more refined.