Roborock Qrevo Edge reviewed: a winning combination

The future paints a picture where chores will be handled by robots. We’re not quite there yet, but Roborock’s Qrevo Edge is a good sign of things to come.

At times it can feel like science fiction has lied about what the future represents. Call it one of the frustrations of growing up with The Jetsons and the idea that robots would be able to do the things you didn’t want to do, but technology hasn’t quite caught up with that concept just yet.

Issac Asimov may have painted a world of robots being helpful and driving us around, but we’re not there just yet.

The good news is that it’s gradually happening. Robots are getting smarter, thanks to a combination of technologies. Sensors and chips and a bit of AI means those little appliances can do more than just brush and sweep and vac and such.

They can be real household heroes, which isn’t far from what Roborock’s Qrevo Edge strives to be.

What is the Qrevo Edge?

Roborock’s latest high-end vacuum is a bit of a one-stop-shop unicorn, providing another of the circular robo-vacs you’ve probably seen before able to do a few things.

The design isn’t all that new — if you’ve seen one robo-vac, you’ve seen ’em all — and the dock isn’t new either. But this isn’t just another Roomba or meh-tastic robotic vacuum. It has more going for it, and automation is the reason why.

What does it do?

Like many other robotic vacuums, the Qrevo Edge is designed to sweep debris and particles into the path of a small vacuum cleaner, and also handle mopping the floor, something of a trend for robo-vacs of late.

The combination of mop and vacuum has become quite normal in the industry, so much that it’s largely just part of the package robo vacuums offer, but the Qrevo Edge could take it to a higher level.

For the vacuum, there’s a sweeping brush that moves dust, debris, and other bits to the path of a small vacuum, which will empty back in a small bag later on at the dock when it returns for charging.

And then there’s the mopping capability, which is handled by two small mopping pads that can come out on an arm and get around.

You get two tanks — clean water and dirty — and as it cleans the house, the clean water is used to heat and clean the mop found on the underside of the robo-vac, before going out and mopping the house. It’ll come back in sequences, usually to empty the dirty water from its mopping system, and to refill with clean in the process.

The result leaves you with a little bit of work: every so often, you need to empty the dirty water, and it’s a real indication of how dirty your floor is, or was before the Roborock did its thing. Open that tank near somewhere with an open window, because dirty mop water smells as good as it looks: brown and bad.

Does it do the job?

But do its thing it definitely does, and it does it well.

From the side, the white dock with the circular robotic vacuum looks a little like an electric toilet sitting in your hall. But it’s nothing like that at all.

Send the Qrevo Edge out to clean for the first time and it’ll create a map of the house, using a combination of cameras, sensors, and even your own knowledge and editing skills using the app.

Get to know the app well, too, because whether you use Android or iPhone, you’re likely going to be relying on it to control the Qrevo Edge. You can also use your voice to say things like “Hey Rocky, clean the house”, but we found your voice was less likely be picked up than you simply picking up the app and telling the vacuum what to do.

There’s an app for that, and it’s better than the voice features, though you can tie it all together with an Alexa or Google Assistant speaker, calling out to a smart speaker to get the vacuum cleaning.

Mapping the house

Before that happens, though, you need to map the house.

Thanks to a camera, a LiDAR sensor, and some AI, the Qrevo Edge can travel around the house and generally just explore while building its map.

Some of the time, it gets the layout right, while other times it might leave you scratching your head and knowing that you’ll edit it later.

You can even help the process by using your phone’s camera to help map out the space, though we found this didn’t improve the map significantly. It may just need to build the map from scratch all over again.

All in all, we found it took roughly four tries to get the Qrevo Edge to understand the layout of our home we wanted it to understand, though we had to place some borders and zones down to prevent it from going every place, such as under the TV with its cables and attempting to climb its way into the wardrobes.

AI obstacles

As it moves around, the camera and sensor combination will work with some onboard artificial intelligence, identifying whether there’s a hat or another obstacle, or even if there’s furniture. If it finds the latter, it’ll place it down on the map, appearing in place to tell you what it has found.

Obstacle detection could well be one of the more important and defining aspects of Roborock’s AI. From what we can see, it will even come back later to clean a spot if something was in the way. Smart.

Dealing with pets

While obstacles detected by AI are likely to be chairs, shoes and feet, pets are the more likely culprit, and that’s an interesting situation.

You’ll get an alert on the map noting that a pet was there, and the AI being clever enough to pick up on it, which is handy. Hopefully your pet isn’t afraid of the robotic vacuum, though, because the next feature is clever enough that it could be useful for pet owners who aren’t there.

Remote control conversations

Owners of the Roborock Qrevo Edge can log into the vacuum and use it as a remote control vehicle of sorts, driving it from its base station and moving around your house. It’s a little like a roving security camera from within your home even if you’re not there, and this mode comes with two neat features: a pet finding mode and a calling system.

Simply put, you can select the pet finder to make the vacuum take over and look for your pet. When it gets there, you can talk to your pet through the vacuum, effectively turning the vacuum into a roaming pet security camera.

Robo-vac extras for pets aren’t all that new, mind you: Samsung has offered a pet monitor system for a while as part of its robotic vacuums, complete with the ability to play calming sounds like birdsong for the animals. Roborock’s approach could take it to a different level, rather like the mopping being just that little bit different.

With Daisy the Golden Retriever, she was more likely to run from the vacuum rather than let it creep up and encroach upon her space. Your pet may be the same, but it could also be naturally inquisitive and let you talk through it.

Pets clearly aren’t humans, and even humans might struggle with the vacuum at times, as well. Your kids could definitely end up being curious, and may end up talking to the Qrevo Edge as if it were alive.

“Rocky,” Ms 3 would call out crouching in front of it. “Are you okay?”

General cleaning

One thing that it doesn’t struggle too much with is cleaning.

When the Qrevo Edge makes its way around your house, whether it’s set to quiet or something a little louder, the vacuum and mop combination is stellar.

A small sweeper brushes debris into the path of the small vacuum, while the mop presses down, carrying a supply of water over the whole thing.

In our testing, we found most of the debris was picked up, though Daisy clearly gave the Roborock a good testing: she drops fur almost every time she gets up and walks around.

Essentially, the Qrevo Edge is dealing with most of the vacuuming you might want every day in the background, and can largely do its thing when you’re not paying attention. It’s background maintenance, and a welcome addition.

What does it need?

But aspects of the Qrevo Edge’s system clearly aren’t perfect.

The app can be a little unreliable, much like the voice functionality, and we’ve found your app experience might just crash, forcing you to close it down and start again.

At times, it doesn’t seem to realise your feet are not part of the floor, and may just try to ride its awkward tread over them, feeling a little like an awkward crab climbing over furniture.

For the most part, it does a solid job, only really struggling properly getting into really tight corners, while also pausing when it hits different fabrics and materials.

Take cleaning the bathroom, for example: if the Qrevo is set to mop and you’ve left a bath mat down, the robot vac will struggle as tries to move past it, and may just give up, returning to the dock.

There’s also no detergent dispenser in the system, though Roborock does do a detergent you can mix with the clean water in collaboration with Omo that could make up for it. Most of the cleaning is water based, though, and that won’t be ideal for every type of spill. It will do the light mopping job, which for many people and the idea of background maintenance is enough.

The moral of the story is this: if you want this robotic vacuum to nail the brief and clean your house well, pick everything up off the floor before it begins, add some detergent, and probably don’t have a golden retriever.

Is it worth your money?

While those issues are small in the long run, and picking up your stuff off the ground is easy, the price can be a little more difficult to justify.

In Australia, the Roborock Qrevo Edge is pretty much the flagship model, fetching a local recommended retail price of $2799, at least until that model with an arm from CES arrives.

At nearly $3K, the Roborock Qrevo Edge is definitely not inexpensive, but it definitely packs in the features. The vacuum is solid, the mopping is great, and the whole thing just really comes together in a way we’ve not seen from many other robo-vacs.

Yes, it’s high-priced, but it could just be one of the best robotic vacuums around. While not perfect, the Qrevo Edge is close to getting there.

Yay or nay?

Colour us surprised, because the Roborock Qrevo Edge has done just that: it’s a stellar robo-vac and mop combo.

While the reality of a Jetson’s-style future still hasn’t come to fruition with flying cars and robotic maids, the Qrevo Edge feels like it is at least one step of the way to that last one. Rocky still won’t make your toast, but at least she can clean the crumbs, if the dog doesn’t get there first.

And as for everything else around the house, there’s something to be desired in a winning combination. Roborock has the makings of a household hero helping in ways you always wished robots would. Recommended.