Normal view

Received before yesterday

The best robot vacuums on a budget for 2025

9 June 2025 at 09:00

Finding the best budget robot vacuum has never been easier, especially now that features once reserved for pricey models are trickling down into more affordable machines. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a robot vacuum with strong suction, advanced navigation and even auto-empty capabilities — there are plenty of great choices out there that make cleaning your floors a lot less of a chore.

In our top picks, you’ll find user-friendly models that can handle everything from pet hair to fine dust, with thoughtful designs that include things like tangle-free bristle brushes and the option for a self-empty station to make maintenance even easier. Some vacuums can even work with a voice assistant like Alexa or Google Assistant, letting you start a cleaning session without lifting a finger, just like you would with a high-end robot.

Whether you’re looking for something simple to keep daily dirt in check or a smarter model that maps your home for more efficient cleaning, there’s a budget-friendly robot vacuum that can fit right into your life (and your living room).

Table of contents

Best budget robot vacuums for 2025

Are robot vacuums worth it?

Since I've tested dozens of robot vacuums, I'm often asked if these gadgets are "worth it" and I'd say the answer is yes. The biggest thing they offer is convenience: just turn on a robot vacuum and walk away. The machine will take care of the rest. If vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores, or you just want to spend less time keeping your home tidy, semi-autonomous robotic vacuum is a great investment. Many models, albeit more expensive ones, even come with features like a self-empty station to further reduce maintenance.

There are plenty of other good things about them, but before we dive in let’s consider the biggest trade-offs: less power, less capacity and less flexibility. Those first two go hand in hand; robot vacuum cleaners are much smaller than upright vacuums, which leads to less powerful suction. They also hold less dirt because their built-in bins are a fraction of the size of a standard vacuum canister or bag. Fortunately, some models include features like an auto-empty station, which helps with dirt capacity, especially in homes with pet hair.

When it comes to flexibility, robot vacuums do things differently than standard ones. You can control some with your smartphone, set cleaning schedules and more, but robo-vacs are primarily tasked with cleaning floors. On the flip side, their upright counterparts can come with various attachments that let you clean couches, stairs, light fixtures and other hard-to-reach places.

What to look for in a budget robot vacuum

When looking for the best cheap robot vacuum, one of the first things you should consider is the types of floors you have in your home. Do you have mostly carpet, tile, laminate, hardwood? Carpets demand vacuums with strong suction power that can pick up debris pushed down into nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, there isn’t a universal metric by which suction is measured. Some companies provide Pascal (Pa) levels and generally the higher the Pa, the stronger. But other companies don’t rely on Pa levels and simply say their bots have X-times more suction power than other robot vacuums.

So how can you ensure you’re getting the best cheap robot vacuum to clean your floor type? Read the product description. Look for details about its ability to clean hard floors and carpets, and see if it has a “max” mode you can use to increase suction. If you are given a Pa measurement, look for around 2000Pa if you have mostly carpeted floors. Pay attention to the brush roll mechanism as well, especially if you're dealing with dog hair or other stubborn debris that can cause tangles. Many budget models use bristle brushes, while others offer tangle-free designs to minimize maintenance.

You may find some budget robot vacuums also offer vacuum/mop combo capabilities. These bots feature a water tank, which means they can offer mopping functionality, enhancing debris pickup, and resulting in shiny floors. However, these are less common when you’re shopping in the lower price range.

Size is also important for two reasons: clearance and dirt storage. Check the specs for the robot’s height to see if it can get underneath the furniture you have in your home. Most robo-vacs won’t be able to clean under a couch (unless it’s a very tall, very strange couch), but some can get under entryway tables, nightstands and the like. As for dirt storage, look out for the milliliter capacity of the robot’s dustbin — the bigger the capacity, the more dirt the vacuum cleaner can collect before you have to empty it.

You should also double check the Wi-Fi capabilities of the robo-vac you’re eyeing. While you may think that’s a given on all smart home devices, it’s not. Some of the most affordable models don’t have the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi network. If you choose a robot vac like this, you won’t be able to direct it with a smartphone app or with voice controls. Another feature that’s typically reserved for Wi-Fi-connected robots is scheduling because most of them use a mobile app to set cleaning schedules.

But Wi-Fi-incapable vacuums usually come with remote controls that have all the basic functions that companion mobile apps do, including start, stop and return to dock. And if you’re concerned about the possibility of hacking, a robot vac with no access to your Wi-Fi network is the best option.

Obstacle detection and cliff sensors are other key features to look out for. The former helps the robot vacuum navigate around furniture while it cleans, rather than mindlessly pushing its way into it. Many also offer no-go zones, letting you block off areas you don’t want the robot to enter. Meanwhile, cliff sensors prevent robot vacuums from tumbling down the stairs, making them the best vacuum for multi-level homes.

How we test robot vacuums

When we consider which robot vacuums to test, we look at each machine’s specs and feature list, as well as online reviews to get a general idea of its capabilities. With each robot vacuum we review, we set it up as per the instructions and use it for as long as possible — at minimum, we’ll use each for one week, running cleaning cycles daily. We make sure to try out any physical buttons the machine has on it, and any app-power features like scheduling, robot mapping and more.

Since we test robot vacuums in our own homes, there are obstacles already in the machine’s way like tables, chairs and other furniture — this helps us understand how capable the machine is at avoiding obstacles, and we’ll intentionally throw smaller items in their way like shoes, pet toys and more. With robot vacuums that include self-emptying bases, we assess how loud the machine is while emptying contents into the base and roughly how long it takes for us to fill up the bag (or bagless) base with debris.

Robot vacuum maintenance tips

First and foremost, always empty your robot vacuum’s dustbin after every cleaning job, or use a self-empty station if the model supports it. Simply detach and empty the dustbin as soon as the robot is done cleaning, and then reattach it so it's ready to go for the next time. It’s also a good idea to take a dry cloth to the inside of the dustbin every once in a while to remove any small dust and dirt particles clinging to its insides.

In addition, you’ll want to regularly examine the machine’s brushes to see if any human or pet hair has wrapped around them, or if any large debris is preventing them from working properly. Some brushes are better than others at not succumbing to tangled hair, but it’s a good idea to check your robot’s brushes regardless — both their main brush and any smaller, side brushes or corner brushes they have. These parts are often easy to pop off of the machine (because they do require replacements eventually) so we recommend removing each brush entirely, getting rid of any tangles or other debris attached to them and reinstalling them afterwards. If you have a robot vacuum with mopping capabilities, you’ll need to wash the bots’ mop pads too, to avoid any unpleasant smells or tracking mess around your home. Similarly, if your robot vacuum has a water tank, it’s worth washing this out regularly to keep it clean.

Robot vacuums also have filters that need replacing every couple of months. Check your machine’s user manual or the manufacturer’s website to see how long they recommend going in between filter replacements. Most of the time, these filters cannot be washed, so you will need to buy new ones either directly from the manufacturer or from other retailers like Amazon or Walmart.

Check out more from our spring cleaning guide.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-budget-robot-vacuums-133030847.html?src=rss

©

© Engadget

The best budget robot vacuums

The head of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot program leaves the company

7 June 2025 at 12:00

Milan Kovac, who leads Tesla's Optimus humanoid robotics program, is leaving the automaker. In a post on X, Milan talked about how he joined Tesla as an engineer for the core Autopilot team in 2016 and how he started leading the Optimus group in 2022. He explained that he's leaving his position, because he's "been far away from home for too long and will need to spend more time with family abroad." Kovac stressed that it was the only reason he's leaving and that his support for Elon Musk and the Tesla team was "ironclad," perhaps insinuating that his decision had nothing to do with Musk's politics or recent fallout with the president. 

Tesla first announced that it was working on a humanoid robot in 2021, though it wasn't able to debut an actual prototype until a year a later in 2022. Musk said back then Optimus will be able to move at 5 mph and carry loads up to 45 pounds. He also said that he expects it to sell for $20,000 each when built at volume and claimed that the machines can give the company a $25 trillion market cap. Since then, Tesla has demonstrated Optimus' ability to handle an egg, cook meals, fold the laundry and throw the trash. The robot doesn't have a solid release date yet. Musk said back in April that the robot's production had been affected by China's export restrictions of rare earth magnets, so it's most likely not going to be anytime soon.

Bloomberg, which reported Kovac's departure first, said he's leaving the company immediately. Ashok Elluswamy, who's leading the company's Autopilot group, is taking over his responsibilities. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-head-of-teslas-optimus-humanoid-robot-program-leaves-the-company-120015282.html?src=rss

©

© Tesla

A humanoid robot.

This Roomba robot vacuum with auto-empty dock is $170 off

27 May 2025 at 14:58

Summer brings sun, joy and lots of time spent outside. But, it also means a lot of tracking in dirt and debris from outdoors so, if you've been putting off getting a new vacuum, now might be the time. Currently, iRobot is running a Father's Day sale on a few of its Roomba vacuums, including the 105 Vac Robot + AutoEmpty Dock.

The 105 Vac Robot is on sale for $280, down from $450 — a 37 percent discount. It's one of the newer, more basic models in Roomba's lineup and offers standard features like smart mapping. It also automatically empties debris for up to 75 days and has a schedule cleaning feature. Plus it has three cleaning stages: power-lifting suction, a multi-surface bristle brush and an edge-sweeping brush.

You can compare the iRobot's 105 with other options on our list of best budget robot vacuums. Our top pick is also a Roomba, the Vac Robot Vacuum Q0120 — currently 48 percent off at Wayfair

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-roomba-robot-vacuum-with-auto-empty-dock-is-170-off-145834328.html?src=rss

©

© Roomba

Roomba 105 Vac Robot + AutoEmpty Dock.

Why Intempus thinks robots should have a human physiological state

25 May 2025 at 14:00
Teddy Warner, 19, has always been interested in robotics. His family was in the industry, and he says he “grew up” working in a machinist shop while in high school. Now Warner is building a robotics company of his own, Intempus, that looks to make robots a bit more human. Intempus is building tech to […]

The Tesla bot isn’t superhuman yet, but it can make dinner

21 May 2025 at 06:10
A week ago we saw Tesla’s Optimus robot showing off some nifty dance moves. This week, you can watch it performing a bunch of mundane tasks, though admittedly with a great deal of skill — for a humanoid robot. Instructed via natural language prompts, the so-called “Tesla bot” is shown in a new video dumping […]

Doctor Who ‘The Robot Revolution’ review: Meet Belinda Chandra

12 April 2025 at 19:00

Spoilers for “The Robot Revolution.”

The start of any season of Doctor Who is important, doubly so when there’s a new co-star to introduce. “The Robot Revolution” has to get us to fall in love with Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), ensnare new fans and keep existing ones hooked. Especially since it’s the second of two series that Disney paid for, meaning it’s got to do well enough to keep the money flowing.

We open “17 years ago” with Belinda Chandra staring at the stars next to her boyfriend, Alan Budd (Jonny Green). It’s an awkward teenage date, with Alan clearly trying to win the heart of his beau by buying her one of those star adoption certificates. In 2025, Belinda is now a nurse at a busy London hospital where, in the background, the Doctor is searching for her.

Belinda goes home to bed, and we see that she’s got the star ownership certificate framed on her wall. But she’s rudely awoken by a squad of retro-futuristic ‘50s robots in a Tintin rocket who have come to abduct both her and the certificate. The Doctor reaches her home just in time to see the rocket take off, and cue the opening credits.

The certificate wasn’t a gag present, and she is actually queen of the planet BelindaChandra, populated by BelindaChandrians (I’m calling them humans from now on). The Doctor gives chase in the TARDIS but both the rocket and TARDIS get caught in a vaguely-defined time fissure. When Belinda arrives, she’s greeted by the human Sasha55, who tells her the robots are in charge, having overthrown and subjugated the people in a bloody uprising a decade prior.

          “Oh, this is a bit like Jupiter Ascending,” I wrote in my notes.

Belinda is taken to a throne room where she’s told that she must merge with the planet’s evil ruling supercomputer, the AI Generator. AI Generator, all skull shapes and Tesla coils, intends to bond with Belinda. She is shown an animated demonstration of her fate, as she is wrapped in machine parts and made into an unthinking cyborg.

          “Oh, that's like the scary bit from Superman III,” I wrote in my notes.

Who’s been lurking in the background of the scene all along? The Doctor, who has adopted the title of Planetary Historian. (Thanks to the time fissure, he arrived here six months ahead of the rocket, the Robots seized the TARDIS and he’s been working with the rebellion. He’s even got a new companion, Sasha55, who he’s promised to take to the stars when this is all over.) He tells Belinda the robots can’t, for some reason, hear every ninth word spoken, and gives her a coded message telling her he, and the rebellion, are here to rescue her. In the ensuing fight, Sasha55 is vaporized, much to the Doctor’s admittedly brief horror and grief.

The surviving rebels, along with a little Roomba bot assigned to clean Queen Belinda’s pathway…

          “Oh, like the floor-cleaning robot M-O from Wall-E,” I wrote in my notes.

… escape to a teleporter, after which the Doctor disables the Roomba to ensure the robots can’t track them down, then kisses the ‘bot by way of apology. Then comes time for the episode to stop while we see the Doctor and Belinda interact properly for the first time. The Doctor was told about Belinda’s plight by someone from their future, and he can’t say more lest he muddle the timelines.

Belinda Chandra and a(nother) robot.
Alistair Heap / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf

The time fracture both vessels passed through has caused plenty of time-bending issues, like the fact the robots have their own copy of Belinda’s star certificate. But it’s not a copy, it’s the same object from another point in time, and nobody knows how or why they have it. Belinda, like Ruby Sunday before her, is trope-aware enough to know that two of the same object from different points in time cannot occupy the same space, lest it cause an explosion.

           “Oh, like in Timecop!,” I wrote in my notes.

There are wounded at the base, and Belinda instantly kicks into nurse mode, grabbing IVs and treating patients. She’s quick to take charge and has no patience for nonsense, quick to defend herself from any hint of condescension when the Doctor suggests something “timey-wimey” is going on. She refuses to allow anyone to fight her battles for her and is determined to grab the narrative and shape it her way, no matter the cost. So, she sneaks off, reactivates the Roomba and offers herself to the robots in exchange for them sparing the lives of the rebels.

Belinda and the Doctor are taken to meet the AI Generator which turns out to be… the AL Generator. When Belinda was kidnapped by the robots, she mentioned her ex Alan had bought the certificate, and so they went to kidnap him as well. But the time fracture meant Alan arrived a decade earlier, fused with the machine (becoming a creepy cyborg) and started the robot uprising.

Even so, Belinda’s happy to sacrifice herself to him until she spots Alan holding his copy of the star certificate. She opts to Timecop the two pieces of paper together, causing a big timey-wimey explosion that only the Doctor can pull her out of. Belinda is safe, but the Doctor mentions that he’s now intertwined with Belinda’s timestream. Alan, meanwhile, has been regressed to a sperm on the floor that the Roomba bot quickly mops away.

Reunited with the TARDIS, the Doctor scans Belinda and reveals he’s already met her descendant — Mundy Flynn (also Varada Sethu) from last season’s “Boom.” Belinda may be curious as to how someone that far removed from her may be identical, but she’s not embracing the mystery. She’s angry with the Doctor for scanning her without consent and that he’s treating her like a puzzle to be solved.

Having seen Sasha55 die, she knows trekking around with the Doctor is dangerous, and wants to get back to May 24, 2025. But the TARDIS won’t land on present-day Earth, and even the Cloister Bell begins ringing a warning. They open the TARDIS doors to see empty space before the Doctor decides to take her back home “the long way round.”

Once the ship disappears, a series of objects start to float in front of the camera: A smashed up black cab, the twisted wreckage of the Eiffel Tower, Belinda’s star adoption certificate and a calendar with all the days in May but the 25th ticked off. Uh-oh.

It's a lot to get through in such a short episode

Belinda Chandra and a Robot
Alistair Heap / BBC Studios / Bad Wolf

Like a lot of Disney-era Who, “The Robot Revolution” feels overstuffed to the point of bursting. On one hand, nothing overstays its welcome. On the other, it feels like the show is burning through a movie’s worth of plot on fast-forward. It’s hard to get a tangible sense of the stakes given how rushed everything is, and there’s a lot of telling, rather than showing. We’re told the planet is under the brutal thumb of an evil overlord but it plays out as little red ships firing at buildings in the digital matte paintings. We’re told Alan is a creep but we never really get any sense of that until after he’s revealed as the villain. We’re told the Doctor is operating on instructions from a figure from his own future, but it’d be nice if some of this was depicted.

Davies was pivotal in reviving Doctor Who and building the cultural juggernaut it became under his leadership. His role in the show’s history is secure but, even so, his Disney-era series seem to be in thrall to the work of his own successor, Steven Moffat. “The Robot Revolution” features a macguffin found inside a mundane trinket, a split narrative and time-bending shenanigans. It’s not that Moffat owns these ideas but you can almost feel Davies trying to bend his less formal, more character-driven style into something else. A cynic might suggest Davies is reacting to the slight of not having a single credited episode in Doctor Who Magazine’s most recent poll of the series’ greatest, while Moffat has five.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the slightly frantic, gappy nature of this script is a deliberate ploy to lay the framework for the rest of the season. But, even so, you can feel a degree of straining for a storytelling model that doesn’t quite work.

If the script is the weakest part of the episode, then the production design has to take the crown for strongest. The retro-futuristic robots call to mind a bright red Ford Thunderbird or Chevy Bel Air while the cleaning robot is clearly styled on a VW Beetle. It’s a rather humanistic design I wish the robovac makers of today would emulate.

Behind the scenes

Image of Belinda Chandra peering through some blinds.
James Pardon / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf

Doctor Who is a regular source of gossip, especially given the permanently tenuous nature of the star role. It’s easy to say the lead is about to quit and for that to sound true, given they leave after three or four years in the role anyway. There are a number of recent reports suggesting Ncuti Gatwa has already quit the show, or is about to. Many of them also suggest the BBC and Disney are refusing to greenlight new episodes until they see how successful this season is. In addition, the BBC says funding cuts and inflation has seen its budget fall by £1 billion (around $1.3 billion) in real terms since 2010. It doesn't help that, when asked directly about the future of the series in an interview with (the BBC's youth-orientated news show) Newsround, Russell T. Davies opted to equivocate in a way that suggests the show is about to back on ice.

I mention this because of the sequence where Belinda defeats Alan with the certificate, and the Doctor pulls her out. He says she needed a Time Lord to absorb the enormous amount of energy kicked out when she touched the paper together. The Doctor then clutched at his back as if he was in a lot of pain, but shrugged it off and was fine for the rest of the episode. Fans with long memories, however, know that absorbing a lot of energy from the time vortex is what killed Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor back in 2005. Well, that and Eccleston’s decision to leave.

Mrs. Flood Corner

Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson)
Lara Cornell / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf

It seems Mrs. Flood enjoys moving in next door to whoever is winding up as this year’s companion. While being abducted, she calls to her neighbor to call the police and tell her parents she loves them. As the rocket lifts off, she tells the audience that we haven’t seen her, and goes back indoors to avoid encountering the Doctor, who sprints out in pursuit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/doctor-who-the-robot-revolution-review-meet-belinda-chandra-190054697.html?src=rss

©

© James Pardon / BBC Studios / Bad Wolf

Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) on a spaceship.

DoorDash starts robot deliveries in LA and Chicago

10 April 2025 at 17:23

DoorDash has started robot deliveries in Los Angeles and Chicago. This is thanks to a partnership with the company Coco Robotics. Eligible customers will be able to receive sidewalk deliveries sourced from over 600 participating merchants.

Coco robots have been making deliveries for DoorDash in Helsinki since late last year through its international sub-brand Wolt. DoorDash says that Coco robots completed over 100,000 deliveries during this initial pilot phase.

Robots take humans out of the delivery process, which is bad for gig workers, but this method is better for the environment. Coco robots are free from emissions. Harrison Shih, Senior Director of DoorDash Labs, says that “not every delivery needs a two-ton car just to deliver two chicken sandwiches.”

This is part of a larger push by DoorDash towards what it calls “multimodal” deliveries, which combines human workers, drones and autonomous robots to “meet increasing demand while lowering costs and emissions.” To that end, the company has partnered with Wing to provide drone deliveries in the US and Australia.

We’re expanding our partnership with @DoorDash to the United States! Kicking off in Christiansburg, Virginia, customers can now order @Wendys within the DoorDash app for speedy drone delivery. 🍔🍟#DroneDelivery #Wing #Wendys #DoorDash pic.twitter.com/QQr1qzZBvv

— Wing (@Wing) March 21, 2024

DoorDash isn’t the only delivery company in town experimenting with robots. Grubhub recently started bringing delivery robots to college campuses and Uber Eats expanded autonomous deliveries to Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/doordash-starts-robot-deliveries-in-la-and-chicago-172358704.html?src=rss

©

© DoorDash

A robot delivering food.

Eufy’s new robot mowers use smart vision to trim your grass

7 April 2025 at 13:00

Anker’s lifestyle brand Eufy has already swallowed a big chunk of the robot vacuum market and now it’s got its sights on your yard. The company has been sharing details of its first two robot mowers since the start of the year, and now they’re ready to start selling them. Eufy’s E15 and E18 are designed to automate one of the most tedious jobs around the home — if you’re able to pay. I’ve been testing an E15 for the last few weeks ahead of their retail debut today and I’m fairly impressed.

Early robot mowers needed a boundary wire to tell them where they were allowed to mow. But digging a trench around your lawn is time consuming, costly and less than ideal if you eventually move. It prompted companies to pivot to other methods, such as GPS or RTK (real time kinematics) to navigate. Eufy, however, is harnessing its computer vision know-how to trim your lawn with even less fuss, calling its technology “visual full self-driving,” or vFSD. Yes, I know. Anker says there are plenty of benefits in using cameras over GPS, like more reliable mowing and better obstacle avoidance.

Image of the Eufy E15 robot mower on a lawn.
Daniel Cooper for Engadget

The E15 is capable of covering lawns up to 800 square meters while the E18 will conquer lands as broad as 1,200 square meters. If you assumed, like I did, that the difference between the two is battery size, you’ll be mistaken — both have the same 4,200mAh battery, but the E18 has more on-board memory to accommodate a bigger map size. Otherwise, they are the same machine, with an adjustable cutting height between 25 - 75mm, a maximum climb of 18 degrees and a combined GPS / 4G anti-theft system. One feature I’m very partial to is that the garage (the mower’s charging station) comes with a rain cover, meaning fewer worries if you’re out and the weather suddenly gets a bit intense. Not that it’s necessary, since the hardware is rated IPX6 — enough to withstand being cleaned with a hose.

Setting up the E15 is painless so long as your lawn is nicely mown, with the grass no taller than 3.5 inches. All you’ll need to do is fix the garage in place with some hefty ground screws, hook it up to power and connect it to your home’s Wi-Fi. Then all you’ll need to do is send it out for one or two mapping runs in order for it to get a sense of your space.

Image of the Eufy E15 robot mower on a lawn.
Daniel Cooper for Engadget

My lawn is cut into a hill, with a sunken pathway and a 1.5 meter drop at one end, which is a problem. Since it maps visually, I opted to babysit the mower during the process to make sure it didn’t hurl itself into the chasm. I also have a small lean-to wood shed with a green roof (at the bottom of the chasm) that I reckoned a computer vision system could easily mistake for grass, so I wanted to keep an eye on it. Once it had made a few too many furtive advances toward that roof, I paused the mapping, sent the E15 back to its garage and set up a keep out zone in the app before finishing the job.

Once that was done, however, the E15 very easily staked out the rest of the space and made sure it could get nicely close to the path without going over. From there, you’re doing everything of note within the app. You can set the cutting height as low as 25mm or as high as 75mm, and can also set the unit’s movement and cutting speed — letting you use more power if you’re pressed for time. Plus, you can schedule mows, and if the device detects rain or too much wet in the grass, it’ll head back to base until things have dried out.

One feature I’m a big fan of is that it’s the first such machine I’ve encountered that lets you set a cutting direction for stripes. It’s not that I have an issue with most robomowers’ chaotic mowing per se, but I’ve always seen striped lawns as desirable. While the unit isn’t going to give you the sort of over-manicured, inch-perfect stripes you’d find at a tennis club, you can at least see the contrast.

Image of the Eufy E15 robot mower on a lawn.
Daniel Cooper for Engadget

An additional benefit of remote control is that if it does run into an issue and you’re not at home, you can activate a remote control mode. Not only are you able to access the camera feed, but you can trigger on-screen controls to navigate out of any tricky spots it might have wound up in.

It's funny, but something I didn't notice, but my in-laws did when they visited, was how shockingly quiet the E15 was. When I set the hardware running to satisfy their curiosity, they were baffled that the thing was scuttling around on the lawn making almost no noise whatsoever. It's certainly a perk, especially if you choose to set this thing off for a scheduled trim in the early morning — it's quiet enough that even the ants probably won't complain. 

All in all, I like the package Eufy is offering, and it even handled some of my misgivings about its computer vision system. If I have gripes, it’s not really about the E-series at all and more about this category of product generally. For a start, robot mowers may not get every square inch of your lawn, especially if some of your edges neighbor deep crevasses, like mine. That means you’ll still need to go out there every once in a while with a weed wacker to trim the borders of your turf.

And I’d still love nothing more than to be able to exert more control over the initial mapping phase to eliminate some of the trial and error. I wish for a system that would let me use my phone as a tool to trace the outside edge of a space myself, to set some basic expectations. Sure, the hardware would still have to scuttle around making sure it can get where I need it to go, but it’d save some of the busywork for both of us.

The Eufy E15 (800 sqm) and E18 (1,200 sqm) are available to order today from Eufy and Amazon. The E15 will set you back $1,599, while E18 is priced at $1,999.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/eufys-new-robot-mowers-use-smart-vision-to-trim-your-grass-130008542.html?src=rss

©

© Daniel Cooper for Engadget

Image of the Eufy E15 robot mower on a lawn.
❌