Normal view

Received before yesterday

The best Prime Day deals on our favorite robot vacuums

9 July 2025 at 11:19
The front of the Roborock S8 Max Ultra as it rests on a hardwood floor.
Roborock’s S8 Max Ultra, a Verge-favorite, is nearly half off. | Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day has arrived, bringing fantastic deals on robot vacuums that make it easier than ever to clean without spending a lot of time or money. Whether you need a model with self-extending arms that pulls double duty by scrubbing floors and drying itself, or a basic, budget-friendly option for everyday tidying, this year’s deals offer something for every home and budget.

Here, we’ve rounded up the best Prime Day discounts on robot vacuums from popular brands like Roborock, Dreame, Eufy, and more, so you can easily find the perfect one to fit your needs. To make sure everybody gets a chance at saving, we’ve included retailers outside of Amazon that are matching these discounts, meaning you don’t need to pay for a Prime membership to take advantage of many of these deals.

  • The Roborock S8 Max Ultra is $799.99 ($800 off) at Amazon, which beats its previous best price to date. It’s very similar to the MaxV Ultra and offers dual rubber roller brushes, excellent AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and sonic mopping. However, it offers a lower 8,000Pa suction and lacks support for voice assistants. There’s no camera either, which is nice for privacy but not so nice when it comes to obstacle avoidance.
  • The Roborock S8 Plus, one of our favorite budget-friendly robovac / mop hybrids, is on sale for $349.99 ($650 off) at Amazon, which is it lowest price yet. It comes with an auto-empty dock and features a powerful vibrating mop that scrubs floors and can lift itself to avoid getting low-pile rugs wet. The robovac’s dual rubber roller brushes and 6,000Pa suction also do a solid job of cleaning up both carpets and hard floors, while AI-assisted obstacle detection helps it navigate around everyday clutter.

Tapo RV30 Max Plus

Our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuum offers high-end features, including room-specific cleaning, a capable mop, carpet boost, and smart navigation. It also features an auto-empty dock.
A black robot vacuum on a hardwood floor

Where to Buy:

  • The iRobot Roomba Plus 405 is on sale for $399.99 ($400 off) at Amazon, which is the robovac / mop hybrid’s best price to date. Its dual spinning mop pads lift automatically when crossing carpets, while the multifunctional docking station handles washing and drying the pads, refilling the tank, and emptying the dustbin. While it doesn’t include AI-powered obstacle detection, it uses lidar navigation for efficient mapping and obstacle avoidance.

Dreame X40 Ultra

With a neat ability to remove and reattach its mop pads, the Dreame X40 solves the problem of vacuuming carpets (with 12,000Pa suction power) while also mopping hard floors. Its mops can also swing out and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach.

Where to Buy:

  • The Dreame L20 Ultra robovac / mop hybrid is selling for $539.98 ($460 off) at Amazon, which is nearly its lowest price to date. The auto-emptying vacuum isn’t as powerful as the X40 above and lacks self-extending arms for vacuuming, but it does have a self-extending mop that can reach into corners and refill its own water tank. The robovac is also capable of automatically detaching its mop pads when transitioning to carpet and, with 7,000Pa suction and AI-powered obstacle avoidance, it’s a great vacuum for sucking up dirt and debris, too.
  • The Dreame L10s Ultra is down to $399.99 ($500 off) at Amazon, matching its all-time low price. The robovac / mop hybrid delivers somewhat strong suction of 5,300Pa and features dual oscillating mops that it can wash and dry with its base. It can empty its dustbin and refill its water tanks on its own, providing up to two months of nearly hands-free cleaning. Equipped with AI navigation that uses both a camera and lidar, the L10s Ultra also lets you access a live camera feed through its app — so it can also serve as a pet monitor.
  • Narwal’s Freo Z Ultra is on sale for $849.99, down from $1,499.99, at Amazon. The robovac / mop hybrid’s equipped with dual cameras and two AI chips that work together in real time to recognize objects and adapt on the fly, whether that means steering clear of pet waste, deciding how close to get to furniture, or switching to mop-only mode when it detects a wet spill.
  • The Eufy RoboVac 11S Max is a good bump-and-roll bot that is on sale at Amazon for just $139.99 ($110 off), which is one of its better prices to date. This basic robot vacuum may lack some of the advanced features of pricier models, but it nails the essentials with decent 2,000Pa suction power and a large 600ml dustbin. It operates quietly and doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi, so there’s no need to deal with a smartphone app. Instead, you can control it directly using the onboard button or the included remote, which also lets you set cleaning schedules for added convenience (and remotely steer it, in case it’s not getting the spots you want it to get).

Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop

The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop mops very well — doing a swinging, scrubbing movement with its rear end when in “Matrix mode.” However, you have to manually fill and attach the mop reservoir and empty the bin when it mops, as it only self-empties in vacuum mode and can only avoid larger objects.

Where to Buy:

  • The Shark Ion is on sale for $149.99 ($100 off) at Amazon, which is $30 shy of its best price to date. The excellent bump-and-roll bot is surprisingly effective, thanks to a hybrid bristle-and-plastic roller brush that resists tangles better than standard bristle brushes. It’s also simple to operate and easy to repair, with large wheels that help it navigate floor transitions with ease.

Update, July 9th: Updated to reflect current pricing and availability, and to provide a link for readers to our coverage of Prime Day day two.

Tesla just lost the head of its robotics division

9 June 2025 at 09:21
The humanoid Optimus robots are supposed to be ready for mass production this year.

The head of engineering for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot division, left the company on Friday. Milan Kovac announced his departure on X, insisting that it “will not change a thing” about the company’s plans, which, as of March, meant building thousands of robots this year alone.

Kovac insisted that he was leaving Tesla only to “spend more time with family abroad,” adding that his “support for @elonmusk and the team is ironclad,” heading off speculation that his exit might have been prompted by Musk’s political activity or recent public squabble with Donald Trump. In his own tweet, Musk thanked Kovac for his “outstanding contribution to Tesla over the past decade.”

Musk has called the humanoid Optimus robots Tesla’s “most important product development,” and has repeatedly leaned on the division to generate hype as EV sales slow and the company’s stock price tumbles. “The only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and Optimus,” Musk told CNBC in May, referring to the company’s separate plans for self-driving cars, set to be deployed in a “robotaxi” service in Austin this month.

Bloomberg reports that Autopilot chief Ashok Elluswamy will take over responsibility for Optimus, which is at a critical stage. In March Musk claimed the company could make “at least one legion of robots this year and then probably 10 legions next year,” which would mean around 5,000 robots by the end of this year, and 50,000 in 2026. To do so, it will have to overcome China’s recent restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals and magnets, which are essential for the robots’ construction.

Samsung adds Google’s Gemini to its home robot Ballie

9 April 2025 at 12:00
Samsung said on Wednesday that it’s adding Google’s Gemini AI to its home robot Ballie through a partnership with Google Cloud. Users will be able to ask the robot different queries to get answers from Gemini, said the companies. Samsung aims to tap into Gemini’s multimodal capabilities for its robot. The Korean tech giant said […]
❌