A robot vacuum that doesn’t need babysitting

Robot vacuums promised to take cleaning the floor off our lists of household chores. For plenty of people, the reality of using early or basic versions has been a bit different: rescuing it from under the sofa, untangling it from cables and phone chargers, or going back over the corners it skipped. That's not saving time, it's just a new chore.

The Roborock Qrevo Edge 2 has been designed to overcome these common problems, so you can get on with your day. Here's what it brings to the table.

Some robot vacuums are too tall to fit comfortably beneath low furniture, and can get wedged under the sofa.

The Qrevo Edge 2 uses RetractSense navigation, which lets the laser housing on top retract into the body. That brings its height down to an industry-leading 7.98 cm, so it can glide under beds, sofas and low furniture to collect dust which, though hidden, can still aggravate allergies.

Weaker robot vacuums can skim the surface and leave dirt buried in carpets and rugs - especially deep pile and shag carpets.

With 25,000Pa of HyperForce suction, the Qrevo Edge 2 has much stronger cleaning power than many robot vacuums (entry level models often have around 5,000Pa). That extra power helps lift ground-in dirt and pet hair out of thick rugs, so the whole floor gets a proper clean, not just hard surfaces and top layers.

If you’ve ever had a more basic robot vac and pets, you’ll know that it could be a mixed blessing. Great at helping with the constant fur-shedding, but often oblivious to the animal that left it there.

As a nice extra, the Qrevo Edge 2 adds a layer of pet-friendly intelligence that has nothing to do with vacuuming. It can automatically recognise and track your pets, so it knows when a furry friend is nearby. It can capture photos of your pets as it goes about its day, so you can get a glimpse into the secret life of pets, and the Track Your Pet feature lets you see where your four-legged friend is in real time. The Video Call & Cruise function, meanwhile, lets you connect with them remotely when you’re at work or away.

Round robots and square corners haven't always been friends, and older models often leave a line of dust along skirting boards too. The FlexiArm feature of the Qrevo Edge 2 has an extending side brush and an extending spinning mop, which reach out towards the edges and into tight corners where the body of the vacuum itself can’t get.

In the old days, you’d have to follow up your robot’s house clean with a manual vacuum of your own, but with greater coverage, today’s more advanced models drastically reduce the need to do this.

A basic robot mop can push dirty water around the floor and leave streaks, leaving you to wash out a grubby, damp pad afterwards.

Here, the dock does that work for you. It washes the mop pads with up to 80°C hot water, then dries them with up to 55°C warm air so they stay fresh instead of turning musty.

Charging cables, shoes and pet toys have thwarted many robot vacuums’ best efforts to do a thorough clean, leaving rooms only semi-clean. Reactive AI Obstacle Recognition helps the Qrevo Edge 2 spot more than 200 types of everyday items and navigate around them.

You'll still want to move anything precious or fragile - and of course, you can't be too surprised if it doesn’t vacuum the floor beneath that big pile of laundry - but it will still do a pretty thorough job even if you haven’t fully tidied the whole house before it starts.