Modern society often demands challenging multitasking from us humans. Why shouldn’t we expect the same from our electronic devices? Small household helpers in particular can deliver impressive results in terms of cleaning efficiency within a very short time by performing several tasks at once. The trend toward multitasking is particularly evident in the field of robot vacuums. An extremely popular example is probably the Xiaomi Roborock S7 – the latest hybrid robot from Roborock, which is said to not only vacuum but also wipe perfectly.
Xiaomi’s subsidiary has created a device that aims to ensure that typical problems of suction mops no longer exist with promising features. In particular, waterlogged wooden floors and carpets should no longer exist with the Roborock S7. A carpet detection system is supposed to take care of that. As soon as the vacuum notices that it is a surface unsuitable for moisture, it lifts the mop without further ado. But aside from its smart wipe features, the S7 promises strong suction performance paired with fast mapping and an app that is full of customization options. Let’s take a look at our in-depth test to see if Roborock’s promises were kept.
Technical details of the Roborock S7
| Suction power | 2,500 pa |
| Navigation | Laser space survey (Lidar) |
| Loudness | max. 67 db |
| Battery | 5,200 mAh, 5 h charging time |
| Working time | 3 h |
| Dimensions | 35.3 cm x 35.0 cm x 9.65 cm, 4.7 kg |
| App support | Yes, Xiaomi Home and Roborock |
| Volumes | 0.47 l (dust container) and 0.3 l (water tank) |
| Price | € 539.10 * |
Scope of delivery of the Roborock S7
Those who know the products of Xiaomi or Roborock will not be surprised about the scope of delivery. Rather, this is the typical bundle found on the other Roborocks.
In addition to the Roborock S7 itself, the charging station, mop attachment, appropriate tools for cleaning, and instruction manual are included in the package. The essential water tank for the wiping function can be found already inserted in the vacuum.
Design and workmanship
Visually, nothing has really changed with the Roborock S7 compared to its predecessor. At first glance, you could easily mistake it for the Roborock S6 MaxV. Only the two front cameras represent a visual difference. Both vacuum cleaners measure 35.3 cm x 35.0 cm x 9.65 cm and are thus quite large for robot vacuums. Concerns quickly arise here as to whether the vacuum can really pass under every dining room chair.
However, a closer look reveals a few more obvious differences. The Roborock S7 clearly stands out from its predecessor and the competition, especially in terms of workmanship. In direct comparison to the Roborock S6 MaxV and also the competitor Roomba i7+, the extremely high build quality is striking. The robot has a body made of glossy white plastic, which looks extremely classy with its brushed silver edge.
In the center rises a disc bearing the Roborock logo. This is where the lidar sensor is located, which the squeegee needs for orientation and mapping. On the front, you also find several silver buttons. These allow quick access to different functions of the small household helper. At the rear is again the water tank, which is used as the basis for the wiping function of the vacuum cleaner. Should there ever be a lack of water, a bright orange button releases the on-board water tank.
Although its look isn’t revolutionary, the Roborock S7 adds a few design touches that give the bot a premium look and make it clear that there’s some serious power under the hood. For example, there are concentric “waves” that spread outward from the logo screen – a subtle allusion to the sound-vibrating mop that works on the underside. Similar to the iRobot Roomba S9, there is a curved light that moves and changes color when the robot is in action. However, this is much smaller on the Roborock than on the Roomba. In normal vacuum mode, the white light moves from left to right. In spot cleaning mode, the color again changes from green to blue and back again.
These nice-looking accents continue on the underside of the Roborock S7. There, a red, rubber-ribbed brush roller rotates between two large black rubberized wheels. The company refers to the roller as a floating brush and says it can get closer to the floor for better cleaning. The brush housing moves easily, but doesn’t feel fragile. To the left of the brush roll sits a five-spoke brush with rubber bristles. On the edges, again, are many different sensors. One of them has the task of detecting carpets.
The WLAN indicator light and the dust bin are hidden under the thin plastic hood. The bin is easily removable for emptying and can be cleaned under running water. Roborock fortunately opts for complete separation from the water tank here, which is anything but common. The big advantage of this design decision is that you don’t have to remove the dirt tank every time you just want to fill the water tank.
Unlike other vacuum mops that just lug around a microfiber pad, the Roborock S7 has what’s called a sonic wiping system. This scores with multiple scrub settings, a removable crescent-shaped mop plate, and a reusable microfiber pad. What may seem familiar at first, only reveals its special features in action. For example, the Roborock S7 can automatically raise the mop section 5 mm when it detects a carpet or when it returns to the dock. This avoids damp carpets on the one hand, and a bloated parquet or laminate on the other. Consequently, there is no need to remove extra mop pads to protect the floor. Roborock calls this feature VibraRise technology and it always worked excellently and reliably in the test.
Suction performance
Vacuuming with the Roborock S7 was a real pleasure. Here you can simply see the long experience of the Chinese in the conception of powerful and above all fast vacuum robots. The S7 always whizzed quickly through my 83 m² apartment and worked thoroughly at all times. Unlike many other smart household helpers, the Roborock never seemed disoriented during its cleaning trips. This is due to the extensive sensor technology that Roborock has installed here. The Lidar sensor, which is located on the robot itself, is the linchpin. With the help of the reliable sensor, my apartment was mapped in detail after just one suction process. Once the S7 has passed through the area to be cleaned, its approach changes dramatically. Because it is then no longer in unfamiliar territory, it works according to a very specific method to complete its cleaning journey as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
To do this, he first outlines the edges of a room. It then works its way through the room itself in an S-shape. But even though the Roborock works fast, you don’t have to worry about your furniture. Thanks to the different sensors, it always reliably detects every obstacle and does not damage itself or other objects in the process. This can be seen especially well when the Roborock approaches a step. In this case, it slows down its speed and carefully feels its way towards the area to be cleaned. The size of the vacuum alone ensures that driving against chair legs simply cannot be avoided. Those who have closely placed furniture in their home should definitely keep this in mind and rather reach for a smaller vacuum. However, since the S7 also cushions collisions, no damage occurred in the test.
But just how well does the latest Roborock vacuum? For our field test, we had it vacuum up different types of dirt on different floors. In a direct comparison, we looked at its work on a parquet floor and a carpet. We started with cornflakes. We scattered a total of 100 grams first on the wooden floor and then on the carpet. Of these, about 97 grams were found in the dirt trap after a vacuuming operation on the parquet floor. On the carpet, it was again 95 grams. A good result.
As a cat owner, I also always pay attention to the cleaning performance in the area of pet hair. And this is where the Roborock S7 made a bit of a mess. Of the original 100 grams on the parquet floor, a satisfactory 96 grams were finally in the dirt bin, but a large part of the rest was distributed in or on the device itself. Thus, we found isolated hairs not only wrapped around the rubber brush roller, but also around the front wheel. We also found a similar result with 95 out of 100 grams on the carpet. However, since both elements are easy to clean, this is not too serious a problem. Pet owners should only know about it.
A major highlight of the Roborock S7 is its ability to automatically detect carpets and increase suction accordingly. This increased suction power was reflected in the results of our carpet tests. For example, the S7 managed to suck up even the often treacherous cat litter on the carpet almost without leaving any residue. No general statements can be made about the vacuum’s battery performance.
According to Roborock, the 5,200 mAh battery should be able to last up to three hours. On the lowest setting, it came very close to this manufacturer’s specification. However, the weak suction performance on level 1 is not really representative either. Normal users can probably rather look forward to suction times between 90 and 120 minutes. Since the Roborock S7 is very fast and agile, it manages to clean even a large apartment without any problems.
Mopping performance
On paper, the features of vacuuming and mopping robots always read very well. After all, they are supposed to not only fight the battle against dust and coarse dirt, but thanks to the wiping function, they should also be able to ensure pore-deep cleanliness. In practice, however, the results are often not more than satisfactory. Many devices from this category offer an overall performance that is okay, but cannot really score in either vacuuming or mopping. The Roborock S7, unlike many of its competitors, is a pleasant surprise. First, it is smart enough to avoid mopping carpets. It does this by automatically raising the mop plate by 5 mm. What may not sound like much turns out to be an exceedingly effective feature in practice. Thus, only my thick long-floor carpet got a little damp after the S7 ran over it. My short pile carpet, on the other hand, remained completely dry.
Of course, the wiping function cannot replace a standalone mop. However, in testing, I found that Roborock has created a perfect complement to powerful vacuuming here. While it is not uncommon for pure vacuuming robots to leave a bit of fine-pored dust or crumbs behind, a wiping function ensures that even such remnants are reliably cleared away. The Roborock S7’s damp wiping pad was able to catch the tiny crumbs that were not caught during vacuuming. A real advantage over the competition is the automatically lifting mop pad, VibraRise. While the Roborock S6 MaxV already had carpet detection, the vacuum could not use this information to keep the mop off the carpet. The fact that the Roborock S7 can raise the mop pad 5 millimeters doesn’t protect every carpet from being mopped, but it’s certainly better than no moisture protection at all.
Wiping is not just wiping with the Roborock S7. Within the handy app, you can choose between two different wiping modes. In addition to standard wiping (vacuuming and wiping), you can also have the S7 perform a wipe-only operation. In the pure wipe mode, called deep mobbing, the S7 wipes the desired area twice in a row in a tighter pattern.
In practice, it has been shown that the results of the two modes differ only marginally from each other – at least when the floor has already been vacuumed. If, on the other hand, there is dirt on the floor, standard mopping is certainly the better choice. Besides the mode, you can also regulate the intensity of the wiping. There are four different levels to choose from here. Based on the mop’s vibration volume, you can clearly hear the difference. According to Roborock, the sound vibrations range from 1,650 to 3,000 times per minute.
Roborock recommends holding the microfiber pad, which is detached from the mop, under water before use. I found that this solved a problem I had with other hybrid vacuums. Namely, unlike the S7, these don’t get the floor wet enough. In the end result, you can’t even tell if it has been touched by a mop at all. With the S7, water drips onto the pad via the electronically controlled water tank during mopping to moisten it. Thus, the S7 delivered a great mopping performance and hardly formed any streaks, which can often be observed with mops that are too dry. As with almost all robotic mops, water – and only water – is allowed in the S7. So you can’t expect miracles. In the end, the Roborock won’t make your floors look brand new, but it’s good enough to remove light stains, extending the interval between more thorough mop and bucket cleaning sessions.
Setup, App and Mapping
Getting the Roborock S7 up and running took less than five minutes once it was placed on its dock and charged. Like other recent Roborock robot vacuums, it is controlled via the Roborock app (Android and iOS). While I’m not a fan of making app usage mandatory for use, the cost-benefit tradeoff definitely favors it here. Once the account was set up, adding the Roborock S7 and connecting it to my home Wi-Fi network was quick, as the app takes you by the hand here in a foolproof manner.
The Roborock S7 supports four separate cards. This allows residents of a house or duplex apartment to benefit from the mapping. The S7 is smart, but you’ll need to tell it which map to use when you change floors. To do this, you need to go to “Settings” within the app and select the appropriate map. Then tap Restore to activate the card you want to use. From here, you can also instruct the bot to create a new map. This feels a bit tedious, but ensures that the S7 always cleans tailored.
Once a map is created, the Roborock app will try to divide it into rooms. You shouldn’t expect miracles with this. Especially if your house has a modern floor plan, this self-detection feature is not really reliable. Fortunately, you can also manually define, name, and merge the rooms within the app. This way, the Roborock really knows exactly where it is and how to clean.
Once the rooms are divided, the app offers plenty of room for customization. For example, you can determine with what intensity each room should be vacuumed and wiped. While you probably expect maximum suction and wiping power in the kitchen and bathroom, the focus in the living room is more on pure suction power. Here, the rooms can also be divided into zones. Within a room, you can then also set that certain zones of the room should be cleaned multiple times.
Perhaps more important than go-to zones are no-go and no-mop zones. While the Roborock S7 does recognize carpet, you’re definitely playing it safe by setting up areas with carpet as no-mop zones. The S7 interpreted the no-mop zones I set up as starting about six inches from the edge of the carpet. Thanks to the automatic rising mop plate, my carpet always stayed dry during this process. The no-go zone worked similarly. Here, you do have to experiment a bit and move the zone back and forth a bit within the app until you get the perfect result. Once set up correctly, however, this customization is definitely worth it.
Luckily, the app shows you exactly where Roborock S7 has cleaned, including the path it took from the dock. You can track the vacuum’s progress right in the app and know exactly where it’s stuck should it ever get stuck. This is a nice feature and gives you a clearer picture of rooms the robot might have missed due to obstacles or other minor disasters.
Roborock S7 review conclusion
The Roborock S7 is the first hybrid vacuuming and mopping robot that I would actually let mop my home unattended. The auto rising mop plate and carpet detection worked consistently well and not only kept my carpets dry. On top of that, the carpets were vacuumed at a higher rate, which you could see in the end result. While the mop doesn’t clean your floors well enough to eat off of, it does a good job of at least visually providing pore deep cleanliness.
It’s also a solid, fast cleaning vacuum with plenty of in-app customization. However, since the Roborock S7 is a bit on the large side, residents of a tightly furnished apartment might want to reach for a smaller model. Those who also want a pure vacuum can save a lot of money. After all, the S7 is only worth its comparatively high price by Xiaomi standards if you really need a mopping function.
Roborock S7
Workmanship
Mop function
Suction power
App support
Value for money
90/100
In my opinion, the Roborock S7 is the best hybrid vacuum cleaner you can currently buy on the market. Xiaomi's subsidiary manages to combine a really good suction performance with a finally also useful wiping function, practical features and a great app connection. Great work!
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