Consumer Electronics, Gadgets & Accessories

Tesvor S4 – Affordable robot vacuum cleaner with Lidar in test

With the S4, the Chinese company Tesvor introduced a new robot vacuum cleaner at the beginning of August, which is currently available in Germany for € 99.43 * [test time: €247, RRP: €239] on Amazon. For this price, the S4 is supposed to be able to vacuum floors particularly quietly and navigate reliably thanks to a Lidar.

How the Tesvor S4 does in practice, and whether we would recommend the robot vacuum, clarifies the following test report.

Technical details (manufacturer’s specifications)

Type Vacuum cleaner/mop robot
Navigation mode Lidar SLAM
Suction force 2200 Pa
Radius of action 16 mm steps can be overcome
Control / Mapping Up to five room maps
Virtual exclusion zones
Area cleaning
Schedule cleaning
Dust volume 0.6 l
Filtering HEPA
Loudness 50 dB(A)
Features Suction station (announced), app control, wipe function
Battery & runtime 25 Wh, 2,500 mAh, 100 minutes runtime, 5h charging time
Weight (robot) 4.8 kg
Dimensions (Robot) 33 x 33 x 10.1 cm
Color Black
Price € 99.43 *

Scope of delivery

The Tesvor S4 is delivered in a sturdy cardboard box. Inside it, in addition to the robot itself, there is a charging station and the corresponding power supply unit (19 V, 0.6 A). There are also four mop arms – two of which are replacements – as well as a HEPA replacement filter, a remote control, instructions and a cleaning tool.

Design & Workmanship

The S4 relies on the typical cylindrical shape for vacuum robots, with a diameter of around 33 cm. From this still another tower protrudes, in which the rotating lidar is located. All in all, the S4 has a height of just over 10 cm. For example, it can’t drive under a sofa with a correspondingly lower bottom edge.

Apart from the tower, there are hardly any other special features on the top of the robot vacuum cleaner. There are only two buttons and a WLAN indicator. There is also another control element on the side of the robot: The power switch and a charging socket can be found there.

The bottom of the S4 is more exciting. There are the two contacts for the charging station, three wheels, the cleaning roller, the holders for the two cleaning brushes and the dust container. The latter is not removed from the bottom, but from the side: You only have to press a button and pull out the dust tank.

You can then open it and empty the contents into a trash can. Alternatively, you can also install a water tank instead of the dust tank and use the S4 as a mopping robot. However, the corresponding water tank must be purchased separately for this purpose.

The build quality of the S4 is good: The case is stable and torsion-resistant, and there are no visual conspicuities. With regard to the materials used, both the S4 and the charging station largely rely on predominantly matte black plastic. The shiny upper side of the robot is not made of plastic, but of a large glass plate. This is probably also one of the reasons for the S4’s relatively high weight.

Setup & Software

The setup effort of the S4 depends largely on the purpose for which the robot is to be used. If simply a quick, spontaneous cleaning without further adjustments is planned, the setup is as simple as can be: the vacuum cleaner robot can simply be switched on, after which it drives off independently and cleans the room.

By default, the robot initially drives straight ahead after being switched on until it hits a wall. Then, this wall is completely driven off and finally the interior is cleaned in strips. Alternatively, the remote control can be used to select a different cleaning pattern, in which the robot follows an S4 spiral path. Feedback about the current status is provided by the voice output, which is not always quite coherent and not necessary in our opinion: The LED display would have been sufficient for us.

Carrying the S4 to the desired position and switching it on manually is occasionally useful, but of course not the main purpose of a robot vacuum cleaner. Instead, the device is likely to be used for regular cleaning by most users, so that it cleans certain rooms on its own and you only have to worry about emptying it.

In order for the S4 to take care of this, it is necessary to install an additional control app. This is offered for both Android and iOS and can be used for all Tesvor devices across manufacturers.

Installing the Tesvor app does not take long. However, registration with an e-mail address is mandatory for operation, with which a corresponding account is created. In the app itself, you are expected by a modern UI, which, however, has been provided with a mediocre translation. As a result, the operation takes a bit of getting used to, but it is still possible to use it well.

Once a robot vacuum cleaner has been added, it can first be sent off to clean and record a room map at the same time. This is displayed in the app and also divided into rooms right away – this works well.

Afterwards, you can configure the rooms even further and, for example, lock out certain areas. There are also smaller features, such as a manual control mode, an acoustic signal to find the device, and an automatic mode. Through the latter, one can automatically start a function such as area cleaning based on environmental conditions or time, thus automating vacuuming.

The operation of the Tesvor app, aside from the mediocre translation, is well implemented: The UI responds quickly and is easy to understand. We also liked the app’s range of functions: Hardly any wishes should remain unfulfilled here. We only want to criticize the somewhat unstable Wi-Fi connection to the device, which sometimes threw us out of the menu in the test. However, you should not open the menu too often after the initial setup, and the time-controlled cleaning also works without the app after the initial setup.

Performance & Practice

Easy setup and a diverse range of functions are of course desirable for a robot vacuum cleaner, but in the end, practice also determines whether the device is recommendable. In other words: How well does the robot clean, and can it manage without help?

Tesvor advertises the S4 with its low noise level. We would still not call the robot quiet, but it does well for a vacuum cleaner: When it cleans on another floor at night, it is not audible even if you are directly above/below it.

The S4 realizes floor cleaning through the interaction of several components. The two wiping brooms at the front are supposed to transport the dirt towards the center, where it is transported to the dust tank by the roller, through which air is sucked in at the same time. The actual suction area is thus quite small, but the wiping brooms are also supposed to reach edges and corners.

In practice, this solution works quite well: The S4 was able to collect large-area dust layers well in our test and also cleaned the edges. However, larger debris, such as large grains of salt, can already become too much for the robot, so they sometimes remain on the floor. In addition, particularly dusty floors can leave a few lint particles behind. If the robot cleans a room daily or at least every few days, this should not be a problem.

In terms of navigation, the S4 does well. The robot found its way around reliably, and it navigated the rooms purposefully. The step detection, which prevents the robot from falling down, and the driving onto elevations also worked well. In our case, for example, the S4 reliably managed to overcome doorsteps with a height offset of 15 mm. A doorstep with 19 mm, on the other hand, was no longer possible, as was to be expected according to the specification: Then the robot’s front switch, which is used for collision detection, triggered. Light obstacles and carpets, which the robot may push in front of it, can also be a problem. All objects that are directly on the ground should therefore have some stability.

Conclusion

With the S4, Tesvor has brought a relatively inexpensive robot vacuum cleaner onto the market for € 99.43 * [test time: €247, RRP: €239], which wants to come up with numerous features on paper. In practice, it also succeeds to a large extent.

Setting up the S4 is easy and the configuration via app is also well implemented, apart from the translation. However, we would have liked to do without the mandatory registration, and we also experienced occasional disconnections. Fortunately, this is only a problem during the setup, and it does not affect the operation.

We liked the S4’s wayfinding: The robot found its way reliably in our test and navigated through our rooms without any problems – even narrow spots like chair legs were no problem. The robot is thus well suited for independent cleaning. The suction power is also sufficient, at least for light dirt. Lint can occasionally remain when there is a lot of dust, but this should not be a problem if the robot cleans regularly.

The S4 also has a hard time with coarse-grained dirt, especially in carpets – you should rather reach for a stronger model here. On the plus side, the noise level is moderate, which makes cleaning less annoying.

Finally, we can summarize briefly: For the money, the S4 offers many features and a usable implementation that can keep rooms with smooth floors dust-free. However, if you want more comfort or better cleaning, you’ll probably have to shell out a bit more money for it.

Tesvor S4

Workmanship
Scope of delivery
Usability
Suction power
Noise level
Value for money

82/100

Inexpensive robot vacuum cleaner with many positives, but also slight shortcomings.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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