Review: Roborock Saros Z70

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5/10

My job isone in which companies make big promises andrarely follow through. In that respect, it’s remarkable that Roborock launched the Saros Z70 with OmniGrip at all. Arobot vacuumwith a retractable arm that can identify, pick up socks,andput them away seemed likesuch a big leap forwardthat I have to applaud Roborock for releasing it for consumer purchase at all.

That said, the robot arm … doesn’t really work. At least, it doesn’t in my home, which is exactly the type of home that would call for a helpful robot arm. I’ve been testing it for two months now, and Roborock’s machine learning hasn’t helped it out yet. I’ll keep it on hand, but I don't expect it to be helpful anytime soon.

The Saros Z70 is the high-end model of Roborock’s 2025 Saros line. I tested theSaros 10R ($1,600)earlier this year and found it to have Roborock’s usual combination of efficient and effective cleaning with reliable navigation. The Saros Z70 is basically the Saros 10R modified to fit the robot arm.

On to the OmniGrip, which is a quite beautiful, if slightly creepy, mechanical arm. It can pivot at its base, has several joints, and has a (very strong!) pincher on top for grasping objects. Roborock confirmed that so far, the Saros Z70 is only capable of identifying socks, small towels, tissues, and slippers that weigh under 10 ounces. Happily, these are items my children often leave around the house, so I was cautiously optimistic.

The Saros Z70 comes with a small, foldable trash-can-like object where the robot will place trash, like tissues or small towels—you designate your shoe zone and clutter zone in the app. You can also use the robot arm manually; the company imagines people playing with their pets from work. If you’re nervous about the OmniGrip grabbing something it definitely shouldn’t, there’s also an emergency stop button on the robot itself.

Roborock Saros Z70

Rating: 5/10

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.

I spent a few weeks lying in wait around my house, stalking it. My poor OmniGrip got into trouble all the time. I spent a morning wrestling the arm out of our freestanding toilet paper holder in the bathroom. It pulled all the kitchen towels off the rack. The emergency stop button (and the child lock) work, but you still have to pry the item out of its claw.

Roborock has acknowledged in an email that there are many weird limitations to OmniGrip. For example, it does not recognize shoes that aren’t on a hard surface, so it can't pick up a flip-flop on carpet. Sometimes it picks something up and immediately puts it back down again.

If you want to pick something up remotely, you have to position the robot vacuum carefully until the desired object is within a “blue zone” in the camera view. Even without acknowledging that it's hard to navigate in the app without any dead reckoning, the vacuum failed several times to recognize a crumpled tissue in the blue zone at all. Also, for the time being, the app warns you to be physically near the vacuum. That pretty much negates the “playing with your lonely pet from the office” ideal use case.

After a month in my chaotic house, the Saros Z70's machine learning is so confused that it simply doesn’t sort anything at all. Most days, it cleans, then turns around in a circle and says, “Sorting failed” before returning home to sulk. That’s not to say that itcan’twork; these problems seem like they could be fixed with a few software updates. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well rightnow.

As far as the rest of the robot vacuum goes, the one major difference between the Saros Z70 and the Saros 10R is that the battery life is much shorter on the arm-wielding bot. Whereas the Saros 10R can usually clean the whole first floor of my house in one go, the Saros Z70 often returns to the dock mid-clean to recharge; my 9 am scheduled clean can last until 2 or 3 pm. This isn’t a problem for me, but it could be a factor if you start your vacuum after dinner and want it to be done before you go to bed.

Roborock has the best navigation system I’ve tested so far. The proprietary name is StarSight Autonomous 2.0, and it’s basically lidar—pulsed lasers that give the robot real-time information as it navigates around your house. It also has a camera on the mechanical arm (hence, why it got tangled up in the toilet paper holder) as well as on the front of the vacuum, but like all Roborock vacuums, it adheres to TÜV Rheinland security standards and the ETSI EN 303 645 cybersecurity standards, so I feel OK with it moving around my house.

I am perpetually impressed by how well the Roborock navigates around obstacles; with two kids and a dog, my house is unusually full of stray items. When the Saros Z70 was running, I deliberately stopped picking up as much as I normally do to see if it got tripped up. Other than a few items that no robot vacuum could have coped with, like my daughter’s doll’s hair, it coped remarkably well.

Roborock Saros Z70

Rating: 5/10

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.

It navigated adroitly around my rowing machine and my son’s violin case. It avoided blankets on the floor and pieces of colored paper. It edged well and cleaned up the soil and small wood chips that accumulate in front of our washing machine. One day, my 8-year-old decided to enthusiastically cover the dining room floor with excess powdered sugar for his pancakes; I assigned the Saros Z70 to clean it, and it did so remarkably well, without leaving a trace.

It also detaches the mop pads when vacuuming, and the chassis lifts to get it over small hurdles (important to note the chassis can’t lift when OmniGrip is engaged). It never disconnected from Bluetooth and automatically identified many thresholds, cords, and other obstacles in the dynamically changing map.

The Saros Z70 is notquitevaporware, as you can buy OmniGrip; whether you should is still another question. For now, stick with theSaros 10Rif you want your house to be cleaned reliably without a second thought, and maybe try OmniGrip in a year or so. By then, you will probably not be tossing tissues, hopefully, in its path.

Roborock Saros Z70

Rating: 5/10

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.