DJI’s first robovac is an autonomous cleaning drone you can’t trust

It’s been eight years since I last reviewed a robot vacuum. Having spent the last two months with a new flagship, I’m shocked by how much they’ve advanced from early bump-and-run models.

In October, DJI launched its very first robovacs in Europe. I’ve been testing the top-of-the-line Romo P model, which doesn’t yet have a US release date. It includes a self-cleaning base station, a mopping function, and enough high-end specs and charm that my colleague Jen Tuohy took notice.

Jen is a true robovac expert. I, let’s be clear, am not. But I can share what it’s like to make the jump from an entry-level model to one of these multifunctional combo units, something I imagine many Verge readers have considered.

To say I’m impressed by the performance of the drone maker’s first and best robot vacuum is an understatement. But I’m also not convinced anyone should spend over $2,000 for the DJI Romo P, regardless of how much I like its transparent looks.

I’m especially troubled by a recently exploited security vulnerability that let anyone see inside owners’ homes. DJI says the vulnerability has been closed, and that seems to be true based upon our testing, but others remain. It’s an egregious oversight by a company already in the US government’s crosshairs because of security and data privacy concerns.

My colleague Sean Hollister, who witnessed my robot being accessed remotely by a third party (with my cooperation), has all the details in a separate story. I’ve scored the Romo with the assumption that the vulnerability has indeed been patched, but with a lingering concern that other issues might yet be exploited on this cloud-connected camera and microphone on wheels.

It’s not nice to live in a home with a robot you can’t trust.

First impression: it’s huge.

I don’t really have space for a mini-fridge-sized appliance in my tiny Dutch home, especially one that sits there so conspicuously, like a monument erected to commemorate all the cleaning I used to do manually. My engineering heart, however, is quite fond of the transparent base station that’s “made to be displayed, not just stored” — but that sentiment is definitely not shared by the other members of my five-person household.

The base station is a massive upgrade over simple robovacs with charging docks. It not only charges the Romo, but it automatically empties the robot’s dust bin, drains and refills its water tank, cleans and dries its mopping pads, and even cleans the dock itself to keep odors and mold under control. It all happens with quite a bit of ruckus, however, and you still have to regularly add fresh water to the larger base station tank and empty the dirty water and debris it collects. But maintenance is much less frequent than a basic robovac, resulting in a nearly autonomous daily cleaner.

DJI’s robot vacuum relies upon the same sensors used in its flagship drones. Its dual fisheye vision sensors and wide-angle LiDARs mapped the room in less than five minutes. It successfully identified a large rug and knew not to mop it, unlike all the surrounding concrete in our open-plan kitchen and living room. However, when I swapped the rug for a new one and tried the mapping again, it failed to correctly identify it. So, with some difficulty, I had to manually edit the map. Subsequent edits to create custom cleaning routines by room were easier as I became more familiar with the DJI app.

DJI’s Romo cleans incredibly well, compared to the old Deebot N97 I reviewed, and it mops, too — what a luxury! It also performs better in corners and edges thanks to a brush and mop pad on the right side that both extend when needed. And when cleaning, either the spinning mop pads or roller brushes will lift to avoid cross-contamination.

Romo can vacuum first and then mop, or, if I’m in a hurry, perform both simultaneously without everything getting wet and gunky. It can also function as just a vacuum or just a mop. The app makes it fairly easy to create cleaning tasks that can be scheduled or executed immediately. I use a “quick vac” and “kitchen mop” when needed, and schedule a quick “daily cleaning” and more thorough “deep cleaning.” I like that I can clean a specific zone and finely tune suction power, water usage, and the number of passes. I’ve never experienced such granular control over a robovac, but this is now common for these high-end cleaners.

I tossed a quarter cup of oatmeal onto the polished concrete and the vac left five flakes in standard suction mode, one in max mode, and zero with high-power consumption “turbo” enabled. In general, I need to use max suction or make multiple passes to be sure my most heavily trafficked floor is left grit-free. We have a dog and spend a lot of time at the beach, so sand tends to get everywhere.

On my deep-pile rug, three oatmeal flakes remained even after three passes in max turbo mode. Not bad, but my upright vacuum performs a lot better. Romo probably would have done better if I swapped the rubber roller brush with the included bristle brush… but my dog mistook them for chew toys shortly after unboxing the vac. My wife and daughter both have long hair, and the Romo vac does a good job of sweeping it into the hollow center between the duo-divide brushes, just like Roborock’s less expensive Qrevo Curv series.

Romo has a special degrease mode which applies cleaning solution directly to the mop pads for splattered grease and cooking stains. It seems effective, as it stopped my dog — a very hungry beagle — from compulsively licking the floor in front of the stove. The base station can wash the robovac’s pads at around 60 degrees Celsius (140F) when it returns.

Even in degrease mode with maximum water usage selected, the vac failed to clean a line of semi-dried ketchup even after three passes — something I removed in a few seconds with a little elbow grease. Romo fared better with a small puddle of spilt milk, though it initially seemed tempted to navigate around it. That’s probably because Romo is designed to avoid pet waste.

I like that modern robots are methodical, none of that frustratingly random zigzagging I’m used to with bump-and-run bots. This speeds up cleaning and optimizes battery life. DJI makes a big deal out of its millimeter-level obstacle-sensing technology on the Romo. It works, in general, but it’s not foolproof.

Romo easily avoided socks, shoes with loosely tied shoelaces, dog toys, and poop-sized objects, but not smaller items like coins and buttons. Impressively, it routed around thin playing cards, as claimed, but only if they produced plenty of contrast with the floor — otherwise, it just ran over them. And when I tossed a small USB cable onto my concrete floor, Romo avoided it every time. But on my rug, it ran over that same cable again and again, but still managed to finish cleaning.

DJI’s robovac also marks things as obstacles that shouldn’t be, like a water-sealed power outlet that sits flush on my floor and the slightly lifted corner of my rug, measuring no more than 1cm above the ground. The even plusher rug in my bedroom has utterly defeated Romo’s traction, and the thin throw rug in my bathroom has to be removed before cleaning, or Romo will push it into a pile. Weirdly, it also seems blinded by a reflective aluminum dog bowl that it will shove across the floor instead of avoiding.

Importably, Romo confidently avoids falling down stairs, and even managed to surmount a 7.5cm (3 inch) floor gap for a sliding pocket door — a place the Deebot would get stuck in.

DJI’s Romo is noisy, but it’s pretty quiet for a robovac. When operation begins, the base station produces a sudden 63dB burst of dust-collecting noise, enough to jolt my dog into fight or flight mode. And since Romo doubles as a mop, it has to jet-wash and dry those pads once it returns to the base station, which also gets a scrub. When drying the pads — a process that takes several hours — I measured a constant 35dB from the base station at a distance of 1 meter. That’s not so much loud as tiring. I always feel a sense of relief when the drying cycle ends, so it’s best done at night if you can.

The robovac produces a relatively quiet 53dB (measured from 1 meter) when cleaning at standard intensity, or up to 63dB at max, my preferred setting. That’s not bad, but still louder than the 55dB produced by the Matic robot.

At first, I liked that I could remotely monitor everything, watching progress on a map updated in real time and even seeing obstacles captured by the vac’s camera. Talking to my bewildered dog through Romo’s camera and mic kept me endlessly entertained, but knowing that others could have watched my kids freaked me right the fuck out! The remote video function is protected by a pin, and the bot makes an announcement that “remote video is starting,” but none of that prevented streams from being spied on.

The privacy and security risks of inviting a robot fitted with cloud-connected cameras, a microphone, and vision sensors into your home is a personal choice. Yes, the US government sees DJI as a threat, but lots of people see the US government as a threat. Nevertheless, I disabled remote video on the Romo and covered the camera with tape for the last few days of testing.

With over 50 test runs and 820 square-meters cleaned, the transparent vac and base still look almost new, despite the dirty jobs they’re responsible for. Only twice did I find that a scarf or blanket had been sucked into the vacuum, causing it to stop cleaning. When this happened, I would get an alert on my phone with an image of the obstruction.

I’ve had to refill or empty the base station’s water tanks three times in 26 hours of operation, but the large 2.4L dustbag still isn’t full. Dumping the wastewater into the toilet stinks, but the base station itself remains odorless. The base station is self-cleaning, using high-pressure jets that wash away any debris collected. Nevertheless, DJI recommends inspecting it every 3 months.

I gotta say, I’ve loved having a robot that can reliably vacuum and mop my floors with a fraction of the intervention required by budget vacs. Romo is a very good inaugural effort, just like DJI’s first e-bike. I’m now sold on multipurpose base stations, but DJI’s pricing and lapsed security is a good reason to look elsewhere.

Paying €1,899 (about $2,250) for the top-of-the-line Romo P model buys you a very good, nearly autonomous DJI cleaning drone. But for that same money, you could employ a human housekeeper for one hour each week for about two years, and they’ll do more than mop and vacuum your floors. The €1,299 (about $1,500) Romo S might not include the transparent design and a few unnecessary cleaning perks, but it’s much better value for money.

Just know that there are plenty of decent $500 to $800 robot vacuums from companies like Roborock and Ecovacs that should clean about as well as the DJI Romo, with the best costing no more than $1,300. The Roborock Qrevo Curvx is very similar for just $899.

Otherwise, maybe all you really need is a $200-ish bump-and-run robot vacuum that requires more manual intervention but won’t subject your household to a rogue HAL on wheels.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge