Roborock Saros Z70

Introduction

With robot vacuum cleaners rapidly hitting that point where even more budget models have decent suction power and mopping capabilities, what do you do next? If you’re Roborock, you add something that the competition doesn’t have: an OmniGrip robot arm that can tidy up automatically. As far as the Roborock Saros Z70 goes, that robot arm does make it stand out, but not necessarily for all of the right reasons.

As good as the actual cleaning is, as smart as the app is, and as clever as the arm can be, the implementation often leaves a lot to be desired, and I found that this robot struggled with some often simple tasks.

Design and features

• OmniGrip arm can tidy up for you
• Clever and customisable app
• Self-clean and self-empty station

Announced in January 2025, the Saros Z70 was launched alongside two other new robots: the Saros 10R and Saros 10. The idea behind the new naming convention was to simplify the flagship range, although with three similar robots that have slightly different capabilities, I’m not sure that aim has been realised.

The standard flagship model is the Saros 10, which has the sonic mopping pad and the most powerful suction power. Then, there’s the Saros 10R, which uses the StarSight Autonomous 2.0 navigation system and dual mopping pads, but slightly less suction.

It’s effectively the 10R that the Z70 is built on, and some of the basic specs are the same: there are the same dual microfibre mop pads, one of which is a Flexiarm model that can stick out for edge cleaning; likewise, the Flexiarm side brush can do the same thing for teasing dirt away from the sides of the room.

There are some differences underneath. While the Saros 10 and Saros 10R both had a split DuoDivide brush, built to tease hair towards the centre and into the bin, the Saros Z70 has a FreeFlow Brush, which has small combs in it designed to keep hair straight and prevent tangling. It’s a very similar design to the brush in the Dreame L40 Ultra.

AdaptiLift is present again: with this system, the robot can lift its wheels to take the chassis off the ground, which can help the Z70 climb over obstacles (up to 4cm high) or even deal with deep-pile carpet.

Additionally, the mop pads can be lifted to keep them off carpet or other areas you don’t want mopped. When mopping only, the side brush and main brush can all be lifted, preventing dirt from being spread around a clean floor.

Right-way up, there are more noticeable differences between this vacuum and previous Roborock models. Most obvious is the motorised flap, which hides the robotic arm.

Having the arm means that there’s no space for LiDAR, so there’s Roborock’s StarSight Autonomous 2.0 system instead, which uses 3D ToF sensors for navigation. In practice, this system is as fast and as accurate as LiDAR.

No LiDAR also means that this robot is very slim at just 7.8cm tall: that’s short enough to squeeze under lots of sofas, letting the Z70 clean where some other robots can’t reach.

There are also cameras at the front, for spotting objects, both for obstacle avoidance and for spotting items that the arm can picked up. There’s an additional camera on the robot’s arm, used when picking up items.

As the robot arm takes up space, this robot has a slightly smaller bin than the other Saros models (180ml here, vs 270ml with the other models).

In practice, this doesn’t make much difference, as there’s a Multi-functional Dock 4.0. This has 3-litre tanks (one for clean water and one for dirty), plus a detergent tank to boost mopping prowess. Mop pads at washed at 80°C, and 55°C air is used for drying.

Mop pads can be removed automatically when the robot’s in vacuum-only mode or when it needs to tackle deep-pile carpet.

There’s a 2-litre bag for dirt, which should hold around two months’ worth of dirt before needing to be emptied.

Although the robot arm may make the Saros Z70 different to other robots that I’ve reviewed, the basic way the robot is used is the same as for other Roborock models, controlled via the Roborock app.

Once connected, the Z70 performs a quick mapping run of its environment, automatically suggesting where it thinks rooms should go. If it gets things wrong, rooms can be easily split and merged.

Maps can be edited with similar options to other Roborock models, including no-go zones, adding furniture (for quickly selecting as a cleaning zone), and setting the floor type to aid with cleaning decisions.

There are also options to add storage zones, for use with the OmniGrip arm. One zone is used for shoes, and the other for use with the provided paper bin, designed to hold different items, such as balls, paper and socks. And it’s possible to train the robot to recognise other items.

It’s easy to add storage locations to the map, and the Saros Z70 will automatically find the paper bin in the rough location you’ve marked on the map.

By default, the OmniGrip arm is disabled, but it can be turned on in the app, with a choice to move items to clean under them, sort as it cleans, or you can manually tell the Saros Z70 to tidy up items it’s found after a clean.

If you enable remote viewing, you can manually drive the Saros Z70 to an item and then pick it up. To be honest, it’s easier to pick up an item manually.

General cleaning options are the same as for other Saros robots, with a choice to clean a room, everywhere or a zone. There’s an AI SmartPlan option, where the Saros Z70 will automatically pick cleaning settings.

Or, you can take control, and choose Vac & Mop, Mop only or Vacuum only. For each mode, there’s a choice of four vacuum settings, three water flow levels and an option to make one or two passes, and choose between two route options, depending on how deep a clean you want.

With mop-only, there are an additional two route modes, while vacuum-only adds an extra-high power mode. There’s no option to mop after vacuuming, unless you add a routine to do this.

The “Hey Rocky” voice assistant is built in, which lets me start and stop a clean. I didn’t use it often, but I do like this option: “Hey Rocky, clean here.” This gets the robot to leave its dock, find where I’m standing and then spot clean. It’s great for tidying up a small spill.

Performance

• Excellent vacuuming
• Powerful mopping
• Unreliable arm

Let’s dive straight in with the OmniGrip arm: it’s very variable as to whether it will tidy up properly or not, and the image recognition is very hit and miss. I left a sock, a screwed up tissue and a pair of shoes on the floor.

The small trainer sock and screwed up tissue were completely ignored and didn’t even register as objects on the map, with the Saros Z70 happy to run them over.

My shoes were properly detected, and I was quite excited to watch the robot in action: it slowly approached my shoes, the OmniGrip arm came up, the Z70 moved slowly around getting the best angle, and then one shoe was picked up and held aloft.

The Saros Z70 even drove to the drop-off zone, but then things went wrong. As the OmniGrip arm opened up, it got its claw caught inside my shoe, so it just lifted it back off the ground. Eventually, the shoe fell off and landed on the front of the robot, where it was driven around.

That, in a nutshell, is the OmniGrip arm in action: it sometimes does what it’s supposed to, but it often doesn’t, and just isn’t reliable enough.

Cleaning performance is, at least, up to scratch. Starting out with my carpet test, two passes were required to lift the bulk of the mess out. There’s nothing currently capable of doing better, the Saros Z70’s 22,000Pa suction power clearly works well.

On hard floors, it was a clean sweep, with all of my test flour removed from the floor.

At the edge of the room, two passes on the vacuum weren’t quite enough to remove the mess, with some flour left behind.

However, after performing a mopping run, the robot managed to collect what it had originally missed. That’s good going.

Previous Roborock robot vacuum cleaners were very good at dealing with hair, but the Saros Z70 wasn’t so impressive. I added some strands of human hair to the floor, but these ended up tangled around the robot’s brush bar.

I then moved on to the mopping tests. With the easier tests, the Saros Z70 did brilliantly. Starting with the coffee stain, the robot needed two passes to remove it.

I found the same with the red wine stain: two passes easily lifted this off the floor.

With the dried-on mud stain, a vacuum pass picked up the loose bits of dirt, while the mop pads cleaned up the stain brilliantly.

I then had the tough ketchup stain to deal with. Four passes in total were required, but the Saros Z70 got most of the mess out, bar a tiny sticky bit of mess left behind. That’s impressive going, although it’s fair to say that the Saros 10R and Saros 10 are equally as good.

Battery life is excellent, as I’ve come to expect from Roborock. It’s rated as having a 180-minute runtime on the lowest suction mode, but even upping suction power to max left me with enough juice to cover the entire Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab with two passes.

Navigation is also excellent. General obstacles are easily avoided, including cables, fake pet mess and shoes that I’d left on the floor. I was impressed with AdaptiLift, too: this system let the Saros Z70 pass over a tall threshold and even wade into a deep-pile carpet without getting stuck.

Should you buy it?

FAQs