The Qrevo S5V is half the price of Roborock’s best robot vacuums, but it’s still a top-tier cleaner

I’ve tested the very best robot vacs that Roborock has to offer — from the do-it-all Saros 10R to the all-that-plus-a-robot-arm Saros Z70 — but I’m super pleased that the brand can also produce an efficient and capable cleaning machine for those on a budget. I’ve been running the $899 Roborock Qrevo S5V for over two weeks of automated floor cleaning tasks and found that it competently vacuumed and mopped my floors autonomously and quietly without a fuss.

With 12,000 Pa of suction pressure, a zero-tangle hair system, and brushes and mop pads that extend for edge-to-edge cleaning, this mid-tier vacuum is another example of why Roborock is a robot vacuum brand that can deliver at all price points.

In terms of the overall Roborock line of robot floor cleaners, the difference between an entry-level unit and the best of the best usually comes down to the maximum capabilities, and while the new Qrevo S5V offers a respectable 12,000 Pa of suction pressure, the best on the market are pushing 22,000 Pa and more. The premium bots will suck the deepest dirt out of your deepest carpets, but if your space is a little easier to clean, the Qrevo S5V does a superb job at picking up your regular day-to-day debris from hard floors and low-pile carpets.

With the Qrevo S5V, you get a standard-looking round bot and a capable base station. The bot uses imaging to map and navigate, along with a LiDAR turret to take things to the next level. The bot is still fairly slim and able to fit under most furniture.

The Qrevo S5V is equipped with Roborock’s FlexiArm tool for both the front right brush and the right rear mop pad. These extend the cleaning surfaces out of the side of the bot in order to reach the edge of your wall and into corners. This is also very helpful when dealing with tricky furniture legs. The mop pad also lifts up out of the way when it crosses carpets; no point getting those all wet. Better yet, you can choose to have the bot clean carpets first, so the mop pads are dry anyway.

The base station does most of the maintenance tasks for you. It sucks dry debris out of the bot, storing it in a larger vacuum bag. It also houses clean and dirty water tanks. This water is used to fuel the bot for mopping the floor and to perform a multi-stage bot cleaning cycle, including soaking, cleaning, and drying.

Based on my testing, I’d expect about 7-9 weeks’ worth of dry debris collection before I’ll have to put my hands on the base station, and the water tanks are lasting for about 750 sqft of floor mopping. Please note that I have opted for frequent mop self-cleaning and a heavier moisture level on the floors. If I were to focus on efficiency, Roborock says I should get up to 3,552 sqft of floor mopping per tank. That’s impressive.

So, yes, the Qrevo S5V cleans well, and, just as important, it navigates well. It isn’t struggling to get through the maze of chair legs under my dining room table, it is successfully cleaning to the edge and into the corners of my rooms, and it’s hopping from hard floors to carpets and back again with ease. Admittedly, it bunches up and gets stuck on my bath mats, but there is no household bot yet that I’ve tested that can manage those, so don’t think less of the Qrevo S5V for it. I’ll give it credit for getting on top of those bath mats and actually cleaning them, though, that’s an accomplishment where other bots treat them as an obstacle.

Compared to higher-end Roborock bots, the Qrevo S5V looks solid when you look at the spec sheet. It offers similar parts and features and benefits from having the same app and software. The differences are mostly in some of the things you can see, and hear.

Starting with the base station, the build materials are a little simpler than Roborock’s super-premium devices. Where bots like the Saros 10R ($1599.99 at Amazon) and Saros Z70 ($2599 at Amazon) offer a fancy mirrored finish on their base stations, the Qrevo S5V has a clean, but simple plastic finish. The upgraded versatility of the detachable dock base makes it easier to clean, which is nice, but the base station does not have automatic detergent delivery. You must manually add liquid (and Roborock’s specific cleaner isn’t cheap) with every fill.

With the bot itself, we can’t understate the difference in value based on the suction pressure. Once again, 12,000 Pa of suction is superb. It can suck objects as heavy as metal marbles off the floor; this is not a weak bot by any means. However, the best bots on the market are pushing as much as 22,000 Pa. The technology required to reach this level is expensive, accounting for much of the price difference.

Luckily, this bot is equipped with Roborock’s best hair anti-tangle technology. I’m glad everyone can benefit from reliability and maintenance-free operation in as many ways as possible.

Noise is another factor. The Qrevo S5V is actually quite quiet while operating, but it is a bit louder than some other bots I’ve tested. The actual vacuum operation is not too bad, what stands out to me is the chassis noise as the bot transitions the floors, and the motor noise when operating the FlexiArm tools. It speaks highly of the bot that the ancillary systems are what stands out; they’re truly no bother, it’s just that the rest of the operation is that smooth and quiet.

Finally, AI is a consideration. The Roborock Saros series has proven that you can skip the traditional LiDAR turret in favor of a few more vision sensors and powerful software. The Qrevo S5V has some visual smarts, but it relies on the 3D-modeled spatial awareness of LiDAR to avoid an object instead of understanding what that object is and how it could be handled differently than other objects.

LiDAR is a top-tier premium feature, and the Qrevo S5V uses it well. Still, it is more affordable than the sensor array that enables Roborock’s very best AI-powered mapping and navigation.

To finally answer the question outright, labeling the Qrevo S5V as mid-tier is not an indicator of poor performance. It’s because the best of the best have leapt to another level for fit and finish and AI-powered navigation in the last six months.

There’s no question that there are more capable robot vacuums out there, but they all start at several hundred dollars more expensive than the Qrevo S5V. At this price tier, you’re looking at competing with last-gen flagship models and a handful of current-gen mid-range units.

Straight off the bat, I would consider the Narwal Freo Pro ($599 at Amazon) a  the closest competitor to the Qrevo S5V. They’re super similar on the spec sheet, price sheet, and in function and performance. The Freo Pro is less expensive, but it takes a bit longer to clean your floors as it uses EdgeSwing to get to the edges and corners as opposed to the Qrevo S5V using extending arms. Though, the Qrevo S5V at full force has almost 1.5x the suction pressure of the Freo Pro. Don’t be mistaken, both bots run at 3,000-5,000 Pa during normal operation, but this does give the Qrevo S5V the advantage when you really need to get your clean on.

Since the Narwal Freo X Ultra ($999.99 at Amazon) is still up for sale in places, it’s worth considering. It’s a very comparable model in terms of overall cleaning performance and price, at least when it’s on sale.

The Eureka J15 Pro Ultra ($799.99 at Amazon) is also extremely similar in terms of performance and price. The Eureka bot jumps up to 16,200 Pa of suction pressure, and navigates similarly well, but it’s a bit more expensive, and a bit louder.

In the end, I’m happy to report that the Roborock Qrevo S5V is a solid and reliable robot vacuum. I’d happily recommend it to anyone with a sub-$1,000 budget, and especially when on sale, like it is at the time of writing, with a discounted price of $629.