The most effective you may get, for now

Robotic vacuums are enhancing at breakneck speeds. Only a few months in the past, Ecovacs launched the Deebot X8 Professional Omni, however now it’s already again with a follow-up within the type of the Deebot X9 Professional Omni. The brand new mannequin is fairly just like the earlier era, providing the curler mop characteristic that it introduced at CES earlier this 12 months, however switching out a few of the precise vacuum options to raised choose up dust and mud because it goes, with out getting twisted up.

There are different enhancements too, however maybe the largest change comes within the type of the brand new price ticket, which is a good bit increased than the X8 Pro Omni. Does the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni do sufficient to justify its excessive worth, or must you go for one of many many rivals from the likes of Roborock?

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni specs

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni assessment: Design

The design of the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni is similar to the X8 Professional Omni, however it’s extra refined. Most of these refinements are discovered within the new docking station, which swaps out onerous edges and corners for a extra curved, pure look. I like the brand new look. It’s actually not a purpose to purchase the X9 Professional Omni if you have already got the X8 Professional Omni, however it’s nonetheless positively a step in the suitable path.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

There are different new design touches, too. The general shade scheme is similar, however the X9 Professional Omni has a brushed metallic look to it, so long as you don’t look too intently. To be clear, it’s nonetheless constructed from plastic, and you may inform if you contact it or rise up shut, however from a distance, it seems extra premium.

Some design tweaks will impression performance for some customers. On the Deebot X8 Professional Omni, you might see water ranges because of clear sides on the water tanks. The X9 Professional Omni does away with that transparency, so you may’t see into the water tanks at a look. I don’t actually choose water ranges based mostly on wanting. Anyway, I simply refill the clear water and empty the soiled water when the app notifies me that it’s time to take action. Others, nevertheless, might need a unique expertise.

Fortunately, the issues I actually appreciated in regards to the Deebot X8 Professional Omni are nonetheless right here. The X9 Professional Omni’s docking station continues to be taller than it’s large, which makes it simpler to suit into smaller areas. Actually, it nonetheless matches into the right spot that I discovered for the earlier era. And the vacuum itself nonetheless manages to suit LiDAR sensing right into a physique that doesn’t have a big node on high.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

On the underside of the X9 Professional Omni, you’ll discover just a few minor variations in comparison with the final era mannequin. The X9 Professional Omni nonetheless has the headline characteristic, which is the Osmo Curler Mop that was unveiled at CES. We’ll get into how that impacts cleansing efficiency later, however the normal thought is that it might wash the mop pad on the within of the vacuum because it mops. Not solely that, however the system means it might apply extra strain to the flooring to raised scrub stuck-on messes.

The vacuum nonetheless has the only curler brush on the underside, however Ecovacs has added a brand new comb-like characteristic that’s designed to take away hair tangled across the brush. All in all, I truly discovered that it was fairly good at stopping hair from being tangled onto the comb. It wasn’t essentially flawless, however it did do a greater job than the X8 Professional Omni.

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni assessment: App and good options

Typically talking, the Ecovacs app is decently designed and simple to make use of. I did have some bother with the mapping characteristic, although. If you first set the vacuum up, you ship it round your own home to map out the world, and it’ll get a way of the place the totally different rooms and partitions are. Initially, nevertheless, it dramatically expanded some rooms and didn’t add some partitions that it ought to have. Fortunately, to repair this, you received’t should have it map your entire residence once more. You’ll be able to edit the map, dividing rooms, deleting areas, and so forth, however that took me a superb twenty minutes or so given what number of errors it made in creating the map.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

As soon as the whole lot is ready up, you’ll be prepared to begin cleansing. Your primary choices are to hoover, vacuum and mop on the identical time, or vacuum after which mop. You’ll additionally be capable of set suction ranges for the vacuum and water ranges for the mop.

Just like the Deebot X8 Professional Omni, the X9 Professional Omni helps Matter, which signifies that it may be added to your most popular good residence ecosystem. I used to be in a position so as to add it to Apple House simply and inside a matter of a minute or so. From there, I might have the vacuum clear the home with choices together with vacuuming or vacuuming and mopping. It’s also possible to choose which rooms to wash, and you’ve got the choices of deep clear or automated clear. Clearly, the settings and options aren’t as complete as within the Ecovacs app, and it might be good to have a vacuum then mop possibility. With that stated, Matter assist may be very useful, and it signifies that I don’t should ask my spouse to obtain a further app simply to make use of the vacuum. She will merely hearth up the Apple House app as common and a minimum of carry out fundamental duties, which is what she would do with the Ecovacs app anyway.

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni assessment: Cleansing efficiency

The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni provides related mopping options to the X8 Professional Omni, which is an effective factor. The curler mop appears to work fairly nicely, and whereas the distinction between it and a spinning mop pad doesn’t essentially appear to be night time and day, it’s positively higher. Primarily, you’re nonetheless not going to make use of the Deebot X9 Professional Omni to wash large spills, however it’s simply capable of deal with day-to-day cleansing, and with the curler mop, it’s higher at scrubbing off sticky messes which were there for just a few days. This mannequin additionally steps curler mopping up much more with a strain of three,700Pa.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

On high of having the ability to apply sufficient strain to wash off stuck-on messes, the Deebot X9 Professional Omni can prolong the mop pad out from its physique in order that it might get into corners and edges. That is very useful, and it helps minimize down these little spots the place robotic vacuums beforehand couldn’t clear correctly.

Technically, the suction energy on the Deebot X9 Professional Omni is decrease than the X8 Professional Omni earlier than it, sitting at 16,600Pa as a substitute of 18,000Pa. Nevertheless, Ecovacs says that its new so-called BLAST suction system signifies that it’s capable of higher clear particles out of your ground with out as a lot uncooked energy. Advertising and marketing converse apart, I did discover that the X9 Professional Omni was fairly good at cleansing up dry particles, whether or not or not it’s massive chunks like Cheerios thrown on the ground by my daughter, or easy mud and dust from going out and in of the home whereas gardening.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Its cleansing efficiency wasn’t essentially excellent, although. It typically struggled to get particles from edges, like subsequent to a carpet or a threshold. To be clear, it was nonetheless higher than the overwhelming majority of the competitors on this space, and it wasn’t essentially constantly dangerous. As a substitute, it merely left some particles behind and picked it up on its subsequent run.

All that to say that, just like the X8 Professional Omni earlier than it, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni is maybe the perfect robotic vacuum in relation to mopping. In terms of vacuuming, it’s very, excellent, however it’s not the clear-cut finest in the marketplace.

Conclusions

The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni is definitely top-of-the-line robotic vacuums out there, however it isn’t excellent. Its mapping performance is subpar, and I wish to see Ecovacs dramatically enhance this for its next-generation fashions. However that’s a one-time difficulty — after you have your map arrange correctly, it appeared to navigate the home fairly nicely, and it performs excellently the place it counts. It’s a superb vacuum and a very good mop, and it has useful good options like Matter assist.

The competitors

Competitors within the robotic vacuum house is fierce, however I’ve examined quite a few fashions and discover the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni to be the perfect on the market proper now. It’s actually essentially the most well-rounded, providing a superb mopping system and an excellent vacuuming system, together with some good options that come in useful.

Ought to I purchase the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Professional Omni?

Sure. It’s the perfect robotic vacuum on the market proper now.