“The Roborock S7 Max Ultra is a robot vacuum that's almost entirely self-sufficient.”
- Ability to mop and vacuum in a single run
- Easy installation and maintenance
- Great vacuuming performance
- Powerful smartphone app
- Expensive
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Roborock is among the most popular manufacturers of robot vacuums. The company has been churning out well-reviewed models for years — and that trend continues with the S7 Max Ultra. Not to be confused with the older S7 MaxV Ultra, the new S7 Max Ultra is one of the best robot vacuums in the Roborock catalog.
It makes a few concessions compared to the flagship S8 Pro Ultra, but there’s no denying the appeal of this powerful new smart home gadget. With the ability to mop, vacuum, and then clean itself at its charging station, it offers a fully automated cleaning experience that gives you back several hours of your day.
Powered by your phone
After opening up the gigantic box and finding a suitable spot for the charging dock, you’re practically done with setting up the S7 Max Ultra. The final step is to map your home by syncing the vacuum to your smartphone, which is where you’ll find tons of unique ways to control the robot. From programming a weekly cleaning schedule and checking in on its current cleaning status to adjusting power levels or setting restricted areas, everything you need is found in the app.
Despite all these features, navigating them all is surprisingly easy. Roborock designed the app to be highly intuitive — and after a brief tutorial, you’ll know exactly where to look for whatever task you’re trying to carry out. In fact, most features can be found directly on the main menu after swiping up on your screen, making it easy to activate the S7 Max Ultra’s most-used features.
Cleans your floors (then cleans itself)
The most compelling reason to pick up the S7 Max Ultra is its fully automated cleaning cycles. It’s designed to operate as both a mop and vacuum in a single run, thanks to a mop that can lift off the ground when traveling on carpet. Like most other robot vacuums, this works well enough — though thick carpets will still get grazed by the lifted mop.
Its cleaning skills are impressive, however, with a mop that oscillates at a rapid rate to remove stains, spills, or other debris from your floors. Water will work perfectly fine, but for additional firepower, you can add the Roborock Floor Cleaning Solution to the mix. Tile, laminate, hardwood, and many other floor types are compatible with the S7 — it can even recognize the direction of seams in hardwood, preventing accidental scratches and limiting the amount of stress it adds to your floors.
Vacuuming is arguably even more efficient than mopping, thanks to 5,500 Pa of suction. During testing, this was more than enough to suck out pet fur from incredibly thick carpet, as well as small rocks, bits of dirt, and anything else your pets (or you) might track inside after a hike. And thanks to precise lidar navigation, the S7 Max Ultra never missed a spot in the house and expertly maneuvered around all obstacles in its way.
Once it’s done cleaning your floors, the robot heads back to its base to clean itself. This includes removing all debris from its dustbin (the reservoir in the base can go up to seven weeks before needing to be replaced), washing the mop, then drying the mop with warm air to prevent odors from developing. The dock can also clean itself, ensuring any gunk that falls off the mop is quickly washed away.
What’s the difference?
While the Roborock S7 Max Ultra would make a powerful addition to most smart homes, it’s a bit confusing as to why this product even exists. The S8 Pro Ultra was launched earlier this year, and it offers nearly all the same features (plus the ability to raise its brush while mopping and additional suction). There’s also the S7 MaxV Ultra from 2022 — which bears a striking resemblance to the S7 Max Ultra in both its physical appearance and name.
So how exactly does the S7 Max Ultra fit into this lineup? Considering it is both cheaper and more powerful than the S7 MaxV Ultra, it’s clearly the better robot of the two. But compared to the S8 Pro Ultra, there isn’t a whole lot that’s different. The S8 looks a bit nicer and comes with a few additional features, but its price tag of $1,600 makes it significantly more expensive than the $1,300 S7 Max Ultra.
Both are great products, but many consumers will find it perplexing that two robot vacuums with such similar features launched just months apart from each other. It’s even more bizarre when you consider the S8 launched before the S7.
It would have been great if the S7 Max Ultra could have done something more to differentiate itself from the flagship S8 Pro Ultra — although maybe the lower price tag is enough for it to find a niche in the market.
Verdict
With the ability to clean your floors and then clean itself, the Roborock S7 Max Ultra is an easy product to recommend. It’s not cheap, but it falls in line with other premium robot vacuums on the market such as the Roomba Combo j7+ and Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni.
Everything about the S7 Max Ultra works exactly as you’d expect, though the mop-lifting feature isn’t robust enough for thick carpets (it can only retract 5mm, which is only suitable for rugs or low-pile carpets).
There are plenty of other great options on the market today — be sure to check our list of the best robot vacuums of 2023 — but there’s no doubt that the S7 Max Ultra deserves careful consideration.
