AI ROBOT EVOLUTION

Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni

- ZACHARY CHAN

Ecovacs' latest flagship robotic floor cleaner, the X2 Omni boasts a new distinctive square shape, a departure from previous models. This enables the robot to reach corners better and clean along walls. According to Ecovacs, it can cover an impressive 99.77% of open areas, although this specific percentage might be more of a marketing flourish than a practical metric. With dimensions of around 32 cm in width and less than 10 cm in height, it's also Ecovacs' most compact robot to date.

Besides the square chassis design, the X2 Omni also features a host of improved specs, advanced sensors, and AI upgrades. With 8,000Pa of suction power, it outperforms its predecessor, the X1 Omni (5,000Pa), significantly. It also has the widest roller bar brush (200mm), highest obstacle mounting capabilities (22mm), and the largest battery (6400mAh).

In day-to-day cleaning tasks, it excels, efficiently tackling general dust and pet/human hair. However, it falls short when it comes to spot cleaning, struggling to handle concentrated spills like coffee grounds. In our tests, it actually spread some of the coffee grounds beyond the original location and left some between the grout of my floor tiles.

The additional mopping function is again great for day-to-day upkeep,, but I found that to be more effective, you should select the Mop After Vacuum option rather than the default Vacuum and Mop, which may save time, but once your floor is wet, it's hard to pick up dirt later. More on this when I talk about navigation. The other minor inconvenience is the limitation of using standard floor liquid detergents for fear of damaging the robot's internals.