Lately I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my robot vacuum cleaner. I have the iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus since I first reviewed it a year and a half ago, and while it was a great sucker until the last few months, a litany of sudden problems makes me want to try something new.
It’s not the first iRobot Roomba I’ve tried, and I doubt it will be the last, but considering the high price, I’m quite surprised by some of the issues. Despite my regular cleaning and maintenance, the mopping function almost no longer works at all. Suddenly the vacuum is useless at cleaning edges, and despite the truly impressive navigation technology I observed during my test, my Combo J7 Plus somehow managed to gouge out part of its camera lens during a cleaning job , which means that obstacle detection is permanently marred.
iRobot is facing increasingly fierce competition in robot vacuum cleaners, and news about it failed takeover of Amazonthere is less and less room for Roomba to continue its decades of market dominance.
That’s especially the case now that a number of major home appliance brands, like Dyson and Samsung, are vying for their share of the pie, and they’re doing so with increasing promise (although the Dyson 360 Vis Nav couldn’t impress us). I got the chance to see Samsung’s new Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI robot vacuum cleaner in person at the global Bespoke AI launch event, and I’m pretty excited about the promised improvements over its predecessor.
A brief history
When Samsung announced its first Jet Bot AI+ robot vacuum cleaner at CES 2021, all eyes were on the tech giant, eagerly waiting to see if it could conquer the market with its new technology.
Unfortunately, at least based on our Samsung Jet Bot AI+ review, the OG Jet Bot robot vacuum cleaner lagged behind the competition with some pretty basic issues. For starters, it’s 13.7cm long; Compared to the best robot vacuums we’ve tested, which average around 8.1cm, that makes the Jet Bot AI quite chunky, which isn’t ideal for cleaning under furniture.
Then there was the slightly sloppy navigation and the less impressive edge cleaning, all of which added up to a very expensive bot that didn’t quite justify the high price tag, even with the arsenal of cool features Samsung built into the Jet. Bot AI+.
Still, it was quite an attempt to re-enter the robot cleaning market, after a handful of previous attempts that failed to fully take off (RIP Crubo and PowerBot), and the Jet Bot AI+ still managed to impress with its fantastic suction and ability to suck up debris that many other robovacs would have simply swept aside.
What’s new, kitty?
On the other hand, Samsung’s new Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI is poised to deliver a much better cleaning experience – and not just because it can mop too.
First announced at CES 2024, the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI not only includes returning features like the ability to spy on your pets, but it also makes some serious upgrades to both hardware and software.
The most notable thing is that it is a lot shorter than the original Jet Bot AI+. In my opinion, it appears to be about the same height, if not slightly taller, than my iRobot Roomba Combo J7+, at 3.5 inches tall. While I prefer even slimmer robot vacuums, even the extra headroom compared to its predecessor makes the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI far superior.
Then there are the powerful rotating mop pads, which rotate at 170 rpm for thorough cleaning of even the toughest stains. Thanks to the vacuum’s ability to recognize floor types and adjust cleaning patterns accordingly, the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI automatically lifts the mop pads to prevent carpets from becoming damp. The best part? The Clean Station can even steam, wash and disinfect mop pads, neutralizing 99.9% of bacteria.
Speaking of the Clean Station, the auto-draining home of the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI features 3-liter tanks for dirty and clean water, in addition to a compartment for the trash can, which Samsung says should be replaced every 2-3 months on average. That does mean it’s quite huge, which may be a real turnoff for some, but it’s the nature of a combination of robot vacuums and mopping with mop pad cleaning.
Things are also looking good on the software side. This smart cleaner uses a database of 1.7 million images to power its deep AI neural network for features like obstacle detection.
Time will tell…
I can’t speak to the performance of Samsung’s new Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI, as I’ve only seen it leave its base, do a pirouette and return, but I’m certainly ready to try something new.
Samsung’s experience in home appliances, combined with its software improvements, makes for a strong competitor in theory, although I have no idea if the vacuum will outlast my currently inept iRobot Roomba Combo J7+.
The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI is currently available for pre-order on Samsung’s US website, with a list price of $1,699, which has been reduced by $300 at the time of writing, but we don’t have any price or release date details for the UK or Australia directly. However, the American prices do give us an indication for price comparison; it’s $300 more than iRobot’s latest combination cleaner, the Roomba J9+, which retails for $1,399.99 / £1,249 / AU$1,999 and $200 more than the vacuum-only Dyson Vis Nav, which costs $1,199 .99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,399 costs.