Roomba-maker iRobot has added 4 new lidar-equipped robotic vacuum fashions to its 2025 lineup, bringing premium options to a extra cheap worth. They embrace the Roomba 205 DustCompactor, the “world’s first” robovac geared up with a compacting bin, which mechanically compresses mud and particles to save lots of house within the dock. Think about it as being much like the trash compactors in a rubbish truck.Â
“The online profit to the patron is you will get 60 days of hands-free upkeep with out the necessity for the separate auto empty dock,” Warren Fernandez, iRobot’s director of product administration, mentioned.
Roomba 205 can vacuum and mop. Â
Fernandez informed CNET that this characteristic, unique to the Roomba 205, will goal individuals who might need to disguise their robovac below their couch — that means they do not need a big dock of their houses — and keep away from what some have described because the “jet engine noise” of an auto-emptying dock. The noise of the compacting bin will not “elevate itself above the noise the robotic vacuum is already making.”Â
The brand new lineup has entry-level, midtier and premium robotic vacuums. However simply since you go for a less expensive mannequin, that does not imply you will be lacking one of the best options.Â
Premium options are actually commonplace
The Roomba 2025 lineup was developed primarily based on an 18-month research of shoppers throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.Â
“Our portfolio technique in ’25 is absolutely to boost the Roomba household with a collection of latest merchandise which might be grounded in that client suggestions, that 18 months of analysis, and that actually rigorously contemplate how you can enhance each facet of the product expertise,” Fernandez mentioned.
The 2025 base and midtier fashions get new options together with ones that have been beforehand reserved for iRobot’s higher-end vacuums. These options embrace the proprietary ClearView lidar navigation, new to iRobot’s product lineup, which can enable the robovacs to raised navigate houses and keep away from obstacles, even in darkish rooms.Â
The Roomba 105 is low profile sufficient to slide below a sofa and different low furnishings.Â
Fernandez mentioned lidar is a “actual sport changer, significantly for customers who’ve maybe been utilizing a really outdated robotic that will have been engaged on older expertise.”Â
“This notion of a robotic that sort of bumps into and runs over every part, that shall be a factor of the previous,” he mentioned. “This factor will very precisely detect all kinds of obstacles all through your property, avoiding all of them.”
The brand new vacuums have an elevated suction energy of seven,000 pascals. iRobot mentioned they’ve 70 instances extra power-lifting suction than the Roomba 600 collection.
SmartScrub is one other characteristic that was as soon as unique to iRobot’s highest-end robovac however that is now coming to the 2025 Combo lineup. Allow it to focus on cussed stains, which the robotic cleans by “mimicking the movement {that a} human would possibly do as you are sort of scrubbing one thing backwards and forwards,” Fernandez mentioned.
Breaking down the brand new iRobot Roomba lineup
Roomba is taking a web page out of the smartphone playbook by introducing entry-level, midtier and premium fashions. Here is what that can seem like within the 2025 lineup:
Roomba 105 can sort out edges with its spinning brushes.Â
Entry-level: Roomba 105 and Roomba 205
The Roomba 105 is available in two fashions: the 105 Vac a vacuum-only mannequin for $299 or the 105 Combo mixture vacuum and mop mannequin for $319. You will get both with an AutoEmpty Dock for an extra $150. The AutoEmpty Dock now permits for an estimated 75 days of vacuuming earlier than it must be emptied.
The Roomba 205 DustCompactor shall be accessible as a vacuum solely (DustCompactor Vac) for $449 or as a combo mannequin for $469 (DustCompactor Combo). Facet notice: the contents of the dustbin will not resemble a dice — Fernandez mentioned the emptying expertise shall be extra conventional, much like what you are used to if you have already got a robotic vacuum.
These entry-level mixture fashions can detect carpets however are restricted of their autonomy with regards to cleansing them. Fernandez beneficial having the mop pads eliminated more often than not to permit them to deal with vacuuming, solely including them again on for mop jobs.
“In case you go away the mopping pad connected, it is solely going to wash the onerous ground surfaces in your house,” he mentioned.
The Roomba 205 has lidar capabilities and it might mop, however you will need to swap mopping pads manually.
Midtier: Roomba Plus 405 and Roomba Plus 505
This tier has extra highly effective mopping capabilities, with twin spinning mop pads that autonomously elevate 10 millimeters off the bottom when carpets are detected. The docks may even autonomously wash and dry mop pads.
The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robotic + AutoWash Dock shall be accessible for $799. The Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robotic + AutoWash Dock, at $999, provides additional enhancements over the 405. First, the mop pad extends to the facet, permitting for improved edge and nook cleansing. The dock may even dry the mop pads with warmth.
Lastly, and most notably, the Roomba 505 can have a front-facing Precision Imaginative and prescient AI digicam for higher navigation and impediment detection. “It is a better of each worlds equation,” Fernandez mentioned. “The 505 Combo is taking the entire advantages of that ClearView Professional lidar and the entire advantages and know-how of our front-facing AI digicam expertise, placing them collectively to provide you a palms down best-in-class mapping, navigation, not solely impediment detection, however object understanding.”
A fast notice on poop: Whereas Fernandez mentioned that the entire 2025 lineup ought to have the ability to acknowledge and keep away from pet waste (the corporate extensively trains its robots with faux poop of various styles and sizes), he beneficial the Roomba 505 to apprehensive pet house owners given its extra highly effective navigation and object recognition.
Roomba 505 is healthier at avoiding unintentionally mopping your carpet.Â
Premium: Roomba Combo 10 MaxÂ
The Roomba Combo 10 Max Robotic + AutoWash Dock, launched in August final 12 months, will retain its place as iRobot’s premium providing. Its prices $1,400, however is at the moment accessible on sale by iRobot’s web site for $900. Its differentiating issue is the Auto-Retract Mopping System, which lifts the mop pad to the highest of the robotic when carpets are detected, in addition to a dock that autonomously cleans each the robotic and itself.
Value and availabilityÂ
The next robovacs shall be accessible in North America at costs starting from $299 to as a lot as $999.Â
- Roomba 105 Vac: $299
- Roomba 105 Combo: $319
- Roomba 105 Vac + AutoEmpty Dock: $449
- Roomba 105 Combo + AutoEmpty Dock: $469
- Roomba 205 DustCompactor Vac: $449
- Roomba 205 DusCompactor Combo: $469
- Roomba Plus 405 Combo + AutoWash Dock: $799
- Roomba Plus 505 Combo + AutoWash Dock: $999
The brand new Roomba robovacs shall be accessible for presale in North America beginning March 18 on iRobot.com.Â
Roomba 205 below furnishings.
The brand new Roomba app goals to maintain issues easy
Together with its new lineup, iRobot may even introduce The Roomba House app (becoming a member of the present iRobot House app) that goals to simplify the act of cleansing folks’s houses.
“We do not need you to come back into our app, take a look at a giant, fairly image of a robotic and need to click on on two or three sub menus to have the ability to do one thing,” Fernandez mentioned. “Let’s be actual: You are opening the app to wash your property, so let’s bounce proper into your property.”
The brand new app, which solely helps the brand new merchandise, will introduce a reconfigured dwelling display screen. The highest third shall be devoted to cleansing routines which might be both user-generated or recommended by iRobot. Fernandez mentioned you must simply have the ability to faucet a type of, and your robotic will get to work.Â
Roomba Combo 505 station.
The underside two-thirds of the display screen will characteristic a map of your property, which Fernandez mentioned shall be “truly actionable.” For example, he mentioned that if he dropped some granola on the way in which to the workplace from the kitchen, he might rapidly order his robotic to conduct a “directed room clear” the place the mess is.
The brand new app may even higher inform you of what your robotic is doing in the intervening time, the place it’s and the way a lot progress it is made in its present cleansing process. Lastly, the app will present proactive upkeep and troubleshooting, reminding you to exchange and order filters, test the particles bag or clear the brushes.
“We give the consumer the chance to resolve after they need to try this sort of preventative upkeep,” Fernandez mentioned.
The brand new app shall be accessible for obtain on iOS and Android. Roomba’s 2025 lineup shall be accessible throughout North America and choose European markets starting on March 18.
Roomba 405 cleansing up after pets.
The way forward for iRobotÂ
iRobot’s 2025 lineup — “the most important and most complete lineup within the firm’s 35-year historical past,” in response to a press launch — comes at a crucial time for the Roomba maker.Â
Whereas its newest monetary outcomes launched in November confirmed elevated year-over-year revenues and lowered working losses, the corporate laid off a whole bunch of staff final 12 months after a deliberate acquisition by Amazon fell by. Whereas it used to dominate the robovac market, iRobot has confronted elevated competitors from rivals reminiscent of SharkNinja and Chinese language firms, together with Roborock. Chinese language rival 3i may even introduce a combo robovac with a mechanical compression dustbin, the G10 Plus, which it exhibited at CES. It did not specify pricing or a launch date.
“Our ongoing restructuring has essentially modified the way in which we innovate, develop and construct our robots, which is central to enhancing our efficiency and producing long-term shareholder worth,” iRobot CEO Gary Cohen mentioned within the firm’s newest monetary outcomes launch. “As we transfer ahead on this new chapter in iRobot’s historical past, one factor is abundantly clear: now we have a strong model that can function the muse for the turnaround of this firm.”
