Roomba-maker iRobot has added 4 new lidar-equipped robotic vacuum fashions to its 2025 lineup, bringing premium options to a extra cheap value. They embody the Roomba 205 DustCompactor, the “world’s first” robovac geared up with a compacting bin, which mechanically compresses mud and particles to avoid wasting area within the dock. Think about it as being much like the trash compactors in a rubbish truck.
“The online profit to the patron is you’ll 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, stated.
Roomba 205 can vacuum and mop.
Fernandez instructed CNET that this characteristic, unique to the Roomba 205, will goal individuals who might wish to conceal their robovac beneath their couch — which means they do not need a big dock of their properties — 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.”
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 may be lacking the most effective options.
Premium options at the moment are customary
The Roomba 2025 lineup was developed primarily based on an 18-month research of customers throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
“Our portfolio technique in ’25 is admittedly to reinforce the Roomba household with a sequence of latest merchandise which can be grounded in that shopper suggestions, that 18 months of analysis, and that actually rigorously contemplate find out how to enhance each facet of the product expertise,” Fernandez stated.
The 2025 base and midtier fashions get new options together with ones that had been beforehand reserved for iRobot’s higher-end vacuums. These options embody the proprietary ClearView lidar navigation, new to iRobot’s product lineup, which is able to enable the robovacs to raised navigate properties and keep away from obstacles, even in darkish rooms.
The Roomba 105 is low profile sufficient to slide beneath a sofa and different low furnishings.
Fernandez stated lidar is a “actual recreation changer, notably for customers who’ve maybe been utilizing a really outdated robotic which will have been engaged on older expertise.”
“This notion of a robotic that sort of bumps into and runs over every little thing, that might be a factor of the previous,” he stated. “This factor will very precisely detect all kinds of obstacles all through your private home, avoiding all of them.”
The brand new vacuums have an elevated suction energy of seven,000 pascals. iRobot stated they’ve 70 occasions extra power-lifting suction than the Roomba 600 sequence.
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 may do as you are sort of scrubbing one thing backwards and forwards,” Fernandez stated.
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. This is what that may appear to be within the 2025 lineup:
Roomba 105 can sort out edges with its spinning brushes.
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 a further $150. The AutoEmpty Dock now permits for an estimated 75 days of vacuuming earlier than it must be emptied.
The Roomba 205 DustCompactor might be out there as a vacuum solely (DustCompactor Vac) for $449 or as a combo mannequin for $469 (DustCompactor Combo). Aspect notice: the contents of the dustbin will not resemble a dice — Fernandez stated the emptying expertise might 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 in relation to cleansing them. Fernandez beneficial having the mop pads eliminated more often than not to permit them to give attention to vacuuming, solely including them again on for mop jobs.
“In the event you depart the mopping pad hooked up, it is solely going to wash the arduous ground surfaces in your house,” he stated.
The Roomba 205 has lidar capabilities and it might probably mop, however you may wish 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 carry 10 millimeters off the bottom when carpets are detected. The docks can even autonomously wash and dry mop pads.
The Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robotic + AutoWash Dock might be out there for $799. The Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robotic + AutoWash Dock, at $999, presents additional enhancements over the 405. First, the mop pad extends to the aspect, permitting for improved edge and nook cleansing. The dock can 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 stated. “The 505 Combo is taking all the advantages of that ClearView Professional lidar and all the 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 stated that all the 2025 lineup ought to be capable of acknowledge and keep away from pet waste (the corporate extensively trains its robots with faux poop of various sizes and shapes), he beneficial the Roomba 505 to frightened pet homeowners given its extra highly effective navigation and object recognition.
Roomba 505 is best at avoiding unintentionally mopping your carpet.
Premium: Roomba Combo 10 Max
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 presently out there 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.
Worth and availability
The next robovacs might be out there in North America at costs starting from $299 to as a lot as $999.
- 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 might be out there for presale in North America beginning March 18 on iRobot.com.
Roomba 205 beneath furnishings.
The brand new Roomba app goals to maintain issues easy
Together with its new lineup, iRobot can even introduce The Roomba Residence app (becoming a member of the present iRobot Residence app) that goals to simplify the act of cleansing individuals’s properties.
“We do not need you to return into our app, have a look at an enormous, fairly image of a robotic and must click on on two or three sub menus to have the ability to do one thing,” Fernandez stated. “Let’s be actual: You are opening the app to wash your private home, so let’s soar proper into your private home.”
The brand new app, which solely helps the brand new merchandise, will introduce a reconfigured residence display. The highest third might be devoted to cleansing routines which can be both user-generated or urged by iRobot. Fernandez stated it’s best to simply be capable of faucet a kind of, and your robotic will get to work.
Roomba Combo 505 station.
The underside two-thirds of the display will characteristic a map of your private home, which Fernandez stated might be “truly actionable.” For example, he stated that if he dropped some granola on the best way to the workplace from the kitchen, he may rapidly order his robotic to conduct a “directed room clear” the place the mess is.
The brand new app can even higher inform you of what your robotic is doing in the meanwhile, the place it’s and the way a lot progress it is made in its present cleansing job. Lastly, the app will present proactive upkeep and troubleshooting, reminding you to switch and order filters, test the particles bag or clear the brushes.
“We give the consumer the chance to determine once they wish to try this sort of preventative upkeep,” Fernandez stated.
The brand new app might be out there for obtain on iOS and Android. Roomba’s 2025 lineup might be out there throughout North America and choose European markets starting on March 18.
Roomba 405 cleansing up after pets.
The way forward for iRobot
iRobot’s 2025 lineup — “the most important and most complete lineup within the firm’s 35-year historical past,” in line with a press launch — comes at a essential time for the Roomba maker.
Whereas its newest monetary outcomes launched in November confirmed elevated year-over-year revenues and lowered working losses, the corporate laid off a whole lot 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 corresponding to SharkNinja and Chinese language firms, together with Roborock. Chinese language rival 3i can 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 best way we innovate, develop and construct our robots, which is central to bettering our efficiency and producing long-term shareholder worth,” iRobot CEO Gary Cohen stated 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 robust model that may function the inspiration for the turnaround of this firm.”
