Robot vacuum cleaner Roborock Quraevo Slim in the test: super flat and super nice

The Roborock Qrevo Slim is a robot vacuum cleaner that seeks to impress with its flat design and innovative technologies. It eliminates the need for a “laser tower” (Lidar – Light Detection and Ranging is actually what it works in) and thanks to the ToF (time of flight) sensor, the robot achieves comparable results in terms of aiming accuracy and situational awareness. Have to get. Furthermore, the Qrevo Slim relies heavily on the technology of the similar Qrevo Master, which has the same price but is now available for around 900 euros.

The Roborock Qarevo Slim was just presented at IFA 2024 and is available now. Its cost at the time of testing was 1299 euros,

The main feature of the Roborock Qarevo Slim is its low design, which is achieved by removing the “laser tower” at the top of the housing. As soon as you open the Roborock Quravo Slim, you will notice its compact and flat design. At just 8.2 cm tall, the robot fits easily under most pieces of furniture – even under pieces that laser-navigated models have difficulty getting stuck on. They are usually about 10 cm higher, so the difference is obvious. The only models with this flat are those that navigate exclusively via camera, and their number is decreasing due to less precise and light-dependent navigation.

The manufacturer also does everything right when it comes to design. The three control buttons that are on the top of most vacuum robots are installed in a round element on the Qerevo Slim – a reminder of the lidar tower that would otherwise be installed there. Behind it, the magnetically held and fully removable lid has a hole protruding, forming an oval recess. Roborock integrates an LED strip into it that emits white light when in use.

There are no surprises when it comes to ingredients. There’s a fine dot grid on the removable top, presumably indicative of the type of navigation we’ll discuss in more detail later. But you can see the grid only up close. Everything else is black. On the front are the cameras, an LED for better visibility in the dark, and the main ToF sensor. There is another one on the rear left and another one next to the normal crash sensor at the bottom. Here you can also see the rubber rollers rotating in opposite directions, which are also in the Qarevo Master and S8 MaxV Ultra (test report). You can also check out the extendable side brush and extendable right mop here.

When it comes to ease of use, the Roborock Qrevo Slim shines – like all mid-range to mid-range Roborock models. Connection to the app works in a few seconds, after which the smartphone becomes the control center for Qarevo Slim. There’s a lot to adjust to here. This includes frequency of vacuuming, type of mop cleaning, temperature and frequency, adjusting suction power, cleaning schedules, defining no-go zones, and more. The user interface of the app is clear and functional. At present there is no better situation than this.

The navigation of the Qrevo Slim is based on the so-called Starsight 3D ToF technology. It combines lidar with the QVGA-ToF sensor of the same name, which continuously emits and scans 21,600 sensor points. With an RGB front camera, the model currently detects 73 types of objects, detection is limited to objects larger than 3 x 3 cm, but also to objects of other sizes such as cables. This means that the robot’s object recognition should improve by 3x compared to the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra.

This technology enables accurate mapping of the environment and reliable obstacle detection. The robot sees its surroundings in three dimensions. In fact, he confidently moves around rooms and avoids obstacles like furniture, toys, and pets. The constant rotation of devices that navigate only via camera or use rigid forward-facing lidar systems does not exist with the Qeravo Slim. However, what was noticeable in our testing was that in a very large room the robot did not move first to the edge of the room and then to the interior like all the other models in the Qarevo series. Instead, our test device took only 7 to 10 square meters of a room and cleaned them piece by piece. The number of mop washes, which was actually scheduled once per room, also increased accordingly.

Also strange: Qarevo Slim sometimes wiped different areas multiple times. Once he marked a particularly dirty area of ​​the laminate on the map, turned off the vacuum motor and specifically wiped down about 1 square meter again. Although it was a misidentification of the wooden decoration, at least we were able to see what he was doing there and why.

In another case, a large portion of a large room that had already been vacuumed and mopped was mopped again with the vacuum motor turned off. The robot did not give any reason for this – at least this is unfortunate, because the user does not understand why the robot is doing this. Since this behavior occurred during the first cleaning after the room renovation, this behavior is probably only because the app had all the features like “deep clean for heavy dirt” active. Accordingly, his behavior in the situation in question could have been absolutely correct. However, criticism of the lack of explanation of his behavior remains.

The Qarevo Slim’s volume is pleasantly low in normal use and rarely exceeds 60 decibels, which is roughly equivalent to a normal conversation. You can barely hear it in the next room. It’s barely noticeable when you’re just mopping, even in the same room. It only gets slightly louder at higher suction levels, which is also the case on carpets and with active Carpet Boost.

The Roborock Qrevo Slim impressed in testing with good cleaning performance. It reaches a maximum of 11,000 Pa, which is 1000 Pa more than the Qrevo Master, which is largely similar in construction. It reliably removes crumbs, hair and stubborn dirt from hard floors and usually carpets, but is slightly inferior to the cleaning performance of other models in this price segment. Only on very thick carpets does the robot vacuum show typical robot weaknesses and can get stuck, something that other vacuums and mopping robots are not able to do better. On longer carpets, raising the mop pad by about 10 mm is no longer sufficient, so they can easily become damp.

The hair is removed from the rollers and vacuumed with a hidden scraper. This works quite well. The Flexiarm side brush ensures that corners and edges are thoroughly cleaned.

Once the job is complete, the cleaning station ensures that the user will no longer have to work with the Curevo Slim. Emptying the dust container is quick and easy. It’s temporarily faster, like a cordless vacuum cleaner, but it wears off quickly. After the mop is washed with water hot up to 60 degrees, the mop pad is actively dried with hot air. It effectively prevents the formation of bacteria and thus odor.

With up to 150 minutes of battery life and just 3 hours of charging time, the Roborock Qrevo Slim is suitable even for large apartments. It automatically recharges when needed to continue cleaning. Compared to the typical runtime of vacuum robots, the Qarevo Slim performs well.

The Roborock Qarevo Slim was just presented at IFA 2024 and is available now. Its cost at the time of testing was 1299 euros – This matches the manufacturer’s RRP.

The Roborock Qrevo Slim is particularly impressive because of its compact design, which allows it to get under a lot of furniture that other robots can’t get under. It sounds good, even though better models exist. We found the wiping performance to be even better. What all Roborock models (and therefore the Quravo Slim) have in common is comprehensive and user-friendly operation via app. Another plus point is the good obstacle detection, even though we can’t confirm triple detection – as suggested by Roborock. The cleaning station also proved reliable in testing, as it not only washes mops with hot water and subsequently dries them in hot water, but also cleans itself quite thoroughly.