At first sight
Expert assessment
Professionals
Excellent cleaning performance. Easy to use app. Economical price
Versus
Struggles to clean deep carpet Often gets stuck
Our verdict
The budget-priced Airrobo P20 is a great option for anyone who prioritizes cleaning performance and convenience over mind-blowing features.
Price at time of review
$199.99
Today’s best prices: Airrobo P20
Retail price
$169.99
Airrobo $199.99
Price comparison of over 24,000 shops worldwide
The current trend in robot vacuum cleaners is to add more and more features that improve the cleaning experience without necessarily improving the cleaning quality. This makes the Airrobo P20 something out of the ordinary. It doesn’t empty your own trash can, mop or create interactive 3D maps of your rooms. It can’t target or exclude rooms or smaller areas from cleaning, and it doesn’t have a terribly sophisticated app. But none of that compromised this affordable robot vacuum’s ability to clear floors of household grime.
The P20’s most notable feature is its diamond-pattern textured matte finish, “custom-crafted by a top-tier industrial design team in Europe,” according to Airrobo, which belies its basic functionality and features. On top of the robot is a simple two-button panel used to start/pause cleaning and send the robot home to its dock. At the bottom are a pair of edge brushes and a rotating rubber and bristle brush, while at the rear is a 600ml bin.
This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage best robot vacuum cleaners.
The Airrobo P20 offers only essential features but easily handles household dirt and dust.Michele Ansaldo/Foundry
How do I set up the Airrobo P20 robot vacuum cleaner?
To set up the vacuum, you need to plug in the two edge brushes – the P20 ships with a total of four, so you have two backups – then plug in the charging doc and set the robot to its contacts. There’s a power button on the side of the robot that needs to be flipped to the “on” position to charge the vacuum, and the P20’s voice prompt will remind you to do so if you forget.
You can control the vacuum cleaner with the supplied remote or with the Airrobo app. The remote requires line-of-sight with the robot, while the app can be used from anywhere with an internet connection. The app also lets you take advantage of features like scheduling.
The P20 has a decent 2800Pa suction power and offers four cleaning modes. The automatic mode provides cleaning of the entire room in a zigzag pattern, and then finishes by vacuuming along the edge of the room. Spot and Spiral modes are for targeting specific areas of concentrated dirt, and Edge mode sends the vacuum cleaner to clean along the walls of a room.
The P20 has a rubber and bristle roller that scrapes and sweeps debris.Michele Ansaldo/Foundry
How does the Airrobo P20 robot vacuum navigate between floors?
Without a sophisticated navigation system, the P20 uses its sensors to “feel” itself in the room, and this can lead to awkward maneuvering.
There was a lot of banging against the walls and furniture legs during the daily cleaning of my downstairs level, and occasionally the vacuum got stuck in tight spaces, such as between two chair legs. In these instances, I was prompted by voice prompt and an in-app alert to physically reseat the P20 and restart cleaning.
On the other hand, the robot had no trouble going from hard floor to carpet, and its two-hour runtime per full charge ensured it could finish cleaning the whole room without recharging despite its sometimes inefficient cleaning routes. .
Does the Airrobo P20 robot vacuum cleaner have an app?
The Airrobo app has a simple interface that fits the basic functionality of the P20, putting the controls and cleaning modes at the forefront. The home screen also shows the duration of the current cleaning job and the area covered in meters along with the battery level.
The app shows a rudimentary map, but this simply lets you see which areas have been cleaned and which path the robot has taken. It does not enable any cleaning customization options.
The Airrobo app provides basic controls and a rudimentary map showing where the vacuum cleaner has been cleaned.Michael Ansaldo/IDG
Is the Airrobo P20 robot vacuum worth the money?
While the P20 lacks the power and features of more sophisticated robot vacuums, it’s a very capable cleaner. It easily removed the daily dirt, dust and grime from my hard floors. The carpet required multiple passes to get the same results, but the vacuum cleaner ultimately removed all but the deepest dirt and crumbs.
That solid performance coupled with its hassle-free simplicity makes the Airrobo P20 an excellent choice for first-time robot vacuum buyers or anyone who doesn’t want to pay for a lot of advanced features that don’t necessarily improve cleaning results.
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