Roborock Saros 20 Sonic review: Amazing suction power, but sonic mopping isn’t my favorite

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When Roborock and Dreme announced their top robotic enclosures of the year at CES, I was instantly afraid to try to choose between them.

Now that I’ve spent a month with the Saros 20 Sonic in my apartment, I’ve officially tested the trifecta of the most powerful robot vacuums on the market. As someone who spent most of 2025 praising the Roborock Saros 10R, I’m shocked to be on Team Dreame this year.

What is special about Roborock Saros 20 Sonic?

The Dreme X60 Max Ultra Complete, Roborock Saros 20, and Roborock Saros 20 Sonic were all advertised as very small vacuums with high suction power and the ability to measure thresholds close to 3.5 inches long. With similar specs and dock designs, the only real wild card was the Sonic’s flexible vibrating mop.

We’ve seen this D-shaped mopping plate from Roborock a lot in the past. The VibraRise system is known for scrubbing with strong downward force and small, fast sonic vibrations. Most notably, the newest version of the mop can transition to a round vacuum body to scrub closely around flat edges – and ideally, compete closely with the corner mopping capabilities of dual-spinning pads.

Avoiding Sonic’s mini obstacles is a top notch

Navigation technology is another major difference between the Saros 20 and the Saros 20 Sonic. In theory, the Saros 20’s AI camera-based technology should be slowly it worked better around small, irregularly shaped obstacles than the traditional Saros 20 Sonic LiDAR tower. But the Saros 20 Sonic has an amazing track record for avoiding obstacles in my house.

This can be a scary idea for a basic robot vacuum.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The Saros 20 Sonic always sees the connection of cables under the TV stand.
Credit: Screenshot / Roborock

Any shoes or slippers, pieces of clothing, cords, and even recycling bags that need to go out are properly identified in the application. Sonic even knows when he gets close to one of my cats. Like other premium robotic vacs, the Saros 20 Sonic offers live streaming video and two-way audio with someone away from home.

Is the Roborock Saros 20 Sonic good at grinding?

The sonic mopping of the Saros 20 Sonic seems a bit extreme to me. That’s not the result I expected from a robot vacuum that was literally named for its grinding capabilities.

Sonic it does feel the walls and edges of the furniture well and remove the mop accordingly. But the Sonic mop plate sometimes retracts too early when the vacuum changes direction, resulting in literally cutting corners.

The Saros 20 Sonic did a great job of removing body oil and conditioner.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

Sonic thoroughly scrubbed the crystal cat dust and my paw prints off my bathroom floor.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

Of course, robotic roller vacuums like the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow also have a tendency to prematurely retract the roller. However, I feel like I’m giving them a pass because of how much I appreciate their real-time shower skills. This allows for larger spills to be cleaned without having to use wastewater to flush the entire room. But the Saros 20 Sonic mop actually relies on suction.

I turned on “Intelligent Auto-Remop” in the settings, telling the Saros 20 Sonic to automatically remop soft surfaces after washing the mop. This worked well for some wet spills but not others, so I wish there were more flexible options to customize the mop’s wash frequency in the app. Unfortunately, the Saros 20’s AI pollution detection doesn’t sound as detailed as the Narwal Flow 2’s, which is $200 cheaper.

Compared to spinning pads, the Sonic vibrating plate is better at eating up really dry stains or wiping away residue. Elbow grease and a flat microfiber is the closest you can get to a towel. The Saros 20 Sonic hot water does well with oily drops and syrup without leaving a sticky residue.

The Roborock Saros 20 Sonic is also great for pet hair on hardwood and tiles.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The first test of the Saros 20 Sonic was to clean shoe prints and common outdoor germs near my front door. I recently found a beautiful quilted wool entryway rug that doesn’t need to be covered. So, I just gave it a whirl to test the mop’s capabilities for cleaning hard floors. I always feel like a wet cloth is more likely to pick up fine hair and loose skin than pure absorbency alone.

So more dust and cat fur fell on the terrace than I cared to admit. I ran and cranked the air cleaner quickly, then watched as the Saros 20 Sonic did such an amazing job that the laser on my Dyson vacuum couldn’t even find a speck left behind.

Is the Roborock Saros 20 Sonic good on carpet?

I am incredibly pleased with the performance of the Saros 20 Sonic on plush carpets and flat rugs alike. Compared to the Saros 20, the Saros 20 Sonic was tougher on pet hair, crumbs, and dust on my various rugs – despite the two having the same 36,000 Pa power.

I spread about 10 balls of wool over the mug.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

Sansa was shocked that most of her fur didn’t show up on the lint roller.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

I gave the Saros 20 Sonic the job of cleaning my pile living room rug after two days of no cleaning. (Pet owners know that two days feels like two weeks in terms of how quickly the discharge builds up.) Increasing the difficulty of this vacuum powerhouse. I ChomChom-ed the cat tree, pulled out clumps of cat fur, and stuffed them in the closet. A lint roller test later showed nothing but the expected rug fuzzies and a hair or two.

On soft laps, the Saros 20 Sonic handled all kinds of debris I threw at it with ease. The rug was covered in long human hair, more cat hair, cardboard shavings from a nearby cat scratching post, and a handful of dried chia seeds. Its first single-pass test at high suction was enough to pick up about 98 percent of the sloppy mess, so my usual two-pass method would have gotten the best result.

Not all robot vacuums are compact enough to drive between these table legs, but the Sonic is.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

This process was completely different before.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

Other factors to consider

The Saros 20 Sonic has a few other features that probably shouldn’t be in the $1,699.99 robotic space. Like, why does the strongest robot vacuum you can buy in the US still struggle to pick up debris around the edges of the fence?

A mess of sprinkles, Cheetos, dry cat food, and a drying rack.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The performance of the rug was good, but too many sprinkles missed near the flap.
Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The AdaptiLift Sonic chassis always goes up and down when there is no mat or curb to climb on. Just up and down, over and over. Sonic already cleans up quite a bit as it is, so random lifting every few seconds can be a drag.

It’s not that the Roborock Saros 20 Sonic isn’t a great robotic vacuum. It’s just that there are more good robot vacuum mop combos competing with the Roborock in 2026 than in 2025, and a few are more reliable and a few hundred dollars less.