Roborock Q5 Review

The Q5 scores well in most metrics we tested. Frankly, even if money were no object, we may well prefer it to the more expensive models in our lineup. Roborock has really dialed things in, and the new Q5 is the culmination of all its experience as an industry-leading vacuum creator.

Performance Comparison

Navigation

A robot vacuum's overall utility lives or dies with its navigation ability, which is why this metric is weighted highest among everything we test for, at 30% of the overall score. This is a strength of Roborock as a brand, and the Q5 is ranked among the best we've seen.

If your vacuum is consistently missing certain spots around furniture, ignoring no-go zones, or constantly overlaying its saved maps with a skewed floor plan, then what is meant to replace a household chore becomes a chore in and of itself. Luckily, the Roborock Q5 is one of the smarter vacuums out there for a variety of reasons.

It's especially thorough around table and chair legs; with very few spots missed. The Q5 is noticeably gentle approaching and dancing around these features too. Even with lidar, many vacuums essentially ram everything they see as an obstacle, almost as a secondary confirmation that it's truly something to be navigated and not a plush dog toy or something that needs to be pushed aside. The Q5 was more graceful generally, and even better, we noticed that it constantly updates its map in real-time. You can watch on the app when someone walks across the room or moves a chair. The Q5 updates its plan immediately and changes course as needed.

Roborock products seem to be better than average at returning to their dock once finished or recharging in the middle of a particularly large session. It hardly bumped into anything and found the obvious, most efficient route home.

One thing we do have to mention is that it did not do well in our poo-avoidance test. Very few robot vacuums do, but if you're a pet owner that sees a lot of accidents, this is a critical point to be aware of. Our Play-Doh analog was not detected at all — the Q5 pushed right through without a care in the world.

Home Coverage

The Q5's layout algorithm is one of the more consistent we've tested in hitting those little nooks and crannies that are easy to miss. As with most robot vacuums, it starts with a perimeter sweep of each room, then hits the interior with a sweep of parallel lines. The Q5's map is accurate, and once it has a map saved, it will run through the space confidently. It'll even speed up where it knows there's a wide open space. It's multi-level map-saving feature was pretty reliable as well. It automatically detects what room it's in, so the Q5 shouldn't need babysitting beyond its first training on each floor.

Virtual barriers and no-go zones on the app were easy to set up, intuitive, and effective. We never saw it drift over a barrier. Another subtle feature that we loved was that the rectangle zones could be rotated. Setting a specific angle to match a unique floor cutout is an obvious function to build in, but it is not common among the Q5's competitors.

Single room and spot cleaning modes were also effective. Hitting edges in these modes were surprisingly hit or miss, but overall we can't complain as its coverage is similarly great as in the full floor mode.

Carpet Cleaning

Carpet, especially high-pile fluffy carpet, is often the nemesis of an otherwise successful robot vacuum. Not so with the Roborock Q5. It received top scores among all vacuums tested.

We tested rice, oatmeal, mini-wheats, and flour on both short and high pile carpeting. Performance is always better on short pile carpet, but the fluffy stuff is where many vacuums just can't cut it. On both carpets, the Q5 picked up at or above 95% of our standard-sized debris (rice and oatmeal), as measured by weight. Though, with the flour, we had to take multiple passes.

Other than the flour tests, the only thing we weren't thrilled about was that the rotating arm tended to fling the larger items (namely: mini-wheats) around instead of corralling them. Though when all was said and done, the stats did not lie: this is one of the best carpet-performing robot vacuums we've put through our rigorous tests.

Hard Surface Cleaning

Performance-wise, hardwood, tile, and linoleum are usually a robot vacuum's best surfaces. They're designed for the proper clearance on hard surfaces, and like the carpet tests, the Q5 was near-perfect with picking up rice and oatmeal. Some mini-wheats were handled just fine, but some were just big enough to be pushed around instead of sucked up. It's not unexpected, but some options do this better than the Q5, so we have to mention it.

Again though, flour was the poor performer here. Noticeable streaks were left in the center of each pass, and a clear pattern shows where the side-arm attempts to sweep enthusiastically towards the center rollers.

Pet Hair

Like flour, pet hair cleaning was just OK with the Q5. It picked up 43% of our test amount, but you can set up the programming to attack a space with a cross-hatch pattern to help unstuck some more embedded hairs in the carpet from another angle. Still, you'll want to run the Q5 more often than usual for shedding season.

Another thing to be aware of is that the roller in this model gets really clogged with that hair. Some vacuums, like Roomba's lineup, have rubber fin-only rollers, which this doesn't happen with. We like the Q5 a lot, but if you have some longer-haired companions running around, be ready to clean out the roller more frequently.

Convenience

Some higher end models have what we call a "tower" — an advanced dock that will clean out a vacuum's on-board debris catch, so you only have to empty it every few months or so. We tested the Q5 base model, with just a charging dock, and we think that the 0.47L capacity bin is quite good for an option in this price range. There is an option to upgrade to a tower dock for a couple extra hundred bucks, dubbed the Q5+. It's up to you to decide if that extra is worth it, and it may well be.

Where the Q5 really shines is through the features available in the app. There are all the standard components like no-go zone programming and spot cleans. But Roborock did get fancy in a few more nuanced options. You can set different suction settings for different rooms (for example, to run quietly down a hallway at night when you're sleeping). The multi-story memory is also worth mentioning; this isn't especially common and can be finicky in other brands. You can also set up your schedules to run a space up to three times in a row (i.e., with a pet hair disaster zone).

We really liked the 3D map feature as well. This isn't something we've seen before, and it helps in finding a lost or trapped unit or in setting up barriers where a traditional blueprint layout may be confusing.

Should You Buy the Roborock Q5?

We think the Q5 is the bees knees. It's one of the best options from Roborock. That makes this offering a really good value, and we think it's appropriate for almost every type of consumer out there.

What Other Robot Vacuum Should You Consider?