Roborock S8 Pro Ultra vs S7 Max Ultra vs Q Revo – Which is Best?

Today, we’ll compare three of Roborock’s most popular robot vacuum and mop combos: the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra vs S7 Max Ultra vs Q Revo. We own all three and have put them through extensive tests over the past few months.

In this review and comparison, we’ll go over their similarities and differences, and give you our opinions about which one we would recommend and why. The three are listed below in order of least to most expensive.

S8 Pro Ultra vs S7 Max Ultra vs Q Revo

First, let’s discuss the basics. The Q Revo is the least expensive of these three, and the S8 Pro Ultra is the most expensive. They all come in two different color options, black or white, typically sold at the same price.

One quick note is that the S7 Max Ultra has replaced the S7 MaxV Ultra, which seems to have been discontinued.

The new S7 Max Ultra is primarily different because Roborock did away with the camera used in its obstacle avoidance system, opting for a structured light system like on the Q Revo and S8 Pro Ultra instead. We’ll talk more about that a bit later.

All three models are very similar and very good at basic tasks like picking up various types and sizes of debris on hard floors and carpets. We tested all three with fine debris, various types of cereal and pet litter and didn’t see any major differences.

They all have similar hardware for vacuuming, including an adjustable brush housing and a single side brush for sweeping.

The more expensive S8 Pro Ultra does have two main brush rollers, whereas the Q Revo and S7 Max Ultra only have one. However, in our tests, we didn’t find this to be much of an advantage for the S8.

The S8 Pro Ultra also has slightly more suction power according to Roborock. All three have advanced mopping functionality but they go about mopping in slightly different ways.

Basically the Q Revo, S7 Max Ultra and S8 Pro Ultra all have just about every feature you could want in a robot vacuum app. And, there are no significant feature differences in the software between these three models.

Mopping

For example, the Q Revo has two spinning mop pads that also apply downward pressure to provide scrubbing action. Both Eufy and Ecovacs have used similar systems in the past, such as the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni we recently reviewed.

The S7 Max Ultra and the S8 Pro Ultra use a completely different setup.

Both have a single flat mopping pad that vibrates as it applies downward pressure. The only notable difference between the two are that the S8 Pro Ultra has two places on the pad that vibrate, whereas the S7 Max Ultra only has one.

RELATED: See our iRobot comparison of the Roomba Combo j9+ vs j7+ vs j5+ vs i5+!

All three also feature mop pads that automatically raise when the robot senses carpet. This is a pretty big deal because for the first time combo robot vacuums like these can mop and vacuum a floorplan with hard floors and carpet in a single cleaning run.

This makes them much more efficient than robots that require two cleaning runs, one to vacuum and one to mop. One difference here, though, is that the Q Revo’s pads lift slightly higher than the others (7mm versus 5mm).

We’ve tried various ways to test these robots’ mopping ability. We do torture tests where we have each robot mop dried-on stains like grape juice and coffee.

All three models mopped up every stain we tested them against without any problem, which is quite impressive.

Despite using different mopping methods, we can’t say that one is superior to the others.

Ultra Docks

All three models have Ultra docks, which are charging docks where the robot automatically empties its dustbin into a disposable bag. These docks also wash the robot’s mop pads.

The S7 Max Ultra and the S8 Pro Ultra have a mechanism in the dock that moves back and forth to wash the mopping pad, while the Q Revo spins its pads over a raised plastic surface in the bin.

The used water is drained into a dirty water tank in both cases. In the Roborock App you can control how often the robots return to the dock to wash their pads during a cleaning run.

All three models also have built-in heaters that blow warm air on the mopping pads after each run for sanitation purposes. It’s hard to say which dock design is better as we haven’t had issues with any of them, though the Q Revo design does have fewer moving parts, which could be considered an advantage.

Navigation

All three robots map and navigate in a very similar way. All three use a LiDAR system on top of the robot and have quick mapping. Using that feature the S7 Max, S8 Pro and Q Revo were all able to map our test home in about five minutes.

We perform a number of navigation tests where we run each robot on the same floorplan several times on different power settings. The result was that they were all significantly above average for navigation efficiency and coverage.

Battery Life

All three robots have almost identical battery specifications and according to our tests and calculations they can all cover about 1,200 to 1,500 square feet per charge, which is above average, even for robots in this price range.

Obstacle Avoidance

One area where they differ significantly is their obstacle avoidance systems. Different from the robot’s navigation, these systems are made up of sensors on the front of the robot which help them avoid household objects other robots would get stuck on.

The S8 Pro Ultra has a slightly upgraded version of these sensors, combining lasers on the side and a light. It performed better in our obstacle avoidance tests, followed by the S7 Max Ultra and then the Q Revo.

We’re not really sure why the Q Revo performed as poorly as it did. Based on what we can tell, it uses the same obstacle avoidance sensors as the S8 Pro Ultra. One possibility is that it might have a less powerful processor than the top-of-the-line S8 Pro Ultra.

When a firmware update was recently made available we did update the Q Revo and test it again. But, we go the same result. If obstacle avoidance is important to you, the takeaway is that the most expensive model, the S8 Pro Ultra has a notably better obstacle avoidance system.

The S7 Max Ultra follows not far behind and the worst performer in the group is the Q Revo.

Features

One area where all three Roborocks are very similar is with their apps and features. All three use Roborocks excellent app. It is easy to use and packed with the very best features in the industry.

A few app features worth note include:

• Multi-Level Mapping
• Virtual Barriers
• Zone Cleaning
• Room Cleaning
• 3D Mapping
• Advanced Scheduling
• Carpet Boost
• Suction Power Level Adjustment
• Mop Intensity and Waterflow

Basically the Q Revo, S7 Max Ultra and S8 Pro Ultra all have just about every feature you could want in a robot vacuum app. And, there are no significant feature differences in the software between these three models.

All three models mopped up every stain we tested them against without any problem, which is quite impressive.

Our Recommendations

So, what are our recommendations? We think it will be hard for the average user to notice much difference between the S8 Pro Ultra, S7 Max Ultra and Q Revo in terms of the way they clean your house or level of automation provided.

If the obstacle avoidance system on the Q Revo were better, it would be an easy recommendation due to its lower price and the fact that it had the best performance scores (although it was close).

To us, the only advantage of the S8 Pro Ultra is its better obstacle avoidance system. The S7 Max Ultra is the middle child, right in between the other two in every possible way.

We’ve listed the three Roborock options below by price from least to most expensive.

As far as making your choice, these three represent the state of the art in the robot vacuum world, and you can’t really go wrong with any of them.

Roborock Models in this Comparison – Least to Most Expensive

Specs: S8 Pro Ultra vs S7 Max Ultra vs Q Revo

	Q Revo	S7 Max Ultra	S8 Pro Ultra
Navigation	LiDAR	LiDAR	LiDAR
Quick Mapping	Yes	Yes	Yes
Obstacle Avoidance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mopping	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mop Type	2 Spinning Pads	1 Vibrating Pad	1 Vibrating Pad
Mop Lifting	Yes, 7mm	Yes, 5mm	Yes, 5mm
Brushroll	1	1	2
Self-Empty	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mop Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mop Pad Drying	Yes	Yes	Yes
Side Brush	1	1	1
Suction	5500Pa	5500Pa	6000Pa
Battery	5200mAh	5200mAh	5200mAh
Max Run Time	180 min	180 min	180 min
Colors	Black, White	Black, White	Black, White
Where to Buy	Amazon	Amazon	Amazon