Shark Matrix Review

Welcome to Vacuum Wars and our review of the new Shark Matrix self-empty Robot Vacuum. We put it through all kinds of tests over a few weeks’ time. In this article, we’ll review all the results of those tests and show how the Shark Matrix stacks up against its most likely competitor, the Roomba i3+ EVO. 

The Shark RV2310AE Matrix is a LiDAR-based robot vacuum, meaning that it uses a spinning laser to map and then navigate around your house. As we’ll see later, it did this very efficiently.

LiDAR and Auto-Empty Bin

The Shark Matrix comes with an auto-empty dust bin. When the robot returns to its dock to recharge, it will automatically empty the contents of its dust bin into a bagless bin. Shark is one of the few manufacturers that do bagless auto-empty bins, which is a pro in and of itself.

Shark has priced the Matrix quite low. It’s one of the cheapest robot vacuums out there with both LiDAR and an auto-empty bin. Even though the Roomba i3 doesn’t have LiDAR but uses a less accurate floor tracking system for its navigation, it’s still probably the Shark’s closest natural competitor due to the lower price on the Shark.

Suction and Airflow

Starting off with performance, this is where the Shark Matrix really shined. In the bench test that we do, where we test things like suction and airflow, it was well above average. 

…we think that the Shark Matrix is Shark’s best-performing robot vacuum yet in terms of power, carpet, and hard floor performance, and navigation. It’s an excellent value for its price.

Crevice and Carpet Deep Clean Test

This power showed up in the crevice pickup test where it did significantly better than the Roomba i3+. The Shark Matrix also did extremely well with the carpet deep clean test, where it scored more than robot vacuums two or even three times its price. 

The Shark was also really good with debris pickup on the surfaces of hard floors and carpets. While this is something that both the Shark and the Roomba did well at, as it is sort of the main job of a robot vacuum, we were really impressed with the Shark’s sweeping ability. We think it’s the best pickup test we’ve seen from a Shark robot vacuum yet.

Navigation Tests

Moving on to the navigation tests. In our new navigation test, we run each robot vacuum several times on a fixed floor plan in different modes and on different power settings. The Shark Matrix does have a fast mapping mode and it mapped our 350 square foot area in a little over five minutes, compared to the Roomba i3 which took 26 minutes.

We also measured their navigation efficiency, meaning how fast a robot cleaned an area as well as how many square feet it covered during that time. The Shark covered about 15 percent more area than the Roomba and did so about 28 percent faster. So, the LiDAR navigation really seemed to make a difference here for the Shark.

Battery Efficiency

We also measure battery efficiency during these tests. We found that the Roomba on its one power setting got an average of 1.41 minutes of run time per battery life percentage point, and the Shark got slightly less when its three power levels were averaged at 1.29 minutes per percentage point.

But even though the Roomba had better battery efficiency, it wasn’t enough to make up for its less efficient navigation. So, the math works out to the Roomba i3 being able to get 820 square feet per charge versus one 1,000 square feet per charge on the Shark Matrix.

Take those numbers with a grain of salt, since there are so many variables. In any case, they both have a feature called recharge and resume, where if its battery does run out, it will simply return to its base, recharge, and then resume right where it left off on the map.

Features

The final category is features, and here we should talk about the Matrix mode on the Shark since it is what this Shark model is named after. This is basically a mode that can only be activated in its spot cleaning or room cleaning mode. Instead of its usual back-and-forth pattern, it will clean in a cross-hatch or matrix pattern instead, and we’re pretty sure it does so on max power as well.

Deeper Cleaning

The idea of the Matrix mode is that it can be used in heavy traffic areas which have a tendency to be more soiled, like around cat litter boxes or door entryways. It does seem to work pretty well, but it really is only for spot cleaning. You can’t even make the target area bigger on the map, so it is minimally useful, in our opinion.

Speaking of the app, Shark does have some high-end features like no-go lines on the app to keep it from going places that you don’t want it to go, which is nice, especially since the Roomba i3+ EVO does not have that feature. Both do have room cleaning and zone cleaning though, as well as lots of scheduling options.

Anti-Hair Wrap

The Shark Matrix also has an anti-hair wrap brush roll, which is basically little comb-like structures that actively remove hair from its brush roll. We think Shark must have a patent for this, since we don’t see this on other robot vacuums.

While we love this feature on Shark’s upright and cordless vacuums, we’ve never really noticed that much of a difference with it on robot vacuums.

Verdict

In conclusion, we think that the Shark Matrix is Shark’s best-performing robot vacuum yet in terms of power, carpet, and hard floor performance, and navigation. It’s an excellent value for its price. In our scoring system, it beat out the Roomba i3+ EVO without any trouble.

Specs

	Shark Matrix
Model Number	RV2310AE
Dust Bin Capacity	0.2 qt / 0/19 L
Navigation	LiDAR
Auto-Empty Bin	Included
Cleaning Path Width	5.7 in
Google Assistant Compatible	Yes
Amazon Alexa Compatible	Yes
Cleaning Path Width	5.7 in
Dimensions	13.4 in x 13.4 in x 4.2 in
Weight	13.2 lbs
Warranty	1 Year