iRobot’s Roomba Combo j7+ doesn’t just suck

When the robot uprising comes, the survival of the human race will depend on finding their one big weakness. If the ground assault is led by weaponised robot vacuum cleaners we should be able to claim victory simply by going upstairs, but even in today’s battle between you and your dirty floors, ‘bots that can both suck and mop usually have one big drawback: they require human intervention to switch between the two modes.

iRobot’s Roomba Combo j7+ is different, with a mop that automatically retracts when it detects carpet, so you can just carry on playing FIFA 23 and leave it to get on with the job. The pad is attached to two metal arms, which lift it up and stow it on top of the robot to make sure it doesn’t make a mess on your carpet.

iRobot has taught the Combo j7+ to recognise 80 common household objects, from toilets and tables to towels and turds, so not only will it divert itself around obstacles but you can use Alexa or Google Assistant to tell it to focus on a particular part of the house. It’ll also empty itself into the charging base’s built-in bin, so you don’t even have to stop what you’re doing when it’s full of muck.

So even if it does eventually turn on you and make you do its bidding instead, at least you’ll begin your new life of enslavement with nice clean floors. If you fancy trying to get on its good side before that happens, the Roomba Combo j7+ is available now for £999.

About

Stuff's other Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.