It’s no exaggeration to say that if you pitted every other vacuum cleaner manufacturer’s engineering prowess against Roborock alone, the latter would come out on top. That’s exactly the impression the Saros Rover gives, which Roborock has just unveiled at CES 2026.
First spotted by CNET, this robot vacuum can literally climb stairs and clean them as it goes. I use the word “literally” because we’ve seen stair-climbing attempts before at IFA 2025, where Dreame and Eufy (with Marswalker and CyberX models, respectively) introduced similar tech. However, those either required an external platform or remained conceptual, and none could actually clean the stairs themselves during ascent.
The Saros Rover is different. It features actual legs, not treads or a simple lift system. These legs are directly attached to the body, with no external add-ons needed. From a design standpoint, the Saros Rover has its core unit paired with these two legs that deploy to wedge the body up onto the next step, then draw up behind it for the next move. It handles traditional, curved, and carpeted stairs (including those with bullnose fronts), plus multi-level thresholds and inclines.
Demos at CES showed it climbing multiple times without issues, even cleaning each step along the way, something competitors still can’t match. That said, it’s not lightning-fast. It takes about 30–40 seconds to climb roughly five large steps, making it quite slow (more sloth-like than speedy). It’s an early prototype, so minor stumbles happened, but overall, it performed impressively.
Beyond stairs, the Saros Rover can hop over obstacles, rise on its wheel-legs for better maneuverability (giving it near-human reach, lift, and height), dodge fast-moving objects (like thrown tennis balls simulating pets/kids), make sudden stops and turns, and even dance in synced demos with other Saros models. I believe the latter part is a gimmick for CES only.
While the quirky, leggy design isn’t exactly drool-worthy, practicality is what counts here, and Roborock has delivered a true breakthrough in mobility and obstacle handling that leaves most robot vacuums in the dust. Making it mightier is its 35,000 Pa suction power and a dual spinning mop system. To prevent cross-contamination or soggy carpets, the Roborock Saros 20 can detach and lift its mop while the main brushroll vacuums. For mop-only runs, it does the opposite, keeping debris from being dragged.
Roborock hasn’t confirmed a release date yet, but we expect it to hit the market well before this year’s Black Friday. There is no clarity on the price either, but based on Saros Z10, we expect it to cost well above $2,500.
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