It vacuums, washes and cleans itself. And that’s not all: thanks to artificial intelligence, it recognizes objects, people, animals and is even able to “welcome home” to our children, as well as allowing us – even when we are not at home – to wander around the rooms and check what happens through his “eye”. It’s the Jet Bot Combo AIwith which Samsung renews its most advanced model of robot cleaner with charging base. We had the opportunity to test it for a few weeks.
The charging base
From the moment you open the package, it seems clear that – compared to similar products – Samsung focuses on design. The Jet Bot Combo AI is solid and refined, thanks to the elegant alternation of black and white. Two essential features for such a bulky product. With its 45 centimeters wide, in fact, the charging base it is impressive, especially considering that the sensors that allow the robot to return to the base require that an area of 50 centimeters per side be left free. Difficult to hide it, in short. Beyond its appearance, the base is functional, with two large water tanks (3.6 liters for the dirty one, 4 liters for the clean one) and a dust bag that allow numerous uses before having to empty them and recharge.
Artificial intelligence and steam
The strong point of the Jet Bot Combo AI is certainly theartificial intelligencecapable of recognizing environments and objects, but above all of calibrating cleaning based on surfaces and degree of dirt. The robot is even able to recognize if there are carpets in the house and remove the mops if they have long pile or simply lift them if they have short pile. We tested this function successfully, even though the device sometimes lifted the vinyl carpet in the kitchen. And then there’s the steam. The one used to sanitize the two rotating cloths after cleaning, not limiting themselves to washing them only with water – as the competitors do -. The anti-tangle brush is also excellent and actually never got stuck in the month of testing, despite the presence of long hair in the house.
The map, monitoring of the house and children
There are many sensors present both on the robot and on the charging base. Among these, the one for 3D which recognizes objects and creates the map and the LIDAR one – the same used on self-driving cars – to move around environments. Added to this is a camera thanks to which the map was accurate both in the design of the rooms and in the recognition of furniture and obstacles.
But not only that. The robot can also partially replace the video surveillance of the apartment, since it also allows you to remotely monitor the house, animals and even children. Even the “Child safety” function allows you to ask the robot to position itself in a certain point at a certain time and activate the camera to monitor your children. Excellent, for example, if you want to be sure that the little ones in the house have returned from school. And what about video notifications in case of abnormal movements when you are not at home?
Also interesting are the “Pet Care” functions, which allow you not only to monitor your pets on video, but also to monitor how many times your dog barks or even play music to keep you company.
The app
To manage everything, all you need is SmartThings, the Samsung app designed for the entire ecosystem of IoT appliances. Entirely in Italian (and well translated, which is not so obvious), it is quite simple and intuitive to use. It allows you to manage both the maps (for example by indicating the type of floor or setting virtual walls) and the type of cleaning (personalizing the level of suction or wetting of the cloth room by room, programming routines, etc.), as well as access the monitoring settings we talked about, choose lights and sounds (yes, because the robot “speaks” and has the integrated Bixby voice assistant), check if maintenance is needed, and so on. The function that allows you to keep track of the passage of the robot in real time and the history of the cleaning carried out is nice.
Cleaning and maintenance
As already mentioned, the mapping was immediately quite precise and it was almost unnecessary to modify it by hand: the robot recognized the different environments, but also the type of rooms. During the test, the Jet Bot Combo Ai never got stuck, despite the presence of dangling chargers in the house, toys and books left around by the little girl. In this regard, we appreciated the function that allows you to ask him to pass through the missed areas after removing the obstacles.
The level of cleanliness is good, thanks also to the 6000 pa of suction. The Jet Bot Combo AI in fact passed the “food test” quite well: the rice thrown from the high chair was almost completely collected on the first pass and above all it was not scattered around the room, a sign that the brushes are functional. No problems even around the legs of the chairs, under the sofa (despite the Lidar turret) and on the carpets. Not even the base of the stools stopped him, since he can climb to heights of just a few centimeters.
As with other products of this type, one of the strong points is certainly maintenance. At the end of cleaning (or in the case of dirty mops or a full tank), the robot empties itself into the charging base, where the clothes are washed and sanitized with steam. All automatically and without the intervention of the user, who is only asked – from time to time – to fill the clean water tank, empty and wash the dirty water tank and – even more rarely – empty the waste bag. dry residue in which dust and hair converge. Battery has never been a problem. Both because for an average-sized home the 180 minutes of autonomy declared are more than sufficient, and because the presence of the charging base and the AI means that the robot manages timing and recharging on its own.
What we liked
The Jet Bot Combo AI is certainly an excellent product, which vacuums even more complicated dirt such as crumbs and hair well and really cleans the floors (it even managed to remove traces of crayons on the parquet). It’s accurate and I’ve never had to retrieve it around the house. Not having to do major maintenance is a significant added value. Furthermore, it is quite silent during cleaning and it was possible to use it even with the baby sleeping or while watching a film. The monitoring functions are really interesting. The unique app for the Samsung ecosystem is definitely an advantage if you have other products from the brand.
What we didn’t like
On the other hand, emptying the dust is a little too noisy. Washing clothes also takes a long time (although justified by the sanitization times). Furthermore, the round shape and the cloths that do not extend outwards leave the edges along the cleaning perimeter unwashed.
Finally, the charging base is rather bulky, which makes it not suitable for all environments.
The price
The Jet Bot Combo AI sold on the Samsung website for 1599 euros. Certainly a demanding price, but in line with the top of the range products in the sector.