We’ve just had our first official look at DJI’s first robot vacuum – and I have questions

A few days ago, we got our first official look at the DJI Romo – the brand’s first foray into robot vacuums – and the more information I get about this surprising new addition to the DJI lineup, the more intrigued I am about how it’s going to shape up when it comes to launch.

It certainly looks cool. Both the video clip shared by tech leaker Igor Bogdanov (aka @Quadro_News) and the teaser trailer DJI leaker @JasperEllens show the curvy dock with a transparent plastic cover – and if you look closer, you can see that the bot itself appears to have a clear lid too. It’s an unusual design choice and one that’ll certainly stand out against competitor models, even if I do have my concerns about how pristine-looking that it’ll remain over time (perhaps it’s good that DJI seems to be offering a version that doesn’t have its insides on show as an alternative).

What’s particularly interesting is that this peek inside the dock doesn’t reveal any water tanks. Almost all of the best robot vacuums have mopping capabilities these days. You don’t need a water tank in the dock in order for the bot itself to be able to mop – some models will just have a small integrated reservoir onboard. However, these tend to be the cheaper, more basic robovacs.

Mid-range bots will often have a clean water tank in the dock, and refill the onboard reservoir automatically. Shift into the premium category and you can expect an additional dirty water tank, and automatic mop-washing capabilities. Unless there are some tanks tucked out of sight, it looks like the Romo won’t offer either.

I guess mopping and self-cleaning tech aren’t areas that DJI would naturally have expertise in. The brand is known for making pretty much all of the best drones on the market, and there’s no crossover there. That’s in contrast to, say, navigation and object avoidance tech, which is vital in both drones and robot vacuums. I’d expect the Romo’s navigation skills to be top-tier.

A premium proposition?

We don’t have pricing information for the DJI Romo yet, but I had assumed DJI would be positioning its debut robovac as a premium choice, with features and specs to match.

That might not be be the case. We do have precedent for a huge brand trying to make waves in the robot vacuum market with a relatively basic model: Dyson and its 360 Vis Nav. It wasn’t Dyson’s first-ever robovac, but it was a major launch in this area, and seven years in the making. In this case, Dyson offered limited capabilities – no mopping to speak of, and no automatic dust emptying either – but decided to stick with a premium price tag anyway.

Dyson is a firmly premium brand, so that wasn’t necessarily a surprise (although it does usually do more to justify its lofty pricing). With DJI, things are more up in the air… no pun intended. On the one hand we have the Amflow, DJI’s first and only ebike, which is very much a premium proposition.

However, the drones it’s known for range from ultra-cheap (in its Ryze Tello line) to extremely high-end, but the constant throughout is that they’re always great value for money, often undercutting similarly-specced rivals. (I asked TechRadar Cameras Editor and resident drone expert Tim Coleman for his take and he said, “I would expect whatever price Romo is, it’ll be excellent value. This is the DJI way.”)

So the jury’s out on where the Romo might sit in the market. We might not have too long to wait to find out either way. The latest teaser trailer suggests the DJI Romo will launch on August 6. That would be in China – I expect the Romo might take a while to make its way overseas to the UK, and US launch is very uncertain given the potential US ban on DJI drones. But that’s a whole separate issue…

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