The SwitchBot K10+ Pro robot vacuum may be small and smart, but it's not built for deep cleans

What you look for in the best robot vacuums likely depends on the type of house and equipment you already have.

Whether you're getting a heavy-duty machine or just something for light messes, there's something out there that fits into your lifestyle. The Switchbot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum is definitely the latter there, as it's light and easy to set up, with some very smart tracking.

However, it may let some down who really just want a machine to clean up the cereal they drop on the way to their table in the morning.

After trying the Switchbot K10+ for a few weeks, this is how the robot vacuum fared in everyday testing.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Price and availability

The Switchbot 10+ Pro is available on Amazon for $299, and on its own site.

For just $100 more, though, you can get the SwitchBot K10+ Pro combo, retailing at Amazon for just $399.99. This comes with a built-in stick vacuum, making vacuuming bigger residue much easier.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Setup

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The SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum is very easy to set up, though it has quite a few parts and quite a bit of packaging.

The self-emptying charging station comes fully built, with a few extra parts and spare dust bags. It also comes with a pack to set up the mopping system, should you choose to, though you do have to fit your own dustbag.

Luckily, fitting the dustbag is just a process of slipping a small bit of cardboard into the top of the dustbin and closing the lid. Then simply plug in the station.

The robot vacuum itself is mostly complete in the box, and you merely have to attach the edge-sweeping brush by clicking it into the bottom of the vacuum before you're ready to go.

For the most part, the setup is intuitive and quick. Pop the robot vacuum into the charging station, give it some time to charge, download the Switchbot app, and start the setup process.

This is simply connecting your bot to the WiFi, giving it permission to start tracking your apartment, then letting it do so.

If you don't particularly care about creating a smart home, the setup process stops once you flick the robot vacuum's on switch, but it's also Matter-enabled, which means you can plug it into a smart home hub to control it with an Amazon Echo or any other smart speaker.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Design

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Perhaps, the most noticeable element of the K10+ Pro's design is its small frame. It can fit under chairs and desks easily, and has small bumpers on the side, which encourages it to get right up to the edge of walls before swapping direction.

Additionally, it has a small brush down the bottom which can move small bits of dust and debris for the vacuum to suck up as it goes by.

You can activate a mop mode in the robot vacuum, but it's more or less a glorified disposable wipe that you attach to the bottom of the robot vacuum as it scurries around the apartment.

The vacuum does an okay job with its mopping mechanism if you set it up in a very specific area with a very specific purpose, but it isn't smart enough to figure out which floors to wipe on, and it won't get those big stains either.

The SwitchBot app allows you to turn on the robot vacuum from a distance, and you don't even have to set the path it will follow. The robot vacuum can create its own pathway throughout your house by smartly mapping it.

If you put obstacles in the way or close doors, it will learn to avoid them when they're in the way. It's not a perfect system, mostly due to the vacuum itself occasionally getting stuck.

The smart tracking system is helped by the fact that the dustbin is self-emptying, which means you can effectively set the robot vacuum to go while you're out of the house, and not only will it vacuum, but it will empty itself too. The dustbin in the charging station has to be changed manually every few months, and comes with a handful in the box.

It's a clever system, but it also means there's a little more maintenance required to keep the vacuum up and running over time.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Performance

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The robot vacuum does pretty well over hardwood floor, competently picking up the majority of kitty litter and pet hair I put on the ground. It does take a few runs over the hardwood to get the 92% and 87% figures below, but I only sent the vacuum around the allocated area once.

While the 3000Pa suction power won't get everything immediately, it will decide to rerun over areas throughout a normal vacuum session.

Other than occasionally bumping into a leg, it's not normally too intrusive in a standard run.

A major downside however, is the K10+ Pro runs into problems pretty quickly. For instance, wires can become a problem, with them getting caught in the vacuum's brush.

I became accustomed to listening out for the ping on my phone, alerting me that the vacuum needed some help getting unstuck. Though this is somewhat endearing, it is also rather annoying.

What's more, hair tangles the 'anti-tangle' brush. And while taking out the brush is a pretty easy process, it does mean even more maintenance is required for the smart vacuum.

My final problem with the robot vacuum's performance is that, though it managed to pick up all the Cheerios I put on the floor, the limited capacity of the robot vacuum meant it filled rather quickly. The Cheerios are also a tad too large to come out in the self-emptying process, so I often had to manually remove them over a bin.

On paper, the K10+ Pro gets so much right, and it is genuinely rather clever, but it's too finicky to live up to that Pro moniker. Alongside a proper stick vacuum, I found it cut away some of the manual work but didn't do away with it entirely.

Noise levels
Quiet mode registers around 50 decibels, where the max suction gets up to 70 decibels.

These are pretty decent figures, and it means that I could still watch TV or 'doomscroll' on TikTok while it ran, without it overpowering the little speakers of my smartphone.

Battery life
Battery life is strong, at over one hour, which is more than you will need for many setups.

Though the bracers at the side are good at letting the vacuum move around, it won't stop it from getting stuck, which it will do with some wires or when trying to climb over bumps that are just a little too large.

SwitchBot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Verdict

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Despite doing a decent job, it's a shame the SwitchBot K10+ Pro isn't more than it is. The tracking system is genuinely clever, but wires and obstacles will entirely halt any work it's doing if placed at the wrong angle.

The suction power is strong enough to get most things, but the built-in storage fills up fast, and the anti-tangle brush, annoyingly, gets tangled.

Every great thing in the K10+ Pro has a small caveat, and though it's still a good device for keeping up with the day-to-day messes, dust, and hair, it's not quite self-sufficient enough to really feel smart.

Alongside a vacuuming routine, the K10+ Pro can definitely make it so you vacuum every other day, instead of every day, and that's still a small triumph. It's even better at its regularly reduced price. However, it doesn't really beat out pretty stiff competition at MSRP.