Welcome to Vacuum Wars and to our robot vacuum awards show for mid-2045. We're rolling out the red carpet for robot vacuums that have done exceptionally well in our rigorous testing process over the first half of 2025, and in this video, we'll crown several winners in multiple categories, including best overall robot vacuum. Vacuum Wars tests robot vacuums with a 100-plus point inspection process, and we buy all the products that we review and don't do sponsorships of any kind so that you can trust our picks. You can also always go to the vacuums' top 20 list on our website, which changes every week as we review new products. Let's start off with awards based on pricing, and first up is the best budget category. Robot vacuum prices can vary a lot, and many people just want to know what's the cheapest robot vacuum they can get that's at least decent. The winner of our best budget category is the Yeedi C12. You can get the robot vacuum mop combo itself without the auto-empty bin for about $200 currently, but you can also get the Pro Plus option for about $350, which includes the bagless auto-empty bin. It doesn't have many of the features that the more expensive models do, like obstacle avoidance or a self-washing mop pad station, and its mop pads don't lift up automatically, so you do have to manually attach and remove the mop system when you want to use it in mop mode. But it's good at its basic job of navigation and sweeping up debris from hard floors and carpets, and it's amazing how much more you get for $200 these days compared to a couple of years ago, where robot vacuums in this price range didn't even have smart navigation. The Yeedi C12 is by no means perfect. Its overall rank in our system is currently 43rd, but it is the highest-ranking robot vacuum in its price range. Moving on to the midlevel robot vacuum category, which is any vacuum between $400 and $699, but in this case, I will also announce the best value robot vacuum category and the fan favorite category, which is based on Amazon reviews. Because the same robot vacuum won all three of these categories, the winner of the best midlevel, best value, and fan favorite category is the MOVA P10 Pro Ultra. The MOVA P10 Pro Ultra did great in our tests, but probably the most notable thing about it was how much you get for the price. For example, this is the first robot vacuum we've seen in this price range that has all the new features that have become standard for the expensive flagships—things like obstacle avoidance, a multi-functional dock that washes and dries its mop pads, and refills its tank. It's currently ranking number six overall on the Vacuum Wars top 20 list, and that's the highest a robot vacuum in this price range has ever ranked. Let's move on to some specialty awards, which are given out to robot vacuums that show excellence in a certain area. And first off is the best mop category. We test robot vacuum mop systems in a variety of ways, including our dried-on stain test, which is based on how fast it clears stains of varying levels of difficulty. We also measure the amounts of liquid left behind, which we found to be a good predictor of streaks. We also take into account the various mopping-related features that a robot vacuum has, all of which is added up to give it a mop score. The winner of the best robot vacuum mop is the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. The X9 is Ecovacs's latest and greatest model, and it was impressive in many ways. And although it did have the highest mop score out of any robot vacuum we've ever tested with its roller-style mop pad, I think the real story is Ecovacs in general, who took four out of the top five spots for best mopping performance. The next category is obstacle avoidance. About five years ago, robot vacuums started coming out with front-mounted obstacle avoidance sensors, which are meant to help robots recognize and avoid household objects that they would otherwise run over. We do five different obstacle avoidance tests to come up with our rankings in this category, and the winner of the best obstacle avoidance is the Roborock Saros 10R. Roborock was the first and still the only robot vacuum we've tested to get a perfect score in our tests. It uses what Roborock calls "Starsight Navigation," which includes time-of-flight technology, as well as a vertical light beam and an RGB camera. And though it was perfect in our testing, I can tell you from personal experience with the Roborock Saros 10R that it's a long way from perfect in the real world. Obstacle avoidance on robots is an area that is certainly improving, but it's still not quite reliable in all situations. The next category is most innovative. This is a robot vacuum with the most groundbreaking new technology in the past year, and though there have been a lot of new features introduced this year, there was one in particular that really stood out, and the winner is the Roborock Saros Z70. The Z70 has a five-axis arm that will pop out when it sees certain types of objects, and it will bring them to a space that you define in the app to organize the clutter. And though our tests with the Saros Z70 showed that it only worked with certain types of objects and only about half the time, it was certainly a new and fun feature and deserving of recognition. The next two categories are best for hard floors and best for carpets. For hard floors, we take into account their pickup ability, of course, but also tests like the crevice pickup test and their mopping ability. For carpets, on the other hand, we take into account their carpet deep clean test, where we see how good the robot is at picking up deeply embedded debris like sand in carpets, as well as the flattened 2.5-inch pet hair pickup test, which shows how good the brush is at getting hair very close to the surface of carpets. And interestingly, the same robot vacuum won both the hard floor and carpet categories this year, and the winner is the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. Once again, the new flagship from Ecovacs wins. In this case, it's partly due to the new blast system, which Ecovacs has added to most of its latest premium robots, which dramatically increases the airflow, which is an important metric for robot vacuums. The X9, for example, had 27 CFM of airflow in our tests, which is one of the highest numbers we've ever seen. But it's also just a well-designed robot vacuum that makes it a solid sweeper on both surface types. The next category is best for pets, which is a combination of several scores, such as the various hair tests that we do, including the 7-inch hair tangle test, as well as the carpet deep clean test and obstacle avoidance tests. But this category also takes into account if they have special pet-related features, like pet checkup in the app. And the winner of the best robot vacuum for pets is the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni, again, with its various pet features and top 10 pet hair scores, as well as a significantly above-average obstacle avoidance score. It took this category easily. Before we get to the best overall winner, I want to announce the runner-up. This is the robot that's currently ranking number two on the Vacuum Wars top 20 list, and interestingly, it has yet to get its own individual award so far in this video. The runner-up winner is the Ecovacs T80 Omni The T80 for context, sells for about $400 less than the Ecovacs X9, which we've heard so much about so far in this video. The T80 has many of the same features as the X9, and it probably could have gotten a lot higher in the scoring, but during our testing, it kept getting stuck in our test area, which may have been a fluke or operator error on our part. But it was consistent enough for us to dock some points. And now, finally, it's time to announce the overall winner of the best robot vacuum for mid-2025. And the robot currently ranking number one on the Vacuum Wars top 20 list by a huge margin, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. You probably guessed it based on the other awards, but the X9 is by far the best robot vacuum we've seen this year. But one of the most interesting stories to me is the way that Ecovacs has dominated this year with its new lineup. For example, the number two overall right now is the Ecovacs T80, and the Ecovacs T50 Max Pro and T50 Pro are ranking number five and seven overall. Ecovacs is one of the oldest manufacturers of robot vacuums in the industry, but this is the first time I can say that they have truly surpassed Roborock as the brand to beat, with the X9 leading the way. Links in the description to all the robot vacuums I've mentioned here, as well as a link to the Vacuum Wars top 20 list, and be sure to subscribe to Vacuum Wars before you leave. And thanks for watching. All of the links in the description are updated regularly to reflect our current favorite vacuums in multiple categories. You'll also find links to the Vacuum Wars website in the description, where we have more detailed lists of our favorite products, like our new top 20 robot vacuums list, which is updated weekly.