Dreame X50 Ultra Complete review: the vacuum and mop robot that climbs steps

The Dreame X50 Ultra Complete is a vacuum and mop robot that literally steps ahead of the competition with a few features. I tried out how it cleans my apartment, and I will tell you which points of criticism to keep in mind when buying.

What’s in the box and setup

The name “Complete” has a reason: besides the robot vacuum and the cleaning and emptying station, the box contains cleaning solution, three spare filters, six spare sets for the mop pads, two spare small brushes, another main brush and four dust bags. You will not have to buy anything extra for the foreseeable future.

Setup is as simple as it gets: plug in the base station and switch it on, download the Dreame Home app, and you are guided through the setup. The app offers a great many settings for cleaning mode, intensity and AI detection. It is fairly clear, but you sometimes have to click through a bit. The translation leaves something to be desired now and then, but you always know what is meant. After that, the robot creates a map of the apartment that is noticeably more detailed and accurate than with other robot vacuums I have tested.

The game changer: legs for climbing

Small steps or sliding door rails used to be insurmountable for normal robot vacuums. The X50 Ultra can step over obstacles like that. It extends its legs to do so: at the same time for steps up to 4 cm, or one after the other, which looks like it is climbing, for up to 6 cm, for example rails to the conservatory. More than 6 cm is not possible, and it still cannot get up real stairs with several steps.

AI object detection and camera

To detect steps and obstacles and to create the map, it uses an RGB camera on the front and AI-assisted laser detection in the navigation tower. With that it recognizes up to 200 types of objects on the floor and tells apart dirt it is supposed to remove from objects it has to drive around. Dirt detection also adapts the cleaning:

• Pasty dirt such as food leftovers it drives around, because it would damage the brushes and the inner workings.
• Wet dirt such as spilled milk or coffee it does not vacuum, but mops relatively dry, twice instead.
• Dried dirt such as shoe prints on tiles it mops more intensively.

The laser navigation tower is retractable. This way the robot also cleans under the couch, the bed and the living room cabinet, and you do not have to go over it again with the vacuum cleaner.

The camera can also monitor your home. When you are away, you start it through the app and steer the robot to where you want to check, for example to the kids or the pet. A cool feature for checking in on things from afar.

Cleaning performance

With up to 20,000 Pa of suction power, the X50 Ultra is among the strongest robot vacuums on the market. The suction performance is really good. I am a dog owner, and anyone with a furry friend knows it: the hair is everywhere. That is why I would pay attention to the brush when buying. The main brush of the X50 Ultra combines bristles and rubber so that no hair gets tangled. With me and my dog Merlin, nothing has gotten tangled so far.

• Corners and gaps: A side arm extends automatically. The mops can also be extended, and the robot turns its rear end so that the mop gets all the way into the corner or into the gap under the fridge. That is a real killer feature. The same can be set up for chair and table legs.
• Lifting: Depending on the surface and the dirt, the main brush, side arm and mops can be lifted by up to 10 mm, the mops over carpets for example. For high-pile carpets, you can set in the app that it drops the mops completely so the fibers do not get wet.
• The AI detection of carpets and dirt works reliably.

The cleaning station

The base station sucks dirt and dust into the dust bag. With a mopping robot, this is what I would pay special attention to: the mops are washed with 80-degree hot water, which is hygienic and keeps the robot from turning into a germ spreader. The washing board has 20 high-pressure nozzles and cleans itself. The mops are also dried with hot air and irradiated with UV light to kill almost all bacteria.

Verdict: Who is the X50 Ultra Complete worth it for?

The X50 Ultra Complete is a smart, powerful robot vacuum that solves two of the biggest frustrations with its extendable legs and retractable navigation tower: getting stuck and ignoring areas under furniture. Cleaning performance for vacuuming and mopping is really good, and maintenance is minimal thanks to the hygienic mop cleaning.

If your home has thresholds, steps and low furniture, you have pets and you are willing to pay the premium price, it is a really good choice. If you only have a smaller apartment without thresholds, you will surely be happy with a cheaper model too, as long as the cleaning performance is comparably good.