Fresh from the labs of EcoVacs, the Deebot X2 Omni arrives as the successor to the impressive T20, promising even greater cleaning power and a new hidden talent.
The vacuuming/mopping robot now has a camera for patrolling the home and remote monitoring. It also features a square design for improved precision and one of the most powerful motors you’ll find on a robot vacuum.
While the EcoVacs app hasn’t been our favorite, this is one of the most feature-rich and customizable robot vacuums we’ve reviewed.
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni: Design
The Deebot X2 Omni breaks free from the conventional circular robot vacuum mold, opting for a bold, purposeful, square-ish design. This isn’t just an aesthetic choice; the sharp corners and straight lines translate to tangible cleaning benefits. The X2 has the precision to make the most of this design, minding your walls and furniture. It definitely seems more effective and efficient along the edges.
The drawback to the square-ish design is that it can get stuck in tight spaces where a round robot would have no issue turning around. In practice, it doesn’t get stuck anymore or less because of the shape.
Unlike its round predecessor, there’s only one spinning brush, not two. Since the cleaning brush can scatter dirt, one brush may be to scatter in just one direction to be picked up later.
Unlike other LiDAR robots, the X2 has a flat top; you won’t find a raised camera or sensor on top for navigating. The cameras and sensors are around the sides of the unit.
At approximately 14 inches square and 4 inches tall, the X2 Omni is slightly larger than the average round robot but notably slimmer than most LiDAR robots: this helps it work under furniture where bulkier models struggle.
There’s just one button on the top of the X2, appropriately positioned inside an X of LEDs. We prefer two buttons: one to pause and one to send the robot back to its base. Instead, we end up sending the X2 back to its base with an “OK Yiko” command.
The Omni base isn’t just a charging station; it’s a functional command center for your X2 Omni. While substantial in size, it’s nicely designed with tech aesthetics. It is 21 inches tall and hides a 2-liter dust bin, a 4-liter clean water tank, and a 3.5-liter dirty water tank. The X2 fits halfway inside, enough to empty its waste bin and have its mop heads washed and dried automatically. The Omni base looks like a very modern trash bin.
One nice improvement over the T20 Omni is that the X2’s Omni base is now removable and much easier to clean: this is where the robot parks and is cleaned so that it can build up dirt and grime.
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni: Performance
The X2 Omni delivers exceptional cleaning performance thanks to its superior navigation system and ultra-powerful 8000 Pa of suction. Most portable vacuums don’t even offer 3000 Pa of suction. You can feel (and also hear) the extra power. You can choose from four power levels: quiet, standard, strong, and max+.
None of these vacuums are actually quiet, and we find them annoying enough to leave the room if they’re running. The standard mode usually addresses all our vacuum needs and isn’t too loud if you’re in another room.
The extra 2000 Pa of power over the T20 doesn’t seem to make such a noticeable difference in our house. Both vacuums do a good job keeping our home clean and dirtless. We couldn’t expect more out of a small automated vacuum.
The meticulous and precise navigation is what makes the performance of the X2 so good. It gets every nook and cranny. The customizable map also lets you configure every room with cleaning preferences. The improved LiDAR also helps avoid obstacles and go easy on your walls, chairs, and everything else that gets in its way.
We find the X2 to get stuck on objects way less frequently than any other vacuum we’ve reviewed. If the X2 gets stuck, it’s usually the mopping pad that gets stuck under a carpet or exercise mat. The vacuum usually gets stuck once or twice a week, which is impressive considering the number of obstacles the kids leave around. It’s also really easy to set no-go zones (or even no-mopping zones) — so the playroom is off-limits for X2 since it’s a minefield of obstacles.
There’s a handful of built-in smart features that help improve efficiency. You have AI and object detection, so the X2 knows what it’s up against. The vacuum will change its power setting and lift its mops when it detects a carpet. It learns how dirty rooms usually are and adjusts its settings accordingly.
There’s an intelligent “quick clean” mode to speed up the cleaning process. The X2 knows how long a cleaning should take, and if it needs to recharge, it will charge just long enough to finish the cleaning. There’s even a feature to avoid pet poop!
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni: Mopping
The large, rotating mopping pads continue to impress with consistent cleaning performance without requiring manual intervention. Hot water mopping can remove stubborn stains and grime, leaving your floors almost as clean as mopping them yourself.
The innovative hot air drying system ensures the mop heads remain fresh and odor-free, eliminating the unpleasant smell of damp mops. You can configure hot air drying to dry for 2, 3, or 4 hours. The mop heads lift slightly so the vacuum can clean the carpet without getting it wet — in reality, they’ll still rub against your carpet, but minimally.
If the unit gets stuck, you’ll have damp mop heads sitting on your floor, so you need to look out for that.
The hot water mopping does not come with a water reservoir, so the X2 has to visit the base frequently, giving it an opportunity for a quick mop head rinse: this will happen every 10, 15, or 25 minutes — you can set it. If you have a large floor plan, this can be a lot of extra time and back-and-forth.
Mopping exceeds our expectations, considering it’s so hands-off. It only washes with water unless you use EcoVacs’ custom solution. It’s too bad they can’t just recommend an off-the-shelf cleaning solution.
The EcoVacs Home app
The app is capable, versatile, and feature-rich but incredibly confusing and unintuitive. We had finally gotten used to it with the T20 Omni, only to learn that EcoVacs has completely redesigned the controls and flow for the X2 Omni. It’s not any more intuitive.
We like how much control the app offers around mapping, cleaning preferences, and scheduling. Still, it takes some time to learn and test. Once you get the hang of it, the app allows you to be very specific about every room and area in your house, and you can schedule different preferences and cleaning modes per room or zone.
One feature the T20 has that we can’t find in the X2 Omni is configuring the order in which rooms get cleaned first. Instead, with the X2, you can create custom schedules and have the Omni clean rooms on different schedules. We typically like to first clean the two rooms that get dirty most frequently in case the X2 gets stuck or runs out of water/battery.
The app gamifies usage by giving you points for using features. You can redeem points for credit on the EcoVacs website, but unfortunately, the points will only give you a maximum discount of 30% despite how many points you have.
Another disappointing aspect of the app is embedded advertising and take-over interstitials that can’t be disabled. You can spend over $1000 on an EcoVac product and still get advertisements every time you use the app.
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni: Camera
We were surprised to see the X2 Omni features a built-in camera since the website makes almost no mention of it. It uses “AIVI” technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Visual Interpretation to help identify surfaces and obstacles in your house, which you’ll notice on the map.
But the camera doesn’t just help with navigating; it can also be used for real-time video monitoring, providing a live view of your home from the vacuum’s perspective. This feature can be particularly valuable for pet owners who want to keep an eye on their furry friends while away.
The camera is very detailed and clear, and the field of vision is good enough to see a standing adult from about 5 feet away.
There’s a patrol mode, which goes from room to room, taking pictures. You can also manually take photos and 15-second clips with the camera. You can only save about 10 of these short videos to the cloud, but you can download them locally and then delete them from the EcoVacs cloud. The whole feature doesn’t seem very thought out, in our opinion.
Beyond pet monitoring, the camera has limited utility. You can use the camera to see where the vacuum is or where it got stuck, but you can already see that on the app’s map.
You can also use the camera to communicate with someone in the house, but we have a hard time hearing anything on the microphone with the vacuum motor running. The camera could be more useful than it is presently. Also, the X2 may not be the right vacuum for you if you have privacy concerns.
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni: Maintenance
Nobody likes cleaning if they don’t have to, which is why most of us want a robot vacuum like the X2 Omni. All robotic vacuums require cleaning and maintenance to keep them working right. The X2 Omni requires some maintenance, but it’s minimal compared to many other vacuums we’ve reviewed.
The most regular requirement is changing the mop water, but that’s if you only mop regularly. A full tank of water is supposed to cover 400 meters. It lasts us less than two full runs. If the X2 is out of water, it will refuse to run in the vacuum/mop setting — still, it should know to vacuum. You can schedule mopping a couple of times a week and in fewer rooms to limit how frequently you need to change the water.
The EcoVacs app works well when reminding you what and when to clean or replace parts. It will also tell you how to clean parts, which is particularly helpful. The self-emptying waste means you don’t need to do anything with the waste for maybe months.
As nice and convenient as the auto-empty is, we do miss the satisfaction and validation of seeing how much dirt the vacuum picked up. With the X2 Omni, all the waste is auto-emptied into a single-use waste bag.
This single-use waste bag is a big gripe for us — it’s wasteful and expensive, and we can’t inspect it to see if the vacuum picked up anything unintentionally. We end up dumping/pulling most of the waste out of the bag to free up space.
EcoVacs included a scrub brush to help clean the base and the water tanks. The water tanks can get smelly after a week, but you’ll only smell it when you open them. The hot air drying keeps the entire unit and mop heads odorless.
Unlike the predecessor, EcoVacs included a couple of extra accessories for the X2: one rubber main brush and one side brush. You’re on the hook for new waste bags and mopping pads, though. These accessories aren’t cheap, with a bundle going for over $100. Still, you can buy compatible accessories on Amazon for much less.
EcoVacs Deebot X2 Omni Review: Final thoughts
The Deebot X2 Omni is a cleaning powerhouse. There’s a lot of technology to make the cleaning effective and keep the robot and base reasonably low-maintenance. We love how much functionality and customization the app offers but find the complexity (and bugginess) of the app frustrating.
Still, we’d rather have more features and complexity over simplicity with fewer features. The camera feature with patrol mode is mostly useless unless you have pets or have a reason to see your home remotely — we can see it playing a valuable role on rare occasions.
The Deebot X2 Omni price has changed a bunch of times in its few months on the market: it started at $1,499.99 and already has holiday pricing of $1,199.99.
Its predecessor, the Deebot T20 Omni, was initially over $1k but is now $699.99. The T20 doesn’t have the square-ish design, the camera, or a base you can remove for cleaning. Still, it offers almost the same cleaning with just as many features.
The Deebot X2 Omni is currently available in black from Amazon, and you can purchase it in white from EcoVacs.com.
The Deebot X2 Omni is a robotic wonder that boasts a sleek square design, hot water mopping, and top-tier laser navigation. It even moonlights as your home's surveillance guru, thanks to its AI-powered camera.