Smart vacuum cleaner manufacturer Roborock introduced six new cleaning solutions at CES this year: the S8 MaxV Ultra, S8 Max Ultra, Q Revo MaxV, Q Revo Pro, Flexi Pro, and Flexi Lite. Of these models, the only ones that are relevant to us at HomeKit News are the S8 series, as these will receive the all-important Matter update, giving HomeKit fans the opportunity to get robovacs in their smart home setup.

The Roborock S8 Max series, including the S8 MaxV Ultra and S8 Max Ultra robot vacuum cleaner and mop, represents the company's advanced cleaning solution. It features a robot arm for cleaning corners and edges and the RockDock® Ultra for maintaining the robot cleaner using hot water and heated air with intelligent mopping and mopping capabilities.

Key features of the S8 Max series include:

• FlexiArm Design™ side brush with robotic arm and Extra Edge Spinning Mop system for 100% corner coverage.
• RockDock® Ultra, which automatically empties, refills, and doses detergent; washes the mop with hot water at 60°C and dries with heated air at 60°C to prevent odors and mold.
• VibraRise® 3.0 mopping system with two vibration modules, 20 mm mop module lift, and 4000 times/min ultrasonic mopping.
• Suction power of 10,000 Pa on the S8 MaxV Ultra and 8,000 Pa on the S8 Max Ultra.

Additional features on the S8 MaxV Ultra include 'Hello Rocky' built-in voice assistant, video calling, Matter support, DirTect™ message recognition, Reactive AI 2.0 obstacle detection and avoidance, and more.

Both S8 Max Series models offer a refill and drain dock variant that can be connected to home drainage systems for automatic refilling and emptying, eliminating manual intervention. Suggested retail prices are $1,799.99 for the S8 MaxV Ultra and $1,599.99 for the S8 Max Ultra, both of which will be available on Amazon from April 2024.

Whether these come with Matter out of the box isn't clear, so if you're planning to invest in one of these rather expensive devices, it's best to check first to avoid potential disappointment.