At homeKit News, we’ve heard lots of chatter regarding robot vacuums in relation to Matter, but so far nothing concrete has surfaced, other than grand announcements at CES (of course…) – that is until now. A few days ago, Roborock held it’s annual conference where it announced a series of brand new models, one of which is already officially Matter certified, according to the CSA’s Chinese website (the Connectivity Standards Alliance is responsible for the Matter standard). Not only that, the company have already launched preorders in China. The models announced are the G10, G10S, G20, and G20S, with the latter being two Matter enabled models. Only the G20s is available for preorders at present.

Aside from the Matter angle, the company are keen to let users know of new innovations for their latest range. First and foremost, the G20S uses Roborock’s self-developed Flexi Arm flexible robotic arm, that addresses the challenges of corner cleaning, thus ensuring no area is left untouched. We’ve since seem this with other robot vacuums, but it’s good to see it here. Additionally, the models will include a double spiral cleaning system tackles the persistent issue of hair removal from both carpets and the roller blade in the vacuum itself. The models will also include four-zone double-shock floor mops, capable of wiping an impressive 4,000 times per minute, designed to remove stubborn stains.

Complementing these advancements is the all-round base station, allowing for the option to remove dirt collected with the vacuum and even dirty water, depending on the model. This is also the first cleaning robot to obtain TüV South German maternal and infant certification, where it has to pass rigorous tests for ground sterilisation, efficient cleaning, self-cleaning capabilities, as well as noise and harmful substances.

The G20S comes in the two models seen above, with the larger of the two requiring manual water changes, but offers the option to have the base station be moved around without having to reset the robot vacuum itself. The smaller, but more expensive model does offer automatic water changing, presumable once hooked up to a water pipe in your home, but because of this, you would need to keep the base station in one place.

The G20S with automatic water replacement feature is currently on preorder for RMB5999 (roughly US$830 / €765 / UK£656), whilst the larger but cheaper model is on preorder for RMB5399 (roughly US$746 / €688 / UK£591).

The two big questions many will be asking of course, is (1), when will these be sold internationally, and (2) will any of the older Roborock models get a Matter upgrade. Whilst we can’t answer the first question at all, the second question seems to be answered by their announcements at CES 2024, where it was stated the Series 8 models – S8 MaxV Ultra, S8 Max Ultra – would be getting updated to support Matter. It would be nice to think that this still holds true, but with the surprise arrival of this new series, things might seem a bit less clear.

Thanks to Eric Yao for the tipoff