50 days, 40 cleaning tasks: We put the transparent robot vacuum to the test

Robot vacuum cleaners have increasingly become a popular household addition. They've evolved from a novelty to a genuine time-saving tool for your chores.

There's also something so entrancing about watching the adorable little robot vacs navigate the big world of a living room.

DJI has had a go at launching its own line-up of robot vacuums here in Australia. While they've taken a hit in reputation due to a security fault last month (more about that later), there have been a few positives to the robot's performance at the very least.

Here are the five important lessons I learned in my testing.

NOTE: Prices are accurate at the time of publishing

But first, DJI Romo P at a glance...

Now $2299

Pros: Easy customisation, fantastic mopping, good vacuuming

Cons: Severe privacy and security concerns, dust bag fills up fast

How I tested: 50 days, 40 tasks, 2843m² cleaned

Verdict: Quality performance that will work for any home

1. First impressions are everything

The first thing you'll notice about the DJI Romo P is that it has a transparent structure on both the base station and the robot itself. It's a fun design twist, and lets you see into the engineering that DJI is known for in the drone world.

Setting up the product is easy, too, as you plug the base station into the wall and the robot slots nicely inside its base to charge.

I left it charging in there for a bit, and in the meantime, I added the deodoriser canister and degreasing canister into the respective slots in the station that DJI provides.

Then, it began mapping the house once I synced it up with the app. It took me two tries to get it working properly, which wasn't a major issue if you're patient like me – editing the map was easy enough to fix that up.

Overall, it was a super easy setup.

The real first impressions for many: security

If you haven't heard the news, DJI reportedly had a major security concern regarding access to its robot vacuum cleaners. I was about three-quarters through testing when the news came to light.

Put simply, a software engineer had accidentally gained control of thousands of DJI robot vacuum cleaners. He had done this via a PlayStation 5 and using AI.

I reached out for a response regarding the latest security breach claims and what DJI does to protect consumers.

I was offered the following responses:

"DJI identified a vulnerability affecting the DJI Home app through internal review in late January and initiated remediation immediately. The issue was addressed through two updates.

"Security and data privacy are foundational principles across DJI's product portfolio. As indicated in the 'Do Not Sell' rights on our website, DJI does not sell any user data for any DJI product, and this has never been part of our business model."

The whole situation raises some serious questions about the security of all robot vacuums with camera sensors in your household.

2. Control is a necessity

For the 50 days I tested the DJI Romo P, the experience felt extremely refined, and I didn't face a single software issue at all.

While I was initially sceptical of the DJI home app due to bad experiences in the past with robot vacuum software from other brands, I was immediately won over by how much say I had in the cleaning process.

If you are a micromanager, you get to define almost every parameter you can think of in this robot. The app comes loaded with preset cleaning options, but these are all easily edited.

You can adjust the suction power, total vacuum passes, the water flow level, mopping passes, the route itself and even floor cleaning and sanitisation modes.

For testing purposes, I maxed out every setting to the deepest clean, and the robot went on for over 6 hours! And yes, the house looked squeaky-clean.

If you're interested in setting and forgetting, you can schedule the robot vacuum, too. Although you will have to do a bit of maintenance once the app tells you exactly what needs changing!

It all just worked the way I wanted it to, without a single hiccup in the user interface experience. So, it was all an immediate plus on my end.

3. The reality of vacuuming is dirty work

DJI claims the robot has up to 25,000 Pa of suction power, which sounds like total overkill to a person who doesn't quite understand the metric. Put simply, PA stands for Pascal and is a unit of measurement for pressure, or rather, the measure of the vacuum's negative pressure inwards.

In my experience of vacuuming, the power was quite strong for daily cleaning, and you can boost it to a turbo mode for deep cleaning. I live with two pets, so it frequently picks up fur along the way and other debris.

This power does come with a practical trade-off. The vacuum bag fills up too fast! I think after a month and a half of usage, the app told me I needed to change it (which I didn't have an extra bag to do so).

Over the course of the ending testing period, I did notice the suction power going down, and the vacuuming required multiple attempts to actually get a clean floor. So, it's dirty work, and you'll want to make sure you have extra cleaning bags to exchange in the base station.

4. This robot takes scrubbing seriously

I found the mopping performance to be exactly where the DJI Romp P shone, or quite literally, made the floors shine. The robot itself uses dual flexible arms that automatically extend and retract to reach deep into corners.

The real benefit is again the control of the robot through the app, as it lets you determine how deep and thorough a scrub you want.

The other benefit is the auto-dosing system for the detergent and floor deodoriser, letting you be even more hands-free as it works the magic itself!

The robot also returns to the base station to wash the pads it empties and refills itself. Overall, the mopping capabilities were a standout.

5. There are trade-offs with robots

While robot vacuum cleaners can automate your daily cleaning chores, I've come to realise there are always going to be cons to the purchase.

Firstly comes the maintenance costs. Aside from being electronic and using power, parts are going to need to be replaced. A pack of 10 vacuum cleaner bags costs just over $61 on Amazon here, so you'll need to purchase them as you run out. An additional total accessory package can be found here as well for $221.25.

Secondly, the vacuum cleaner can go on for ages, and it is quite noisy when it is vacuuming at the maximum power setting. Like I said earlier, a full deep clean with every setting took six total hours. That is some serious time commitment, so you'd hope to be out during that time.

Finally, security and privacy are now major concerns with this particular robot model. If you feel insecure about purchasing a robot that has a camera sensor onboard, then you might want to stick to your Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Final verdict

The DJI Romo P offers fantastic cleaning capabilities to automate your daily vacuuming and mopping chores. I was thoroughly impressed with its raw capabilities and the extensive cleaning controls you get access to.

Overall, and despite the security slip-up, I found it to be a reliable flagship robot vacuum cleaner.

Now $2299

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