When we think of robot vacuums, one name that comes to mind is Roomba. Hailed as one of the reliable O.G. brands of the bot vac marketplace, iRobot’s cutting-edge house cleaners are cool to look at, easy to operate, and convenient to customize — whether you’re looking to build a weekly vacuuming schedule or want to fire it up for a fast sweep.
With robot vacs being available for years now, there’s plenty of competition. In fact, a surface-level skimming of Amazon’s listed robot vacs will pull hundreds of results. While a number of these foes can barely touch the performance and value of the cherished Roomba, one company that is always looking to claim more real estate in the home is Samsung. From TVs and refrigerators to smart home controls, Samsung makes every effort to gain notoriety in whatever sector they’re designing products for, and their robot vacuums are no exception.
Today, we’ll be pitting Samsung’s flagship robot vac, the Jet Bot AI+, against the undefeated champion of sentient vacuuming, the iRobot Roomba S9+. We are weighing in on criteria like design, features, and price.
Design
Samsung Jet Bot AI+
The Samsung Jet Bot AI+ has one of the most attention-grabbing designs that we’ve seen in a robot vac. Where the company’s mid-tier and entry-level units opt for a traditional puck-shaped vac aesthetic, the Jet Bot AI+ features two separate chassis segments — the rounded main housing with a built-in camera, sensors, and buttons, and a distinctive, front-facing tumbler section with brush and suction components housed underneath. Speaking solely of appearance, the Jet Bot looks formidable, kind of like a cross between an industrial cleaner and a military-grade infiltrator.
Like the rest of the Jet Bot lineup, Samsung’s color scheme of choice is a white shell with silver trimmings paired with a towering white clean station for charging and dirt removal. The bot/dock combo isn’t exactly overbearing, but the “no-nonsense” fighter-bot look may not mesh well with certain home decor.
iRobot Roomba S9+
Then there’s the D-shaped chassis of iRobot’s Roomba S9+. The company claims that by trading the common puck aesthetic for the shell design of the flagship S9, homeowners can expect a deeper clean around edges, corners, and other hard-to-reach spots.
Trading Samsung’s white casing for a less standout appearance, the Roomba S9+ lives in a darker and slightly more regal color space. The bot shell and charge station are predominately black with bronze trimmings — a palette that may be more pleasing to homeowners who don’t want their Roomba to fight against the stylings of their domiciles. Gone, too, is the rough-and-tough front tumbler of the Jet Bot AI+.
They always say, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but when it comes to an appliance and its dust-dock that you’ll see every day, exceptions must be made. Thus, we award Team Roomba.
Cleaning tech
Samsung Jet Bot AI+
The Jet Bot AI+ utilizes a high-efficiency brush located below the bot’s front tumbler for a majority of its cleaning tasks. Made up of thousands of anti-static fibers that work to break down hairs and other tangle-prone particles, the Jet Bot is built to contend with whatever surprises may be lurking deep in carpet fibers or wedged under the base trim around your home. Working alongside the master brush is the Jet Bot’s almighty Jet Cyclone that delivers mighty suction across all surface types, ensuring the bot collects all debris without the risk of clogs.
Samsung is also pretty serious when it comes to clean air. The Jet Bot has five layers of rigorous filtration built directly into the vacuum, ensuring the air released back into your home is free of allergens and other harmful pollutants. This same tech is carried over into the cleaning station design, where Samsung’s Air Pulse technology makes for a simple-and-clean passageway from your Jet Bot’s full tank to the cleaning station’s dust collector.
iRobot Roomba S9+
The tried-and-true Roomba design offers similar cleaning fundamentals. The vac’s main brush head is aided by a singular side-sweeping edge as part of Roomba’s 3-Stage Cleaning System that digs deep into multiple surface types to pull out the most debris possible. The vac’s PerfectEdge Technology places a priority on the parts of the ground that go unnoticed with lesser robot vac models, combining sensors and side-brush action to nestle deep into hard-to-reach crevices.
While you can buy the S9+ without the CleanBase, you’ll want this crucial accessory to complete the smart vacuum ecosystem. When the S9 finishes cleaning, the bot will automatically return to the CleanBase to deposit the dirt into a 60-day debris bag. From the vac to the dock, the airborne pollutants are treated to filters that ensure 99% allergen- and mold-free air for your homestead. We also love the Smart Charge & Resume feature that sends the S9 back for a recharge if it needs one mid-cycle, then returns the bot to cleaning after it’s received a sufficient boost.
In terms of the building blocks of cleanliness, both the Jet Bot AI+ and Roomba S9 have all the goods you need for a mighty clean home. Points to both teams, and we call this category a tie.
Mapping and object recognition
Samsung Jet Bot AI+
The Jet Bot AI+ uses several onboard LiDAR sensors to create detailed scans of your home that the bot references when navigating and cleaning. The core maps are further buttressed by the Jet Bot’s object recognition, 3D sensors, and a real-time camera (more on that in the next section) that offer an unparalleled cleaning experience. This robot vac is smart enough to avoid objects like socks, charge cables, and furniture while suctioning everything else away.
iRobot Roomba S9+
Similar to the Jet Bot, the Roomba S9+ employs several onboard sensors and Roomba’s vSLAM technology to build a multi-floor map of a home. Object recognition features are here as well, although, in our own experience, our S9 had some trouble navigating around intentionally placed obstacles. Unlike the Jet Bot AI+, the S9+ features no real-time camera, making for one less smart navigation tool and one less way to monitor your bot’s cleaning path while on the go.
For the lack of a camera, we’re awarding a laurel to the Jet Bot AI+.
Companion app and extra features
Samsung Jet Bot AI+
Smart controls and customizations for the Jet Bot AI+ are housed in Samsung’s SmartThings app (for iOS and Android devices). Within the mobile app, you can manually adjust suction power, set No-Go Zones for areas of your home you want the bot to avoid, label and group rooms for selective cleaning runs, and view real-time cleaning stats. You can also pause/resume your Jet Bot, tell it to return to the charge station, and more. Additionally, the onboard support of Alexa, Google Assistant, and SmartThings allows you to fire up your bot by speaking simple voice commands to the smart hub(s) in your home.
With the Jet Bot’s real-time camera, you’ll also be able to view a live camera feed of the bot cleaning. While this extra perk is a great home security feature, some users have complained that the live feed can be a bit buggy.
iRobot Roomba S9+
The iRobot Home app (for iOS and Android devices) offers its own assortment of excellent features and customizations. Once LiDAR maps are drawn of your property, you can pop into the Home app to label and group rooms, allowing you to draw up schedules for your S9+ to follow. Want the bot out of the kitchen? Designate a Keep Out Zone to ensure the S9+ steers clear of areas you want it to avoid. We also love that as the Roomba continues to clean your home, it gets smarter and smarter, to the point where the bot will recommend a cleaning schedule based on the normal amount of debris it encounters, which rooms are typically the dirtiest, and even the time of year.
In terms of voice assistant support, the Roomba S9+ is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to start your vac in an instant using voice commands (no support for Samsung SmartThings).
Unfortunately, no camera means no live feed, a perk that will net the Jet Bot AI+ another point in our books. You can’t beat home security.
Price and warranty
Samsung Jet Bot AI+
Currently, the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ with the included cleaning station sells for $1,299 and comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty. Do note that as of the publishing of this article, the Jet Bot AI+ is facing limited availability across the board — even from Samsung.
iRobot Roomba S9+
The iRobot Roomba S9+ with cleaning station sells for $1,099 and comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty.
In terms of value, it’s tough for us to say that spending an extra $200 for a serviceable mobile security camera is worth it — especially when the cleaning and companion app features of both vacs are so similar.
We think the Roomba S9+ offers slightly more bang for your buck.
The verdict
Both the Samsung Jet Bot AI+ and the iRobot Roomba S9+ are top-tier robot vacuums. While we’ve yet to get our hands on the Jet Bot AI+ for a full trial run, the vac certainly offers a promising set of cleaning features, intelligent mapping, and object recognition, plus solid companion-app customizations. Plus, the real-time camera doesn’t hurt.
For Roomba devotees, the Roomba S9+ offers a similar bevy of cleaning and customization options, albeit at a lower price and without the real-time camera — a hardware element that some users may not care for anyway.
At the end of the day, we’re going to go ahead and call this robot vacuum versus a draw … at least for the time being.
