You can control Samsung’s newest robot vacuum with your voice

By Lulu Chang December 28, 2016

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This isn’t your mama’s Roomba.

We’ve come a long way since technology first started terrorizing our pets, and smearing their droppings, with robot vacuum cleaners, and now, Samsung is showing us what the digital cleaners of 2017 will look like. Meet the VR7000, the latest in Samsung’s line of POWERbot vacuum cleaners. Slated to make its debut in Las Vegas, Nevada at January’s CES, the VR7000 hopes to prove that good things really do come in small packages. While it will stand less than four inches tall and is 28 percent slimmer than older robot vacuums, it still promises powerful suction — 20 watts of it, to be exact.

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The VR7000 comes with an Edge Clean Master feature that allows the unit to get super close (a half inch) to your wall. That means that all the dust and hair that would otherwise be swept into the corner will be picked up by this robot vacuum.

Moreover, the vacuum claims to be smarter than any of its predecessors, with features like Visionary Mapping Plus and FullView Sensor that help this cleaner map and remember the contours of any room to ensure the most thorough cleaning possible. It will also keep tabs on areas that get particularly dirty (your doorstep, for example), and learn to avoid obstacles, no matter how small.

But perhaps most impressive of all is the addition of Amazon Echo support to the VR7000. Using nothing but your voice, you can control this vacuum, and instruct it on where to go, what to do, and anything else you might need to tell a household appliance.

“The POWERbot VR7000 keeps up with the floor care needs of today’s busy families,” said Byung-Sam Seo, President of Home Appliances at Samsung Electronics. “Just set it and watch it go to work. The POWERbot VR7000’s navigational features and sensors combined with slim design and increased suction power help make sure the job gets done.”

There’s no word yet on the VR7000’s pricing, but we’ll find out soon enough at CES.

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