The Neato Botvac D7 Connected Review: Should You Buy It?

Neato has been coming up with great robot vacuums that rival the market leader Roomba. The company has just launched the Neato Botvac D7 Connected in March 2018.

What to expect from the Neato Botvac D7 Connected

With the Neato Botvac D7 Connected, you get all the best and the latest technologies that Neato has to offer. There are several features here that you cannot find in other Neato Botvac Connected models, or in robot vacuums from other manufacturers for that matter.

• D Shape with CornerClever. The Neato Botvac D7 Connected has the now-familiar D shape that other Botvacs have. With three flat sides, the robot vacuum can get closer to walls, corners, and edges than round robots, and therefore deliver a better clean. But how close is close? The Botvac D7 can get up to around half an inch of your walls!
• Wider brush. That is not the only advantage of having a D shape. The Botvac D7 includes a main brush that measures 10.9 inches wide. That’s close to 11 inches of brush sweeping away at the dirt. This brush is also 50% bigger than the brush you see on a Roomba.
• SpinFlow Power Clean. The Neato Botvac D7 makes use of a spiral combo brush, powerful turbo suction, and a side brush to deliver effective cleaning for your floors. The spiral combo brush can handle different kinds of dirt and debris on any floor type, making the Botvac D7 Connected a versatile cleaner. You can buy a spiral blade brush if you need your floors to be cleaner and if you need a more powerful suction. The Neato Botvac D7 also has a turbo mode for more power and for the most pickup. Or you can turn on the Eco mode to make the Botvac D7 work more quietly and for a longer period of time.
• Dustbin and ultra performance filter. With all the dust, dirt, and dander that the Botvac D7 Connected will pick up, you would appreciate that it has an ultra-performance filter.
• LaserSmart Mapping Navigation. The Neato Botvac D7 uses later technology to scan your entire floor, creating a map or floor plan that it will follow to clean your home. This map will help the robot vacuum know its exact location in your home and where it should go next. This ensures that it is able to cover every nook and cranny of the room it is cleaning. And unlike other robot vacuums that are able to create floor plans, the Botvac D7 does not need the room to be well-lit in order to create a map. The Botvac D7 also has sensors that help it navigate around obstacles and avoid steep falls.
• Entire-level cleaning in no time. The Neato Botvac D7 cleans faster than other robot vacuums. This means that in a given amount of time, it can cover more area than its competitors. It does not matter how large your room is, or if you want it to clean the entire first floor, the Botvac D7 will do it in no time. What’s more, if it needs to recharge, the Botvac D7 will find the dock to recharge. After the charging is complete, the robot vacuum will automatically go back to cleaning.
• Best for pet hair. Neato’s robot vacuums have been noted for being very efficient in picking up pet hair and the Botvac D7 Connected is no different.

• Connected. The “Connected” part of the Neato Botvac D7’s name is there for several reasons. For one, you can control your robot vacuum using your mobile phone. Just download the mobile app and link it to your Botvac D7. You can also use voice commands to operate the Botvac D7 if you have either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. If you use Facebook, you can also connect to the Neato Chatbot to start cleaning. More than these, the Neato Botvac D7 Connected also works with IFTTT recipes and you can, therefore, have it do other things, like send you an e-mail when it is done cleaning.
• A redesigned mobile app. Neato has updated their mobile app with the launch of the Botvac D7. It is now very intuitive to use and you would not have a hard time figuring out where to go and what to do, even if it is your first time to use the Neato app. You can use the mobile app to start, stop, or pause cleaning, as well as to choose the cleaning mode you want to use. You can also use it to tweak the settings. Moreover, the mobile app can show you the floor plan that the Neato Botvac D7 is using to clean your floors. With this map of the entire floor, you can designate no-go zones just by drawing on the map itself. Furthermore, you can view the cleaning history and statistics for your most recent cleaning sessions.
• Different modes for different needs. The Neato Botvac D7 has different cleaning modes for you to use. You can choose the manual clean if you want to steer your robot vacuum to where you want it to go. If you want your Botvac D7 to be quieter when it is cleaning, you can turn on the Eco mode. In this mode, the Botvac D7 is able to clean for a longer period of time. If your house is particularly dirtier, or if you want a more thorough clean, choose the Turbo mode. The Turbo mode will use stronger suction, while the brushes spin faster to help pick up more dirt. Then you also have the spot mode, which tells the robot vacuum to concentrate on a smaller specified area. Furthermore, you have Extra Care navigation that tells the Botvac D7 to clean more gently.

What’s in the box

All Botvac D7 packages come with:

• The Neato Botvac D7 Connected
• Integrated Charge Base
• Power Cord
• Spiral Combo Brush
• Ultra Performance Filter
• Side Brush
• Boundary Markers (2M)
• Brush and Filter Cleaning Tool

What you would like about the Neato Botvac D7 Connected

There is no doubt that the Botvac D7 Connected is a well-performing robot vacuum that does what it promises to do. This robot vacuum works rather well and it can work on any floor type. It does a better job than its competitors when picking up pet hair.

When using the robot vacuum in Home mode, you would be able to observe that it moves methodically across your floor. Just by looking at it, you could confirm that the Botvac D7 does not miss any spots. If you are not sure, you can check the cleaning map on the mobile app as this will show you where your robot has been. And if there are some spots that it missed, you can steer your robot to that particular area to manually clean it. You do all these without having to pick up the robot vacuum even once.

The biggest draw of Neato Botvac D7 is that it keeps your house clean without you even having to touch it. You just set up a schedule and you can promptly forget about vacuuming. You also do not even have to be home for it to start cleaning. And if you are, you do not have to take out your mobile phone with its integrations with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

The Botvac D7 Connected also has the technology that other higher end robot vacuums offer. This includes the laser mapping and navigation technology, the Wi-Fi connectivity, the ability to control it using voice commands or via the mobile app, the use of high-performance filters, a main brush, and a side brush. This means that it is at par with the best robot vacuums that are available now.

You might think that because it has the features you would find on the most expensive robot vacuums, it would be very expensive as well. But that is not the case. The Botvac D7 is similarly priced to the Roomba 980, and more affordable than the Dyson 360 Eyes, which is more expensive (Check out the latest prices here!).

There are also several features that the Neato Botvac D7 Connected offers that other robot vacuums do not offer. These include the IFTTT compatibility, the ability to manually direct it where to go, and the virtual no-go zones.

What could be better and final say

The Neato Botvac D7 Connected is one of the most expensive robot vacuums out there (Check out the latest prices here!). If you do not care about the many features that the Botvac D7 Connected offers and if you would be contented with just having a robot vacuum that can clean your floors efficiently, then check out Eufy Robovac 11 and its many variants. This will cost you only a third or a fourth of what you would pay for the Botvac D7. There are also other budget robot vacuums that would clean your floors efficiently but do not have Wi-Fi connectivity, integrations with other devices, or laser mapping capabilities.

If you are able to look beyond what you have to pay for the Botvac D7 and accept that excellence and being feature-packed comes with a price, then you should be perfectly happy with this robot vacuum. You would be hard-pressed to find a flaw in the Botvac D7.

With that being the case, iRobot seems to be shaking in its boots. The Neato Botvac D7 Connected could very well be the robot vacuum that could unseat Roomba 980 from the top spot in the list of the best robot vacuums available.