When the Ecovacs X1 Omni launched at CES 2022, it genuinely felt like a glimpse of the future. Self-emptying dock, auto-washing mop pads, its own built-in voice assistant, Jacob Jensen industrial design. At the time, it was one of the most capable, most automated pieces of home tech you could buy. I picked one up, set it up, and it has been running quietly in the background of my life ever since.
Four years later, the team at Ecovacs offered me the T90 Pro Omni to try, and the gap between the two machines is considerably larger than I expected. This isn’t the kind of upgrade where you notice the improvements in a side-by-side spec comparison and then promptly forget about them in daily use. The differences are immediately, practically obvious. The robot vacuum category has moved almost as fast as AI, and the T90 Pro is proof.
For context on my testing conditions: I have a newborn, a very messy toddler, and a wife with very long, thick hair at home. The floors in my house get destroyed on a daily basis in ways that would make a clean freak weep. If the T90 Pro can keep up with that, it can keep up with anything.
The Mopping Has Been Completely Reinvented
This is where the generational leap is most dramatic. The X1 Omni used spinning mop pads – two rotating pads that did a reasonable job on surface grime and not much else. Independent testing at the time was already lukewarm on the mopping performance, and daily use over four years confirmed it: the X1 was a good vacuum that happened to also mop, rather than a machine that took both functions seriously equally.
The T90 Pro abandons that approach entirely. The OZMO Roller 3.0 system uses a 27cm microfibre roller (the widest in its class) that covers significantly more floor per pass than the old spinning pad setup. It scrubs at up to 200 RPM with serious concentrated downward pressure, and the best part is that it continuously cycles dirty water out and replaces it with clean water as it moves. No cross-contamination, no streaking, no redistributing yesterday’s mess into a thin film across our kitchen floors.
The base station then hot-washes the roller with water heated to 75°C and hot-air dries it after every run. The T90 Pro also automatically dispenses the precise amount of cleaning solution during each wash cycle which has been a godsend for two people very short on time. Hard floors after a T90 Pro run look cleaned in a way the X1 never quite managed. The roller extends beyond the chassis to reach right along skirting boards and baseboards, picking up crumbs and dust the X1 would often miss.
The Suction Numbers Are Wild
The X1 Omni launched with 5,000 Pa of suction, which was considered seriously powerful in 2022. The T90 Pro runs at 30,000 Pa. Six times the suction power in four years, which means in practice that on carpet, you can see the pile lift. On hard floors, fine debris disappears in a single pass.
My house runs across floorboards, tiles, and a very plush carpet, and the T90 Pro moves between all three surfaces with no issue at all, adjusting suction and lifting the mop roller automatically as it transitions. The ZeroTangle 4.0 brush system handles hair wrap significantly better than the X1 ever did, using an airflow-directed design that guides hair into the suction path rather than letting it accumulate around the brush. What was a periodic maintenance chore of cutting out long strands of hair on the X1 is largely a non-issue here.
Navigation, Obstacle Avoidance, and YIKO
The new obstacle avoidance system in the T90 is a meaningful step up from the X1’s system, which was competent but would occasionally plough through charging cables rather than navigate around them. The T90 Pro uses deep learning and structured light to identify objects more accurately, intelligently distinguishing between stable obstacles like furniture bases, which it cleans close to, and unstable items like cords or pet belongings, which it gives a wider berth.
We live in a flat, single floor house so I don’t have first hand experience with it, but the thing can climb single steps up to 2.4cm and consecutive steps up to 4cm. It uses soft rubber teeth to do this, great for slightly mis-levelled floors but don’t expect it to take itself down to the basement.
One quirk worth flagging: it’s perhaps a touch too cautious around the base of curtains, tending to avoid them entirely rather than clean along the base. If you have floor-length curtains, expect a consistent gap in coverage there.
On the YIKO voice assistant, it works well once you’ve got it configured, but out of the box it announces itself at a volume that’s a bit over the top, particularly in a house with sleeping kids. It took me longer than it should have to track down the volume setting in the app. Once sorted, it’s a useful feature. Just know that it’s coming.
PowerBoost and Runtime
One genuinely useful addition that didn’t exist in the X1 generation is PowerBoost technology, which intelligently restores battery charge during routine mop-washing intervals. In practice, the T90 Pro can cover up to 500sqm in a single run without stopping to fully recharge – a meaningful real-world improvement over older machines I’ve used that would park themselves for an hour mid-clean and then resume.
The Station
The base station is large, almost as big as the X1. What it delivers is now, though, is considerably more complete. Auto-emptying into a sealed bag, hot water mop washing, auto-cleaning of the dirty water tank to prevent odour and buildup, hot air drying, and automatic detergent dispensing. Ecovacs claims up to 90 days without touching the dustbin side – I’ve been using it for about two months now and haven’t needed to empty it. With a newborn in the house, the ability to genuinely forget this thing exists between maintenance cycles is one of the things I like the most about it.
Coming From the X1
The X1 was a well-designed machine that delivered on its promises for its time. But sitting here in 2026, it’s clearly a product from a different era. The mopping technology has been completely reinvented. The suction has 6x’ed. The automation is more complete, the brush engineering is smarter, and the obstacle avoidance is meaningfully sharper.
If you’ve got an older model robot vacuum and have been wondering whether the upgrade is worth it — it is. If you don’t have a robot vac at home, then you’re in luck, because they’re pretty bloody good these days.
If you can’t quite stretch to the $2,300 of the T90 Pro Omni, the brand has also just released the T80 Omni at the next tier down at more palatable $1,799.
Verdict
The T90 Pro Omni sits in a compelling spot in the current Ecovacs lineup, below the flagship X12 series in price, but delivering performance that would have embarrassed flagship machines from two or three years ago. The mopping system is genuinely excellent, the suction is beyond what most households will ever fully tax, and the station automation is as close to hands-free as the category currently offers.
It loses half a point for the curtain avoidance quirk, and first-time setup of YIKO will catch you off guard if you’re not expecting it. Minor complaints in the context of the overall package.
The author was gifted a T90 Pro Omni for the purposes of this review. All opinions are his own.
