The step-hopping Dreame X50 Ultra Complete cleaned more of my house than any other robot vac

Introduction

What makes the X50 Ultra Complete the most advanced robot vac I’ve seen from Dreame? The fact it’s the world’s first to come with retractable robotic legs. Yep, little legs, which Dreame says will last an impressive 30,000 cycles, to help it get over thresholds that previously would have put an end to cleaning or ended in an annoying ‘stuck robot’ message to your phone. 

The fancy navigation features don’t stop there. As well as getting high, the X50 Ultra Complete can get low, for cleaning under most furniture. There’s also a 360-degree scanning sensor for precise navigation and some AI action to identify and avoid small items like charging cables. 

At $1699/£1299 the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete certainly isn’t cheap – but its pricing is comparable to that of the excellent Roborock Qrevo Master, which costs $1399/£1200. So, do those little legs put it a step above the competition?

Features: robotic legs and a lot more… 

The X50 Ultra Complete isn’t just a timely update; Dreame has packed a lot of tech around those retractable robotic legs. The ‘ProLeap System’ elevates the chassis of the vac, so it can navigate over thresholds of up to 6cm in height. It can’t climb stairs just yet, but smaller steps and thicker rugs are no longer a concern. An extendable side brush and mop finishes off the hard-to-reach areas.

An industry-first adjustable DToF sensor dynamically adjusts the height as it approaches an obstacle, letting it get really low to the floor – 8.9cm – so it’s able to clean under low furniture. As you’d expect, the X50 Ultra Complete has camera and LED guidance for non-nonsense navigation.

As well as 20,000Pa of suction power, the X50 Ultra Complete’s ‘HyperStream Detangling DuoBrush System’ brush and air duct design, can pick up hair up to 30cm long while preventing tangling on the brushes. When it comes to mopping floors, 20 spray nozzles provide even water distribution. 

As seen on other robot vacs, like the Roborock Qrevo Master, there are some pet friendly features to get excited about. As well as avoiding the animal(s) and their paraphernalia, and adding an extra clean in pet areas if required, the X50 Ultra Complete has a pet finding mode where it’ll take a photo when it discovers your pal. It also lets you check in with a two-way voice call, incase they want to bark or mew at you…

The good-looking dock is impressive too, with 4.5L/4L fresh and dirty water tanks and automatic cleaning solution refilling (you add the solution to a separate container), as well as refilling the vac’s 80ml tank. Automatic mop drying kicks in after every floor wash to prevent any damp smells and the X50 Ultra Complete also uses two UV lamps to treat both the mop and the dust bag. Dreame says 99.98% of bacteria is removed as a result. Handy, given robot vacs can actually become quite dirty themselves after some time. 

Given the gloriously autonomous cleaning power of the X50 Ultra Complete, it stands to reason that Dreame would equip it with a self cleaning feature. It’s something we are seeing more and more of in premium robot vacs. Heating up to a considerable 80°C the robot can clean it’s own mop pads and there’s even a  built-in scale inhibitor, to stop clogging that can be caused by limescale. In mop washing you can choose from four different temperatures and three different modes depending on your environment, and whether you want an occasional deep clean of the mop pads. 

Automatic mop drying using hot air kicks in after cleaning to help keep things fresh. These features are the best I’ve seen yet in terms of self cleaning and certainly made me a lot less worried about cross contamination.

Performance: precise and powerful

This is the most hands-off robot vac I’ve ever tested. After using the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete for a couple of months, all I’ve had to do is refill the clean water tank and empty the dirty water tank. The auto cleaning solution is a great idea: I filled this up when I initially set the robot up and it has just got on with mixing and refilling the cleaning solution as needed. One less job for me. 

I’ve yet to do a dust bag dump – as you’d expect at the £1299 price point, the X50 Ultra Complete is auto-emptying and the 3.2L dust bag, housed within the base station can handle up to 100 days of debris.

But how’s the clean? There are five vacuum cleaning modes so you can choose a suction power to suit your surface, with the vac offering a considerable 20,000Pa suction on its highest setting. From my hard floors, to carpets and thick pile rug I found the clean to be excellent, including in corners. I’m most impressed with the pick up from my thick rug; the X50 Ultra Complete was able to pick up debris and hair that was deep within carpet fibers.

If you’ve read any of my hair tech reviews, like the Dyson Supersonic r, you’ll know that I have a very thick full of hair that’s prone to shedding – yes, quite like a dog. Which I also have. Impressively, not only did the X50 Ultra Complete pick up all hair but there were no tangles in the robot to deal with manually. In previous tests of other robot vacs I’ve had to untangle the brushes but not with this one. So, Dreame’s 100% anti-entanglement claim is justified based on my experience. 

When it comes to mopping performance I’m just as impressed as with the vacuuming. There’s often coffee on my kitchen floor from careless early morning brewing and it made a light job of this, as with the never-ending mud stains by my front door that goes hand-in-hand with having a kid and a dog enjoying themselves. I very rarely had to send the mop around twice, as is recommended for tough strains. 

The Dreame X50 Ultra Complete did a great job of mapping my home and was equally as good with object recognition. Best of all was the fact that it didn’t get stuck once during my testing period. The main two areas in my home that can be challenging for robot vacs are the step up from my hard floor hallway into the carpeted living room and going from cleaning under my low sofa directly on to my high pile rug. Both of these were handled perfectly courtesy of the X50 Ultra Complete’s robotic legs and it’s ability to get low. 

Dreame X50 Ultra Complete verdict

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the world’s first robot vacuum with retractable robotic legs. Would it be more gimmick than great? Happily not: this is the best robot vacuum I’ve tested to date and the one that offers the most autonomous cleaning too. It just gets the job done (as well as a person I might add) then cleans itself ready for next time. 

It’s certainly an investment, but if you have the budget and a busy household, I would certainly recommend the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete.

Dreame X50 Ultra Complete technical specifications