Can this robot vac perform as well an upright? We put Dreame’s X50 robot vacuum to the test

If you’ve ever dreamed of a robot vacuum that actually does it all – mopping, self-cleaning, and even emptying its own dustbin – then the Dreame X50 Ultra Complete Clean might just be your new favourite gadget. This sleek bit of kit promises powerful suction, edge-to-edge cleaning, and a smart mop that scrubs, dries and refills itself. Oh, and did we mention it maps your home with scary precision? It’s basically the domestic dream team rolled into one high-tech helper – but does it live up to the hype?

Over the past month I’ve let Dreame’s X50 Ultra Complete clean the floors of my 2 bedroom flat, which consists of laminate flooring plus several rugs. We don’t have any pets, but my flatmate and I shed plenty enough hair to challenge any vacuum.

X50 Ultra Complete review

First impressions

The robot arrived in a hefty box because the dock is about the size of an average bin. Setup was super easy, I just followed the provided instructions which were very clear, and I had the robot and the app set up within 20 minutes. The design is very sleek, I was worried that it would look out of place in my living room, but it blends in with the white walls and looks nice and modern.

I then watched mesmerised as the X50 Ultra Complete mapped out my flat which took around 10-15 minutes. It accurately labelled each room and identified obstructions and rugs without any help.

Performance

When testing the vacuum I found that on standard mode it picked up almost all debris, but not all, and then with turbo mode it picked up basically everything. It has a side brush that extends for edges and corners which is very smart, but even in turbo mode it would sometimes still struggle with edges, especially if there were cables nearby. I tested turbo mode by placing dust on my rug and at the end of the clean there was no dust to be seen!

On standard mode I’d say the noise of the vacuum is quieter than most vacuums I’ve used, however on turbo mode it gets up to a normal noise for vacuum, so it may not be best to have it on while working or watching something.

It would very rarely bump into anything, which shows how good its spatial awareness is, but whenever it did the noise wouldn’t be loud – so I can tell the shock absorption does a great job.

I love that it can clean by room or zone, and you can customise the suction power, mode and route for the clean that you want.

Navigating furniture

I positioned my the dock near my dining table and chairs, which 95% of the time the X50 was able to navigate around as it is a bit of a tight squeeze, but a couple times it wouldn’t be able to navigate around the chairs even though the space was visibly big enough for it. So that’s something to keep in mind – you need to make sure there’s ample space around the dock for the robot to access. It’ll regularly navigate around shoes, towels and whatever else was on the floor however.

Transitioning surfaces

In regards to navigating the transition from laminate flooring to rugs, it performs very well. With the thicker rugs I can see that it tilts itself upwards to better access them. However, twice the robot has gotten stuck on a rug for no apparent reason – both times in the middle of a rug and it just kept spinning around in one small area. On the app it said there were wires it got caught up in, but there were none, so that was quite puzzling. This meant I had to pause the X50 and move it off the space so it could reset a bit. It would then it would quickly realise exactly where it was and would perform normally. So this is something to keep in mind, you may need to keep an eye on your robot in case it gets stuck, but once repositioned it’s fine.

After over a month of use I was very interested to see how it coped with hair. With most vacuums I’ve used the brush very quickly gets tangled with hair, but as you can see the brushes have no hair tangled in it at all! There’s a teeny bit in the wheel area, and a couple of strands on the underside, but none actually tangled up in the brushes, which I was very impressed with.

Mopping the floor

In regards to the mop function, it uses circular mop pads that polish the floor, and you can customise the wetness and how often to wash the mop pads, which is very useful especially if you just want a quick clean and don’t want the floor to be wet for too long after. In general, it cleaned the floors well and gave it a lovely polished, shiny look, however it did struggle to remove some tough and sticky stains. Once it’s finished mopping it’ll also remind you to empty out the dirty water, and will also tell you to refill the clean water if needed, which is very handy!

Usability

The app was generally very easy to use and is intuitive, but the first couple times I tried zone cleaning it would start to clean the whole house instead of the requested zone. Unsure if this was because I unknowingly clicked the wrong thing or that it toggled back to ‘All’ instead of ‘Zone’ when I went somewhere else in the app, but since these first times trying it I haven’t had the same issue again, so that may have just been a me issue!

You can also use voice commands such as ‘Hey Dreame, vacuum the kitchen’ to start a clean, which I found useful when I didn’t want to get my phone out and it saved a bit of time in that way. However, like with a lot of voice command software you have to talk very clearly and if there’s other noise around you it’ll find it hard to understand, but that’s to be expected.

Final verdict

After over a month of use the dust bag isn’t full yet, so I haven’t needed to empty it once which is amazing. All in all the X50 Ultra Complete super easy to use and great for a general clean, but I have found that it does sometimes miss edges and can’t always cope with tough stains. So I do use a handheld vacuum for those awkward areas, and I need to hand clean those tough stains, but I’d recommend this robot vacuum and mop to help with your weekly or daily general cleaning, as it’s saved me lots of time and energy. It has gotten stuck a couple of times, but it is a small amount percentage-wise, and can be expected to happen with other robot vacuum brands as well. The price is on the high side, I’m not sure if it delivers better performance than a less expensive option, but overall I’m happy with the X50 Ultra Complete’s performance.