I tested a robot vacuum that undercuts premium rivals - and it’s far smarter than the price suggests (aff)

Tapo's new RV50 robot vacuum cleaner follows the premium robot philosophy quite well. It has laser guidance, a self-emptying base station that washes and dries the detachable mop heads, and even trick extending mop arms to reach into tight spaces.

Why would you buy one over the other high-end robot vacuums, then? There are a few reasons worthy of your consideration.

Firstly, it's nice and compact. Some of the best and most complete robot vacuums out there, such as the Eufy S1 Pro Omni, the Dreame X50 Ultra, and the Roborock Saros series, all have very bulky base stations. The Tapo RV50's base station is surprisingly neat.

It has 15,000Pa of suction power, which is impressive, and it washes its mops at 60°.

And then there's the clever anti-tangle system. Rather than spend millions developing a clever brush pattern, as everyone else seems to be doing, Tapo has literally fitted a blade system to snip away at hairs as they're sucked up, which prevents them getting wrapped up in the first place.

And then there's the price. Amazon currently has a special offer on, bringing the Tapo RV50 down from £749.99 to £499.99. I'm not going to pretend £500 isn't a lot of money, but if you compare it to some of the other robot vacuums that offer similar functionality, it's around half the price.

And it's not as if Tapo is a cheap and cheerful brand, either. I'm a huge fan of their home security tech, and I have their cameras dotted all around my house. Some of them are nearly 10 years old and still going strong. Tapo builds stuff well and prices it keenly.

Having used the RV50 for a while now, I can certainly add it to the long list of dependable gadgets from Tapo. The twin laser system is brilliant at mapping and avoiding obstacles, the suction power is impressive, even on carpets, and the mopping system, with its on-board water tank to keep the pads moist, is among the best I've tested.

Cards on the table, this isn't a robot that will let you do away with deep cleans for the rest of your days. No robot vacuum is capable of performing more than a basic maintenance clean. But especially if you have a lot of hard floors in your house, and you don't tend to spill Marmite on them too often, it'll do a great job of keeping your house feeling fresh.

And the automation that comes with having a high-end robot takes this to another level, because you won't need to muck about with soggy mop heads, there's no need to empty the dust container, and in theory, you won't have any tangles. I haven't, yet.

All you need to do is top up the clean water, empty the waste water, and set it up on Tapo's excellent little app.

Replacing filters, dust bags and mop heads is a fairly pricey business, but no worse than some other brands, and the app feels a little basic compared to some bespoke robot vacuum software, but it's genuinely hard to fault the RV50.

It's a comprehensive package at a very sensible price. And it deserves to sell well.