(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
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BERLIN—The robot vacuum industry is full steam ahead here at IFA 2025, with bots that can climb stairs and pick up your dirty laundry. Roborock showed off its Curv 2 Pro, which can clear plushy carpets or lower itself down to clean low-pile rugs, but it's also taking its tech outdoors with the RockMow and RockNeo robot mower lines.
The brand announced three new robot lawn mower models that should cover different kinds of yards and most people’s landscaping needs: The RockMow Z1, RockMow S1, and RockNeo Q1.
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)The RockMow Z1 is the most ambitious of the bunch, with four independently controlled wheels for smooth and powerful all-wheel drive.
We don't know pricing yet, and the Z1 will debut in Europe before a US launch, but I checked it out at Roborock's IFA booth. It’s far from the biggest or baddest robot lawn mower here. Instead, seeing it in person emphasized how it could be a viable product for various-sized yards.
It has a 5,000-square-meter cutting capacity, utilizes auto-mapping to figure out your yard on its own, and can do on-border trimming. I can’t speak to how well those things work yet; I only saw the mower in a demo environment. But I do like that it comes with an accessory edge trimmer to help get within 3cm of a fence.
During the demo, I was thoroughly impressed by its climbing ability as I watched it traverse an 80% slope of fake grass without slipping or losing traction, either up or down that steep of an incline. Seeing it smoothly rotate its wheels for precise turns is another positive sign.
Naturally, there's an AI component. Here, it's to balance obstacle avoidance and cutting coverage, Roborock says.
It’s hard to know if the RockMow Z1 is the real deal until we can see it actually cut grass, but so far, the machine appears to have some of the best qualities of the Eufy E18, like auto-mapping, and our Editors' Choice pick, the Segway Navimow X390, which has a long run time and quick speed.