Amarey A900 robotic vacuum review: a powerful, efficient cleaner

Amarey has just two robot vacuums in its product line, but they happen to be two of the best and most affordable in their respective price ranges. The Amarey A800, our current top pick for vanquishing pet hair, is its budget model. The A900, which includes app control and camera mapping and navigation, is its de-facto premium model—though at just $350 via Amazon, it doesn’t come with the associated price tag.

Design

The A900 has the same slim dimensions as the A800: 12.7 inches in diameter and a low-furniture friendly 2.7 inches in height. On its underside are a roller brush and a pair of spinning edge brushes. It also packs up to 1,400Pa of suction power, which is great for pulling debris out of carpets.

Whereas the A800 navigates through its obstacle-detecting sensors, the A900 adds a 145-degree navigation sensor on its top that works with “Visual SLAM” (simultaneous localization and mapping) technology to map the environment. This allows it to plot the most efficient path through the room, which should lead to better cleaning and longer battery life.

The A900 comes with a remote control that you can use to control its cleaning modes and suction levels or use to manually direct the vacuum. The Amarey companion app provides the same controls plus access to mapping, scheduling, and third-party voice control features.

Amarey

Setup and usage

The A900’s setup follow the usual steps of placing the vacuum on its charging dock and following the app prompts to connect to your Wi-Fi network and assign the robot vacuum to a room.

On its maiden voyage, the A900 gropes around walls, furniture, and your home’s other landmarks to get a feel for the environment. Although its path looks anything but efficient at this point, the vacuum is methodically building a map, which you can view in real time in the Armarey app. Once the A900 has the lay of the land, subsequent cleanings are much more straightforward.

The A900 has a few cleaning modes. Spot cleaning focuses on a localized area, Edge intensely cleans along walls and furniture legs, and Auto mode adjusts the suction for different floor types. You can also schedule cleanings by setting a start time, and then assigning it to specific days of the week.

Michael Ansaldo/IDG

The vacuum had no trouble navigating different terrains in my testing, smoothly transitioning from carpet to hardwood to linoleum and back again. And as with the A800, the slender profile allowed it to easily squeeze between chair legs and under my couch without getting stuck. If the vacuum does get into trouble—as when it sucked a Nerf dart off my living room floor—it alerts you with a voice message and a push notification on your phone.

The Amarey app is simply laid out with a large directional pad on top and the various mode, mapping, and scheduling selectors toward the bottom. It also provides detailed instructions for setting up voice control through third-party services, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Verdict

The A900 is a powerful and efficient cleaner. Like the A800, it does a particularly good job of extracting pet hair from carpet. Amarey claims the A900 gets about 100 minutes to a charge, and I found I could get a couple of cleanings of my condo’s lower level in that time.

But low-priced robot vacuums with app control and mapping navigation aren’t that uncommon anymore. In fact, feature-for-feature the Ecovacs Deebot N79S matches pretty well with the A900 and costs only $190. That Ecovacs model is our current favorite budget vacuum, and is our recommendation if you want a robot vacuum some advanced features without breaking the bank. The Amarey A900 is a close runner-up.