Shark vacuums shine at spot cleaning, but have a big blind spot
Scheduled full-room cleanings are a huge part of the convenience of a robot vacuum. The other half has to do with unexpected messes that need to be dealt with right now, with as little clicking around in an app as possible.
In my at-home testing, Shark robot vacuums are extremely straightforward and reliable spot cleaners. Setting a zone for a one-time clean in the Shark app is as black and white as dragging a square in the designated spot cleaning tab. The Shark knows to shift itself into Matrix cleaning mode for any spot cleaning situations, and automatically goes over the spot multiple times from multiple angles. Many other budget robot vacuums won't take a second look unless you remember to toggle the number of cleaning passes from one to two. Matrix cleaning automatically covers one of my tips for making your robot vacuum work better.
Is dependable spot cleaning a Shark-only skill? Of course not. But Shark robot vacuums still get credit for doing it while staying firmly in the budget robot vacuum category, and they're on sale frequently.
On the other hand, Shark's one big blind spot (literally) is small obstacle avoidance technology. Shark only has one robot vacuum that can reliably steer clear of cords and small pieces of laundry, and it's the most expensive one. Meanwhile, brands like Roborock, Eufy, and Dreame have afforded that capability to a handful of their mid-range robovacs.
New robot vacuums announced at CES 2026
Shark didn't do CES 2026 in January, but it did finally release a new robot vacuum and mop combo in March 2026: The Shark UV Reveal 2-in-1. I'm directly testing it against the top CES vacuum releases like Roborock Saros 20 and Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, the Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete, and the Narwal Flow 2.
