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Dyson opens first UK store as £800 robot vacuum goes on sale
If there's one thing Dyson knows best, it's hoovers. And while the company may've been late to making a little robot that does the cleaning for you, Dyson's 360 Eye is easily one of the best you can buy. Now, after debuting in Japan late last year, the vacuuming automaton is available in the UK from today. Features such as a 360-degree camera, obsessive cleaning methodology and activity reports don't come cheap, though. The 360 Eye can be found on Dyson's site for £800, and that price also includes a nice company rep that'll pop over and set the thing up for you.
Dyson's $1,200 robotic vacuum is expensive, but also the best
Dyson is very confident about its new vacuum. Then again, with this price, it has to be. On sale now in Japan for just shy of 150,000 yen ($1,200), the 360 Eye is the company's first robotic model -- although it's not for lack of trying. It might be worth the wait, though: It actually cleans like you always hoped a robot vacuum would. It's so good, in fact, that I might have to fire my Roomba.
Dyson's big, heavy, complicated robot vacuum that never was
Introduced to the public way back in 2004, Dyson's first robot vacuum never wheeled itself into retail. While it was apparently close enough to a finished product to pick up a sticker with a helpline number, the sheer number of sensors (over 70), and a total of 54 batteries was a problem. While it could detect stationary objects and living things it was too expensive to both produce or sell. As Dyson's senior robot engineer, Mike Aldred, noted: "It did the job we intended... but it wasn't the right product." The decision was made to can the DC06, and the team decided to focus on a single (albeit complicated) sensor to guide its robot vacuums: 360-degree vision. And that's where Dyson's 360 Eye comes in. It's a bit late, but from our early experiences with it, it sucks -- In the good way. And if you've got a thing for yellow and millennial-gray plastic, a gallery of the rare (hefty) robot vacuum awaits below.
Why Dyson's pricey robot vacuum is late for its Japanese debut
We warned that Dyson's first robot vacuum was going to put all that cyclone technology to use on your wallet's contents and we weren't wrong. After a hefty half-year delay, the 360 Eye robot vacuum goes on sale in Japan today priced at 138,000 yen -- before tax! That's around $1,150. Cutting-edge robot house cleaners that take care of themselves apparently demand high salaries (just ask Rosie). Dyson's 360 Eye has undergone a handful of minor changes, both in the hardware and software, to prepare it for its first customers: the Japanese. My biggest takeaway? Dyson thinks the 360 Eye knows its way around cleaning a room even better than you, you big ole' irrational human.
Dyson's first robot vacuum promises more suction than the competition
Sixteen years and nearly $47 million in the making, Dyson's unveiled its first robot vacuum cleaner: the 360 Eye. The company says it's packing more cleaning power than any other robot vacuum currently on the market, but you'll have probably noted that such improvements has also made it a fair bit taller than incumbents like iRobot's Roomba. The WiFi-connected vacuum will arrive alongside a smartphone app that'll allow you to schedule sessions for when you're not at home yourself: it'll clean up your mess for up to 20 minutes before returning (autonomously, of course) to charge. Being Dyson, though, it's all about the engineering decisions made inside -- and they look something like this.
Dyson's incoming robot vacuum is called the 360 Eye and it looks like this
That robotic vacuum cleaner that Dyson teased a few days ago? It's arriving -- and soon it's here! Thanks to a kind tipster, we were able to get a quick look at the device called the Dyson 360 Eye, which will apparently be revealed in earnest later today. As the image above suggests, it's a similar shape to existing robot vacuums, but arrives equipped with a 360-degree camera. It can apparently wheel around vacuuming your house for 20 minutes, before it needs to get back to a vertically-mounted (extremely classy), glass and acrylic charging station. According to our source, it's a follow-up to a Dyson vacuum cleaner called the DC06 from a decade ago, which was never released as it carried a very hefty $16,500 price tag. The 360 Eye won't be exactly cheap either, we hear, but the tipster reckons it'll be a lot more affordable at around $1,650. They added that it will be available in Japan first, but will roam carpets and corridors in the US and the UK soon after. Expect to hear more later today. [Thanks, anonymous tipster!]