Affordable robot pool cleaner with a 2-in-1 trick

Most affordable robot pool cleaners don’t clean the water surface. This is why it’s so common for people to have two robots: a skimmer for the surface and another for the rest of the pool. If you wanted a single robot to do both, the most popular options used to come from Beatbot, but they were the top-tier models, which are mighty expensive. This is why I was especially interested in the Beatbot Sora 70 ($1499 at Beatbot) when I saw it at CES 2026.

This robot offers a full solution in a single unit, all while keeping the price at a more reasonable $1,499. This is a far cry from other full solutions like the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro and 2 Ultra models, which cost $2,299 and $3,150, respectively. Does it truly rise up to the occasion, or will it simply sink against its impressive big brothers?

After months of waiting, I finally got a Beatbot Sora 70 at my doorstep and had the chance to test it.

After testing the AquaSense 2 Ultra, I had high expectations of Beatbot’s latest, maybe unreasonably high. Of course, the AquaSense 2 Ultra is one of the company’s most expensive robot pool cleaners. It was solidly built, heavy, and extremely capable. I had to remind myself that the Beatbot Sora 70 is under half the price and not to get too carried away.

With that in mind, there is definitely a difference in build quality and design. It’s also smaller and lighter: 17.1 x 16.9 x 11.2in and 22.9lbs. It’s not a badly built robot pool cleaner by any means. The robot feels solid, and it is actually a very well-designed, colorful unit. It’s more fun, so to speak. All I am saying is that there is definitely a difference in build quality between this and Beatbot’s high-end models. If slightly cheaper plastic helps the price drop by more than half, though, I am all for it.

Setting it up was just as simple, though. I got everything out of the box and plugged it in using a very convenient proprietary port. It kind of looks like a car socket plug, but wider. You just stick it in to plug in, and pull it out to unplug.

After this, I just followed the app’s instructions and was all set up in under five minutes. Now all I had to do was wait for it to charge. I left it plugged in overnight, but noticed the robot reached 100% in a little under three hours. That said, the robot came with a bit of charge out of the box. It should take about 4.5 hours to charge it from zero to 100%.

How well does the Beatbot Sora 70 clean a pool?

The next morning, I woke up bright and early, put on my swimming trunks, and got ready to start testing this bad boy.

The first thing that came to mind was that this thing has no buttons. The only type of manual control it has is a switch you can use to switch between Pro Mode and a Preset Mode, which you can customize in the app. This is great for the times you don’t want to pull out your phone.

But how do you turn it on? Well, it was already on when I unplugged it, but you can also use this switch. Just move it in any direction, and the device will turn on. A bit confusing, and it has a bit of a learning curve, but it’s a breeze to use once you learn how it works.

I used the app to check out the options. These include Pro Mode (cleans all), Floor Mode, Surface Mode, Standard Mode (cleans floor, wall, and waterline), and Eco Mode. The latter optimizes battery life and especially focuses on cleaning the floor every 48 hours.

This wasn’t an especially large pool. I mean, the robot is designed to handle cleaning a pool over 3,000 sq ft large, and it should last 5-7 hours per charge. Usually, residential pools range between 400 and 600 sq ft. Even the large ones should average at about 1,000 sq ft. The one I used was nothing special, so I set up the robot for a complete clean in Pro Mode.

I watched it clean everything. From the waterline to the walls and the floors. Then, it moved to the surface and started skimming the pool. After about two hours, the cleaning was done. The robot has a battery life of five hours while cleaning floors or seven hours skimming the surface. This means it can likely clean this average home pool about twice on a full charge.

When it was done, it came to the edge of the pool on its own and parked there for me to easily pull out. In terms of cleaning, it did a pretty good job. Granted, the pool was quite clean to begin with, but I threw in some dirt and debris before getting started. It was all gone by the end of the cleaning session.

The 6,800 GPH (gallons per hour) pressure seems to do a good job picking up everything. It’s also nice that it has a large filter, which I didn’t even fill halfway. It’s 6L and has two filtration options. You can use the 150-µm for normal, everyday cleaning. If you really want to battle small particles, you can switch to a 3-µm filter for crystal-clear water with no residues. It can literally filter microscopic particles.

There’s one thing I really liked that I hadn’t seen before in other robot pool cleaners. Normal skimmers and robot pool cleaners just passively clean surfaces. They get no external help, so to speak. These machines will just pick up whatever they can along their way. The Beatbot Sora 70 has what they call “JetPulse”. It uses a couple of small jets that shoot water in a converging way that pulls debris inward, in a V shape, so that they get caught in the system.

Just take a look at the image above. You’ll see how the jets are pushing the water inward in the wave patterns. It works very well!

Overall, robot pool applications seem to have become simpler, and the Beatbot app isn’t the exception. After setup, you only really get a few options. You can choose a mode, start the Remote control function, or ask the robot to Park.

The one thing to keep in mind is that you should definitely pick your settings before putting the Beatbot Sora 70 in the water. This is because, like all other robot pool cleaners, the Sora 70 will disconnect when submerged. Once underwater, you can’t really do much until it decides to come to the surface.

Beatbot Sora 70 review verdict: Should you buy it?

What makes the Beatbot Sora 70 hard to beat is that it has very few direct competitors when you factor in features and value. Robot pool cleaners don’t typically double as surface skimmers. You usually have to use a robot and a skimmer to get the full automated cleaning experience.  The Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro, Ultra, and X can do all of this, but they are all much more expensive. There is also the Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max, but it’s still more expensive at $1,799.99. And if you can get the Sora 70 on a discount — it’s 20% off and down to $1,199 at the time of writing — then it truly blows everything else out of the water (pun intended).

If you really want a single robot that can clean the pool’s floor, walls, waterline, and surface, and want to spend as little as possible, there is no beating the Beatbot Sora 70 yet. While cheaper, it is also a high-end robot that does a great job cleaning large residential pools.

Using this robot was a joy. And while smaller and lighter, that didn’t take away from the experience. Honestly, it made it even more seamless. I was able to carry it more easily and pull it out of the pool.  It still cleaned very efficiently, and the hands-off approach is really nice. Operating it was super simple, too, which made me realize having more fancy buttons isn’t really necessary.

As always, Beatbot is setting the standard, but this time it is changing the script. While the brand is known for its top-tier, expensive robot pool cleaners, in this case, it’s offering quality at a lower price, which is as refreshing as a swim on a hot summer day.