Dreame X50 Ultra Complete Review: More Than Step Climbing

Price When Reviewed

$1,699.99

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The X50 Ultra Complete (just called the X50 Ultra in the US) has a stand-out feature that made headlines when it was previewed at Berlin trade show IFA in September 2024.

Its “ProLeap” technology – extendable robotic legs that allow it to climb a single step of 4.2cm, or combined steps of up to 6cm – led to it being termed the stair-climbing robot, which set expectations sky-high and overshadowed many of its other features.

Let’s make this clear. The X50 Ultra Complete won’t be tiptoeing up your staircase to clean your bedrooms but what it can do is cross any annoying thresholds in your home that have previously stumped other robot vacuums.

But that’s not all it has going for it. Dreame is a trusted robot vacuum brand for a reason and its latest flagship model has some of the best features currently available. I’ve been testing it for a month and here’s how it performed.

Design and Build

The more a robot vacuum can do, the bigger its base. And the X50 Ultra Complete is no exception, with a cleaning and charging station that has dimensions of 34 x 26 x 59cm (plus ramp and space for the robot to dock).

Gone are the days when robot vacuums lived under the sofa and, when it was time to clean, popped out like the Batmobile from the Batcave. If you want a robot vacuum that empties itself, automates all its mop functions and washes and dries the mop pads afterwards – all of which the X50 Ultra Complete does – you need to allocate it a big chunk of space.

That’s why it’s nice that brands are giving a bit more time to the aesthetic appeal of these humongous docks. The Roborock Qrevo Curv’s base is one such example, although its pod-like shape could prove divisive.

Dreame has taken a more mainstream route, adorning the facade of its otherwise standard dock (it comes in black or white) with a metallic plate and a section of panelling-like texture above it. I appreciated the effort as my kitchen isn’t large enough to house the X50 Ultra Complete, so it has to inhabit my sitting room where I’m forced to look at it a lot.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

But it’s worth it. Flip up the lid and it’s easy to access the two 4L tanks for clean and dirty water. And if you pop off the metallic front panel, you’ll find the dust bag and a compartment for detergent. Some robot vacuums only clean with water, so this is a plus for anyone who needs an extra floor-cleaning boost.

The robot itself is fairly standard looking at a glance, but it also has some fresh, labour-saving features. Turn it over and you’ll see two brush rollers, instead of the usual one. Dreame calls it the “HyperStream detangling DuoBrush” and it’s designed to prevent hair from becoming snarled up around it.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Hair getting everywhere is a common problem in my household and, to my surprise, the DuoBrush actually worked, with the brush roller remaining clean and hair-free after cleaning.

However, I still had to remove clumps of hair from the side sweeper, which has a traditional, hair-gathering design, rather than the claw-like model used by Roborock and Eufy, which sloughs off tangles.

There’s also a neat design feature on top of the robot. The raised tower you see on so many robot vacuums is one of the best ways to assure accurate object detection and mapping, as it gives a 360-degree vantage point for the DToF (direct time of flight) sensors.

There’s one on the X50 Ultra as well – but thanks to Dreame’s VersaLift technology, it retracts into the body of the robot, giving it a height of just 9cm from the floor and allowing it to clean under even low pieces of furniture. It scooted under my sofa to clean with no issues.

There’s a nice visual touch in the light ring around the DToF tower, which changes colour depending on what mode the robot is in.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Performance and Features

Setting it up

The X50 Ultra Complete is simple to set up. As it’s such a big piece of kit, the most difficult part was getting it out of the box. There’s some packaging to remove and some parts to attach, and the water tank (and detergent container, if you want) to fill.

A QR code will help you get started on the app and then the robot is ready to go. Once it’s mapped your home, you can make edits to correct issues with room boundaries and label the rooms, which will allow you to send it to a specific room for targeted cleaning.

The robot isn’t too noisy in operation and its cleaning power – thanks to its world-class 20,000Pa of suction – is impressive from the outset.

The ProLeap system

If your home has irregular flooring, or raised thresholds between rooms, you may have found that there are areas that an average robot vacuum can’t reach. The bedroom in my flat is one such spot. It has a raised threshold that’s 2cm high and 6cm wide and it has scuppered many a robot vacuum.

The X50 Ultra spotted it, raised itself up on its robotic legs and clambered over it with ease (although its descent was less than elegant). It’s entertaining to watch as well – robot vacuums are a lot more fun now that they’re more robot than vacuum.

The X50 Ultra uses a camera as well as DToF sensor to navigate, which means it automatically turns on a headlight to help it see in gloomy conditions. You can switch this off in the app, which I did to take some photos for this review and, interestingly, it was no longer able to find or climb the threshold.

Vacuuming and mopping

All of its clever features aside, the X50 Ultra is a hugely powerful vacuum cleaner. It’s without a doubt one of the most effective we’ve tested.

Apart from putting it through its paces in its regular rounds, I created a huge and tricky spill of rice, pumpkin seeds and sugar on the floor, and, aside from five grains of rice which were pushed too close to a chair leg for it to suck up, it left the floor spotless.

Its spinning mops make for effective wet cleaning as well, coping admirably with dried-on drops of tea and small sticky spills. One of the mops is extendable, on a robotic arm, for effective edge cleaning.

I found that this worked perfectly along uncluttered walls but there are still limitations when it comes to cleaning around furniture. If you don’t get out a hand vacuum regularly, you’ll start to get dusty rings around complicated bits of furniture.

However, in the app, you can switch off the collision-avoidance mode which will give you a closer clean to irregular objects, although at the risk of table legs getting more of a bump.

Rug and carpet cleaning is as good as it gets for a robot vacuum, which is to say that you’ll still need to vacuum by hand when you want a proper deep clean. The robot raises its mop pads for rugs and carpet – but there’s also the option to auto-detach the mop pads if you’re worried about damp rugs.

The only issue is that it does take a long time and uses a considerable amount of battery life for a thorough clean. If you have a larger home, there’s a good chance that it’ll need to recharge once during a clean.

Navigation and obstacle avoidance

The robot’s navigation and obstacle avoidance is solid overall. The X50 Ultra never once spilled water from a pet bowl or ploughed into a beloved piece of furniture and always gave the cat a respectfully wide berth. Whenever it met an obstacle, it dutifully photographed and added it to the map in the form of an icon, which you can click on and view.

Similarly, it’ll take photos of your pets when it spots them but