Dreame X40 Ultra Review: Does It Beat Roborock?

Overview

Dreame has become Roborock's most serious rival by doing something clever: taking the same basic promise — highly automated floor cleaning — and pushing harder on flashy, genuinely useful features like extendable side brushes and mop arms for better edge cleaning. The Dreame X40 Ultra is one of its strongest statements yet.

After testing, the answer to “does it beat Roborock?” is: sometimes, depending on what annoys you most about robot vacuums. If your pet hate is poor edge cleaning and corner coverage, Dreame's engineering here is impressive.

Cleaning Power

The X40 Ultra is an excellent vacuum. Suction is more than strong enough for mixed flooring, and on hard floors it leaves very little behind. On carpets, it performs at the top of the category, especially for routine maintenance. Like the best modern bots, it is not trying to replace a full upright deep-clean forever, but it absolutely reduces how often you need one.

Mopping performance is also very good. It deals well with day-to-day kitchen grime and tracked-in dirt, and the system feels confident rather than like a box-tick feature. The robot can intelligently adapt around carpets, which matters if your home mixes rugs and hard flooring in open-plan spaces.

Edge & Corner Cleaning

This is the X40 Ultra's party trick. Dreame's extendable brush and mop systems help it reach closer to edges and corners than many rivals. In real-world use, it does a noticeably better job along kitchen kickboards and room edges where dust tends to collect. It is not perfect — no round robot truly is — but it narrows one of the category's most annoying weaknesses.

If you have ever watched an expensive robot leave a smug little line of dust hugging the wall, you will understand why this matters.

Dock System

The dock is fully featured and very competitive with Roborock's premium offerings. It empties dust, manages water, and cleans mop components with minimal user effort. Like all large docks, it takes up serious space, but the convenience is undeniable. Once you live with this level of automation, going back to a basic charging dock feels primitive.

Maintenance is still required, but it is periodic rather than constant. That distinction is the whole point of flagship robot systems.

App & Software

Dreame's app has improved a lot, but Roborock still has a slight edge in polish and simplicity. That does not mean Dreame is bad — far from it. Mapping, room editing, schedules, and cleaning preferences all work well. It just feels slightly busier and less effortlessly clear in places.

Still, the feature depth is strong, and power users will find plenty to tune. If you like tinkering with routines, suction levels, mop settings, and room-specific behaviour, the X40 Ultra has the flexibility to keep you entertained.

Verdict

The Dreame X40 Ultra was one of the best premium robot vacuums available when we reviewed it, especially if edge cleaning is a top priority. Roborock still wins slightly on app polish for us, but Dreame closes the gap with clever hardware and very strong overall performance.

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