The most important difference between the i7 and the j7 is that the latter has a front-facing camera that enables it to avoid obstacles, while the i7 only has a top-mounted camera and therefore is more prone to bumping into or running over things before correcting itself. The j7 also wants to learn, so when it encounters a new obstacle it will send pictures of it to the iRobot app. You can then mark it as safe or as hazardous. The former means it will happily move it, but the j7 will steer well clear of anything marked hazardous.

We were able to clean both floors of a three-bedroom house with one full charge – but, annoyingly, the battery level doesn’t offer a percentage of time remaining, so we had to take a guess over how much charge was left. It took two hours to fully recharge from zero. Roomba i7 vs j7: featuresBoth cleaners here deliver 1,700Pa of suction power and come in at 65dB to 68dB for noise levels. Both models are rated for 75 minutes of use between charges, and will return to their charging station if they don’t have sufficient battery life remaining to complete a clean. Once recharged, they’ll continue cleaning from where they left off. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{

Both devices feature cameras and floor sensors that enable them to learn the layout of your home and focus on the dirtiest areas. Both deliver control via the iRobot app, through which you have the option to clean individual rooms as well as a whole floor. You can also create no-go zones, where you don’t want your Roomba to roam. Both devices can also be controlled via your smart speaker. We found that it took roughly a week for the Roombas to fully map our home –although we found that if we changed or reset our Wi-Fi network, we had to get our Roombas to re-learn the layouts, which was mildly annoying. Both Roombas are available in two versions: the standard i7 and j7, and the i7+ and j7+. The standard and plus models are identical devices, but the plus models include an automatic emptying station.

How we tested