Before making any purchase -- of anything -- it helps to do some research. But nothing can beat the hands-on experience of using a product before you buy it. I recently had the luxury of doing this at home, testing the Eureka E10s robot vacuum and comparing it with a much cheaper model (the OKP Life K2 ). Please note that in this case, the word "cheaper" does not mean inferior. Rather, the price points are far apart.

To start, the E10s comes with a bagless self-emptying station, a mop combo feature, 4,000Pa suction, LiDAR navigation, and a companion app. It is engineered to use "multi-cyclonic separation technology," which purports to help reduce impurities in its HEPA filter and extend its lifespan.

After registering with my email on the app and connecting to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the unit chimed a note and a voice told me, "Connecting now. Please wait." Setting up the app took very little time, and the instructions made it easy to start cleaning right away -- so long as you're not using the mop feature (more on that later).

I started my testing with a dry run, meaning I did not add water to the water tank for mopping just yet. This way, I could assess the app and the Eureka's general navigation capabilities before getting down to the cleaning business. After setup, the initial run of the E10s intends to map your home's floor plan. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure this is what transpired.