. Of the dozen-plus autonomous floor cleaners we’ve tested to date, it (mostly) holds its own alongside the best of the best. There’s just one not-so-tiny problem — price.

Like Dyson’s other small appliances, its first foray into the robot cleaner category is expensive…$ 999/£800 expensive. And since Neato’s $ 700 Botvac Connected and iRobot’s $ 900 Roomba 980 cost less and perform slightly better, the 360 Eye loses some of its initial appeal.

Get it, by all means. You’ll have a compact cleaning powerhouse full of sensors with a 360-degree standard-definition camera that smartly navigates a room. You’ll also have an app that lets you access your Wi-Fi-outfitted vacuum from anywhere. Just be sure to look at the competition before you buy, because other brands offer more impressive bots for less.

Reaching new heights

The first thing I thought when I saw Dyson’s 360 Eye was that it was ridiculously tall. Shaped more like a dense 3-layer cake than its wider-flatter counterparts from iRobot and Neato, I assumed it would never clear coffee tables, chairs and other low-profile furniture.

I was wrong.

Yes, the 4.72-inch-high 360 Eye is 1.12 inches taller than the Roomba 980 and 0.82 inches taller than the Neato Botvac Connected — its two main competitors in the Wi-Fi-enabled robo-vac market. And that will certainly stop Dyson’s vacuum short in some cases. But for the most part, I had no issues with it clearing the same furniture as the other bots.

It also has that classic Dyson aesthetic going on, even though this is the brand’s first robot vacuum. Since I tend to like Dyson products from a pure design-appreciation standpoint, I like the 360 Eye’s looks, too. Specifically, it’s swathed in a glossy gray finish with bright blue accents. It even has a mini cyclone packed inside, a (revamped) legacy from its line of upright and stick vacs.

I doubly enjoyed the compact and foldable charging dock that comes with this bot, although I occasionally had to wiggle the vacuum around for its contact sensors to correctly line up with the dock so it would charge.

Check out the chart below to compare the 360 Eye’s specs against the Roomba 980 and the Neato Botvac Connected:

Navigating the robot vacuum world

Here’s what Dyson’s 360-degree camera sees.

Dyson

In addition to its digital V2 motor that Dyson says “spins at up to 78,000 revolutions per minute,” the way a robot vacuum sees rooms has a huge impact on its ability to clean.

The 360 Eye relies on infrared sensors and a 360-degree standard-definition camera that sits on the top of the vacuum to interpret its surroundings.

Dyson’s bot is very systematic about its movements, as it travels out from the dock in concentric squares throughout your entire house.

While it doesn’t follow the same parallel path as Neato and Roomba vacuums (iRobot’s older models followed a more random pattern, but the Roomba 980 is much more methodical), the 360 Eye still maps out a path that gives it a good chance of covering as much of the floor as possible.

Long-exposure shots of how Dyson’s 360 Eye (left), iRobot’s Roomba 980 (center), and Neato’s Botvac Connected (right) steer around a space.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

It doesn’t actually store and remember routes, though, since furniture and other obstacles can move between runs. Instead, it adapts to the environment on the fly.

Its 45-minute run time is a bit of bummer since competitors claim to run for roughly 2 hours before needing a charge, but it will dutifully return to its base station to charge and continue to clean the remaining rooms when it’s ready. It’s also on the loud side, so don’t expect to have a conversation in the same room while this thing is running.