Owning a pool is a dream until it's time to clean it. In spring 2026 I lived with the Beatbot Sora 30, a mid-range cordless robot, and two features normally found only on high-end cleaners made it stand out.
First impressions
I love this orange, and it feels heavy, about double the weight of the robot I'd been using. You can feel the quality. The filter tray is huge: Beatbot says 5 litres and over 650 leaves, roughly double a standard cleaner. I'm not a fan of parts that detach (one more thing to remember), but the way it closes is great. It comes with a 150-micron filter, and a 3-micron ultra-fine filter was announced as an accessory. The charging port sits behind a sealed front door for extra protection. Underneath it's all soft rubber with channels guiding debris inside, and at the back there are tank-style tracks and ultrasonic sensors.
In the pool
I downloaded the app, did a firmware update over the air, and chose the standard mode: floor, walls and waterline, with a two-hour run. There was sand and debris everywhere, as the pool hadn't been cleaned for a couple of days. You could see a clear path behind it as it went. I was especially curious about the very fine sand that comes out of my sand filter after I replace the sand, at the start of the cycle. Even without the ultra-fine filter, it handled everything I threw at it, from fine sand to heavy leaves and stubborn algae.
Shallow water and surface parking
Most robots I've reviewed, about 90%, either turn around at a tanning ledge or shallow step, or fall off it. The Sora 30 can autonomously identify and clean platforms as shallow as 8 inches. The front ultrasonic sensor handles obstacles so it can clean right up to the edge, and the bottom sensor detects platform height and slopes. I don't have slopes, so I couldn't test that myself.
The other feature I loved is smart surface parking. Most cordless robots just die on the bottom of the pool. When the Sora 30 finishes, or its battery hits 12%, it inflates a chamber, rises to the surface and parks against the edge, ready to lift out.
Specs and verdict
Beatbot rates it at up to 5 hours of floor cleaning, or about 4.5 hours for floor, walls and waterline, with 25.7 m³/h of suction. It's IP68 and UV protected. My previous robots faded in chlorine, so I'm curious to see how the orange holds up. The app shows progress, water temperature and history.
The rest of the spec sheet is stuff I've seen on other robots at similar prices. But those two features make it shine. The top-end Sora 70 costs about three times as much. This will probably finally replace my current cleaner after a year. If you've just bought a pool and want a reliable robot without paying flagship money, I'd definitely suggest it.