Review: Neato Botvac D4 Connected

I like Neato’s powerful and efficient robot vacuums, but their software has always lagged a little bit behind their hardware. Neato’s botvacs have climbed into my dog food bowls, bumped into walls hard enough to throw off their own sensors, or exhibit inexplicable behavior, like needing to pass the docking station three times before it can go home.

In comparison, the iRobot Roombas utilize top-of-the-line navigational technology, which was developed to sniff out mines on beaches. If I don't want to, I don’t even have to clear clutter off my floors. After all, you don’t want to spend more time futzing with an automated robot than you would with a push vacuum.

But this past summer, Neato introduced no-go lines with its premium D7 Connected. You can draw boundaries in the Neato app, rather than strategically positioning little laser towers or magnetic strips around your house. This was a huge step in making the Neato botvacs better at getting around.

Now, the company's high-end features like mapping tech and, yes, no-go lines have trickled down to Neato’s midrange botvac. While it's a stretch to say that $500 is cheap, the D4 Connected is currently one of the best robot vacuums in terms of value.

Like the previous Connected vacuums, the D4 is easy to set up. Plug in the charging base and set it to charge; download the Neato app, and follow the instructions to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network.

The D4 Connected has the same distinctive D-shape as all of Neato’s line, which ostensibly helps it fit into the nooks and crannies or your home. It has been updated from its previous iteration, the D3 Connected, with a new, sleek, all-black exterior and textured top.

But also like the rest of the Connected line, the D4 navigates via bump sensors and a top-mounted laser turret as well as an array of bump, drop, and wall-following sensors. The turret raises its overall height to 3.92 inches, which makes it just slightly too high to run under my son’s crib.

It took the botvac 2.5 hours to charge from 0 percent, and 1.5 hours to charge after every cleaning cycle. You can check Neato’s charging estimation times on the app, although they’re extremely pessimistic. For example, the battery is currently 97 percent full and Neato estimates that it will take 48 minutes to get the rest of the way there (Spoiler: It did not).

As with all of Neato’s Connected line, you can select between Eco or Turbo mode, or toggle on gentle navigation. You can also schedule your robot vacuum by toggling on the days and times, and select spot cleaning versus house cleaning.

On Turbo mode with gentle navigation, I measured the D4 at 65 decibels; on Eco mode, it ran about 61-63 dB, not quieter enough for me to think it was worth the extra run time. On Turbo mode, it took in between 30 and 45 minutes to clean 400 square feet of my house. Neato estimates that the botvac has a 75-minute run time. It took me a little over an hour on Turbo to get the battery to 30 percent, at which point the D4 Connected demanded to be returned to its base.

You can control your D4 via the app on your phone or Apple Watch, Amazon Alexa, or Google Home. However, should you choose to enable Neato’s no-go lines, you must start each cleaning cycle from the Neato app.

In order to enable no-go lines, the botvac must create an initial floor map of your house. The companion app cautions you to remove all doors and objects out of its path for this initial run. I did try to do this to the best of my ability, but...my house is chaotic. As the Zen koan goes: Which comes first, the no-go lines or the piles of clutter that spur the need for them?

I didn’t have a problem establishing a floor map with the D7 Connected, which navigated through cords and random tiny felt pieces with ease. However, the D4 Connected took several cleaning cycles to create an accurate floor map. Each time its roller brush got stuck on a heretofore unseen bit of yarn, it stopped and scrapped the map.

Once programmed, I did manage to stymie the D4 Connected a few more times. For example, I once accidentally left a stool next to the charging station, which brought its cleaning cycle to a screeching halt. The D4 Connected will also refuse to work if you disorient it by moving the charging base slightly, so you might want to rethink its placement if it’s in a place where you might bump or kick it accidentally (sorry for the sideswiping, Neato!).

However, you can still pick it up and move it to another floor to clean; it will just ask you if you want to disable no-go lines or not. When I set it free in the botvac Thunderdome that is my garage, it bobbed and weaved through the pitfalls of empty cardboard boxes, wires, and loose crayons without a qualm.

Robot vacuums have become ubiquitous for a reason—when they work correctly, they’re awesome!. If you’re just looking for light maintenance cleaning and don't particularly care about Wi-Fi capabilities or mapping, you can take your pic of budget botvacs for under $300 or $200.

But for just few hundred bucks more, the D4 Connected offers many more features. These, in combination with Neato's spectacular cleaning abilities, make this vacuum a worthwhile investment. The clean, straight lines that Neato robot vacuums leave across our low-pile carpet never fail to impress. I couldn't scratch up any sand or dog hair, and trouble spots, like under our kitchen table and by the front door, were left grit- and dirt-free.

Moreover, the D4 Connected had fewer of the annoyances that I’ve had with previous iterations of the line. With Gentle Navigation toggled on, it didn’t bash into walls or doors. Much to my relief, I didn’t get constant notifications that my long hair had snarled the brush and stopped the vacuum, although I did keep an eye on it out of habit.

Ultimately, your choice comes down to personal preference. If you're the kind of person who prefers to start their robot vacuum in a house full of hazards, salute it, and say, "Good luck, soldier," then the Roomba 980 might be the better pick for you.

However, if you're a normal person who doesn't mind taking a few minutes to move bar stools and pick wet towels off the floor before leaving the house every morning, the Neato Botvac D4 Connected is one of the best midrange robot vacuums out there right now. Yes, $500 isn't cheap, but you get so much more for that price than you would have before. At least, until the next generation of botvacs rolls along.