Smart home
Dreame X40 Ultra Review: A Sweeping Victory
Xiaomi’s sister brand, Dreame Technologies, hasn’t been around long, but the Chinese appliance manufacturer founded in 2017 has some interesting smart home products in its portfolio. Its Dreame X40 Ultra is a new hands-free robot vacuum bot that does everything like emptying bins, refilling mop tanks, and cleaning and drying their mop pads with limited interventions from us.
We have been using the Dreame X40 Ultra extensively over the past two weeks. Our practical test of the machine reveals the advantages and disadvantages of this comprehensive cleaning solution for floors. It has self-empty and self-cleaning features and boasts mop heads with MopExtend technology. The machine looks similar to the combo vacuum and mop robots, but it ships with an extending brush and mop pad.
With a price tag of Rs. 1,29,999, the Dreame X40 Ultra is the highest-priced robot vacuum we have tested to date. However, it is already available at much lower prices, currently costing just Rs. 99,999 on Amazon. Dreame provides a one-year warranty with its products purchased from Amazon (its official retail outlet). The company does not have any physical service centres that buyers can visit, but we were informed that it will arrange for the pickup and delivery of a product that requires repairs.
Dreame X40 Ultra: What’s in the Box, Design
The retail box of Dreame X40 Ultra includes a tall docking station, cleaning solution, side brush, two debris removal tools, two mop pads, a power cord, and the robot itself alongside documents. The base station houses containers for clean and dirty mop water. The robot cleaner comes in a round shape with a raised area on top that houses the laser-based navigation system. It includes an LED auxiliary light, camera indicator, AI-based IR camera, AI HD camera laser distance sensor and 3D dual line sensors, among others. It has a lid at the top, which gives easy access to the on-device dust bin. There are three buttons at the top: Spot Cleaning, Power (or clean) and Dock. These can be used to control the core functions of the vacuum cleaner without needing to set up the app. However, its entire feature set can only be accessed through the paired app.
Dreame X40 Ultra’s design looks and feels premium but is not very different from other products in the market
The initial setup of the Dreame X40 Ultra works smoothly with the Dreamehome app (available on iOS and Android). After installing the app, you scan a QR code on the robot to add it to the Wi-Fi network, and the app takes the user by hand and guides them through the installation. It offers a variety of functions, most of which we have already discussed in the test of the Dreame L10s Ultra (Review).
After installing the ramp, the base station can be plugged in and charged. Once started, the Dreame X40 Ultra creates virtual maps of the floor quickly with no trouble at all. The map is continuously tweaked with every move, updating the placement of pieces of furniture, laundry bags, and slippers. It has 2D and 3D map styles, and the new curtain zone in the app assists in cleaning under curtains without getting stuck on them. Beyond that, users can edit the map according to room partitions, set go zones, virtual walls or more. I found few or no errors in mapping, and the navigational accuracy was decent even in the dark, thanks to the 3D structured light.
The base station of Dreame X40 Ultra has self-emptying, self-cleaning, self-drying, self-refilling, and self-dispensing features with no interventions on your part. Another highlight is the automatic dispensing of cleaning solutions, paired with a large dustbin that supports hands-free cleaning for weeks. Once you fill the clean water tank and add the cleaning solution (200ml) bundled in the box, it is good to go.
While the app works great when setting up the vacuum cleaner, it needs a bit of polish. The interface feels a bit outdated; the most frequently used settings are a few layers deep in the app, and the camera output also lags a bit. The cleaning modes could have also been arranged in a better manner.
Dreame X40 Ultra: Cleaning and Performance
Dreame claims that its X40 Ultra offers 12,000Pa of suction power, which is impressive for a robot vacuum cleaner. The premium robot vacuum and mop offers many settings and customisations, from thorough carpet vacuuming to AI-guided cleaning. It can vacuum and mop simultaneously if needed, allowing for a quicker cleaning run. It offers quiet, standard, turbo and max suction power options. I primarily stuck to the middle standard and turbo options. Furthermore, it has a CleanGenius mode that allows the machine to choose the cleaning parameters for the users.
Cleaning modes of Dreame X40 Ultra include vacuum, mop, vacuum and mop, mop after vacuum, and customised room cleaning options. In the latter, you can set personalised suction and mopping preferences for each area. The option to vacuum first and then mop sounds like the manual cleaning method, which I liked most. It works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri as well. You can also select the wetness levels from slightly dry, moist and wet options.
You can set the mop washing frequency based on area, time and by room. The area can be set anywhere between 10sq m to 35sq m, and the robot will automatically return to wash the mop pad after cleaning the pre-set area. If you choose the time, the robot will return to the base station to wash the mop pads according to the set time, ranging from 10 minutes to 50 minutes. It is also possible to set up zones that let the robot return to the base station after cleaning a single room or zone. Quick, standard, intensive, and deep routes can be opted for when using vacuuming and mopping tasks.
The Dreame X40 Ultra’s noteworthy feature is an extendable and liftable side brush that efficiently moves over 10mm up and down to get into edges and under furniture that sits lower. This side brush performed decently in our evaluations. One of the unique features of this device are its magnetic pads. The bot leaves them behind at the base station to vacuum carpets, thus eliminating the chance of rugs getting damp from the mop heads. Once completed, the bot returns to the dock to wear the mop pads and mop the entire area. The robot’s sensors ensure that the mops are being rewashed when necessary.
Dreame X40 Ultra has an extendable and liftable side brush
Also, thanks to the new MopExtend RoboSwing cleaning technology that lifts the mop heads up to 10.55mm square and protects the carpets from moisture. With this functionality, the mop head will spin out to clean right against the hard-to-reach spots like chair legs, sofa corners and kitchen cabinets.
Like the recent vacuum and mop combos, Dreame has used AI to identify objects here. Users can drop into the camera’s feed to remotely check on their pets. It performed well at picking up human hair (short) and lint, as I have a pet-free home. However, a few of my longer hair strands did tend to get tangled in its brush. So, for households like mine that have people with long hair, users have to perform the light task of removing the strands wrapped in the main brush at least once a week. Dreame is selling a TriCut brush separately designed to shred hair and avoid tangles and clogs. Despite the higher price tag, it still only has a single roller rubber brush.
Dreame has armed the base station with a 300ml dust bag that is claimed to last up to 75 days of use. It wasn’t even close to full in my two weeks of testing, but I think this will depend on how large the house is. After each run, the base station efficiently empties the dustbin.
Dreame X40 Ultra’s base station houses a 300ml dust bag
The onboard water tank of Dreame X40 Ultra is 80ml, and the machine has large capacity containers for dirt and clean water. As they are big, I only have to refill the clean water every couple of days. I chose to clear the dirty water after two or three runs so that it didn’t start to smell. But the tank was never half or more than that after multiple runs. Further, robots identify dirt and wet messes and prioritise them.
The Dreame X40 Ultra is quiet on its lowest setting but can get pretty loud when you increase its suction power. After cleaning the Dreame X40 Ultra, it washes the mop with hot water and dries it with hot air to eliminate odours. I found this process a bit noisy. If you have toddlers at home, the mopping and dirt removal will accidentally wake them up. The noise of vacuuming alone is tolerable and can be performed while taking a nap. The robot is intelligent enough to avoid auto-empty tasks during the DND period. It performs the self-cleaning ritual before and after cleaning sessions, and it is smart enough to decide if the brushes need to be cleaned in the middle of each vacuum or mop session.
Dreame X40 Ultra: Battery life
The Dreame X40 Ultra has a 6,400mAh battery that delivers impressive battery life. In normal suction mode, it vacuumed and moped my approximate 1,200 square feet home in about 50 minutes and still had 90 percent battery left. The coverage of area per charge depends on the size of your home and cleaning settings. In turbo mode, which uses more power to deliver higher suction, the device had 78 percent power after the run.
Verdict
For homes with a mix of carpeted and hard floors, the Dreame X40 Ultra is a good robot vacuum option. It will never make you worry about a dirty mop pad getting dragged across the rug because it lifts the entire mop head on top of the robot while cleaning soft flooring surfaces. But all of this comes at a price. For carpet-only homes, there are many affordable vacuum-only options to pick from.
The Dreame X40 Ultra delivers excellent performance in several areas as it assures the latest cleaning tech, hot water mop washing, and an extending mop pad alongside a liftable side brush. However, there are minor shortcomings like the app experience, additional dust bag, and cleaning solution costs.
If you have enough room for the base station (it takes up a lot of space) and the budget, this robot vacuum cleaner does everything I’ve ever wished for. It is suited for families with little ones or multiple pets and for users like me who get quickly overstimulated in a cluttered, dirty space. You won’t find comparable solutions from other manufacturers at the moment. For users with a budget, there are many great options at more affordable prices from brands like Xiaomi and Ecovacs.
Rating: 8/10
Pros:
- Powerful suction, effective cleaning performance
- Auto-emptying and mop cleaning base station
- Extendable and liftable side brush, liftable mop pads
- Hot water mop washing
Cons:
- Takes up a lot of space
- The app isn’t as user-friendly as it could be
- Recurring costs
- Expensive
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Another group of people who benefit from this are the elderly who might not enjoy travelling for exercise due to mobility issues. This is what led to the arrival of various home workout programmes, video tutorials, and online classes. While it did address the problem of accessibility to some extent, one area that was still largely unaddressed was personalisation. But not for long.
Role of AI in Home Workouts
The artificial intelligence (AI) discipline might thank the wave of generative AI that started in late 2022 for mainstream attention, but its impact on the lives of people was felt much before that. From smartphones to search engines and from Microsoft’s Clippy to Amazon’s website, AI technologies such as predictive analysis, rule-based AI, and machine learning (ML) have always been part of popular software.
AI also made its way to the home workout space slowly. Products such as Fitbit and Apple Watch with health and fitness sensors gave people insightful data about their daily activity level. These devices also allowed users to make adjustments to get more out of their workouts opening the path for personalisation.
While the pieces were being put together, the home workout space was missing one key ingredient — expert advice on type of workouts, posture, and an option to build a personalised routine. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the majority of the population was stuck indoors for months, businesses cracked the code.
Carol Bike 2.0, OxeFit’s XP1, and Vitruvian Trainer+ were some of the home gym equipment that sought to bring AI personalisation to people. But they were largely catering to the Western countries and India was missing out. Sensing an opportunity to address this gap, Portl, a Hyderabad-based startup entered the space with its smart mirror-based AI home workout system dubbed Portl Studio.
Gadgets 360 spoke with Indraneel Gupta, Founder and CEO of Portl to understand the tech behind Portl Studio and how the startup is leveraging AI to offer users a personalised experience.
The Vision Behind Portl Studio
Founded in 2021, Portl aimed to solve the same personalisation problem for those who prefer working out at home. Gupta said, “One common issue that persists even today is that gyms and fitness centres tend to follow a very cookie-cutter approach to fitness that doesn’t apply to everyone.”
Portl Studio
Photo Credit: Portl
The company focused on the demographics of people aged 35 and above and found that fitness was as much a convenience issue as it was an engagement issue for them. Their solution? A device with a large smart mirror that can be spotted from a distance — which also doubles up as a display that shows personalised workout routines and follow-along guides to help them get the right motivation. But, how does it all work together?
The Portl Studio Tech Stack
Portl Studio is a 32kg device with dimensions of 5.8 x 2 x 0.1 feet. It is a fairly large and heavy device that requires experts to properly install it to either a free wall inside a house or on a stand. While this would make it a piece of unfeasible equipment for some, it would also be an ideal setup for those whose main struggle is to get out of the house and go to the gym after a long day. For those people, the device tries to fit in all the requirements that could eliminate the need for a social space.
The Portl Studio’s mirror features several sensors that track the user’s posture in real-time. It also comes equipped with biosensors, similar to a smartwatch or a fitness band, that can scan health vitals. The device also implements several cameras to properly assess all of these parameters.
There are two components that enable the data processing as well as allow the user to interact with the system. The first is the system-on-chip. For that, Portl uses Snapdragon chipsets to power the device. It handles all the computational power that the device would need.
The second part is the touch screen, which is a multi-point touch display. The company said that the display is coated with a nano protection layer that adds durability and protects against breakages and damage. The device also connects with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to let the user either connect their earphones or stream their playlist from Spotify.
“So the idea has always been, how do we create a scenario where the program constantly adapts to the user’s minimum level of performance? We designed a system that looks at variable data, the sleep routine, recovery rate, and more. All of these factors go into the next workout routine that they follow,” Gupta explained.
Portl’s solution was an intelligent machine that prioritises real-time data to process what the user needs in terms of workout intensity. Interestingly, this heavy lifting was done by the company’s AI processes.
AI Behind the Portl Studio
Gupta explained that the entire data collection and AI processing occurs on-device and none of the personal user data ever leaves the system. To handle such complex tasks in real-time, the company included several AI-based processes.
Notably, no generative AI tools were used for the system. Instead, the company uses classical rule-based algorithms to both analyse and predict user behaviour. Gupta explained that the decision to opt for a rule-based algorithm instead of something more dynamic was because fitness science, kinesiology, and body mechanics are not constantly changing and are well-defined.
However, just like generative AI models, these AI systems are grounded at a first principles level to ensure that the system can gauge a base level of user performance. On top of that, the information provided by the user creates an extra layer of personalisation.
Portl Studio AI interface
Photo Credit: Portl
To explain how it works, Gupta gave an example, “During the onboarding, a user tells the system about their current lifestyle, injuries, health conditions, and more. All of these factors determine the kind of exercises and movements that will be used to create the workout plan. Then, once a user starts the plan, a 45-second health scan measures the core vitals of the user. This includes metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac stress, etc.”
As per the Portl CEO, the scan then creates a baseline for the individual. Further, the cameras also collect data on the user’s functional movement screen, which includes balance, range of motion, and mobility. All of the data is used to understand the user’s starting point. From there, the user gets a workout plan that both pushes them and notes their limitations.
Portl Studio’s Use Case
The Portl Studio offers 15 different workout formats, with calisthenics as its core principle. This means this device does not support weight-based workouts and only focuses on cardio and bodyweight exercises. It also comes with various yoga and meditation courses. Additionally, there are skill-based exercises such as Muay Thai and Kickboxing.
At present, all 15 workout formats and guiding videos from experts are part of the device’s native offerings. This means the user does not need to pay subscription or add-on fees to access any of the content. As a result of all these offerings, the company claims it has more than 1,000 monthly active users despite a steep price of Rs. 1,25,000.
While Portl Studio offers a lot in terms of personalisation, ease of access, and choice of workout, the lack of strength-based workouts does create a significant gap. Gupta realises this, and that’s why the company recently launched a product that caters to this segment — the Ultragym.
Portl Ultragym
Ultragym is a smart fitness device that takes up 2.4 sqft of space and weighs 12kgs. It features a board, cables, accessories, and a bench. The company claims that users can perform 150 different workouts using this device. The cables do not use weight plates and instead use a motor to increase the resistance.
Portl Ultragym
Photo Credit: Portl
Each cable can be pushed to a maximum of 35kgs for a total of 70kgs of weight for a workout that requires both hands. The device also comes with a companion app that monitors and analyses workouts and creates personalised routines for users. Portl’s Ultragym is priced at Rs. 59,990.
On ensuring safety while users performed workouts with heavy weights, Gupta explained that the device has inbuilt safety features. If a user struggles with the weight or loses balance, the sensors can automatically reduce the weight to allow them to get out of that position safely.
The Future of Smart Home Workouts
Smart home workout technology has come a long way. However, there are still several gaps to be filled. First, personalised routines and fitness tracking have enabled users to make progress without leaving the comforts of home, however, existing devices are not portable enough to be carried everywhere. People who travel frequently will not find such gadgets very useful.
Second, these technologies are focused on basic fitness and do not have solutions for those who have competitive and advanced fitness goals. Further, most of these technologies do not emphasise the motivation element enough, which is a key factor in whether or not a user exercises consistently.
As companies experiment with innovation, these gaps are likely to be filled in the coming years. Till then, whether working out can become an at-home experience or if a social institution such as a gym or fitness centre is necessary, debate is up the air.
Smart Home Hub Could Be Apple’s Most Significant Launch of 2025
In his latest Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman revealed that Apple will unveil a new HomePod-like smart home hub with a touchscreen later this year. It is claimed to be “Apple’s most significant release of the year,” as it represents the company’s “first step toward a bigger role in the smart home.”
Gurman notes that the smart home hub will be like a smaller and cheaper iPad that lets users control appliances, conduct FaceTime chats, and handle other tasks.
Meanwhile, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had stated earlier that the new HomePod with a 6-inch to 7-inch display will enter mass production in the second half of this year. It is said to pack an A18 chip and offer support for Apple Intelligence. If launched, the purported HomePod will compete against the likes of Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub.
The upcoming model is tipped to carry a square display instead of a rectangular one. It could include a customisable lock screen with multiple clock faces. It is likely to include an in-built camera to support video conferencing apps like FaceTime. The camera may be able to recognise hand gestures.
As per Gurman, the price of Apple’s purported smart home hub will be $1,000 (roughly Rs. 83,740) or more. The company is reportedly working on a new operating system dubbed homeOS to run these devices and its existing smart home lineup including HomePod and HomePod mini. The basis for the OS is said to be tvOS.
Noise Tag 1 Price in India
Noise Tag 1 price in India is set at Rs. 2,999. It is currently available at Rs. 1,499 as part of a limited period offer, according to the company. The company says its pre-bookings will begin soon and the Bluetooth tracker will go on sale starting January 28 via the brand’s website.
It will be available for purchase in three colourways — Charcoal, Ivory, and Midnight.
Noise Tag 1 Specifications
One of the standout features of the new Noise Tag 1 is its compatibility with both Android and iOS. It can work in tandem with Apple’s Find My network which enables iPhone users to locate lost or stolen items such as keys, luggage, wallets, and even pets. The same functionality is also available for Android devices (Android 9 and above) supporting Google’s Find My Device Network.
The Bluetooth tracker is also claimed to be compatible with Google’s Fast Pair technology, which simplifies the connectivity process for Bluetooth and BLE devices.
As per the company, the Noise Tag 1 comes equipped with a Ring Mode which can help locate misplaced items by activating a 90dB sound. Meanwhile, its Lost Mode automatically sends notifications to the smartphone if the tag disconnects after a specified duration.
Another feature of the Noise Tag 1 is the Network Mode, which is claimed to leverage the vast number of Android and iOS devices in the network to locate lost or stolen items, even if they are out of the immediate range.
The device offers 1 year of battery life and it has an IPX4 rating for splash resistance, according to the company.
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