Battle Of The Cleaning Robots: iRobot Braava 380T Vs. Deebot Ozmo 601

The Deebot Ozmo 601 (left) next to the iRobot Braava (right). It's funny how the path of ascendance for Chinese tech upstarts seem to always involve competing with an American product with a lower-cased "I" in its name. In the smartphone world, Huawei, Xiaomi and Vivo are ultimately competing with the iPhone more than they are against each other; and in the world of robot cleaners, Suzhou-based Ecovacs Robotics' rapid rise means its products are constantly being compared with those from Massachusetts-based iRobot. In fact, the tech website Wirecutter (a Forbes partner) last year picked from a selection of top entry-level robot cleaners and Ecovacs' Deebot N79 came out on top, with iRobot's Roomba 690 as runner-up. Ecovacs loaned me a unit to review, but since my friend has raved about her Braava 380T for months, I opted for a comparison of both models.