Beatbot Sora 70

The Sora 70 is Beatbot's cordless all-rounder for owners who want one robot to handle the floor, walls, waterline and surface, including steps and a tanning ledge. It debuted at CES 2026 and sits below Beatbot's AquaSense robots, dropping the camera and the charging dock to reach a lower price class. Reviewed made it an Editor's Choice in July 2026, and Bob Vila picked it as the best all-in-one in its 2026 guide.

Beatbot rates it for in-ground and above-ground pools of any shape up to about 3,229 square feet, in water between 0.7 and 11.5 feet deep. It fits best where floating leaves and a sun shelf make a floor-and-walls robot feel like half a solution.

Steps and shallow ledges. Beatbot rates it to work in water as shallow as 8 inches, on platforms at least 3.3 by 3.3 feet, which is lower than the 13.7-inch minimum Beatbot gives the AquaSense 2 Ultra. Reviewed found it cleaned the floor, walls, steps and a Baja shelf in its test pool. Digital Trends, which had no shelf to test, found its stair cleaning inconsistent but better than most robots manage.

Surface skimming that works. Twin forward jets draw floating debris toward the intake. Digital Trends measured about 90 percent capture of floating pollen and leaves within 45 minutes in Surface Mode, far better than the roughly 40 percent PCWorld recorded for the AquaSense 2 Ultra. Heavy, waterlogged petals can still be pushed under and are picked up on a later floor pass.

Battery life. Beatbot lists up to 5 hours on the floor or 7 hours on the surface from a 10,000 mAh battery. Digital Trends ran it for 6 hours 21 minutes in its most demanding mode, and PCWorld saw more than 6.5 hours once a firmware update fixed early short runs. After a two-hour floor-and-walls cycle, Digital Trends still had two thirds of the battery left.

A big, simple basket. The single 6-liter basket lifts out of the top hatch, and PCWorld singled it out as unusually easy to empty. Bob Vila's tester found it quick to rinse with a hose, and Digital Trends saw it take a weekend of storm debris.

Parks itself, long warranty. At the end of a cycle, or when the battery reaches 15 percent, it floats to the wall and drains before you lift it. Beatbot backs it with a three-year replacement warranty.

A coarse standard filter. The included basket filters to 150 microns. Beatbot sells a 3-micron ultra-fine basket separately, and The Pool Nerd, which disapproves of the Sora 70, faults it for shipping with mesh only. The corded Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus Wi-Fi filters to 70 microns out of the box.

Slow and methodical. Its S-shaped route is thorough but slow. Digital Trends saw it miss debris tucked into sharp corners on the first pass, and PCWorld found about 8 to 10 percent of debris left after a Pro-mode run, with near-complete floor pickup only on a six-hour floor-and-walls setting.

Average at the waterline. Digital Trends rated its waterline scrubbing as average and saw some fine pollen escape through the top vent.

Daily handling. It has to come out to charge, about 4.5 hours through a plug rather than a dock, and it weighs 22.9 pounds dry. Bob Vila warns it feels much heavier if lifted before it drains, and Reviewed notes the app loses its connection while the robot is underwater.

The Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra adds camera-based debris detection, dual baskets, a clarifier dispenser and a charging dock for a much higher price class, and PCWorld's Sora review calls the AquaSense line the stronger performer. The Sora is about six pounds lighter, reaches shallower ledges and skimmed far better in the tests we read.

The corded Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus Wi-Fi runs on a timer with no charging, but skips the waterline, surface and steps. See the best robot pool cleaners for all four picks.

Buy the Sora 70 if you want a cordless robot that covers everything from the tanning ledge to the surface, with long battery life and a three-year warranty, and you do not mind lifting it out for a 4.5-hour charge. Skip it if you want hands-off weekly scheduling or fine filtration out of the box; a corded Dolphin does those better.