Neato D10 Intelligent Review

Our Verdict
Our Analysis and Test Results
Although the Neato D10 Intelligent is excellent at cleaning oatmeal off carpets and respects barriers, this vacuum is average at best and therefore overpriced.
Navigation
In our navigation trials around furniture, the Neato D10 tended to favor a specific side of our test environment and repeat certain patterns. It also seemed to avoid areas, specifically underneath objects, and lacks the ability to make tight turns.
It also smashed our simulated small poop in our poo-avoidance test, but recognized a larger simulated poop after a minor collision with it. It could have done worse, but it could have also done much better with detection and avoidance.
Regarding docking, the Neato does a great job returning to its station. While it may not be the fastest nor makes the tightest turns, it reliably makes it back to its charging station without collisions, even when it has to return from other rooms.
Home Coverage
The app to manage the D10 allows users to set up multiple rooms, virtual barriers, and no-go zones that it avoids quite well. However, that performance was balanced by below-average spot cleaning, strange single-room coverage, and poor edge cleaning.
Spot cleaning is managed via a zone set in the app, but it wasn't possible to define the specific shape of the spot versus having to set unnecessarily large swaths of the area to clean. Single room coverage was poor due to skipping areas after getting into a tight spot and completely skipping the areas under two chairs. The Neato also missed specific patterns near edges, a performance repeated in consecutive trials.
Carpet Cleaning
When it comes to lifting rice, cereal, or flour from carpet, this vacuum struggled to go above and beyond. But, it was also surprisingly able to do quite a good job of tackling oatmeal, only leaving a little bit of fine dust behind.
Hard Surface Cleaning
Rice, oatmeal, and flour proved elusive for the D10 — it did a very poor job of picking up each material off hard surfaces. However, what was particularly surprising was the robot vacuum's incredible ability to clean cereal.
The Neato D10 Intelligent was the only model we tested that had the clearance to run over the cereal without displacing them and picked up five of six pieces of cereal — much better than any other model we tested.
Pet Hair
Yet again, the D10 fell in the middle of the test group, picking up just 24% of pet hair used in our test. Compared to its peers, it did neither an exceptional nor a poor job, but yet again failed to impress.
Convenience
The Neato D10 Intelligent lacks a dust removal system, has a more limited spot cleaning ability, and does not come with a remote or joystick to clean areas that the Neato may avoid or miss. The minimal features, especially a dust removal system, will keep you busy maintaining the D10.
Should You Buy the Neato D10 Intelligent?
The Neato D10 Intelligent is a fairly expensive robot vacuum for its mediocre performance. It also does not offer many smart features that today's robot vacuums deliver. As such, we can't recommend it over other more affordable and performant robots.
What Other Robot Vacuums Should You Consider?
For less than half the price, we'd recommend considering one of the best all-around robot vacuums, the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid, instead of the Neato D10 Intelligent. Or, for the pet owner looking for extra help maintaining a home or apartment, consider the iRobot Roomba j7+.