DJI Romo P2 Review: Second Generation Transforms Drone Tech!

It’s been a year since the first-generation DJI Romo P began its duties in my home, and I’ve compared it to every robot vacuum I’ve tested since (about 1-2 per month). Our review crowned it to the extent of awarding it the title of the best robot vacuum of the year: flawless navigation, derived from drone technology, and maintenance almost non-existent. An impressive debut for a manufacturer new to the home cleaning scene.

However, it wasn’t without its flaws. The software felt beta: missing features at launch were added gradually, update by update, throughout the year. And while its suction power was decent, it lagged behind the market’s leaders. With the Romo 2, DJI aims to turn its entry into the sector into a lasting victory. We tested the most complete version, the P2, for several weeks.

Technical Specifications

What’s New Compared to Romo P? The Comparison

Before diving into the test, let’s look at what’s changed on the Romo P2: every criticized aspect of the first generation has been addressed, starting with the power.

Three innovations particularly catch my attention. First, the washing arm: DJI has replaced the double arm of the first generation with a single oscillating arm with a much wider amplitude, 123° compared to 68°, guided by its own LiDAR sensor to avoid collisions and jams.

Its reach has increased by 7.8 cm, and it now wipes 4.5 cm further under elevated furniture. The total sweep of the arm has thus increased from 4.6 cm on the old system to 12.4 cm. Then, the robotic legs that lift the chassis to step over up to 8.5 cm on a double step. And finally, the pressure plate that lowers onto carpets to create a semi-seal with the floor and concentrate the suction at the core of the fibers. The principle is simple: by reducing the volume of air that rushes in from the sides, the vacuum increases in the suction cavity, much like when you press the palm of your hand against the end of a vacuum cleaner. Let’s see what this all means in practice.

Design: Embracing Transparency, Again and Always

The Romo 2 continues the aesthetic signature of its predecessor: a semi-transparent body that reveals the internal mechanics, both on the robot and the station. It’s unique in the market, and we love it: the robot almost becomes a decorative object, one that doesn’t need to be hidden behind a sofa. We understand, however, that this design choice might not be for everyone; you either love it or hate it, there’s no middle ground.

Note that fogging or some particles may appear inside the transparent cover, a phenomenon DJI claims is normal, which we indeed observed with no consequences.

By the way, a quick note on the side, in a year, this “transparent” design hasn’t seemed dirtier than a traditional design. This was one of the recurring concerns at the launch of the first iteration.

Under the hood, the array of sensors is impressive: LiDAR, 3D ToF sensors at the front, sides, and rear, two RGB cameras, binocular fisheye lenses, and a dust-revealing light that projects a soft, uniform beam at floor level, covering up to 2,000 cm². A word about the ToF (time of flight): the sensor measures distances by timing the round trip of a light pulse, the same recipe used in the brand’s drones. The two fisheye lenses, meanwhile, offer stereoscopic vision, thus a true perception of depth, where many competitors settle for a single camera. The light helps the robot spot fine dirt and navigate in dim light without dazzling or disturbing animals.

Underneath, the soft rubber roller brush is now supported by two double tuft side brushes, staggered by 120° and overlapping the central brush, a setup called DualSweep designed against hair tangling. The idea behind this overlap: the central brush picks up fibers clinging to the ends of the side brushes, instead of letting them wrap around.

The Base: Aim for a Year Without Touching It

The Romo P2’s station handles rapid 55 W charging, the power of a compact laptop charger, self-emptying of the bin, filling of the robot’s reservoir, dispensing of the cleaning solution and floor deodorizer, as well as high-temperature pad washing. The washing board adopts a nanocrystalline surface, a dense crystalline layer at the nanoscale that prevents stains from penetrating the material, rinsed by four high-pressure jets towards a wide 16 mm drainage outlet, without a filter to dismantle. The result announced: up to 365 days without maintenance of the station, compared to 200 on the first generation.

After a year living with the Romo P, whose station already largely kept its promises of peace of mind, we are inclined to believe it: during our test period of the P2, the washing board remained impeccable without any intervention, where the competition requires regular brushing. Add the complete drying of the station, the UV lamp that treats the dust bag, and the drying of the robot’s tray, and you have the most autonomous base we’ve used.

The announced full charge in 2 hours 30 minutes, coupled with a top-up charge at each mopping of the pads, almost erases the question of daily autonomy: the robot regains precious percentage points during a time that is, in any case, immobilized.

There are two versions: a classic water tank or a direct plumbing connection with automatic filling and draining.

App and Management: The Software Finally Catches Up to the Hardware

Our main complaint against the Romo P was software lagging behind its hardware, filled out over a year. Good news, the Romo 2 arrives with a mature DJI Home app right from the launch. Predefined cleaning tasks, room-specific settings for power and method, on-the-fly zones, detailed cleaning report, scheduling: everything is there, in a smooth and well-organized interface, without the feeling of a perpetual work in progress from the first year.

The big new software feature is multi-scenario intelligence. The robot identifies what’s in front of it and adjusts its strategy on its own: it slows down and reduces the speed of the side brush in front of particles to avoid scattering them, vacuums first then mops in very dusty areas, avoids liquids by treating them from the outside to avoid rolling through them and spreading them everywhere, and insists by scrubbing harder on stubborn stains. DJI announces 99% accuracy in identification; we can’t verify this figure, but in use, the right reflexes trigger at the right moment, without any configuration on our part.

However, one function remains on the waiting list, and the history of Romo P has taught us patience. The embedded voice assistant “OK ROMO”, which allows controlling the robot without using the app, is not available in all countries at launch, not in French, and awaits a firmware update.

Camera and Security: More Than Just a Gadget

The Romo P2 can be transformed into a mobile surveillance camera. From the DJI Home app, it’s possible to see live what the robot sees and to manually pilot it around the home, room by room, with supplemental lighting taking over in dim conditions. Unlike a fixed camera, the robot goes where you tell it to, including under furniture.

And it’s not just a gimmick. Three weeks ago, while piloting the robot remotely, we noticed that our Shiba dog had knocked over a bottle of bleach, which allowed us to have someone intervene immediately. This camera may have saved her life. Since then, I view this function in a whole new light.

A remotely accessible camera is also a potential entry point, and DJI is well aware of this. Early in the year, a few months after the launch of the first generation, a developer accidentally accessed about 7,000 Romo robots worldwide. Simply trying to pilot his own robot with a PlayStation controller, he discovered that DJI’s servers accepted the authentication token of a single device to access all others. The flaw was corrected within a few days by two updates, but the episode left its mark.

DJI seems to have learned its lesson. On the Romo 2, accessing the remote video now requires a mandatory encryption password, set by the user: without it, the stream simply does not leave the robot. This password serves as an encryption key, meaning even the servers relaying the stream cannot read it. Add the blue indicator that lights up on the robot whenever a remote video is in progress, and transparency is rather well managed.

The last piece to come, the Local Data mode, a great idea inherited from DJI drones: it cuts all Internet connections to ensure that no images leave the home, with the camera and microphone able to be disabled at any time. DJI announces it for the end of 2026. On paper, it’s a serious response to legitimate concerns about camera-equipped robots; until then, we’ll have to take the manufacturer’s word for it.

Uses: Drone Navigation Applied to the Living Room

Mapping and Obstacle Avoidance

It was the strength of the first Romo, and it remains so for the second: in terms of mapping and obstacle avoidance, DJI still outperforms the competition. The drone heritage is apparent in every move.

The initial map is generated quickly, with a rare accuracy in room segmentation, and the robot then moves with disarming fluidity: clean trajectories, anticipated turns, none of those little hesitant stops that betray less refined algorithms. The technical recipe is that of drones: sensor fusion, where LiDAR, ToF, and stereo cameras correct each other in real time instead of operating in isolation. After a year with the Romo P and weeks with the P2, we simply never had to come to the rescue of either.

Obstacle Sensing 2.0 adds a novel string to its bow: transparent objects. Glass doors, vases, mirrors, plastic bags, all classic traps that the P2 now identifies and avoids by anticipating its trajectory. It’s a real technical challenge: glass lets the light from conventional optical sensors pass through, which literally see through it; multiple sensor cues and the algorithm are needed to guess its presence.

Fine cables, up to 2 mm according to DJI, are stepped over or avoided with a consistency we couldn’t fault at any point during the test. Even unfamiliar objects, never encountered before, are treated with caution: the system generalizes what it has learned instead of charging into the unknown. By far, this is the best obstacle avoidance we’ve observed on a robot vacuum.

Crossing: Legs That Change the Everyday

The robotic legs are another draw of the Romo 2. The robot detects thresholds in advance, lifts itself smoothly, and steps over up to 4 cm on a simple step, and up to 8.5 cm on a double step, compared to just 2.5 cm on the first generation. A useful detail: for double-step crossing, each step must not exceed 4.5 cm, and the first must offer a depth of 20 to 22 cm for the robot to gain a foothold. Practically, balcony thresholds, sliding door rails, and small steps that previously restricted entire rooms to the Romo P are no longer an issue. I was able to witness this directly in my home, where few robot vacuums pass this test, and even fewer so easily.

An appreciated tip, two crossing modes are offered: a leg-by-leg step-over, quieter, or a simultaneous two-leg pass, more effective.

On carpets, the robot even lifts its rear end to avoid dragging

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Maya Singh

Maya Singh is a senior editor covering tablets and hybrid devices. Her work explores how these tools reshape digital productivity and learning. She also contributes to feature editorials on emerging tech.