iRobot Roomba i3 Robot Vacuum

I had two Roomba 692's which I used to clean my 1100 Sqft split level townhome. And even though they used the older "bounce" style navigation, were still effective cleaners. However, they tended to attack dirt and furniture with equal ferocity. That's why foam rubber bumpers for Roomba's are a thing you can actually buy here on Amazon. The 600's got the job done, it's just that it wasn't always pretty. Enter the i3. It's a master class in refinement. Not only does the i3 smartly navigate the home, but it is much more gentle on your furniture. It deftly figured out how to navigate the maze of table legs underneath my kitchen table, and it no longer attempts to leap over the stabilizing arm of my coffee table, like Bigfoot crushing a row of cars. It also seems to better cope with "low clearance" issues. It seems more cautious when entering tight fits and less likely to get stuck. Even the fit and finish of the I3 is a cut above. The textured plastic on the top looks like a cloth finish and is resistant to finger prints. The dirt bin has been redesigned to be "rinsed" so that it can be more easily cleaned. The i3 has higher suction while actually producing less noise. The rollers are also easier to clean of Pet Hair. The clean report at the end tells you exactly where it cleaned, and it's smart navigation allows for charge and resume, which is great for larger floorplans, or if you want the robot to simply do two passes for a given job. Since it knows where it's already cleaned, it finishes it's jobs in about half the time that the random navigation 600's do. And of course you don't get a detailed clean report with the 600's. The i3 is also compatible with the self emptying clean bin, and when paired with a Braava m6 mop, will automatically tell the mop to begin a cleaning job when it is done vacuuming. These are some great future proofing aspects. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. The lack of an upward facing camera, might ally some folk's privacy concerns regarding robot vacuums, but it also prevents the use of "smart mapping" and the ability to label rooms in a house, direct the robot to clean specific rooms, or the use of virtual "keep out zones". These advanced features are only available on the i7 and S9. The App does allow you to schedule cleanings, even multiple cleanings in a day. It also allows you use the location services on your phone to start a job when you leave the house. The App will keep a history of your last 30 cleanings, so you can review the clean maps from each one to see where your high traffic areas are. The ability to set the robot to clean multiple passes during a job, however, is a "global" setting in the app. It would be nice if this feature could be set for individual scheduled jobs, or "favorites". As it stands, the i3 is hindered by it's current position. It is hampered by the 600 series lower price, but users who want more advanced robots typically will pay full boat and get the more feature rich i7 or s9. iRobot should really position the i3 as it's entry level bot. It offers great cleaning capability, refined navigation, detailed clean reports, compatibility with a self emptying bin and it's M6 mop. It's the perfect starting point for iRobot's product line. Leave the Random Navigation to the cheap knock offs.