Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Review: Powerful vacuuming, basic app

Verdict

The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Self-Empty Robot Vacuum & Mop RV2620WAUK generally gets the basics right: it’s a decent vacuum cleaner on carpet and hard floors, and its mop copes with all but the toughest of stains. The main issues are that the app is quite basic, and you have to swap modules to move between vacuuming only and vacuuming and mopping. There are smarter competitors that are better at dealing with mixed environments, but you’ll have to spend quite a bit more. If you mostly have carpets or hard floors, then this robot vacuum cleaner is a powerful option and its bagless self-empty station is brilliant.

Introduction

The Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Self-Empty Robot Vacuum & Mop RV2620WAUK might be the company’s first robot vacuum cleaner to launch in the UK, but there’s good history behind it with previous robots available in the US. In fact, I first reviewed a US Shark robot vacuum cleaner, the IQ Robot XL Vacuum R101AEW, back in 2021.

That’s an age in terms of robot vacuum cleaners, and the RV2620WAUK is more advanced than its predecessor in many ways, although the app and mopping features lag behind the best competition.

Design and features

• Bagless self-empty station
• Have to swap attachments for mapping
• Slightly basic app

There are two versions of the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 robot available. The cheaper RV2620WDUK comes with a standard dock and needs its bin emptying manually; the more expensive RV2620WAUK that I have on review comes with a self-empty station, and is a worthy upgrade in my opinion.

Self-emptying stations are nothing new for robot vacuum cleaners but the Shark Matrix 2-in-1’s version is different as it doesn’t take bags. Instead, the docking station has a 1.8-litre bin, which is similar to those you get on a regular vacuum cleaner.

Having a bagless bin means that there’s an extra couple of filters to clean inside the docking station, but the big upsides are that there’s no waste from disposable bags and no ongoing consumables cost. That’s a big win.

This docking station only takes care of dust emptying and doesn’t refill the robot with fresh water, or clean its mopping pads.

In fact, mopping on the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 feels a touch old-fashioned as there are two modules: one for vacuuming and a separate mopping module, which has a sonic scrubbing action, that holds the tank and microfibre cloth. Swapping between vacuuming and mopping is a manual job, which is a bit of a faff.

I will say that the large mopping pad and big 400ml water tank are nice to see, but I’d still prefer an integrated system with a mopping module that can lift off the floor when not in use.

Underneath, the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 looks much like other robot vacuum cleaners. There’s a brush roll in the middle which is designed to reduce hair tangling, and a side sweeper brush which has one set of bristles, rather than the normal multi-armed brushes that I’m used to seeing.

Not that the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 relies on the brush for edge cleaning, as it also blows air into the edges of rooms to move dirt into the main suction path.

For basic use, the robot has shortcut buttons on the front to start and pause a clean, and to send the robot back to its dock.

More control of the robot is found via the SharkClean app. Getting the robot connected is easy enough, and then an initial mapping run needs to be done so that the Matrix can learn your home’s layout. The mapping screen is a little basic, just showing an icon of the robot moving, rather than a live view of the map being generated by the LiDAR sensor on top.

Once done, the map can be edited to create rooms, although the controls are a little basic. Rather than drawing boundary lines between rooms, a box has to be drawn to cover an entire room. Depending on your home’s layout, this can be a little fiddly to get right.

As the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 can’t lift its mopping pad, the app recommends that you also set carpet zones, which you draw on the map. Once added, the robot goes out and moves around the zone to verify that you’ve placed it in the right location; if the robot moves over your carpet, you can redraw the zone. That’s a very fiddly way to deal with carpet.

The Shark Matrix 2-in-1 does have carpet detection built-in, and the robot will back off when it detects a rug or soft flooring. There’s not a guarantee that the robot won’t catch part of a carpet, so for delicate rugs and flooring, the carpet zones are essential.

However, the big problem is for those with mixed flooring, where an area of carpet or or a rug blocks access to hard floors. As the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 can’t lift its mopping pads, any blocking carpet or rug will prevent the hard floor beyond from being mopped. If that’s similar to your home layout then the Roborock Qrevo S is a better choice as it can lift its mopping pads automatically.

Otherwise, the app is straightforward to use if not a little basic. For a standard clean, I could set the vacuum power and have the robot cover the entire map.

To use the Matrix Clean option, which offers a deeper clean with two passes of an area (side to side, and back and forth), I could only select one room. That’s presumably because the mode uses more battery power; however, if I’d had left the default map as one large room, I could have used Matrix Clean on the entire floor.

Simple schedules are available, with one per day, but there’s not an option to customise the schedule on a per-room basis.

Zone cleaning is also quite limited. Instead of being able to draw a zone on the map of any size, the app places a fixed-size zone, which can be moved over the map. That’s not particularly useful. For example, after cooking, I like to get my robot vacuum cleaner to clean up a long, thin strip along the kitchen counter; I can’t do that with the Shark Matrix 2-in-1.

Performance

• Good vacuuming and suction power
• Decent standard mopping
• Can spread deeper piles of dust

I set the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Self-Empty Robot Vacuum & Mop RV2620WAUK to work on a variety of tasks around the Trusted Reviews Home Tech Lab. As this robot doesn’t have a camera at the front to spot and avoid common obstacles, I did have to move cables and other smaller items before vacuuming.

Starting with my carpet test, I added flour to my test rug. Using the whole-home mode, the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 didn’t clean as well as I’d hoped, leaving quite a bit of mess behind.

However, repeating the test with Matrix Clean mode, the results were excellent, with the majority of the mess gone.

My hard floor test was better with a single pass, with most (but not all) of my test spill collected on a single pass.

With the edge test, where I sprinkle flour up to the kitchen plinth, the results weren’t very good on standard mode, with lots of mess and tyre tracks through the spill.

In fact, the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 managed to take some of the flour and deposit it on the nearby carpet.

Moving to Matrix Clean mode, the edge performance was much better, although there was still some mess left behind, and some flour pressed into the floor.

I then moved on to my mopping tests. Starting with the coffee stain, I found that the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 easily removed this mess, leaving the area nice and clean.

Next, I got it to tackle my dried-on red wine stain, which again was removed with ease.

A trickier challenge is the mud test, which consists of one teaspoon of mud and one teaspoon of water, with the mix rubbed into the floor, leaving both a dried-on stain and particles of dirt. I was pleased to see the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 cleaned it all up, suction up the solid mess and clean off the stain.

Next, I went with the tough ketchup test. This, the Shark Matrix 2-in-1 couldn’t deal with, and left a significant portion of dried-on ketchup behind.

I finished off by adding strands of human hair to the floor and then let the Shark Matrix Plus 2-in-1 Self-Empty Robot Vacuum & Mop RV2620WAUK pick them up. The hair was collected, although a lot of it was loosely wrapped around the brush roll, where it was easy to remove.

I measured the Shark Matrix 2-in-1’s sound at 65.3dB, which is relatively quiet for a robot vacuum cleaner.

Battery life is rated at up to 110-minutes. I found that I could clean the entire Trusted Reviews Lab on a single charge, using Matrix Clean mode on the two rooms; the floor area is bigger than the typical floor in a regular home.

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