Robot, handheld, and stick vacuum, all in one

Anker’s smart home brand eufy is combining two of the best vacuum designs into the E20 vacuum: a robot vacuum for autonomy and a hand-held/stick vacuum for a high-performance, targeted clean. But how does this novel hybrid stack up compared to the best robot vacuums out there? I tested it in my home to find out.

The real trick of the eufy E20 is its triple-vac design for different configurations.

Let’s start with the traditional robot vac part, as when it’s in this mode you can enjoy efficient autonomous floor vacuuming in a familiar circular robot vacuum design. The bot is simple, with generous obstacle avoidance, but it still gets into most corners of your floors. The eufy E20 is only a vacuum, so no mop here, though for $599 that’s not a deal-breaker. It does have a charging base station with 3L vacuum bag for long-term storage.

The eufy E20 quickly converts into a handheld or stick vacuum. With a single button push, the handheld module ejects from the bot and is ready to accept one of several attachments. Quickly attach a short attachment for handheld vacuuming, or attach the long stick attachment with roller brush for the full stick vac experience.

When in robot vacuum mode, the eufy E20 is limited to around 8,000Pa of suction power. That’s more than enough to pick up dry debris from hard floors and moderate dirt on carpets. When you need to deep-clean your carpets, though, you can convert the E20 into a stick vacuum to get full suction force.

When I first encountered the eufy Robot Vacuum 3-in-1 E20 at CES 2025, it was just moments after watching it pick up a laptop. That’s right, when in hand-held or stick vac configurations, the 30,000Pa of suction power has enough juice to seal onto a laptop and pick it off the table. That’s pretty impressive!

The eufy Robot Vacuum 3-in-1 E20 is a great vacuum with some novel tricks. I am a huge fan of the multi-function design, and the overall performance is everything I’d hoped for from this device.

While it’s true that the eufy E20 is only almost as good as the average mid-range dedicated robot vacuum when in bot mode, the combination with a stick/handheld vac is a huge space saver for me, and when in the latter mode I  cleans almost as deep into the carpets as my high-end Dyson stick vacuum.

The eufy E20 consistently cleaned my floors in robot vacuum mode, starting near the walls before working across the open spaces. After that, it handled the edges, including walls and furniture. That said, the hybrid design does mean it’s a bit bulkier than other bots. One of my standard tests for premium robot vacuum navigation is the ability to get between my chair legs to clean under my dining room table, and I’m sad to say that the eufy E20 couldn’t squeeze under.

As a stick vacuum, I tested it across several rugs of different pile depths. Pine needles are an enemy in my house, and I’m happy to report that the eufy E20, in stick vacuum configuration, performed very well. It sucked up the needles from the shag carpet, had no issues with the tight-weave low-pile carpet, and despite leaving some needles behind on my clingy loose-wave low-pile carpet, it performed just as well as my Dyson. In all fairness, I struggle to dig those needles out by hand on that carpet, so I’m giving full marks to the eufy E20.

The roller brush on the stick vacuum attachment does not have much of an anti-tangle design for hair. I will be using scissors to carefully cut out the tangles later. That said, the hair is spun around the roller and does not appear to be binding the operation or reducing the effectiveness of the vacuum or roller.

Finally, the handheld mode might be the most efficient and straightforward mode for this bot. You truly experience the AeroTurbo Five-Stage Filtration when you get a gust of exhaust air into your face. It’s also very easy to clean the system. Just attach one of the short extensions, push the power button, and start cleaning.

When you’re done cleaning, you can manually empty the canister or simply re-attach the hand-held module to the bot and instruct it to self-empty into the base station.

The self-empty process is very effective. You can watch it spin the debris one direction, then spin the other as it suck up as much dust and dirt as possible. The emptying function and the charging function require the bot to turn around, so you need to give it a couple of minutes, but it handles the task effortlessly.

Let’s talk battery life. In robot vacuum mode, the eufy E20 has no issue cleaning my entire testing space of about 400 sqft. It does consume a fair amount of battery, and I don’t think it could clean twice in a row were that needed. In stick-vac mode, I’m happy to report that the battery life exceeds my Dyson, but not by much. Generating 30,000Pa of suction force will wipe the battery in about half an hour. A full charge will take about 2.5 hours.

One gripe I have is the handle design and button placement. Let me be clear, this is personal preference, but I continually pick up the stick vac module in the wrong direction. For me, the battery belongs at the back, not the front. Next, there’s a little notch that separates your index finger from your other fingers when gripping the unit. While it makes sense, it doesn’t quite fit me. Finally, the button placement is at the front; I can reach it with my thumb, but folks with smaller hands will likely have to use their other hand to get up there.

Speaking of the button, it not only powers the device on and off in stick-vac configuration, but you also tap it to toggle through different suction levels.

At the end of the day, the eufy E20 lacks some of the hands-off experience that some high-end robot vacuums deliver, but it makes up for it in versatility and pure cleaning power for your carpets.

The eufy E20 is tough to compare to the competition, especially because I’ve not tested anything that also provides a robot vacuum and stick vac combo. Players like Switchbot, Shark, Ecovacs, and others have base stations that also provide stick vacuums, but the robot vacuum on those is separate, so they still do not compare directly. Well done, eufy, for the innovative thinking.

Thinking of vacuum-only robot vacuums at the same price point immediately brings me to the Eureka E20 Plus ($449.99 at Amazon), after all, even the name is similar. The E20 Plus does have a mop pad, but I would generally ignore those if you need real floor mopping, as it’s not the best at it. The eufy E20 runs into fewer things thanks to better navigation sensors, but the Eureka provides more thorough floor coverage to the edges.

As always, your floor and cleaning needs should dictate your buying decision. If you’ve got carpets throughout your space, need the flexibility of multiple vacuum styles, and are otherwise not concerned with robot mopping, the eufy Robot Vacuum 3-in-1 E20 delivers on its 3-in-1 promise. Even if you’re not planning on using the handheld configuration all that often, you’re still getting a valuable and reliable robot vacuum for a good price, and when you need a stick-vac, it’s ready to go.

I’ve always struggled with the storage of my stick vacuum. eufy’s hybrid bot makes it acceptable to place the vacuum in plain sight. I’ll admit that I’m hiding the attachments behind the curtain, but the base station is now in my living room, bot running on its daily schedule, and always charged for my infrequent handheld cleaning needs.