Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The short version, for those reading many reviews quickly is this; the Mint has many advantages over the Roomba on a feature for feature basis. But at the end of the day, the Roomba is the better product and picked up a LOT more pet hair. Here's the longer version with the gory details: Both of these are great innovations. True, the Mint is far quieter, cheaper and cooler looking than the Roomba. It is also easier/cheaper to maintain. But the Roomba gets more dust off the floor, despite the fact that the Mint can get under places Roomba can not, and Roomba returns to its base for a re-charge on it's own, as needed. The Mint just dies in place. The guy on here who's review said that he sent his Roomba on a mission and then sent the Mint after it to discover dirt the Roomba missed, would have had the same result if he performed the experiment in reverse. I know b/c I did just that. these two devices clean differently, so any comparison is useless on that level. However... The high-tech navigation the Mint boasts is a couple of generations away from being the "intelligent" method it advertises. The Mint wanders outside the perimeter of the room but can not clean a large area because the cleaning cloth gets too dirty, too quickly, You can not pause its program to change the cleaning cloth. When you do, the robot "forgets" where it left off and begins to clean the same space over again after you re-engage it. The Mint also runs out charge in about 2-3 hours and requires about 7-10 hours to recharge. The Roomba, with its "virtual wall" and bump-and-learn program is a "dumber" but ultimately better method of confining the machine to a particular space and therefore maximizing its efficiency on a single charge. Although I returned my Mint and kept the Roobma, I will be keeping an eye on the Mint to see what the future holds. I would not rule out re-purchasing a Mint in a year or two, after they've made some improvements. It has a lot of potential.