Aldi shoppers rush to buy no-effort gadget that's £500 less than pricey version – it's perfect for cleaning your home
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
ALDI shoppers have been flocking to stores to get their hands on a robot vacuum cleaner that is £500 cheaper than Samsung's version.
The handy gadget is part of the shop's new Life Hacks range, which sweeps and mops floors at the flick of the switch.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
2
Aldi's robot vacuum sweeps and mops the floors, so you don't have to
Credit: Aldi
The Ambiano Robot Vacuum hit stores on July 13 and has a price tag of just £99.99, which is a far cheaper alternative to the Samsung Jet Bot vacuum, which is scanning for an eye-watering £665.
The vacuum can be scheduled to run at any time, meaning it can scrub your floors whilst you're at work or even whilst you're sleeping.
It features a three-stage suction adjustment, is app-controlled and comes with a free one-year warranty.
One customer shared a photo of their purchase on Aldi UK Shoppers Facebook page and sent other users into a spin.
In the caption they wrote: "Go in for dishwasher tablets and come out with this."
One wrote: "I got one and I love it. Linked up to my Alexa, I can tell it to clean my floor when I'm on my way home and it takes itself home. I absolutely love it. And it mops the floors too!"
"This looks great, so many great items in Aldi," another added.
A third wrote: "I need one of these at the moment."
"Ace!" said a fourth, whilst another added: "It's great for smooth tiled floors."
Wake up to a weed-free lawn for months thanks to Aldi's £10 gadget that pulls them out without bending or kneeling down
It comes with an app-controlled system, which is compatible with Google, Alexa and Siri - making it super easy to programme, even on the busiest of days.
Robot vacuum cleaners are basically little AI-powered hockey pucks on a mission to tackle your dirty floors while you put your feet up – but there's some proper clever tech making it all happen.
These nifty gadgets use a combination of sensors, motors and clever software to navigate around your home without faceplanting down the stairs or getting hopelessly tangled in your phone charger. It's the ultimate cleaning hack.
Most robot vacs start by creating a digital map of your home – think of it as the robot getting its bearings.
Using sensors (and in pricier models, cameras or lasers), it builds a virtual floorplan of your space, noting where furniture sits and which areas to avoid.
The actual cleaning happens thanks to spinning brushes that sweep dirt toward the centre, where powerful motors create suction to pull everything into an onboard dustbin.
Aldi isn't the only store helping to make household smart devices more affordable, Lidl launched a robotic lawnmower for just £199.
The Parkside Robot Lawnmower is almost identical to the Bosch Indego S 500 Cordless Robotic Lawnmower , which is listed for £609 from B&Q.
The Lidl buy is designed for use on lawns up to 500-square metres and comes with a powerful 20V Li-lon battery.
It also has a brushless motor, means it is less likely to suffer wear and tear.
It needs to be charged for an hour to deliver 45 minutes of mowing time.
Aldi recommends that shoppers pop to their local store to check what's in stock.
You can find your closest on the store locator.
2
The gadget is £500 cheaper than the leading brand
Credit: Getty
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
7 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
How I use the three secret buttons on my iPhone to ‘hack' my sleep, road trips, holidays & save time every day
The third trick was only added last year TAP TIPS! How I use the three secret buttons on my iPhone to 'hack' my sleep, road trips, holidays & save time every day Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) YOUR iPhone has a bunch of secret buttons – and they'll change the way you use your phone every day. There are clever tricks for road trips, going on holiday, and even there's one time-saving trick you'll wonder how you lived without. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Your iPhone is more customisable than you may have realised Credit: Apple 7 Go into your Accessibility settings to find a clever shortcut Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun I've been hunting for hidden iPhone hacks for years, and there are a few that are easily missed. That includes these three secret buttons you might never have even heard of. SECRET BUTTON 1 – ACCESSIBILITY SHORTCUT First up is the Accessibility Shortcut, which is hiding in plain sight on the outside of your iPhone. You know the Side Button? It's the one that you use to lock your iPhone with a click, or to pull up Siri by holding down. Well it has a secret function that you can trigger by clicking it three times. And you can change that function by going into Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut. I usually have mine set to one of two things. My main pick is Background Sounds, which makes my iPhone play rain noises. This is great when you need to shut out the outside world. It also works in the background of podcasts too, which is nice. And it's a handy way to get off to sleep, if you struggle with that. iPhone 16e review – I've secretly tested Apple's cheapest mobile and I love the new button but that's not the best bit You can also change the sound that it plays by going into Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds. A second option is setting Accessibility Shortcut to Vehicle Motion Cues. This puts moving dots on the screen to try to help you avoid motion sickness when you're in a car. The dots match the motion of the vehicle to give your eyes a reference point, reducing the effect that triggers the nausea. I tested Vehicle Motion Cues on a road trip earlier this year, and I was impressed with the results. 7 You can set the triple-click to do lots of different things Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun SECRET BUTTON 2 – BACK TAP Another very handy option is Back Tap, which turns the back of your mobile into a button. You choose a function, and then you can trigger it by tapping the back of your phone. Better yet, you can have one function for a double-tap, and then a different one for a triple-tap. 7 The Touch settings let you unlock Back Tap Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun To find it, just go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. There are loads of choices. For double-tap, I've got it set to take a screenshot. You'll use this every day – it's just so handy. And for triple-tap, I have it on Shazam. That's the clever feature that identifies a song that's playing nearby – maybe on the radio or in a shop. 7 You can assign two different functions to Back Tap Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun SECRET BUTTON 3 – LOCK SCREEN SWAP How often do you use your phone's torch? Probably not enough to need a shortcut on the Lock Screen for constant access. Well in iOS 18 (go to Settings > General > Software Update to see if you've got the update), you can swap out the torch and camera icons for something else. The camera is pretty useful (unless you've got a newer iPhone with the built-in camera button). 7 Go into your Lock Screen editing settings to swap out the shortcuts Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun But you can probably get away with swapping out the torch, as you can access that via the Control Centre or Siri easily enough. Just hold down on the Lock Screen, tap customise, choose Lock Screen, then tap on the torch to replace it. I've got mine set to open my Reminders app, because I use it all the time. But you can have it open almost any app, or perform loads of different functions. If one doesn't exist, you can tap on Shortcuts to create exactly what you want it to do. 7 You could replace the torch with almost anything Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun A good option for holidays is setting it to launch the Translate app, but the choice is totally yours. And if you decide you hate it, you can always go back to the plain old torch.
The Sun
7 hours ago
- The Sun
How I use the three secret buttons on my iPhone to ‘hack' my sleep, road trips, holidays & save time every day
YOUR iPhone has a bunch of secret buttons – and they'll change the way you use your phone every day. There are clever tricks for road trips, going on holiday, and even there's one time-saving trick you'll wonder how you lived without. 7 7 I've been hunting for hidden iPhone hacks for years, and there are a few that are easily missed. That includes these three secret buttons you might never have even heard of. SECRET BUTTON 1 – ACCESSIBILITY SHORTCUT First up is the Accessibility Shortcut, which is hiding in plain sight on the outside of your iPhone. You know the Side Button? It's the one that you use to lock your iPhone with a click, or to pull up Siri by holding down. Well it has a secret function that you can trigger by clicking it three times. And you can change that function by going into Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut. I usually have mine set to one of two things. My main pick is Background Sounds, which makes my iPhone play rain noises. This is great when you need to shut out the outside world. It also works in the background of podcasts too, which is nice. And it's a handy way to get off to sleep, if you struggle with that. iPhone 16e review – I've secretly tested Apple's cheapest mobile and I love the new button but that's not the best bit You can also change the sound that it plays by going into Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds. A second option is setting Accessibility Shortcut to Vehicle Motion Cues. This puts moving dots on the screen to try to help you avoid motion sickness when you're in a car. The dots match the motion of the vehicle to give your eyes a reference point, reducing the effect that triggers the nausea. I tested Vehicle Motion Cues on a road trip earlier this year, and I was impressed with the results. 7 SECRET BUTTON 2 – BACK TAP Another very handy option is Back Tap, which turns the back of your mobile into a button. You choose a function, and then you can trigger it by tapping the back of your phone. Better yet, you can have one function for a double-tap, and then a different one for a triple-tap. 7 To find it, just go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. There are loads of choices. For double-tap, I've got it set to take a screenshot. You'll use this every day – it's just so handy. And for triple-tap, I have it on Shazam. That's the clever feature that identifies a song that's playing nearby – maybe on the radio or in a shop. 7 SECRET BUTTON 3 – LOCK SCREEN SWAP How often do you use your phone's torch? Probably not enough to need a shortcut on the Lock Screen for constant access. Well in iOS 18 (go to Settings > General > Software Update to see if you've got the update), you can swap out the torch and camera icons for something else. The camera is pretty useful (unless you've got a newer iPhone with the built-in camera button). 7 But you can probably get away with swapping out the torch, as you can access that via the Control Centre or Siri easily enough. Just hold down on the Lock Screen, tap customise, choose Lock Screen, then tap on the torch to replace it. I've got mine set to open my Reminders app, because I use it all the time. But you can have it open almost any app, or perform loads of different functions. If one doesn't exist, you can tap on Shortcuts to create exactly what you want it to do. 7 A good option for holidays is setting it to launch the Translate app, but the choice is totally yours. And if you decide you hate it, you can always go back to the plain old torch. IT'S WORTH IT, I PROMISE! Here's some advice from The Sun's tech editor Sean Keach... These tricks are genuinely useful – but you'll have to stick with them. We've all been using our iPhones the same way for years. So changing a daily habit can be difficult, and might feel awkward at first. Like the screenshot trick above: you've been doing screengrabs one way for an age, so moving to something else might feel weird at first. But having switched to this method, it's so much easier. And by grabbing the new habit, I've found myself using Back Tap to open Shazam a lot more too. It's a similar story for changing your Lock Screen shortcuts. At first, it'll feel totally weird – but after a few weeks, you'll wonder how you lived the old way. Stick with it, and it's worth it. I promise.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Nothing Phone 3 review: a quirky, slick Android alternative
The Phone 3 is London-based Nothing's latest attempt to get people to ditch Samsung or Apple phones for something a bit different, a little quirky and more fun. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. As the firm's first high-end Android in several years, it has most of what you'd expect a flagship phone to have. But where it tries to set itself apart is with slick, dot-matrix-inspired software and a design on the back that includes a small, unique LED screen. Costing from £799 (€799/$799/A$1,509) the Phone 3 is double the price of the company's great mid-range efforts, making it a direct challenger to the Samsung Galaxy S25, Google's Pixel 9 and the iPhone 16. Nothing first introduced its semi-transparent design with earbuds and then followed up with the Phone 1 in 2022, which added 'glyph' LEDs on the back that flashed in fancy patterns for notifications. For the Phone 3 those glyph lights have morphed into a small round matrix of LEDs in the top right of its back displaying icons, animations and patterns. It is used for more than simple notifications and can now display various gimmicky 'toys' such as a magic eight ball, a stopwatch or, cringingly, a spin the bottle game that can be triggered by a touch-sensitive button the back. More useful is the ability to show the time, the volume, charge status or a persistent icon for a notification or app of your choice. The rest of the back of the device divides opinion with a quirky arrangement of shapes and elements. Those who crave symmetry will hate it. The front screen is, at least, a regular 6.7in OLED display with slim bezels and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It is crisp, colourful and bright, though a little subject to glare on very sunny days. Screen: 6.7in 120Hz QHD+ OLED (460ppi) Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 RAM: 12 or 16GB Storage: 256 or 512GB Operating system: Nothing OS 3.5 (Android 15) Camera: 50MP main, 50MP 3x tele and 50MP ultrawide, 50MP selfie Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6 and GNSS Water resistance: IP68 Dimensions: 160.6 x 75.6 x 9mm Weight: 218g The Phone 3 has Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip, which is a step down from the latest top Snapdragon 8 Elite processor used in most flagship Android competitors. Its slightly weaker performance isn't noticeable in day-to-day usage and it simply flies along. It can even handle games pretty well, though those seeking the absolute best performance should look elsewhere as the phone got uncomfortably hot with demanding graphics tests. The battery life is a solid, though not class-leading, 40 hours between charges with plenty of 5G usage. Most people will need to charge it every other day, or less if used more sparingly. That matches the two-year-old Phone 2 and is a little behind similar rivals. The battery fully charges in about 55 minutes using a 65W or greater USB-C power adaptor (not included), hitting 50% in just 19 minutes. The phone also has 15W wireless charging. The phone ships with Nothing's take on last year's Android 15, which is highly stylised with a dot-matrix look and is easily customisable. A more regular Android style is available for those who need colour to identify their apps. Otherwise the software is slick and clutter-free, with all the usual services from Google available, plus a few Nothing apps such as the weather or voice recorder. The Essential Space app, first launched with the Phone 3a Pro, now includes the ability to voice-record while face down with an animation on the glyph screen and transcription using a cloud service. Essential Search is an AI-powered search of content across your phone and data, plus the ability to answer simple queries. Nothing is promising an upgrade to Android 16 in the third quarter of 2025 and will provide five years of Android version updates and a total of seven years of security updates. That's a couple of years short of the best from Google and Samsung. Also note that media apps such as Netflix currently do not support HDR content playback on the Phone 3 due to certification restricting it to SDR video. The Nothing has three 50-megapixel cameras on the back and a 50MP selfie camera on the front. The main camera is the best of the bunch, shooting detailed and solid images, while the 3x optical zoom camera is almost as good, maintaining great detail and sharpness in bright scenes. The in-sensor zoom to 6x is OK, as is the digital zoom to 10x in good light, but the image degrades as you magnify further. The ultrawide camera is the weakest of the three, producing photos that look great in full view but lack detail when zoomed in and with obvious warping around the edges of the frame. Outdoors in bright light they capture great photos, but switching between the three cameras can result in different colour balances and tones, which isn't ideal. They can also be oddly grey when shooting indoors, with inconsistent tone, sometimes shooting great photos but at other times coming out dull with repeated shots. The selfie camera is pretty good and captures a lot of detail. The 3x telephoto camera has a macro mode for closeup shots from about 10cm away, which is always fun. Overall, the Phone 3's camera can be good but inconsistency keeps it from being as great as rivals at this price. The battery will maintain at least 80% of its original capacity for at least 1,400 full charge cycles. The phone is generally repairable in the UK. The device is made of recycled aluminium, copper, plastic, steel, tin and other materials accounting for 17.6% of the weight. It has a carbon footprint of 53.2kg CO2 equivalent. The company publishes sustainability reports. The Nothing Phone 3 costs from £799 (€799/$799/A$1,509) with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For comparison, the Phone 3a Pro costs £394, the Google Pixel 9 Pro costs £999, the Samsung Galaxy S25+ costs £999, the Samsung S25 Edge costs £1,099 and the OnePlus 13 costs £899. The Phone 3 is a good but not great Android from Nothing. It is more interesting than rivals, but you have to actively want something different for it to make sense as you can easily get better-performing and longer-lasting handsets at about this price. Nothing's software is a strong point. It's slick, customisable and well optimised. Seven years of security updates is good, even if isn't launching on the latest Android version and you only get five years of upgrades. The glyph screen on the back is certainly novel, and the back's semi-transparent design is eye-catching, even if it divides opinion. It is well made if a little on the heavy side, while the phone's performance and battery life are solid if unremarkable. The inconsistent camera shows there's still work to be done from Nothing, while its Essential Space AI tools show some merit, even if they're a little basic at the moment. If you want a something a bit quirky-looking then the Nothing Phone 3 is it. Pros: great software, eye-catching back design with dot-matrix screen, solid performance, 3x telephoto camera, good screen, solid fingerprint scanner, fast charging, sub-£1,000, seven years of security updates. Cons: camera is inconsistent and can't match the best, battery life could be better, AI features still a work in progress, not the latest version of Android and only five years of upgrades, lack of symmetry not to everyone's taste.
