Best Dolphin Alternative (2026): Cordless Beatbot vs Dolphin

If you're searching for a Dolphin alternative, it's usually because a Dolphin or Maytronics robot cleans just the pool floor and walls, some need a power cable run to the pool, and leaves the water surface to a separate device. Beatbot's cordless robots, led by the Sora 70 P7 and the flagship AquaSense 2 Ultra, clean the surface and the floor in one robot with no cable to manage. Below is an honest, capability-based comparison to help you choose, plus where Maytronics' new Dolphin EON fits.

Why look for a Dolphin alternative?

Most buyers move away from Dolphin for two reasons: the robot is corded, so it needs a power point within reach of the pool and a cable trailing through the water while it runs, and it doesn't clean the water surface. Dolphin/Maytronics sells a separate solar skimmer, Skimmi, for surface debris, which means two devices and two purchases for full coverage.

A cordless alternative removes the cable altogether, so there's nothing to snag on ladders, lights, or fittings, and nothing to unplug and store after every clean. And a robot that handles the water surface as well as the floor, walls, and waterline in a single pass means one device instead of two.

How does Beatbot compare?

Beatbot's Sora and AquaSense 2 ranges are fully cordless, use smart navigation to map and cover the pool, and the Sora 70 P7, AquaSense 2 Pro and AquaSense 2 Ultra clean the water surface as well as the floor, walls, and waterline in one robot. That's the core difference from a corded Dolphin plus a separate Skimmi: one cordless device instead of two.

• Cordless setup: the entire Sora range (Sora 10 P1, Sora 30 P3, Sora 70 P7) and AquaSense range charge on a dock or via cable off the pool deck, not while submerged. No power lead runs into the water during a clean.
• AI navigation: CleverNav smart navigation and SonicSense ultrasonic obstacle avoidance run across the Sora range and AquaSense 2 range, while the flagship Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra adds HybridSense AI Pool Mapping (3D camera vision plus infrared and ultrasonic) for a full 3D map of the pool, including corners and complex shapes.
• Surface and floor in one robot: the Beatbot Sora 70 P7 uses JetPulse water-surface cleaning alongside floor, wall, and waterline cleaning, all cordless, at $2,299. The AquaSense 2 Ultra and AquaSense 2 Pro do the same as part of a full 5-in-1 clean with water clarification.
• If you just need the surface cleaned: Beatbot also sells the iSkim, a solar surface skimmer that's the direct equivalent of Dolphin's Skimmi, for pairing with any floor-cleaning robot.

For a full spec-by-spec breakdown against Dolphin, see our full spec-by-spec comparison.

What about the new Dolphin EON?

Maytronics launched the Dolphin EON at CES in January 2026, marketed for cleaning shallow areas to around 20cm, including tanning ledges and Baja shelves. It's a genuine step for Dolphin into shallow-water cleaning, an area Beatbot's Sora range (particularly Sora 10 P1 and Sora 30 P3) has covered for some time.

Even with the EON, the shallow-area cleaning is still separate from full water-surface skimming across the whole pool, and Dolphin's broader range remains corded. If you want one cordless robot that handles shallow areas, the full floor, and the entire water surface, the Sora 70 P7 and the AquaSense 2 Pro and Ultra still cover more ground in a single device.

Which Beatbot replaces which Dolphin model?

Exact Dolphin model specs sit outside what we can verify against our own product data, so here's a capability-based way to match a cordless Beatbot to the kind of Dolphin robot you're replacing.

Prefer to browse by range rather than model-for-model? See the full Beatbot Sora Range or the AquaSense Series 2 Range.