Xiaomi Smart Vacuum Cleaner was announced on August 31 by the company and immediately made a huge fuss around it. All sites where saying about this new product of Xiaomi, how amazing is and about the unique features that has and that the design is similar to the Roomba, a well-known US brand of autonomous vacuum. But of course, knowing Xiaomi, we should know that the price of it would be much lower from the Roomba. So while Roomba is priced at 5,699 yuan ($850), the Xiaomi Smart Vacuum Cleaner is set to be sold for only 1,699 yuan ($250). This device is announced to be available for purchase starting September 6, so you can use this time to get acquainted with it before the Xiaomi cleaner becomes available at retailer stores. For example Xiaomi Smart Vacuum Cleaner is in presales in Gearbest till 30th of September.
Usually when we start a review, we start it by describing the design of the product. In this case we wont do it, as the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum has more interesting and innovative features besides the design. Of course, it looks amazing, but we’ll have time to talk about it.
Xiaomi Smart Vacuum Cleaner automatically maps out the area and cleans homes in an extremely “smart and efficient” way, as the manufacturer claims. It uses a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm to map out how the home is laid out and calculates the best sweeping path.
If you are an old Windows user, you should remember at an add-on you could add at Windows a game called Pinball. The Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner works like the ball in the game. Every time when a vacuum cleaner is described as it comes with a ‘random type of cleaning’, the only one though comes to my mind – does it clean like PinBall.
Usually, when we talk about sweeping paths, we mean a certain number of routes that the robotic cleaner have to pass from in order to clean efficiently a room. In case this to be achieved, I guess there should be a special algorithm capable of calculating the best path for the cleaner. In other case it can last for ages and a smart cleaner can become a real headache for users.
When we are cleaning a room with a simple cleaner we know where we have cleaned and don’t pass there more than one time. The same should be happening and with the robotic cleaners, otherwise they will clean the same area for multiple times, while some other areas will be remain dirty.
Xiaomi has not announced officially how its vacuum cleaner will do that, I guess the sensors emit laser light will be able to calculate the travel time due to a reflected light. I guess this technology is the main selling point of the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum, but let’s take a glance at other features of it.
Unlike many other vacuum cleaners the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum mainly focuses on cleaning features. As a result the company has cooperated with a Japanese NIDEC that is known as the world’s No.1 comprehensive motor manufacturer.
The Xiaomi vacuum cleaner is equipped with a brushless DC motor that is much better from other motors in terms of speed and performance, as it delivers up to 1800Pa air pressure. If you want to understand this number, for example the Roomba 980 that we mention before and is well known, it comes with 1,670 Pa. Roomba it might have the same motor, but thanks to a Mi Ecosystem, works more effectively.
From what we know from Xiaomi, Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner comes with rubber and fiber combo brush structure, thus it is capable of cleaning hard floors as well soft carpets made of different materials. Also it is equipped with a 5,200mAh 14.4V lithium-ion battery that is enough to clean up to 250 square meter area in about 2.5 hours on a single charge. It is provided by LG and Panasonic meaning we can say that it is true. Now in case this won’t be enough for the vacuum, it will return back to its docking station and recharge by itself! For example, ILIFE V1 that is on giveaway from the site with Gearbest, is capable of sweeping up to 1 hour with its 2000mAh battery. Seebest D730 packed with a 2200mAh battery can work for about 90-120 minutes. I believe now you can understand how amazing Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner is and how many steps forward has managed to go Xiaomi.
Generally, many advertisers in order to promote its product, they say that their vacuum can clean up to 100 square meters’ or something like that. But we know an average room has 20-30 square meters area, so this shows that their vacuum cleans very little. At last, Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner can pass even 1 centimeter per second. So any room can be cleaned in minutes.
Mi Home App
Like all gadgets that are part of Mi Ecosystem and this vacuum cleaner comes with Mi Home app pre-installed. Thus users can control the device remotely. This means they can power it on/off, check the vacuum’s status via WiFi, get a live tracking, switch between three modes (normal, quiet and active), set schedules for automatic cleaning and many more. All these operations can be displayed on your mobile handset. You can also set regular cleaning schedules for daily cleanings. It’s very simple to use, as you are able to display the real-time cleaning map, path and position on your cleaner.
In order to control the vacuum through Mi Smart Home, you must add it to the smart devices that you have already installed. Once installed you will see the position of the cleaner, cleaning area, cleaning time info, and a few other useful info such as the speed adjustment. You can even set up the cleaner to report you once the process is over.
Since we are talking about how the cleaner works, I guess all are gonna talk about that Laser Distance Sensor (LDS) first. OF course and this to work, needs the help of 3 dedicated processors: a quad-core processor from Allwinner, a ST Micro electronics ARM processor, and a Texas Instruments LDS image processor. These 3 processors help the cleaner to get all the data needed not only from the from Laser Distance Sensor, but from all 12 sensors (LDS, wall, dust bin, collision, ultrasonic radar, cliff, electronic compass, gyroscope/accelerator, drop, speedometer, and fan speed) and calculates the cleaning path.
As you can understand, each sensor is for different job to do. Like LDS provides a 360 degrees scanning (1800 times/second). The wall sensor maintains a precise 1 cm distance from the wall allowing the cleaner not to scratch the wall when working. Each sensor for a different work….
When you open the cap of the cleaner we see only the control buttons and the dust box with a capacity of 420ml. You must be careful with the dust box and not to allow a dust leakage, because it can increase motor pressure, therefore prevent the machine to work properly.
An other thing to mention is that there is no touchscreen, I don’t know if it is something important, but since you can completely control it from the app, what to do with the touchscreen!?
On the bottom side, all that you can see are the main brush, the side brush, and the vacuum port, but I guess you don’t expect and something else, right!? The main brush adjusts automatically the height, so to create a tight seal with floor. The side brush supports 130 spins/second speed, but it can boosted up to 330 spin/second. Finally, the vacuum port pass the air through itself providing noise reduction effect.
Conclusion
Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner looks really very nice. The main advantage of this product are the extra features that make it do the cleaning smarter. Also the complete control over Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner through Mi Home, gives a solid control. Also the feature that it returns to its docking station to recharge and continue, is something really cool. Xiaomi Vacuum Cleaner is on presales at Gearbest till 30th of September. You can order it at a lower price to get it at $329.99 for flash sale by using this coupon code: XIAOMIVAC . So, wouldn’t that be a perfect present for your wife or for yourself!?
Update on Spet. 8, 2017:
1) Original Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum
Coupon code: XMIVCHK
SP: $279.99
Update on Aug.16, 2017
1) Original Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum
Coupon code: XMIVCHK
SP: $296.99