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Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro test – everyone wants such an assistant
I vacuum almost daily, otherwise I would stumble over cat hair and fine cat litter with almost every step (which is significantly less since I got it). automatic cat toilet). Pet owners understand my pain. Households full of children have similar problems. They are true wizards when it comes to causing havoc. Not to mention the mountain of toys (from the child or pet) that you have to put away before you can even start vacuuming and washing.
For the past five years, my home has been vacuumed by the now gray Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Mop 2 Pro robot vacuum cleaner. In the meantime, it has also commanded other robot vacuum cleaners that I have managed to test. The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Mop 2 Pro is still a very reliable robot. Nothing has broken yet, the battery is healthy... What I have done is regularly change the filter and side brush. It does not have any advanced functions, at least compared to today's models, but I like its simplicity. I send it to vacuum and think about it.
The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro is much newer with younger legs and a smarter brain.
| Advantages | Weaknesses |
| Excellent suction power | Slovenian is not among the supported languages |
| Intelligent room control | Washing mostly for daily maintenance |
| Smart dirt detection | |
| Possibility of cleaning under low furniture | |
| Live view camera | |
| The anti-tangle system works very well | |
| Very good battery life |
Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro price and specifications
| Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro | Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 | |
| The price | €849.99 (currently reduced to €699) | 649,99 € |
| Navigation | dToF retractable radar | dToF retractable radar |
| Obstacle avoidance (AI) | AI obstacle detection (RGB + 3D + LED) | S-Cross system with multi-layer laser scanning |
| Application | Xiaomi Home | Xiaomi Home |
| Voice control | Google Assistant & Amazon Alexa | Google Assistant & Amazon Alexa |
| Remote video surveillance | 1080p (live via app) | No |
| Maximum obstacle height (threshold) | 20 mm | 20 mm |
| Lifting the cloth | 15 mm | 15 mm |
| Lifting the main brush | Yes | No |
| Main brush | Anti-tangle brush | Anti-tangle brush |
| Side brush | Single side brush (anti-tangle) | Single side brush (anti-tangle) |
| Washing cloths with hot water | Yes, up to 80 °C | Yes, up to 80 °C |
| Drying cloths with hot air | Yes | Yes |
| Smart dirt detection | Yes | No |
| Cleaning the base | Rotary scrapers, removable cleaning tray | Rotary scrapers, removable cleaning tray |
| Suction power | 20,000 Pa | 20,000 Pa |
| Dirt bin | 290ml | 290ml |
| Water tank in the robot | 70ml | 70ml |
| Dust bag in the station | 2.5 liters | 2.5 liters |
| Tanks in the station (clean/waste water) | 2x 4.0 liters | 2x 4.0 liters |
| Maximum washing area per load | up to 400 m² | up to 400 m² |
| Battery | 5200mAh | 5200mAh |
Slaloming through furniture like Tina Maze
After a quick installation of the Xiaomi Home app and connecting the robot to the home network (it only supports 2.4 GHz), the first start-up followed. With any robot vacuum cleaner, I first recommend sending it on a reconnaissance mission so that it can create a map of the premises in peace.
It is equipped with a retractable laser sensor (LiDAR) on top, which is hidden in the housing by default, a 3D dot projector, and three cameras on the front, which allows it to perform advanced navigation with artificial intelligence (AI) and obstacle recognition.
The first map is never perfect, but that's okay. The robot will automatically update it with each cleaning. If you see spaces on the map that you don't actually have, this is a phenomenon where the laser beams are tricked by a mirror. I have two on the ground floor and where the mirror is, the robot vacuum thinks there is another space.
I then manually edited the room division in the app and set virtual boundaries and no-go zones (excluded areas) where I don't want the robot to drive (for example, near a sensitive floor lamp and in a corner where there is a bunch of tangled cables).
Navigation is mostly systematic. The Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner moves in neat patterns to cover the entire surface, but you can change this in the app for even tighter or looser lines, depending on whether you want a quick or deep vacuum.
It detects objects dutifully while driving. I saw small symbols on the map where the camera detected obstacles, such as a chair leg, a toy, or a cable.
I've noticed that it prefers to avoid some smaller objects and leave them alone. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it avoids getting tangled (it never got tangled in my phone charger because it noticed it in time and went around it), but on the other hand, it leaves unwiped dust under these objects. Ideally, it would be able to gently move the object and vacuum there too, but I don't know if any robot vacuum cleaner can do that. We recently got robot vacuum cleaners with robotic arms that can physically grab such objects, but they are not yet available in our country and are also significantly more expensive.
Personally, I prefer it to be careful. I'd rather pick up small items from the floor before cleaning than chase a robot that accidentally got tangled.
Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro – Now you see it, now you don't.
The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro has a special retractable radar that can hide in its housing if it detects low furniture. It can fit under furniture as small as 9.5 cm, which is perfect for my sofa, which is about 11 cm off the floor. The first day, it didn't have much courage. It detected the sofa, but it didn't venture into its dark side. I had to push it to start cleaning, but after my gentle encouragement, it clearly understood that this was the area it needed to clean.
In dark spaces (under the sofa, in the evening), it performed excellently. Late at night, I sent it into an unlit bathroom and hallway to check if it would hit the wall with its head (bumper). Thanks to the dual LED lights for night vision, the Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner easily detects obstacles even in the dark. It slipped around furniture silently without any bumps. Apparently, the infrared cameras and LED lighting do their job well. Navigation through narrow passages, for example between a chair and a wall, was slow and careful, but without getting stuck. It seems that the algorithms make sure that the robot does not get stuck, even if it only has a couple of centimeters of space on each side. Occasionally, I heard the side brush touch an obstacle (a slight scraping against the wall or the leg of a chair). At first, the sound is scary because it sounds like the brush is going to break, but apparently the fear is unnecessary.
As for falling down the stairs, it has a sensor that detects in time if there is a sudden hole in front of it. When it was cleaning on the second floor, I was with it at the beginning so that it wouldn't accidentally fly down the stairs, but it didn't need my help. I expect this with most devices of this type, but it's still worth mentioning. To be absolutely sure that it won't fly, you can create a no-go zone around the stairs. Safety is never a bad thing.
Is this a vacuum cleaner or a black hole?
The main advantage of this model is its exceptional suction power. Xiaomi claims 20,000 Pa of suction power. It is not the only robot vacuum cleaner with such power, but it is still several times more than most robots.
And this power is noticeable. My robot vacuum cleaner has trouble picking up cat litter, especially the finer and finer ones. And I was secretly praying that they had really made a huge leap in this area. And luckily they did. Even in standard mode (there are two more powerful modes available: strong and turbo), it picked up all the litter and also all the hair and dust lumps from hidden corners.
Turbo mode is mostly unnecessary unless you really want to deep clean your entire home, especially carpets. In that case, be prepared for the noise. It's not as bad as in the past when you thought you had a jet plane in your house, but it's still not the sound of whispers in a library. It even lifts smaller carpets a little, it has that much power.
Due to the better suction power, I noticed that the robot was able to pick up dirt even between tiles, in the threshold between rooms, which my vacuum cleaner simply cannot do. I used it on standard power most of the time, but once a week I set it to use all the available power.
It performed well on carpets, but it depends on the type of carpet. I have a thinner, low-pile carpet in my living room, and the robot picked up all visible dust and debris there with ease. When I lifted the carpet and shook it, almost nothing fell out, which means it vacuumed well between the fibers. I have an even shagier carpet in my bedroom, but I noticed that there was a bit of dust left behind.
The second biggest annoyance of most robot vacuums is hair and fur getting tangled. So far, I've been emptying the bin every 4-5 days and then I've always had to untangle the main brush and occasionally the side and front wheels. It's not terribly time-consuming (it takes you two minutes), but the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro initially promised me that this wouldn't be necessary with it, or at least not as often.
The main brush has a built-in anti-tangle mechanism. After a week of cleaning, I turned the robot over and inspected the brush. I didn't notice any tangled hair around it, just a few small clumps, a mixture of dirt and cat hair. If this continues, cleaning the brush will now only take me a few seconds instead of a few minutes. It doesn't sound like much, but every little bit counts.
The side brush is a bit special. It has the ability to extend slightly to reach right up to the edge of the wall. And for the most part, that's true. If I'm very picky, there's sometimes a speck left in a sharp inner corner of the room that the round shape of the robot doesn't reach directly, but for the most part, the robot maneuvers well enough (even with different driving angles) to pick up almost everything. For 100 % flawless corners, I'd probably need a square-shaped robot or manual vacuuming. That's just the limitation of all round robot vacuums.
When it finishes vacuuming, it automatically returns to the station and empties its waste into the bag in the station.
It sucks great, but how does it do the dishes?
Xiaomi 5 Pro is not only a vacuum cleaner, but also a wet floor robot. In fact, it has two round rotating cloths that rotate during operation and, pressed against the floor, rub the surface. Expectations regarding cleaning were high, as the base promises to wash the cloths with hot water (up to 80 °C) and dry them, and the robot is supposed to be able to recognize different types of dirt and respond accordingly, for example, wiping up liquids, sucking up solid particles, but if it detects a combination (say, spilled soup with noodles), it prefers to leave the area alone so as not to smear the matter.
In my opinion, wet cleaning is suitable for everyday maintenance of floor surfaces, but it is not miraculous. I did not expect it to be able to wash really dried stains, and it did not, but it still exceeded my expectations. My plan is to use it for everyday maintenance, so that I have less work to do with deep cleaning on the weekend. It washed everywhere, even on balconies, where dirt accumulates quickly. You can set it in the app to vacuum and wash at the same time, or to focus only on vacuuming first, and on washing in the second round. That is how I used it.
It wiped away light stains (dust, small spots) without any problems and the tiles/parquet were clean, without spots. Those more dried coffee drops remained as light stains, visible only from a certain angle. After a second run over the same place (when I sent the robot to this zone again), these stains were almost completely erased.
So, if I expect the robot to be equivalent to a vigorous manual scrubbing with a cloth, it won't be. With stubborn, dried-on dirt, you'll still need to grab the cloth from time to time. But for daily dusting and fresh stains, it works great, especially because it can do this frequently (and automatically), preventing dirt from accumulating.
While washing, I liked that the robot regularly goes back to the base to "freshen" the cloths. I have it set in the app to stop every 20 square meters and drive to the station, where it rinses the cloths and wrings out the dirt before continuing to wash the rest of the apartment. This way, it doesn't end up spreading a mess all over the apartment with one dirty cloth, which is a problem with simpler robot vacuums without a self-cleaning station.
The entire washing and wringing process in the station takes a few minutes, and then the robot continues its work with clean (and even heated) cloths. When it has finished with the entire floor plan, it returns to the base, where it thoroughly washes the cloths and dries them with hot air. The drying process takes about 2 hours, and it happens automatically and imperceptibly in the background. There is almost no noise, it sounds like the hum of a refrigerator.
Another special feature of this model is the cloth lifting mechanism. When it detects carpets, the cloths are lifted. This way, the robot does not get sensitive carpets wet.
Xiaomi Home = the brain of the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro robot vacuum cleaner
The Xiaomi Home app displays a detailed map of the apartment that you can edit: divide rooms, name them, set exclusion zones, and more. It's great that I can set a cleaning schedule for each room and even set different suction powers and wet cleaning levels.
Among the smart features, the AI object recognition stands out. In the app, I can see which objects the robot has detected and recognized while driving. In my case, icons for cables, socks, and shoes appeared because I left some junk on the floor for the test. As mentioned, the robot bypasses these obstacles and marks the location on the map, which is really fun to see. In addition, it has a camera on the front, through which I can look at the room live. In the Xiaomi Home app, I can start the remote view and literally drive the robot around the house like a little robot guard.
The cat queens didn't expect the robot to suddenly turn on and start following them around the apartment, even though neither of them was home.
Unfortunately, Slovenian is not among the supported languages in the application.
There will be significantly less maintenance than with the existing vacuum cleaner
The cloths are cleaned automatically at the station, where the bin is also emptied into a bag, with a capacity of about 2.5 liters. I expect to change it every month or two. I checked the filter in the robot after a week and it is almost flawless so far. Clean and dirty water are separated in the station. Each tank has a capacity of 4 liters, which is again enough to think about it for at least a few weeks, depending on how often you plan to wash.
The only thing I will be checking regularly is the brushes to make sure they don't tangle. But after initial experience, this will obviously be much less frequent than before.
Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro – every home needs a robot vacuum cleaner
I am firmly convinced of this. My partner and I used to live on 50 square meters and the presence of a robot vacuum cleaner was already noticeable there, even though my vacuum cleaner was one of the simpler ones. Now we live on 120 m2 and I can't imagine having to do it all myself again.
The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro is great for (especially) larger apartments and houses, where its good autonomy, autonomous operation, exceptional suction power, solid cleaning and sophistication to tackle all corners and low spaces under furniture come into play. It is ideal for homes with pets or small children. It will make your daily cleaning easier.
I would also recommend it to employees or those who are away a lot and who want to automate their cleaning as much as possible. You can really set schedules and practically forget about vacuuming and washing for a week or two.
Who wouldn't I recommend it to? If you have a very small apartment or studio with little floor space, this might be too powerful and expensive for your needs. In that case, you might want to opt for a cheaper and simpler robot vacuum cleaner.
Currently, I can say that the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum 5 Pro is one of the most technologically advanced robot cleaners on the market.
