On today's episode of Smart Robots Review we're going to be looking at the Xiaomi Mi Robotic vacuum, perhaps the best robotic vacuum that costs a fraction of its competitors Stay with me Everyone welcome back to Smart Robots Review, the show the reviews robotics and other fantastic tech from around the world I'm your host Elias, and this is the Xiaomi Mi robotic vacuum Just look at it… the surface positively gleams from any angle, and you can't help but wonder if Michelangelo himself wouldn't have done a better job sculpting edges so soft.. that make the Xiaomi's cladding escape the banality of the classic robot vacuum disc shape Okay, that may be a bit of a reach, but what I'm trying to say is that… this robot Aesthetically is a masterpiece… And under that cladding the technology does not fail to impress three CPUs (processors) drive the main cleaning brush, the side clean brush and regulates the suction along with carefully placed ultrasonic, infrared, collision and cutting-edge laser sensors to navigate safely and Clean efficiently on almost any surface… now let's take a closer look… so here in the rear of the vacuum you're seeing two vents on the right and left and those are used to circulate air. The two silver strips are used to make contact with the self charging cradle (dock), and if you're wondering what that rotating turret is… That is part of the laser distance sensor (LDS) and the laser is invisible to the naked eye, so I photographed it under infra-red light … so here it is…. Not unlike self-driving cars that are utilizing similar technology, the Xiaomi Laser Distance Sensor Scans its surroundings with this invisible laser 1,800 times per second! and the little UFO lights that you're seeing there? Those are the infra-red sensors that help it avoid falling off edges.. and in the front you see this almost oval opening ? That is where the ultrasonic sensor is housed This sensor (ultrasonic) uses sound to detect distance between objects and the three CPUs, the processors I mentioned earlier use all these sensors to track the robot's movements in Real-Time! Brilliant… just brilliant The robot has four speed settings: Quiet, Balanced, Turbo and Max All four settings of course impact how fast the vacuum is going to clean, how loud it's going to be and how quickly the job will be completed. For most of my tests I operated the Xiaomi in "Balanced" mode It appears that in "Balanced" mode the vacuum handles most flooring fairly well and Manages the battery life to its maximum, which is about two and a half hours There is also a specific spot cleaning mode that is common in most vacuums When spot cleaning is selected (the vacuum) will clean the immediate area by moving in a spiral pattern For every setting EXCEPT for spot cleaning mode the vacuum follows a Specific sequence before it begins cleaning: 1)It scans the immediate space 2) Breaks it into quadrants and then 3) starts to clean the edges first 4) Once the edges are completed, and you can see, it moves up and down that space until the cleaning job is completed before proceeding to the next quadrant The carpets were no issue for the Xiaomi Mi on Max (setting) the performance of this robot was on par With the Roomba 980 which is (in my opinion) a great compliment as the Roomba 980 is a fantastic all-around very powerful robotic vacuum so I have to say, I have to admit…. I was surprised… I did not expect the Xiaomi to perform, so well on carpet, but it did and as you can see here, it is traversing up and down the quadrant here until this space is completed before moving on One important factor for you when considering the robotic vacuum may be the noise level… The Xiaomi averaged in Quiet mode 78 decibels, 79 Decibels on Balanced (mode), 80 Decibels on Turbo and 82 on Max (mode) Which makes the Xiaomi not the loudest but not the quietest either. I think that is Perfectly fine for a capable vacuum that you know will do a good job (cleaning) It also handled transitions between carpet and tile, rugs and wood floor very well with no issues. I had it clean a mud room here with no problems at all left the typical shoes with shoe laces hanging around just to see if it's going to fall for the trap and Okay skipping head a little bit and unfortunately it did fall for it because if you tell me there's a robotic vacuum cleaner that is immune to the occasional rogue shoelace, I will tell you it doesn't exist The dustbin is fairly Sizable holding 14 ounces of debris it is easy to access, easy to empty It has a HEPA filter built in overall nice design here many other robotic vacuums fail to meet these common points Okay on to some unscientific testing with the "Vacu-dome" this is this Enclosed controlled space I call a "Vacu-dome", I use it to test all my robotic vacuums here We have a low pile carpet on the floor and a cup of rice for the robot to deal with This is a no excuses test so the robot is set to maximum performance and as you can see It is speeding through and Sucking up that rice like it's supposed to The sides were cleaned very well, the corner is always a area of concern But that is something that every robotic vacuum struggles with Okay on the onto the kitchen floor test and here we're spreading a fair amount of oregano on the floor Robot is set to maximum and as expected it did a good job here as well again the sides were meticulously cleaned the corners are suffering a little bit as usual I am very impressed by the Efficiency of this robot all the sensors,( including the one I left out earlier) a Tri-axis gyroscope which feeds acceleration and speed data along with all the other sensor data into the three CPUs now all that data helps the Robot calculate the most efficient route to clean and maneuver. You can see that in all my examples it is it moves Decisively, efficiently you're gonna watch it go under the table here, and it's going to move in real-time I have not sped up this footage here. You're gonna watch it move with purpose Speed it's going to a great job, and that is all very impressive One trade-off to this performance is the fact that some areas require a second pass and this robot does a goes to extreme lengths to lengths to perform a single pass do a great job at it, but in that process it may miss some additional debris because it is performing a single pass Okay on to the Fantastic application that comes with the Xiaomi Mi, and this is not only a great strength But also a great weakness for this robot because when you install this application everything's in Chinese Mandarin and switching it over is Not that bad. It's not that difficult, but it's still not there There is luckily a new voice pack for English which is great But when you configure the robot I recommend leaving it in mainland, China mode in that mode you'll be able to connect to the Wi-Fi and Explore its features which are plenty… You can use the application to control the robot in joystick mode you can track its path and check on its status, you can program a timed job all the features expected from a robotic vacuum at this level In fact, this application is so feature-rich that I will create one more episode Specifically focusing on configuring the application and going lower the different features Are a few more details before we wrap this up so here. We have the show me with the charging cradle the charging cradle is used by the Xiaomi to recharge now the show-me is smart enough to go back to the charging creator on its own and recharge when needed but Unlike most other robotic vacuums very few who very few have this feature It will return back here recharge and go back out there into The living room the kitchen wherever left off if it left up and unfinished job Bleep that job and then return back to the cradle Flitz final charge Awesome, I love that feature definitely a premium feature for a robot vacuum that Continues to amaze So back to the charging cradle look at this detail They have this nice cable management area where you can hide the cable make it more discreet when you have it up in the living room or wherever you're storing it, so I love that feature also I Appreciate the fact that they included a universal power adapter This is something I'm using here in the States to test it and it was included for free! so pretty awesome a great feature Also, if you guys are wondering how I photographed the laser and the infrared lights in total darkness don't be surprised because I use The Samsung smart HD camera… this was an awesome camera I tested in my last episode so if you guys interested in how I did that watch that episode Definitely uh it was worth its money So and that was great to see in the dark But here. We are a fantastic vacuum Priced around $300 a gearbest you can get it for about 265 with the coupon codes that they gave me and thank you gearbest for providing me the robotic vacuum as you guys know sometimes I get products from different vendors like your best and It does not influence my opinion I definitely run these robots to the limit and test them through all my own scientific methods It does not impact my opinion whether I receive the product from anybody or not But keep them coming your best because I love the support and gives me opportunity to share these great devices with My subscribers so with all that what you guys thought about the show Please leave your feedback your comments down below the opinion that matters the most is your opinion and until next time. Thank you for watching smart robots review