Robot vacuums are nothing less than marvels of engineering and even a basic bot can keep your floors tidy with little effort on your part. It can tackle pet hair and dust adeptly while top-tier models can map your home, take voice commands, and empty themselves.

I don’t want to get hopes high and say this is a replacement for a traditional plug-in vacuum cleaner. Even the fanciest robot models can miss dirt. So, how did the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X10 perform?

First, the commitment of Xiaomi to the category deserves a mention and the company has been doing brisk business with equipment other than smartphones and TVs. Second, the machine in question is of good quality and sturdy.

The charging dock and dust collection station

When the pandemic was in full swing, a robot vacuum cleaner kept my living area clean without making me go berserk and that was the first time I started using these devices seriously.

Neat and tidy

Xiaomi mirrors the state of the robot vacuum cleaner category in India. It has come a long way, from machines that didn’t allow a structure to those that allow mapping and now, auto-cleaning docks.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X10 is not Rosey the Robot from Jetsons. It can’t climb stairs. The Xiaomi device can mop well and has a charging dock where the robot empties dust. The biggest features of the machine, however, are in mapping and obstacle avoidance, two crucial skills.

The two-in-one vacuum and mop can do most things. It comes with 4,000Pa powerful suction, which is higher than the average 2,000Pa you need for most scenarios.

Suction power is one of the most important aspects of a robot vacuum and it determines how well the machine can collect dust from cement floors as well as carpets and wooden floors. It’s equally important to remember how well these cleaners can cross barriers. Higher the suction power the better. Of course, these come with a heavier price tag.

The mapping system on the app in action

The review unit is managing well to tackle pet hair all over the house and it demolished my scattered-spices test. It also did a better job at mopping than most machines I have tried in the recent past.

There are a few navigation technologies that you can find on different machines. The best is Lidar, which can operate in low-light or no-light settings and it also makes sure that the device doesn’t bump into too many objects.

Camera-based navigation is less accurate but it manages to get around a room. It also requires light to operate the robot. The good thing is that these are great for identifying real-time changes in a room, like wires and toys.

Here, its LDS laser navigation technology that precisely scans the home environment, creating accurate maps of the home layout even in low light conditions and adjusting its speed when encountering obstacles, for example just before slamming into the door, it moves away. The final mapping of the room can be seen in the app. You can, in fact, have several maps of the different rooms in your apartment.

The machine has easily cleaned orange juice and ketchup, but I had to set the cleanup mode to “strong” and the water level to “medium”.

The setup of the robot cleaner

The machine itself is easy to use and the app offers ample control. There is voice assistant support but I didn’t use the feature.

The robot vacuum is not the quietest but it sure is nimble. When I put the cleanup mode to “strong” the noise sort of becomes white noise in the background but it’s certainly bearable, “turbo” mode, on the other hand, can rattle the insides of my head, even though it manages to tackle the most stubborn particle you throw at the machine.

Another good point about the machine is that it can tackle obstacles up to 20mm high, meaning it is just about to cross the low threshold of my door frames to move from one room to another. Also, the height of the machine is just about enough to clean under the furniture.

There is auto dust collection. How does that work? The charging base’s dual-channel dust collection design, with powerful 17000Pa suction, empties the dustbin instantly. The built-in dust bag can collect and empty dust up to 60 times, sealing automatically when removed to prevent any dust spillage on your surroundings.

Should you buy it?

Battery capacity and runtime are two important aspects. Higher the run time and battery capacity, the better for you. If you have a biggish space, you will need to look at a machine which offers this. Say you live in an old place like me and there is considerable carpet space, you need a machine with more battery, otherwise, you will have to wait for a long time for the battery to recharge. I think a robot vacuum with at least 120 minutes of runtime and a minimum battery of 3,200mAh is needed. What you get here is a 5,200mAh battery and 240-minute runtime. Covering 2,500sqft is easy with such specs.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X10 takes care of a spice “zone”

Being easy to use and offering good battery runtime, Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X10 easily wins the user over. It can effectively vacuum light carpets, mop hard floors and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach. It’s a powerful dust-buster that is compact and it’s not an eyesore.

At a glance

Device: Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X10

Price: ₹29,999 (includes a 1+1 year free extended warranty)

High notes

Maps rooms correctly

Variable suction speeds are possible

Good with dust collection

Excellent battery life and runtime

Muffled notes

The water container for the mop is small