Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Robotic vacuums can get quite expensive. If you are on the fence, the price can be a great deterrent to giving you a chance. Enter the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P. Despite its name, this vacuum is the company’s attempt to democratize the segment in the same way it does with smartphones. In fact, the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P ties in with Xiaomi’s larger smart home ambitions in India and aims to bring more premium experiences to market.
Xiaomi is now facing a tough battle for market acceptance for a product category that is as good as nonexistent in India. For a company that balances low margins with larger volumes, the product is a unique challenge. Which begs the question – – Can Xiaomi’s amazingly affordable robotic vacuum cleaner do the job in a dusty country like India?
We find it in the Android Authority Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P review.
Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P.
The Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P is an affordable vacuum cleaner that does not give up the essentials. It offers effective vacuuming and mopping for a great price, which makes it a great first option for most buyers.
What is the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P?
The Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P is Xiaomi’s takeover of an affordable robotic vacuum cleaner. The model is not brand new. It’s a version of the Mi Robot Vacuum that the company launched in China back in 2019.
It includes both vacuuming and mopping functions that aren’t all that common in this price range. In addition, the robot vacuum contains a number of sensors for obstacle avoidance, edge detection and of course LIDAR for mapping your home. Suffice it to say that despite the low price, Xiaomi has not sacrificed the essentials.
How to set up the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P.
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Setting up the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P is pretty easy. The vacuum is supplied with a pre-assembled roller brush and sweeping brush. A replacement sweeping brush is also included.
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Opening the lid reveals a cavity in which you can place either the vacuum-only container or the combination of vacuum and mop container. Finally, the mop fabric holder slides into a slot on the back of the Robot Vacuum-Mop P.
You need the Xiaomi Mi Home app to continue the setup process. Remember, I had to switch to the Singapore server. because the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P is not yet delivered in India. However, at startup, most users can tap the plus button at the top, enter the Wi-Fi details, and go.
Using the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P.
Like most robotic vacuum cleaners, the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P includes a LIDAR sensor that you can use to create a map of your home. It is generated the first time you set it up in a cleaning cycle. The vacuum took about an hour and a half to go through my 2,000 square foot apartment.
Once the mapping is done, the Robot Vacuum-Mop P can segment rooms and areas pretty well. If an area is missing, you can go to the map editor to divide rooms or add virtual walls. You can also name rooms.
This might be useful with the included Smart Assistant integration, but the feature was not working at the time of testing. This is likely due to the mismatch in the region as the product is not yet widely used in the country.
Once the first scan is done, tapping a specific room and pressing the start button is a breeze. If you want, you can switch between vacuum and mop mode. You can also change the suction strength or the amount of water used for mopping. You must of course have the appropriate container in a vacuum.
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Xiaomi claims that the 3,200 mAh battery should last up to 130 minutes on a single charge. That may be true, but you will likely only achieve this longevity in the silent mode, which drastically reduces the suction force of the vacuum.
In a dusty city like Delhi, you need to increase the suction power to medium or higher.
Look, India is a lot of dust and silent mode isn’t really going to cut it off for most uses. When I used it at medium or maximum power, the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P lasted about an hour on a single charge – – not enough to clean up the whole house.
Finally, all filters can be easily removed for cleaning and replacement.
How well does the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P clean?
In summary – – very well.
The Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P can clean my apartment almost as well as manual mopping and brooms. In fact, it completely replaced my daily chore of sweeping the dust and saved me hours on booting. This is of course set to medium or turbo with the vacuum.
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The robot was very solid at finding the fastest route to the selected room while avoiding obstacles. It could also easily climb over short heights.
The Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P gets one quantity Better at cleaning if you throw a little in it and remove stray clothes or items along the way. In my use, I ended up lifting a rug off the floor as the vacuum tended to get caught on some tassels.
Object recognition was excellent. On the rare occasions when the robot vacuum got stuck, it could easily be secured and the task continued.
The good and the bad
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
There is hardly anything that can match the value that the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P offers in India. The 2,100 Pa suction power isn’t the best you can get, but it’s proven to be sufficient on both marble and wood floors.
The water tank is too small to wipe an apartment at once.
The wiping function is satisfactory, but not sufficient for harder stains. With this in mind, I wish Xiaomi had opted for a slightly larger water tank here. The 2-in-1 tank needs a second refill to keep my apartment tidy and larger apartments may need a third.
I’ve gotten into the habit of dividing the daily cleaning session into two steps. Refilling the tank hardly takes a few seconds. However, this is an additional step that could have been avoided.
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Finally, Xiaomi is extremely generous in recommending clearing the filters about every week. Now my home is certainly not dirty, but given the amount of dust in the air of Delhi, the filters and brushes inevitably need to be cleaned every few days. You should also wash the mop well to avoid streaking.
Should you buy the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P?
Recognition: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Robotic vacuums are still a emerging category in India and there isn’t too much competition in the market. The Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P is one of the few options that integrates both a vacuum and a mopping function at an affordable price.
Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P.
The Mi Robot Vacuum Mop P is an affordable vacuum cleaner that does not give up the essentials. It offers effective vacuuming and mopping for a great price, which makes it a great first option for most buyers.
The real problem is availability. While the pre-orders for the vacuum were already opened in June with the shipping date September 15th, this has been postponed until December. It remains to be seen whether the company can meet the shipping date and ensure product availability.
In terms of price, Xiaomi opted for a crowdfunding model when it launched the product earlier this year. Early buyers could have got the robot vacuum for just Rs. 17,999 (~ $ 245), however, the product is expected to retail at around Rs. 29,999 (~ $ 410). A close alternative is the Roomba 692, priced at Rs. 23,900 (~ 313 USD). However, this model has no wiping function at all.
The Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P may not be the last word in the robot vacuum cleaner, but it has all the essential features you need. More importantly, it does the job damn well. You will definitely not be disappointed – – assuming you can get your hands on one.