Best and Cheapest Robot Vacuum Cleaner – Possible? Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980

Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980

When you’re hoping to spend your hard earned cash on a robot vacuum cleaner, it’s important to know if that buy is beneficial for your convenience.

All things considered, the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980 are two of the most modern competitors for the smart cleaning home environment.  Both come with room measurement, high power suction, tons of sensors and App-Remote-Control capabilities. Yet there is one great gap between these two.  The mere price point!

 

Xiaomi’s Mi Robot Vacuum is essentially less expensive than iRobot’s Roomba 980. We are talking about $280,- for the Xiaomi Mi Robot and around $950,- for the iRobot Roomba 980.  A giant $670,- Difference.

But the question is: Does Xiaomi’s first real offering in the automated vacuum space, stay aware of iRobot’s “in a row” demonstrated victories against nearly all competitors in the past?

Discover with us in the video above – in 6 overwhelming head-to-head trials of vacuuming, including pet hair on carpet, pet hair and dirt, earth on carpet, spot cleaning, cleaning algorithm and hard to pick up oat cleanup – who really owns the crown!  Maybe …. you will be surprised!

 

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Overview – Best Robot Vacuum 2018
Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum vs. iRobot Roomba 980

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After watching the video you have seen that both do a decent job when it comes to cleaning with slightly better results in navigation for the Xiaomi Mi and a big Pro for the iRobot on thicker carpets.

Both do a decent job when it comes to scheduled, automated cleaning your house. If we compare them head to head, there are 4 major differences between these two.

 

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1. Measuring the room
Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980
Camera vs. Laser

While iRobot keeps measuring the room with a camera (yes a camera strolling through your home), the Xiaomi Mi Robot vacuum uses a laser device on top of the vacuum to understand the environment it is in.
The main difference here is, that the camera of the iRobot Roomba 980 simply needs light to work, the laser of the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner works even in complete Darkness.

You may say – where is the big deal? They both clean mainly on daytime, but after using both at home and within our office, this is not the case. Example: In the evening, after everyone is gone, the robot vaccums are scheduled to do their work in the empty office. Problem for the iRobot! As the office is dark after everyone left the iRobot simply can not do the job!

Big PRO for the Xiaomi Mi.

The same result, when you want to get your home cleaned in the evening. For example when you leave for an event and want to come back to a clean home. iRoomba would mean: “Leave the lights on for me!”

 

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2. Which Robot-Vacuum: Climbs and cleans thick Carpets better?

This might be the only big PRO for the iRobot Roomba 980 as it really can crawl up thicker carpets. The Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum often tries to climb it but is not powerful enough so it sometimes gets on the carpet sometimes crawls a long the side or even hangs up at one of the carpets corners.

Solution: An easy solution is laying out the so called Xiaomi Mi Virtual Wall band. A magnetic band that the Xiaomi Mi does recognize as if there is a wall. This helps the robot to clean all around the carpet with perfect results for the rest of the room. After finisihing the room or the whole floor, simply put the vaccum on the carpet. Recognizing the same Virtual Wall Magnetic Band around the carpet the Xiaomi now stays on the carpet with a real good and fast cleaning result.

 

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3. Which Robot Vacuum has the better App

Both robot vacuum cleaners are on eye level here. The slightly better usability, the easy to define zones and the slightly better “Live-View” give the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum the lead in this category. They even Update their software much more often which helps to improve overall functionality.

 

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4. Ongoing Costs – which Robot Vacuum Cleaner is cheaper in the long run

Here the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum gets a clear win. When you compare the accessory costs of the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980, you will see that nearly everything you might have to buy from time to time, like filters, brushes or even later on some spare sensors is way cheaper for the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum cleaner.

By the way you can start both using the Amazon Alexa Voice control devices which we previously tested for you.

 

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Conclusion
Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980

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What can we say?  We have a new winner in the house – taking the robot vacuum crown by storm. Cheaper, Better more Easy and even more reliable.

Therefore the after the comparison Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner vs. iRobot Roomba 980 the Xiaomi Mi Robot gets our new: Recommended Best Robot Vacuum Cleaner Badge

If you are looking for a good, reliable Robot Vacuum Cleaner, look no further and make the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum your newest family member. At our home we gave him the name “MIFI” and our two kids love to watch her/him do his/her thing. The time we win for our little ones – being able to play with them while Mifi is cleaning the house is – priceless!

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Quick tip:
Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum 1st Generation vs.
Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum 2nd Generation (called Roborock)

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The main difference between the two generations of the Xiaomi Mi is the possibility to attach a small water tank and a cloth to the all new Xiaomi Mi Roborock. The goal is to make the Roborock an electric mop at the same time as it vacuums your floors.  In our opinion and after testing the Roborock for one day this is complete useless.

1. It cleans with the same, kind of wet, cloth the whole room/floor so there is no sense in dragging wet dirt all over the place. We even saw that after driving through his own wet lanes, the Roborock sometimes leaves dirt lines from its wheels.
2. The robot vacuum cleaner does not make any difference between hard floors or low carpets. So after driving along on your hard floors and maybe even collecting some dirt on the wet cloth it “mops” its way over your carpets – cleaning them wet, too.

Take the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum of the First Generation or take a look at the Neato Botvac Connected. Both make a decent job for a more reasonable price.