At this point, it’s pretty safe to assume that Xiaomi has departed from its initial strategy of keeping it product lines simple in favor of invading your home with smart everything. Their latest offering, the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum joins a growing number of inexpensive automated vacuums from Chinese players. However, it does have a considerable advantage over much of the low-cost competition in simply being more efficient.
What really differentiates the Mi Robot Vacuum though is just how it navigates floors more effectively. In a video comparison against the iRobot 800, the Mi Robot Vacuum covers more space in significantly less time. In fact, its navigation prowess is pretty obvious against the seemingly aimless wandering of the iRobot 800.
While it does have its own unique design cues, the overall look is pretty much what most other robot vacuums sport. It has a round design with ultrasonic radar, wall and collision, and cliff and drop sensors built in to help it get around semi-autonomously. It can further be assisted with the help of special tape that Xiaomi sells on the side so you can mark boundaries.
Just like everything else from Xiaomi’s smart home line, the Mi Robot Vacuum can only be found in China selling for 1699 yuan, or roughly Php11,900. Seeing as how we haven’t gotten any updates from Xiaomi Philippines in the last year or so, it’s not likely we’ll ever see it reach our shores except through gray market sellers that will give it a 30 to 40% bump in price.
[Source: Hugo Barra, Xiaomi VP]
