Xiaomi - Robot Vacuum 5 Pro (OV21GL)

well for years Xiaomi relates vacuums are the best so just buy the Xiaomi Vacuum 5 Pro and chill. Always had the Xiaomis and they are amazing. Stay away from iRobot and other non Xiaomi related brands.

It’s funny you brought up magna tiles. I can contribute to this! Single pieces of tiles, no chance. The AI would struggle figuring out if it’s trash, a spill etc. But it sees structures well and hasn’t broken down my kids’ castles :) It does well with toys that are approx > 5 cm in height (guesstimate here). It also recognises clothing and fabrics well. Carpets with fringes (tassels) will prove tricky. All said and done, you’re going to be very very happy going from that old Roomba to the newer models. The improvements will be night and day :) i had a good old dumb one as well, and the newer ones won me over. I’m currently using the Xiaomi Vacuum 5 Pro, but I’m pretty sure Dreame / Mova / Roborock will be comparable.

You might want to check out Xiaomi Vacuum 5 Pro, it’s retailing for less than RM 3k on Shopee (probably due to CNY coming up) Has a lot of the high end features for nearly half the price.

I just got the Xiaomi Vacuum Pro 5 for a week thus far. Mopping is really good (using vacuum robot friendly detergent) + vacuum is solid and it’s relatively quiet. Obstacle avoidance has been pretty good (I’ve got 2 kids and they leave shit everywhere). Lowers lidar as well, so it can go under sofa (minimum threshold is 9.5cm) I’ve had some initial issues with the mapping and navigation, but I’m slowly unlearning all the things I did with my previous robovac and just giving the 5 Pro space to learn the new home. I’m still tweaking and finding my optimal settings for my home. Xiaomi packed a lot of features in this one, that’s for sure.

Pulled the trigger and received it today. Initial thoughts: very happy with the purchase! Haha. Mapping was quick and accurate, it operated quietly (much quieter than my X20 Max), and it got into a lot of corners and spaces my X20 would not touch. And yes, it avoided cables, carpet with tassels, and other stuff on the floor with ease. Looks like I’m keeping this and giving my mum the X20 Max lol. Will do a one month update once this initial happiness dies down :) I’m genuinely impressed with the AI detection, and I can choose to enable / disable the video camera (privacy option)

I second Xiaomi Vacuum 5 Pro. Bought it on a sale and really impressed with its capabilities for that price. Some quirks with its height threshold for low lying furniture, but its obstacle avoidance is top notch. I haven’t had to free it up from socks, cables, toys. Vacuum is not noisy (it spins at a much lower frequency, so it’s easier on the ears). I must say, mopping does well in picking fine / heavier dust, so it wouldn’t hurt to have it on board.

This review is based on 24 hours of cumulative cleaning time, covering \~1000 sqm across 54 cleaning runs over a 10 day-period. I upgraded from the X20 Max to the Vacuum 5 Pro mainly for the newer AI obstacle avoidance. I was already happy with the X20 Max, but wanted better navigation and edge cleaning. Overall, this is a clear upgrade, though not without some frustrations. Home setup • \\\~1400 sqft cleaning area • Mostly tiles, bedrooms are laminated wood • One section has uneven tiles • High mess environment: daily baking (flour, crumbs, dough), 2 young kids (toys, beads, doll hair), and heavy hair shedding from 4 people Not a low-maintenance home, so cleaning performance matters. ⸻ **Vacuum performance** This was immediately impressive. • Much quieter. Lower frequency sound, less harsh. • Strong suction (20k Pa) and hair-cutting brush work very well. • Handles uneven tile joints surprisingly well — I think there’s a way better suction seal with this model. • Major improvement in edge cleaning. The X20 Max often left a 1–2 cm strip near kitchen edges. The Vacuum 5 Pro cleans right up to walls and corners. • Dustbin looks slightly smaller, but I noticed no real-world downside. Overall vacuum performance is excellent and clearly improved. ⸻ **Mopping performance** Similar spinning mop system, but improved execution. • Uses more water at the same settings. • Cleans very well, but stain detection is more towards avoidance than actually applying different cleaning strategies. Weird. Don’t see it applying any specific / unique cleaning strategies with wet or dry stains. • Dock washing and hot air drying are much better. • No mop smell at all, even with heavy kitchen use. The improved mop washing and drying make a noticeable difference long term. ⸻ **AI obstacle avoidance** One of the biggest upgrades. • Avoids shoes, fabrics, toys, and general clutter very well. • Correctly navigates around wet spills. • Initially misidentified my carpet pattern as a wet spill, but you can override this. This is far more reliable obstacle avoidance. They packed quite a few nifty features around this. ⸻ **Dock / station** • Clean design, standard tank sizes. • Auto mop wash works well. Used the station wash function, but I still recommend removing the base plate and cleaning it. • Still recommend manually cleaning occasionally, especially if you have kids leaving small objects around which will end up at the base. No major complaints here. ⸻ **App and settings** Cleaning controls remain simple: • 4 suction levels • 3 water levels • Clear cleaning modes However, robot behavior settings are now much more complex (AI, carpet handling, obstacle strategy). It takes time to optimize. ⸻ **Navigation and mapping – biggest learning curve** This robot needs time to learn your home. I also needed to unlearn how I had set up my home for the previous robot and how differently they navigate and clean the home. Partitioning issues Initially, custom room partitions would snap incorrectly or refuse to align properly. After about 1–2 weeks of daily cleaning, mapping accuracy improved and partitions became easier to set correctly. It seems the robot improves its internal map over time. Low clearance behavior My L-Shape sofa has \~11–12 cm clearance. • X20 Max cleaned under it easily. • Vacuum 5 Pro initially refused to go under it. • When it stumbled into it, it would trigger a lost error and shut down the routine (so annoyed by that) Fixes (recommended by Xiaomi support) • Set obstacle clearance strategy to High • Mark sofa correctly on the map - apparently it’s not cosmetic lol • Disable automatic map switching • Under sofa has limitations - The low-profile area identified by the line laser is approximately 9.5-11.5cm high, 80cm wide (including pillars on both sides), and 30cm deep. (Xiaomi Vacuum 5 Pro FAQ) After this, it now cleans under consistently. ⸻ Carpet mapping issue Map does not automatically update when carpets are removed. I removed a carpet, but the robot still treated the area as carpet and refused to mop there. Only solution was full remapping and disabling automatic carpet detection + add carpets manually. This is one area Xiaomi needs to improve via firmware update. ⸻ Overall verdict after 10 days Pros: • Excellent obstacle avoidance • Major improvement in edge and corner cleaning • Strong vacuum performance • Better mop washing and drying (no odor) • Much quieter operation Cons: • Mapping and setup require patience • Carpet auto-detection can cause persistent mapping issues. Cleaning algorithm is weird (but effective, requires patience and unlearning) • Clearance behavior can be overly cautious initially ⸻ Final thoughts This is a genuine upgrade, more so when it’s priced at half of what similar specs robots are priced at. Cleaning performance, obstacle avoidance, and edge coverage are all noticeably better. Battery did well as well - had 15 20% battery left after 127 sqm cleaning @ 200mins (standard vacuum strength, small areas on strong vacuum) The main downside is the learning curve. It takes time to configure properly and allow the robot to refine its map. Once dialed in (and you fighting the urge to return the unit) it performs extremely well. No regrets upgrading.

Interesting. Didn’t notice any issues around my carpets. I’ve got one short/ low-pile carpet and an IKEA-jute carpet, both which had straight cleaning lines. Don’t have a high-pile carpet at home :) I think the behaviour around high-piles can be tricky for most models. I did disable auto-carpet recognition and manually added the carpets on the map.

https://preview.redd.it/l86m38balj7g1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1667d39fdea74452e7eb6704061947f776e4a731 All the time and area without issues

I've also had mine for a month and I'm very happy. I've read several times that the bags and mops are the same model as the X20, which is what I ordered from AliExpress. I'll confirm compatibility when it arrives. The map isn't 100% yet, but that's my fault; it works every day without any issues.

I was also in doubt and I bought Xiaomi 5 Pro, which I am very satisfied with.

You are right, but since I live in a country that doesn’t have official support for neither of them, I decided Xiaomi, best value for money. Both of them are Chinese companies, but Roborock does really make only vacuums and not other stuff like Xiaomi. I invested around 650 €, and Roborock with same futures cost more than 2000 €, that was the thing that made me decide.

Although it doesn’t have dustbin and dustbag drying, I’d check out the Xiaomi Vacuum Mop 5 or the Vacuum Mop 5 Pro which looks like a very solid cost effective option if priced at about half of its flagship peers from other brands.

The MOVA p50 pro ultra looks like a good choice. The Xiaomi vacuum mop 5 pro also looks good but the extra detergent offered with the MOVA and the dedicated detergent tank make it a better cost effective Choice

No but I have their v50 and z60 ultra roller sent to be my MOVA as part of their Reddit collaboration program. I do notice that there seems to be a build quality issue with the p50 pro ultra mostly in the NA market where the front wheels break. Hopefully yours doesn’t have it but if you want it I’d still get from a retailer with a good return policy. However I do not know any retailers in Malaysia so I can’t really vouch for any in Malaysia. I personally lean more to the vacuum mop 5 pro since there’s that consistent Xiaomi support which has been pretty responsive and good in my experience when I got one as a gift from a family friend. Dreame and MOVA’s aftersales service should be handled by their distributor in the market they’re selling in for markets like south east Asia. As such, I have no idea how their customer service does in Malaysia as it can vary greatly compared to their reported customer service in the NA and Western European region which is handled by dreame’s and MOVA’s own customer service team. As for the dedicated detergent tank which is mainly used to wash its mops, which is common for models in this price range, adding about 20mL of robot safe detergent to the clean water tank does the trick if you want it to mop with detergent.

The brush should work the same as the TriCut brush from dreame/MOVA. I only had the s10+ and the m30s (closest to the vacuum mop 5 and I only recommend it if you are in mainland china or their SARs as aftersales service is only possible if you ship it back to mainland china). Service with my s10+ was very good when something got stuck in the wheel. Build quality was very solid. I just didn’t like how it only vacuumed and mop and it died after a year or so since the vacuum motor absorbed all that liquid from the mop (the mop was set to the lowest moisture level). As such I prefer models that can vacuum first then mop as it greatly helps.

Another vote for the vacuum mop 5 pro as a great budget friendly option

Xiaomi’s customer service has been pretty solid in my experience. I think the 5 pro will be more expensive than the £700 budget though.

I’d get the 5 pro mainly for its pretty decent obstacle avoidance. As for navigation…. I believe it can affect both 5 models but I’m not quite sure. Xiaomi has been pretty good with customer service in my experience.

Although it doesn’t have dustbin and dustbag drying, I’d check out the Xiaomi Vacuum Mop 5 or the Vacuum Mop 5 Pro which looks like a very solid cost effective option if priced at about half of its flagship peers from other brands.

Mine clearly has a jetlag. When I schedule cleaning it is 7 hours earlier than planned. I've tried to switch the timezone but it does not seem to work. It sometimes also has difficulties finding its dock. Overall a good experience but I'm not sure yet, if it is better than my roborock S7 VMAX.

The RGB camera makes a **whole world** of a difference. I wouldn't skip it at any cost, let alone for just 50€. Go with the Pro.

Yeah but with small obstacles it's a night/day difference in my experience, and with cables as well. 100% accurate? No. But much, much much more reliable.

I'd say Xiaomi Vacuum 5 pro, I just got it and so far im pretty happy with it's obstacle avoidance, it has hot water mop washing and side brush/mop extension for edges. And it actually mops great , but i also use the roborock floor cleaning solution and just put it in the clean water tank.

If you live in a region with Xiaomi presence, their robots are cost-effective and still packed with features commonly found in other brands' mid-range models like Xiaomi Vacuum 5, Vacuum 5 Pro, X20 Max, and X20 Pro. Given your requirements, I think Saros 10 is overkill as current midrange models from Dreame or Mova can perform as well as Roborock's flagship. Try to check Mova P10 Pro Ultra and Dreame L40 Ultra, I think both are around $400 to 500 today. C20 Omni is a decent entry-level auto station combo robot, but there are better options in the market than C20. I heard that the hair detangling mechanism in C20 Omni isn't that good for long hair. Dreame, Mova, and Xiaomi offer a Tricut brush that you can buy separately for a better anti-tangle brush.

If you live in a region with Xiaomi presence, their robots are cost-effective and still packed with features commonly found in other brands' mid-range models like Xiaomi Vacuum 5, Vacuum 5 Pro, X20 Max, and X20 Pro. Given your requirements, I think Saros 10 is overkill as current midrange models from Dreame or Mova can perform as well as Roborock's flagship. Try to check Mova P10 Pro Ultra and Dreame L40 Ultra, I think both are around $400 to 500 today. C20 Omni is a decent entry-level auto station combo robot, but there are better options in the market than C20. I heard that the hair detangling mechanism in C20 Omni isn't that good for long hair. Dreame, Mova, and Xiaomi offer a Tricut brush that you can buy separately for a better anti-tangle brush.

I got the pro model. Seems to work great, don't really have any comparisons to make but my apartment looks clean and its easy to use.