Xiaomi X20+ review: everything you can ask from a robot vacuum cleaner, for half the price

If you are interested in the Xiaomi X20+, there is a good chance that you already have one or more devices from the Chinese brand at home. Thus, it will be quick to familiarize yourself with the Xiaomi Home application, which centralizes all the machines here.

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Installing the Xiaomi robot is simple, and therefore benefits from the brand's ecosystem which is quite intuitive. When we plugged in the device, we were greeted by a pop-up notification similar to that of audio devices, which instructed us to install the X20+. A very good point therefore. The application offers functions that are well known among robot vacuum cleaners, such as programming according to a very specific schedule.

Where Xiaomi pushes personalization further is in the room-by-room washing choices. If for one reason or another you want more powerful suction in the kitchen rather than in your living room, it is perfectly possible. A very useful feature for adjusting the water level used on the tiles of a bathroom, or the floor of a dining room for example.

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We will however criticize that, unlike most competitive applications, it is not possible to adjust the robot's charging times here.

A function that is nevertheless essential in order to take advantage of off-peak hours, and therefore save electricity during this financially complicated period. Xiaomistill has the opportunity to offer this functionality in the future, during a possible update of the application.

The Xiaomi X20+ offers precise mapping using its LDS laser. It thus creates an optimal movement pattern for a limited washing time. In this way, it took no more than 50 minutes for the robot vacuum cleaner to do its job by vacuuming and washing our ground floor of a 100 m2 house. Here, the Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner strived to clean by shaving the baseboards and furniture legs without rubbing against them.

After seeing excellent X20+ behavior, we are even more disappointed by the following information: Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner does not automatically detect carpets. Thus, it will be mandatory to report these on the application, which requires great precision in the placement on the map. This aspect is very impractical and could prove annoying if the placement is not done conscientiously.

Here, the robot risks not picking up its wet mops, and try to wash the carpets with these. Finally, the mapping also requires spending some time assigning the rooms of the housing, the robot having only a little success in identifying the demarcations. We will therefore summarize the mapping capabilities of the X20+ by saying that they require a lot of manual editing on the part of the user.

Here, the Xiaomi robot performs in the same way as all the robot vacuum cleaners on the market. He will avoid objects strewn here and there in your home, as long as they are more than 3 centimeters high at least. Slippers, toys and other bathroom scales, this is no problem for navigating the X20+.

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On the other hand, like the other robots, this one also failed to our usual cable test. Having a power strip under the sofa, the Xiaomi robot did not detect the wires and ended up devouring a poor USB-C cable that was in its path.

Given that models worth triple the price of the X20+ can't detect cables either, it's hard to blame it here. We will therefore prefer to immediately establish a restriction zone using the application.

Une Once your mapping is well configured, now comes the time to start cleaning in order to see what this new robot vacuum cleaner from Xiaomi has in its belly. And a suction power of 6000 Pa is available to the sol.

© Presse-citron

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The point where suction will be rather disappointing is on carpets. In fact, the central brush does not scrub them sufficiently, and there are regularly crumbs embedded in the fibers of the carpet after the machine has passed through. Carpet owners will therefore have to choose between switching to another device, or having a vacuum cleaner as an addition.

As for washing, the X20+ has two rotating mops, which, for its price, is a very good initiative on the part of Xiaomi. As we explained to you in the test of the Eureka E10S robot vacuum cleaner, robots with a simple mop trailing behind them are incapable of washing the floors properly. Here, don't expect to overcome the most stubborn stains with the X20+.

On the other hand, for simple daily washing in a home where residents remove their shoes and live without animals, washing capacities are sufficient. Be careful though, this tends to leave some marks, which will be invisible on PVC slats, but rather obvious on tiles.