When people talk about living in the current day we usually hear complaints about a lack of flying cars, no opportunity to live on the moon or the ability to put your brain into a computer. What we hear less is praise for the advancements that are happening every day, like the fact that Xiaomi is offering laser-guided cleaning robots for your home, school or work, and offering them in South Africa for very fair prices.
These laser-guided robots are the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S10 and Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S10+, a pair of devices that make use of a raised Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) sensor to detect their surroundings in a 360-degree range.
If you have seen cheaper and older versions of robot vacuums in the past you may have been unimpressed by their lack of pathfinding and how easily they were flummoxed by everyday household obstacles.
That isn’t the case with the S10 and S10+. Using a scanning range of up to eight metres, these devices can build a map of their surroundings and accurately identify where they can go to clean every centimetre of your space. Even in less than favourable lighting conditions and a mix of floor materials, nothing gets in the way of these machines.
More sensors mean less bumping into furniture and more cleaning, evident in the S10+ and its ability to even detect the edges of carpets and other tiny changes in a five millimetre margin of error.
Our favourite feature, enabled by the LDS, ultrasonic, drop and line sensors, is the ability to turn that living space map into something that can be separated by zones. Using the powerful Mi Home app we can fine-tune the cleaning we want in each zone, demarcate how each should be cleaned and even set virtual walls and no-go areas, so the Robot Vacuums never stray where they’re not supposed to.
While the combination of sensors, Xiaomi’s programming and powerful on-board AI can do a sterling job on their own, we love knowing that we still have the final say in how we want things cleaned.
This ability to detect floor types, properly map out your space and manually control your zones also comes into play because these machines aren’t just vacuums. Both the S10 and S10+ are also capable mopping devices using a smart water tank and mop-head moisture control to administer the perfect amount of water for the cleaning job without soaking the floor.
It doesn’t matter your floor materials, the fact that your floors have multiple materials or even if there’s also a carpet involved, the S10 and S10+ can handle it all for you.
And don’t think the vacuuming side of things is left behind with all this mop prowess. Look forward to a powerful 4 000Pa suction fan that can happily pick up the standard dust all day in Silent mode, or really pick up the power in Turbo mode to collect the largest particles. Standard mode and Medium mode exist for those challenges in between.
Animal lovers will know the endless annoyance of food being left on the floor, either in the form of discarded bird food seeds or hard pellets for cats and dogs. Seeds are taken care of in Medium mode and those food pellets are easily taken care of in Turbo mode.
With all this high technology on board, Xiaomi has also packed each Robot Vacuum with large batteries so they can keep cleaning for longer. The S10 has a 3 200 mAh battery which can net you up to 130 minutes of cleaning in Standard mode. The S10+ increases this capacity to 5 200 mAh giving you up to two hours of cleaning in Standard mode to cover space of up to 200 square metres.
The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S10 and Xiaomi Robot Vacuum S10+ are available in South Africa right now for less than you think. Shop from your favourite retailers like Takealot, Yuppiechef, Game, Incredible, Tafelberg, and @home via Bash.
Make sure you also search around your online retailer or even speak to in-store representatives to pick up accessories and replacement parts for your Robot Vacuum. Filters, mop heads, extra brushes and more are on sale right now.
