Roidmi X20 review: Another fantastic cordless vacuum cleaner from Xiaomi
With the new mop attachment and great design, the Roidmi X20 is a top-class cordless vacuum cleaner
Pros
- Dual-action brush and mop cleaner head
- Excellent build quality and design
- Good overall cleaning performance
Cons
- Small 0.4L bin capacity
- Struggles to pick up fine debris from carpet
- Only available on import
Roidmi – the domestic cleaning arm of Chinese technology giant Xiaomi – recently impressed us with its powerful and affordable Roidmi F8 (also known as the S1) cordless vacuum cleaner. Now it’s introduced the pricier X20 – previously known as the X20 – which adds a mop function and offers three suction modes, up from the two on the F8.
Roidmi X20 review: What you need to know
The Roidmi X20 is a cordless vacuum cleaner that sets itself apart from the rest with its novel mop attachment. It shares the award-winning design of its predecessor, the Roidmi F8, and comes with multiple attachments that make it easy to clean the house. Best of all, it claims an impressive battery life of up to 60 minutes.
Roidmi X20 review: Price and competition
At the time of writing, the Roidmi X20 isn’t officially sold in the UK, but you can import it from Geekbuying for around £395. For the same money you could buy a Dyson V8 Absolute, or the slightly cheaper Dyson V8 Animal at £350, which is effectively the same as the Absolute but excludes the soft roller brush. There’s also the versatile Shark DuoClean IC160UKT at £365.
Alternatively, for just under £300, you can get the very similar Roidmi F8, which remains an excellent deal. However, this model doesn’t have a mop function, offers only two suction power modes (versus the X20’s three) and lacks a wall-mounted charging dock.
Roidmi X20 review: Features and design
The Roidmi X20 looks very similar to the serene-looking F8. From afar, only the dark grey trim under the handle, inside the bin and around the main brush head differentiate it from its all-white sibling.
Aside from that, Roidmi has barely deviated at all from the F8’s blueprint – and why should it? Its predecessor won a Red Dot award for its elegant, distinctive design. And so, as with the F8, the handle of the X20 wraps around the top and bottom of the main motor unit, making the 2.6kg machine a doddle to manoeuvre. The soft-touch plastic finish still oozes a premium feel, and the small 0.4-litre removable bin detaches itself from the main unit with the press of a button.
The Roidmi X20 remains intuitive to use, too. A long press of the power button turns on the machine at its lowest power level, while a short press cycles through medium and maximum power levels. The second rubberised button can also be used to crank up the power to the highest suction mode.
Once the X20 is turned on it stays on – there’s no need to keep your finger planted on the power button, which makes it more pleasant to use than the trigger-operated Dyson V8. Four LEDs at the top indicate how much battery charge remains, with a more precise reading available through the Roidmi app.
When the battery runs low, there are two methods available to recharge the X20. Alongside a conventional wired DC input (as found on the F8), there’s a snazzy wall-mounted charging dock, which neatly holds the vacuum cleaner in place when not in use.
Roidmi also includes a neat selection of accessories in the box. From left to right in the image below, you’ll see a motorised mattress brush, the main motor unit with the removable bin attached, a motorised brush head with LEDs at the front that respond to changes in ambient light, a metal rod, a soft roller, a hose extender, two mop pads, a spare HEPA filter, a wall mount, a crevice tool with a soft brush head attachment, a DC power plug (though since this is an imported appliance you’ll need a UK adaptor) the “Magic Mop Box”, and a cleaning brush (not pictured) with a blade, which you can use to cut through any long hairs that get wrapped around the brush head.
It’s a similar bundle to the Roidmi F8: the key additions are the mop elements. The “Magic Mop Box” is a rectangular-shaped plastic tool that fills with water and magnetically attaches to the main brush head. The water then trickles out into a mop pad velcroed onto the bottom of the unit, wetting and cleaning the floor as you vacuum.
My only complaint with the design is the bin. Its small 0.4-litre capacity means you’ll have to empty it frequently, and the plastic release latch feels flimsy. Unlike the Dyson V8, the X20 doesn’t have a mechanism that scrapes dirt from the chamber as you empty it either – you’ll need to get your hands dirty and scrape out its innards manually.
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Roidmi X20 review: App
Like the F8, the X20 comes with a companion app for Android and iOS. One key function of this is keeping track of the state of the washable HEPA filter, so you know when it’s time to swap it out. The app also indicates the state of the non-removable battery, including its temperature, voltage and standby time.
Neatly, the app also lets you adjust the suction levels. By default, the lowest setting is an ultra-efficient 6.5kPa (kilopascals) but this can be changed to 8kPa or 10.5kPa, alongside a medium setting of 11kPa and maximum mode at 24kPa.
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Roidmi X20 review: Performance
At its highest suction level I found the Roidmi X20 lasted just 11mins 45secs. However, in the lowest power mode it ran for a staggering 55mins 2secs – far surpassing both the Dyson V8 and the Roidmi F8, which lasted 30mins 14secs and 46mins 29secs, respectively. It’s more or less on par with the Dyson V11, which costs £600.
And the X20 isn’t just long-lasting: it performs well, especially on hard flooring. In my large and fine debris tests with the regular brush head installed, it managed a flawless result after one pass – beating the Dyson equivalent. Switch to the soft roller and pop on the Magic Mop Box and you can kill two birds with one stone.
Performance on short pile carpet isn’t quite as impressive. With the regular brush head installed, the vacuum cleaner struggled to clean fine debris such as flour from the roots of the carpet’s fibres (as seen in the image above). The Dyson V8 and Shark DuoClean IC160UKT, whose brush heads sit slightly lower to the floor, both managed a deeper clean.
Larger debris isn’t an issue, however. The Roidmi X20 sucked up a large handful of Cheerios without fuss, and the 110,000rpm spinning brush head didn’t scatter debris around the floor.
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Roidmi X20 review: Verdict
The Roidmi X20 is an excellent cordless vacuum cleaner that does more than its competitors. It’s exquisitely designed, has a long-lasting battery and is comparatively inexpensive. The addition of the “Magic Mop Box” adds another cleaning option that not many cordless cleaners can shout about, too.
The only caveat is the fact that, right now, you have to buy it through a third-party importer. However, bear in mind that this product is brand new: I suspect that in time it’ll become more readily available, like the F8 before it.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a multi-purpose vacuum cleaner and don’t want to spend more than £400, the Roidmi X20 is a compelling choice. If you’re not fussed about the mop function or the wall-mounted charging dock, however, the cheaper Roidmi F8 remains an excellent alternative.
