Ecovacs Deebot X5 Pro Omni Review – As smart as they come

Farewell Simon, we had a fun time. Simon was our Ecovacs X2 Omni joined our family late last year and frankly was replaced earlier this year by a lower model in the Ecovacs range, the T30 Pro. Now, both are a distant memory as Derek the Deebot X5 Omni takes over.

This is normal life in the Long Family household, my wife – though barely happy with it – is used to the changing face of our Robot home cleaner.

What’s interesting to me today is that I may haver frankly, overstated the capabilities of the previous flagship model, the X2. You see, our home is an open style floor plan but it all revolves around a single wall and then you’ve got furniture, kids mess and just whatever busy family stuff is around. And it’s all those external factors that I put down as causing havoc for my X2 in navigating around the home – If I’d set it to do the lounge room it would take ages to get there, as if it had forgotten the way, or just felt there was a better way there than the obvious.

Sadly, I’ve now heard this from a couple of X2 owners, so it has really stood out to me how efficient the X5 Pro has been in navigating our home. Again, something I’ve now seen from at least one other person who upgraded to the all-new X5 Pro Omni.

The Ecovacs X5 Pro has no troubles at all, clear navigation, direct path from room to room when instructed and very clear cleaning patterns.

The design of the X5 Pro is different to the X2 thanks to a more rounded back to the design. This allows it to get more into the corners and thanks to the lower profile it also goes under more furniture too.

The rear mopping pads now lift 15mm on carpeted areas, making sure you are able to mop and vacuum at all times with simple autonomy. This is the first time I’ve ever tested that, as there’s a new rug in our lounge room:)

And it works every single time.

Looking at the dirty water tank, this thing is cleaning very well. But it’s far from entirely hands-off cleaning because we send our Deebot X5 out three times a week, and it’s always on Mop and Vacuum mode, it’s going through water faster than I can remember to keep up!

I’d like for the software to improve to give clearer messaging within the app. When the water tank is empty in the base station it just says Clean Water Tank malfunction. Why not just send me an alert to refill? Why not tell me that it’s down to 30% so I can pre-empt that.

There’s no point finding out the tank is dry when I’m at work and the vacuum is meant to be out doing it’s thing.

After the task is done, you hear it for a few hours, just a gentle sound of hot air drying the mopping pads. That’s a core feature of the latest robots to ensure you’re getting the best results, and also hygine.

With the rear right mopping pad kicking out wide you’re getting a better clean on your edges, something I first saw on the T30 Pro, so it had to come

Battery life on the X5 Pro is vastly better than the X2 from my testing, I can now get the entire downstairs except the entry corridor done on one charge. Remember, I put it out every time on a mop and vacuum full cycle.

The only downside to the Ecovacs X5 Pro Omni is the price. $2,499 is a big price to pay, and yep, it’s the optimal unit in every measure.

But, the T30 does a whole lot of the same things, just a step down in every feature like vacuum power, mopping potential and it’s also a taller unit.

Personally, if pushed, I’d recommend the T30 – but the fact is for the deepest clean, the most powerful suction, and from what I can see the X5 Pro Omni is now the smartest of the robot vacuums on the market.

The slimline profile, the kick out mop and D-Shape, along with the slick premium design