I’M obsessed with cleaning and need some serious help around my flat – so I tested out a robot vacuum cleaner.
Read my tried-and-tested Proscenic M9 robot vacuum review to find out how it performed, and if it’s worth the spend.
Proscenic M9 Robot Vacuum, £439 £499
First things first: I am very happy I no longer have to push a vacuum around on a daily basis – not since the Proscenic M9 entered our flat.
The brand was founded in China in 1998, and is now a leading enterprise in smart home appliances: its line-up includes the T22 Air Fryer along with a series of robot and cordless vacuum cleaners.
(The name, by the way, is a portmanteau of ‘prosperous’ and ‘scenic’.)
I tested the Proscenic M9 Robot Vacuum, which was released in May 2023, for a month in order to write this review. It comes with some eye-catching features – LiDar mapping, a mop function – but the question remains: is it worth the spend?
Read my hands-on, in-depth Proscenic M9 robot vacuum review to find out how it performed, from performance to design to battery life.
Overall rating: 4/5
Pros:
- Easy to set up
- Easy to control
- Self empties
- Three different power levels
- Mop feature actually mops hard floors well
Cons:
- Not able to mop edges
- Expensive
- Didn’t map all the rooms correctly – considered my built in wardrobe as an extra room
- Still need to vacuum and mop
Proscenic M9 review: How we tested
I tested the Proscenic M9 for four weeks. My partner and I share a 70-square-metre, two-bedroom flat.
We cook on a daily basis, and frequently host game nights and dinners with friends: you can imagine just how messy our kitchen and living rooms floors can get.
Like lots of robot vacuum owners, I set the M9 to a daily routine. It started its cleaning spree in the kitchen at 7.15 each morning, then at 7.30PM it cleaned the second bedroom and bathroom every other day.
Our flat has a mix of hard floors and carpets, meaning I had a great opportunity to see how this robo-vac performed across both types of surface.
Proscenic M9 review: At a glance
For me, my day to day is incredibly busy and coming back from work to a clean flat makes me relax at the end of the day.
The Proscenic M9 has been an absolute game-changer for us, helped in no small part by an impressive list of functions in the smartphone app.
The laser mapping is almost 100% accurate, and no louder than my typical cordless vacuum.
Features like a self-emptying bin and the mop function are just added bonuses.
We’ve even given it the nickname “R2-D2”, after the trusty droid from Star Wars. And just like R2-D2 it has become a reliable accomplice in keeping our flat clean.
Proscenic M9 review: First impressions
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The Proscenic M9 arrived from Amazon neatly packaged in a compact square box.
A long list of items were included in the box: being honest, I was surprised they could all fit inside. Here’s a run-down of what I found inside:
- Proscenic M9 robot vacuum
- One side brush
- One HEPA filters
- 2-in-1 dust box/water tank
- Dual mopping pads
- Power adapter
- Two cleaning brushes
- Self-emptying base
- One dust bag
- Remote control
- User manual
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Along with the above items, we received some extras: an additional side brush, HEPA filter, two more dust bags, and a spare set of dual mopping pads.
Let me tell you: those extra mopping pads were extremely useful, especially when one set is busy getting a wash in the machine.
Setup
This was the first time I’ve had to set up an appliance by myself, minus my partner’s help.
(What usually happens is that I look at a manual filled with instructions, and after five minutes leave it for him to figure out.)
Luckily, the setup guide for the M9 was very easy to follow. In just thirty minutes, I had the M9 up and charging, and it only took five minutes for me to sync the vac with the Proscenic smartphone app.
Prosenic recommends that the M9 should be full charged before it can start laser-mapping the flat. It arrived with a 35% charge, and took approximately two hours to charge to max.
After that, it was time for the M9 to crack on with its first task: vacuuming while mapping the flat.
The latter took 75 minutes – after that, I could bring up a map of my home on the app, and set no-go zones and daily schedules for the vacuum.
I’ll admit that I didn’t entirely trust the M9 ahead of its maiden voyage, so I followed it around to see if it would bump against any of my furniture. It didn’t: the M9 mapped all the rooms in my house correctly.
The one exception was in my bedroom, where it recognised my built-in wardrobe and chest of drawers as separate rooms. This was something I was able to easily edit in the app.
The next step was to choose which rooms the M9 would vacuum on a daily basis – as mentioned, the kitchen and living room.
Proscenic M9 review: Price and availability
The Proscenic M9 has an RRP of £499 and is only sold on Amazon, where it’s currently £60 cheaper.
That’s where you’ll also find the brand’s other robot vacuum with a mop, the Proscenic X1, which costs more at £599.
If you’re dead-set on a robot vacuum with a mop function, it’s worth also reading my fellow writer Kieran Ahuja’s Roomba i5+ robot vacuum review to see how that compares.
Proscenic M9 review: Design and build
The M9 has a modern and sleek aesthetic – if you ask me, it looks a bit futuristic. It’s slim, though quite bulky with it, and comes with a charging station and self-emptying dock that’s 12 inches tall, so hard to keep out of sight.
It comes in the typical round shape, with a glossy, dark grey gradient finish on the top and a silver logo that gives it an elegant look. The M9 measures 3.5 inches in height, meaning it could vacuum under my TV unit and sofas with any problems.
It’s equipped with a power and home button, which light up green when connected to the charging dock. I found both these useful: they mean if you need to bring the M9 to a sudden halt, you can do so without scrabbling for your phone to load the app.
Proscenic M9 review: Features and performance
Vacuum Function
I was not expecting the vacuum function of the M9 to be as powerful as it was.
After a week of trying out the app, I realised there were actually three different suction levels, with the vacuum arrived defaulted to level two.
Even at that second level, the M9 effortlessly swept up everything from hair to unexpectedly larger items, such as a stray metal screw we left after some DIY.
The highest suction power level made a huge difference on my carpets: after a month, I still haven’t had to use my old cordless vacuum.
It was easy to set customised suction levels for each room through the app – I set the highest level for the two bedrooms, and the mid level for my hardwood floors.
But the M9’s vacuum isn’t without flaws. It operates at a leisurely pace, taking 32 minutes to navigate and vacuum my 30-square metre living room and kitchen. This is something that takes me 10 minutes to complete by hand with my cordless vac.
So really, what it lacks in speed it makes up for in sheer convenience: you might have to wait long for clean floors, but you won’t have lifting a finger during the process.
That said, I’ve needed to be on cable and chair-clearing duty before each clean – these are things you’ll need to consider before you set the M9 to work without any obstacles in its path.
Mop Function
Proscenic includes dual mopping pads that, according to the marketing copy, spin at 120 revolutions per minute.
It did an excellent job of cleaning my hardwood floors, and got rid of all spills and stains. But the edges of the floor are an issue: it did not effectively get to these, meaning I had to manually mop these to finish the job.
Also, the water is very small, with a 180ml-capacity tank – I had to fill it twice in order to clean both my kitchen and living room floors.
The app doesn’t inform you when water levels, so I had to keep pausing the task to check.
If you’re thinking it might be easier to simply pull out the good old-fashioned mop and bucket to get the job done – well, me too.
But it proved useful when I was busy with other housework – I set a 15-minute alarm in order to check the water tank, and let it do its thing.
Navigation and Self Emptying
When it comes to the Proscenic M9’s laser system, here’s where things get impressive – it scanned and mapped my home with high levels of accuracy.
As mentioned, it didn’t get the terrain entirely right with my built-in wardrobe, but this was easily corrected in the app.
One thing that worried me – and I’m sure this is something lots of people in the market for a robot vacuum are worried about too – is the vac colliding into furniture and leaving damage.
Luckily, with the exception of low-level items like cables, the vacuum’s LiDAR systems guarantees it will dodge any obstacles without bumping into them.
On top of that, I noticed the M9 will start cleaning the edges of the room before it moves inward and proceeds to clean the rest of it.
Once a clean is finished, the Proscenic will return back to its charging station, and – here’s the kicker – it will empty itself automatically.
I absolutely hate emptying my cordless vacuum, so this is the feature I enjoyed the most.
Proscenic states that the dust bag needs emptying after 60 days of use – based on the last five weeks that I’ve been using the robot vacuum, this makes sense. The bin bag still isn’t full.
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Noise Levels
Another exceptional feature of the Proscenic M9 is its noise levels. Honestly, I payed barely any attention to them – it’s no noisier than my cordless vacuum.
However, when the M9 self-empties, it start to get really loud, but these is something that only lasts for a few seconds.
As you would probably expect, it also gets louder when it’s set to the highest suction levels, something that I only used on the carpeted areas in my home.
Proscenic M9 review: App
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The Proscenic app comes with an array of smart features including scheduling, cleaning modes, no-clean zones and real-time tracking of cleaning progress.
The scheduling feature, in particular, I found really useful: you can essentially build a cleaning strategy into the app.
For example, the app lets you not only schedule a timed routine for the M9 in advance, but also adjust the suction strength depending on which room it’s going to clean.
The fact I could programme it to clean my carpeted areas at max strength, and lower for the hard flooring, has been a game-changer for me.
A word of caution however: I went away for a weekend and forgot to turn off the M9’s cleaning schedule, and it got tangled in some wires.
As soon as it got stuck, the app sent me and alert, and I was able to retrieve it when I got home – just a reminder to power it down when you’re away for extended periods.
Another thing worth mentioning about the app: each user can save up to five maps. I didn’t need this, as I live in a single-floor flat, but it would no doubt be particularly useful for split-level homes.
Proscenic M9 review: Battery life
Proscenic advertises an average running time for the M9 as four hours and ten minutes. However, when I tested it, I found the runtime to be around two hours and 30 minutes.
That was more than enough for my 70-square-metre flat, which I would say takes about 45 minutes to be cleaned by this robot vacuum.
You can check the battery level in the app, so when it’s running low you can send it back to its charging station. This is something, luckily, it will automatically do when it runs out of power.
Proscenic M9 review: Verdict
6
Honestly: if you are a clean freak like me, and you need some additional help, I would that this robot vacuum cleaner is worth the investment against its price.
The Proscenic M9 is easy to use, and does a great job vacuuming all areas of the flat. I still use my cordless vacuum every now and again, but no as often.
It is really a powerful vacuum and even though I still have to mop and vacuum myself once or twice a week, it does save me a lot of time, especially because of my busy schedule.
The app is so easy to use, that I barely used the remote control that’s included with the M9.
Now that I own a robot vacuum, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live without one. The older I get, it seems that I’m turning into my mum, another clean freak. I love having R2-D2 ‘rescuing’ me from the endless chores.
Can Proscenic now launch a robot oven cleaner, please? I hate cleaning my oven.
Proscenic M9 Robot Vacuum, £439 £499
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For more hands-on robot vacuum verdicts, read our Eufy G30 review, Eufy Robovac X8 review and Roomba i5+ review.