Verdict

Considering the budget price, the Roidmi S1E is something of a work of art; it's one of the best-looking vacuum cleaners we've tested. With its smart magnetic mount, it's easy to grab and go. Vacuuming is a breeze with this model since it's small and light, and comfortable to hold, too. Performance lags behind rivals somewhat: we frequently had to reach for the Turbo button and use multiple sweeps to suck up all the dirt. As such, the Roidmi S1E is better as a companion to a more-powerful plug-in vacuum cleaner.

Pros

• Great looks
• Simple to use
• Neat magnetic mount

Cons

• Needs Turbo mode to pick up bigger spills
• Small bin

Cheaper cordless vacuum cleaners tend to look, well, cheaper – but the Roidmi S1E bucks that trend. Decked out in a smooth-touch plastic finish, this vacuum cleaner looks far more expensive than it really is.

There are some clever design touches, too, although suction power and cleaning ability are firmly mid-range. As such, the Roidmi S1E would be better accompanying a more powerful plug-in model.

Roidmi S1E design and features – Smart and simple, with a basic range of accessories

• Looks gorgeous – like a space-age vacuum cleaner
• Neat magnetic wall mount makes for easy storage 
• Basic range of accessories and no onboard storage

With a handle that loops all the way around its body and its smooth-touch white plastic finish, the Roidmi S1E looks far more expensive than it is. It’s the kind of product you can imagine would be on sale in the Apple Store.

It looks like a vacuum cleaner of the future. With the smart design come some neat touches, including a magnetic wall mount. Just place this where you want the vacuum cleaner to be housed when not in use, and the Roidmi S1E will attach to it keeping steady. With a sticky fixer, the wall mount doesn’t need any screws to fix it into place.

The magnetic mount is excellent

There’s no charging via the mount; the vacuum has to be charged separately using the power adapter included in the box, plugging this directly into the charging port. There’s a rubber cover over the charging port, which is fiddly to get back into place.

Measuring 1191 x 259 x 158mm and weighing just 2.4kg, the Roidmi S1E is one of the smallest vacuum cleaners you can buy. Its light body makes this vacuum is easy to use up high up or down low, and the manoeuvrable body and floor head make it easy to get it where you need it.

It’s easy to lift up this vacuum up to reach high-up places

The compact body restricts bin size to just 0.4l. To empty the bin you first need to detach it from the vacuum body. Next, you have to remove the washable filter, and pull out the internal filter to finally be able to empty the bin. It’s a bit more of a process than you’d expect it to  be.

Given that this is a relatively cheap vacuum cleaner, it isn’t accompanied by a huge number of accessories. There’s the motorised floor head, mattress tool (small motorised brush), crevice tool and a brush that clips onto the crevice tool. It will be sufficient for most situations, from cleaning the stairs to getting up high – but it’s lacking the full flexibility of some other models.

You get a basic set of accessories

Controls are simple. There’s a power button on the handle to turn the vacuum on and off, and a Turbo button that boosts the Roidmi S1E into maximum power mode. There’s no option to turn off the rotating brush, though.

Related: Best vacuum cleaner

Roidmi S1E performance – A decent maintenance cleaner, but you’ll need the power of Turbo mode to really pick up the dirt

• Edge performance is lacking
• Needs a few sweeps to pick up most dirt
• You’ll regularly need Turbo mode, shortening battery life

Starting off with the carpet test, I spread a teaspoon of flour on the pile right up to the edge of the skirting board. With the Roidmi S1E connected to the motorised floor brush, I took an initial sweep through the mess using the vacuum cleaner on regular power. One sweep left a smearing of flour behind.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

Upping this to maximum power resulted in more flour being removed, but visible marks still remained in particular, there was a large clump by the edge. In the end, I had to use a few sweeps on maximum power to clean up what remained.

Next, I moved to pet hair, combing in hair from my four cats into the carpet fibres. I used the vacuum on maximum power. A single sweep through picked up a lot of the surface hair, but the more ground-in fibres remained until after a few more sweeps.

Carpet test: Dirty carpet (left) vs Clean carpet (right) – move slider to compare

Moving to the hard floor, I spread a teaspoon of rice on the floor. Running the Roidmi S1E on regular power resulted in pickup of some grains of rice; however, when the vacuum was turned off, some rice escaped. In addition, there wasn’t enough suction to pull rice out of the grouting. Turning up the vacuum cleaner to full power proved better, with a clean sweep through the rice without throwing it around.

Carpet test: Dirty hard floor (left) vs Clean hard floor (right) – move slider to compare

For tougher spills, this vacuum cleaner needs to be run on its maximum power setting; the standard setting will do for general day-to-day mess. In terms of battery life, the Roidmi S1E takes 2.5 hours to charge and lasts for up to 40 minutes on the regular setting. This drops down to 10 minutes on the Turbo setting. As such, in my opinion this is a maintenance cleaner designed to be used alongside, rather than instead of, a mains-powered vacuum cleaner.

In terms of noise, I measured the Roidmi S1E at a comparatively quiet 75.2dB on normal power and 801dB on maximum.

Should you buy the Roidmi S1E?

The Roidmi S1E is one of the best-looking vacuum cleaners I’ve reviewed. The price is enticing, too. However, general performance isn’t as good as some of the competition. For a similar price, the Hoover H-Free 500 delivers better pick-up, and it folds down smaller for storage – even if it doesn’t quite sport the same space-age looks. And, there are more powerful cordless vacuum cleaners to choose from, too.

Trusted Score