I couldn't live without my Proscenic robot vacuum mop, and it's now £375 for Black Friday

When I was asked to review the Proscenic M8 Pro robot vacuum cleaner I honestly couldn't have said yes any faster. Why? I have a beige dog and live in an apartment that's fitted throughout with dark wood lino, so you can imagine the number of times a week I have to vacuum to keep my home looking clean. Even better? The Proscenic M8 Pro also mops your floors as it vacuums, meaning it works twice as hard. All at half the price tag of other robot vacuum mops, that is!

If you are searching for the best robot vacuum to help keep up with your chores, I can hardly blame you. After having this vacuum for a fair few months, I would find it pretty hard to live without it. It cuts the time that I spend cleaning my apartment per week down by at least half, leaving more time for me to go on walks to the park with my pug and out for brunch with my husband. What more could I want? 

I've spent a lot of my time reviewing some of the best vacuum cleaners that money can buy, and this is hands down my favorite robot model. The best part is, it's currently on sale for Black Friday at Amazon. So now you can score this incredible gadget for a better price. Don't miss your chance, though as you will regret it come Christmas when your home is in dire need of a vacuum but you're a couple of egg nogs deep and are feeling too festive to care.

Carry on reading for our full (and updated!) Proscenic M8 Pro review. 

TLDR: What we thought of the Proscenic M8 Pro

The Proscenic M8 Pro is a brilliant vacuum cleaner mop combination, and for its affordable price tag, it does an incredible job. It's a great "second vacuum" to have in busy households with pets or kids. It requires little effort on your part other than filling it with water and then turning it on or setting it on a schedule. Other than that, you only need to clean its roller brush and filter every now and then. You can control it via an app and even set it to clean whilst you're out of the house. It works with smart assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant so that you can use your voice to turn it on. It's a great appliance for scheduled cleaning sessions as it maps out your entire space. But if you have a spillage to clean, you can send it straight there to help you tidy. Clever! If you've been considering a robot vacuum mop but don't have thousands to spend (understandably), then I can definitely recommend the Proscenic M8 Pro. At the end of its program, it even takes itself back to charge and empties its own dustbin. It's like the partner you always wanted. 

Updated in November 2022: This vacuum cleaner is still proving itself to be a valuable investment and is still going strong. The only complaint I have is that its mop heads are slightly tearing and will need to be replaced. Its laser looks slightly battered from bumping into furniture, but this is purely cosmetic.

Testing the Proscenic M8 Pro

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Annie Collyer

Annie originally tested the Proscenic M8 Pro for us and has since been using it three times a week to clean her busy South London apartment that she shares with her husband and her pug. Annie has reviewed a whole host of vacuum cleaners and mops for Real Homes, including stick models and other robot vacuums.

The techy stuff

• Battery run time: 200 mins
• Charge time: 5 hours 30 mins
• Number of settings: 5
• Suction modes: 3
• Noise level: 60 to 68 dB
• Bin capacity: 280 ml
• Water tank capacity: 300 ml
• Bagged or bagless: Bagged, can last for up to 90 days
• Suction power: 3000 Pa
• Weight: 6.7 kg

Unboxing the Proscenic M8 Pro

The Proscenic M8 Pro comes with a lot included in the box, and while the box itself is large, it has to be in order to fit the self-emptying charging station inside. First of all, I unboxed everything and laid it out, ensuring everything was in the box that I need to get going. There is an anti-collision EVA component in the robot vacuum cleaner that you'll want to pull out before use. This is just a white tab that hangs out so you shouldn't miss it.

When you're ready to set up your robot vacuum, you can scan the QR code on its plastic cover to take you to download the app you need. Here, you'll find it easy to get your robot vacuum ready for use. The vacuum will speak to you and the app will guide you through this process. The first thing you'll want to do once the app is up and going is to get the robot vacuum to map your house. Doing this will let you set areas and rooms, and you won't be able to make the most out of your vacuum cleaner until this is done. Once your vacuum cleaner has mapped your house, it will look a little like what you can see below.

Just a note: When we first started testing this vacuum a different version of the Proscenic app was available, so there is a mix of photos in this review, with both the old and new versions of the app shown.

What's in the box?

• Automatic dirt-collecting station
• 2-in-1 water tank
• HEPA filter, roller brush, and built-in battery
• 3 x dust collection bag
• Mop cloth holder
• Side brushes (2 pieces)
• Power cable and adaptor
• 2 x mop cloth
• Remote control
• User manual

Who will the Proscenic M8 Pro suit?

It's hard for me to think of someone this robot vacuum cleaner wouldn't suit. It's quite simple to use, so even grandparents or technophobes would benefit from having this in their homes. Not to mention it's also great for anyone who may be less able or struggles to bend down. Do note that you'll need to pick it up to change the mop head and add water to its tank. 

You can turn the vacuum cleaner on with your smartphone or schedule it to clean whilst you are out so there are no disturbances. It'd also be a great buy for anyone with kids to schedule to come out once a day, perhaps once the kids have gone to school, whilst you're doing the school run, or even post-dinner to clean up the mess. You can also program it to clean singular rooms in one trip. 

On the other hand, it's the most ideal for flat owners as it obviously cannot get up the stairs. So for someone like me, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment, it's great for cleaning my entire house in one fair sweep. I also have wood lino and tiles throughout my house, so the fact it can mop at the same time is a game-changer. It works to pick up hair, too, so any pet owners needn't worry about its suction ability.

How to use the Proscenic M8 Pro?

It's easy peasy. Whether you schedule this vacuum to clean or you turn it on only when it's needed, this robot vacuum makes cleaning your floors easier than ever.

Before you get going the first time, take the water tank to your sink, fill it up with water, and close it. Slide on the mop head (it sticks too) and pop the tank back onto your vacuum. You might want to hold it so the mop head is facing your ceiling, if you hold it downwards, water will start coming out. 

You can then put your vacuum down on your floor and turn it on. It will find out where it is and auto-clean your home from there.

To set room boundaries, so that your robot vacuum can clean particular rooms, you'll need to find 'Room Manager' in the functions part of the app. Once the vacuum has initially mapped your home, you can draw where your rooms are and number them. This makes it easy to tell your vacuum where to avoid and where to clean first. All of us always make sure to mop our bathrooms last, right? And you can make sure this robot vacuum mop follows suit.

This vacuum cleaner has a built-in laser to avoid it from bumping into furniture, walls, or falling down any stairs (I don't have stairs so I cannot comment on this) and the vacuum cleaner always knows where it is in your home. You can see where it is at all times on the app, and should you lose it you can make it play a sound so that you can find it with ease. This was a game-changer for me. I would often lose my old vacuum cleaner underneath my bed, tangled in some lost pajamas, or stuck underneath my sofa to the point where I'd have to move the whole sofa away from the wall to reach it.

The only negative thing about this laser is that this extra part of the robot vacuum cleaner makes it taller, so I noticed that it struggled to fit under some of my furniture.

I've gone through, in detail, this vacuum cleaner's modes below. Otherwise, here's what else you can control from your phone. 

You can set virtual boundaries for where you don't want the vacuum cleaner to mop/vacuum or both. For example, you might want it to avoid mopping one of your rugs or a doormat or have it avoid mopping an entire room that's carpeted. On the other hand, you might want it to avoid vacuuming the kids' bedroom where there are always LEGO pieces on the floor. Set this once and the robot vacuum will remember it forever.

You can adjust the robot vacuum's light brightness on its buttons and change its volume level for when it speaks. This is great for those who might have a sleeping child they don't want to wake.

You can choose a water volume from low to medium, high, and extra-high depending on how wet you like your floors to be when being cleaned. I've always gone for medium and found it enough. 

There's also the chance to change suction power mode, from off to eco, normal and hyper drive. I found the hyper drive mode to offer the best suction power, though it is a lot louder than the normal mode. On eco mode, we didn't notice a huge difference from normal, but it should benefit battery life even more.

Cleaning modes

This robot vacuum has five different modes that you can choose from when cleaning. It will automatically set itself to Auto Clean mode if you just turn it on by the button on the vacuum cleaner itself.

Auto Clean
The default mode for the Proscenic M8 Pro will ensure that the machine vacuums and mops every accessible room in your home. It will clean your home by room, starting from where it lives, and it will begin by making an outline of the room and then it will clean the room from one side to the other.

PowerMop
As the name would suggest, this setting will only mop your floors if you choose to select it. This means that it will avoid any no-go zones for the mop setting. 

Room Clean
This is one of my most-used modes but it will only work once you've set rooms on the 'Room Manager' section of the app. Then, you can select this mode and tap the rooms you want it to clean and it will make its way around them.

Area Clean
In order to use this mode, you'll need to set areas in the 'Area Manager' section. This is great for cleaning specific areas of your home that you know often get dirty. Such as the floor around your kitchen worktop, so that you can tell it to clean here twice over after dinner. Or, around the dinner table if your kids (or you) are messy. Even around the dog's bowl. You can also use this to set areas in which you have a rug so that they won't get mopped.

Spot Clean
Spot clean is ideal for when you've had a spillage — let's say a dry cereal nightmare — and you can't be bothered to go to the cupboard to get your main vacuum out. Select this mode and move the marker to wherever the spillage is, and it will head there and give this spot deep a vacuum and mop. So clever and very handy whether you have kids and pets or not. I also use this mode to clean rugs, making sure to take the mop head off the machine and empty the water tank before directing it to my rugs.

One thing I will complain about is that this vacuum cleaner cannot lift its mop head up to vacuum places in which you've asked it not to mop. In this case, it just avoids this area altogether. To avoid this, you can set the place in which you want only vacuuming as an area in the 'Area Manager' section of the app, and tell it to vacuum here separately, making sure to empty the tank and remove the mop head before doing so.

Battery
When it comes to battery life, this robot vacuum cleaner can last for up to 200 minutes on one charge. This should be plenty of time to go around your home, no matter how large it is. I've never had the issue of it not being able to clean my spacious two-bed apartment on one charge and it always has some battery left when it takes itself home. It is worth us noting, however, that if it does run out of battery mid-charge, it will take itself home and once it has enough juice, it will resume its job where it stopped. You can send it home or make it empty its bin at any time.

Cleaning hard floors

This robot vacuum mop does a really great job of cleaning hard flooring, especially if it's mopping it at the same time. It will work its way around a room starting at its corners. The only thing I will say is that it can't get into the corners of a room because of its rounded shape. Other than that, it essentially glides around hard flooring, rarely getting stuck.

On carpet

Whilst working on carpet, this robot vacuum cleaner is still impressive when it comes to collecting dust and debris. It will actually detect that it is on a carpet and boost its suction to ensure it does a more thorough job of cleaning. The only thing is that if you have water in the tank and a mop head on, it will mop your carpet and leave it damp. What I suggest you do in this case is set boundaries. This way you can control when it goes onto larger rugs and make it avoid them when it's mopping, too. 

Otherwise, I have a bunch of different rugs in my home, from short pile to long pile, and it works wonders on all of them. It also rarely has a problem going from hard flooring to soft, unless your rug is tasseled because it will suck it up and the machine will beep and turn itself off.

On tiles

I have a small bathroom which is tiled, and this robot vacuum cleaner has no issues going from my lino floor to my tiled bathroom. It glides across the tiles and leaves them looking shiny, it's just unfortunate that the machine is bigger than the space between my bath and my toilet, so it can't clean every inch of my bathroom floor.

Battery life

The battery life of this robot vacuum cleaner is pretty damn impressive. As I've said, I live in a two-bedroom apartment but it is quite large, and this vacuum has never run out of charge on me. In fact, the last time I used it it worked for 31 minutes and only lost 7% of its battery. It cleaned 29m² during this time.

Otherwise, it does offer a huge 200-minute battery life, that's over three hours. At its strongest mode, it can clean for 90 minutes straight, which is still incredible.

When it comes to charging, it takes itself home as we've already said, and will sit on its charging station collecting juice until it next needs to clean.

Storage and maintenance

This robot vacuum comes with its own charging station that doubles as a bin so that it can take itself home to charge and empty itself at the same time. It does require some floor space in order to do this, but rest assured it sits looking neat and tidy. Mine is tucked away in my living room so that when this vacuum comes out, it cleans this room first. You'll need to ensure wherever you choose to place your robot vacuum cleaner's home is near a plug socket. 

When it comes to maintenance, as I've previously said, the robot vacuum cleaner empties itself into a bag once it goes back to charge. This is admittedly quite noisy and might make you jump the first time it happens. Once the bag is full, it will signify this to you on the actual bin. A green bin light will illuminate. I've only just filled a whole bag and I've been using it for several months with two pets in tow. It's super easy to change the bin bags and if it's not properly inserted it will talk to you and tell you that it isn't.

You'll need to also maintain the actual robot vacuum cleaner after every few uses. Turn it over once it has finished its cycle and check the side brush for any hair or dust, and remove if there is any. I noticed that it does get a lot of hair (definitely mine) wrapped around it, so you'll need to get the scissors out for this job. Otherwise, pet hair doesn't really tend to get stuck in the roller brush, so we think it's a good vacuum for pet hair. Take out its roller brush and remove and clean its filter. You can get away with doing this every three or four uses depending on how dirty your floors get. You can clean the mop heads in your washing machine along with your tea towels or cloths.

My only complaint after using this vacuum cleaner for a good while is that you will need to buy replacement mop heads every few months. After this time, they might rip on either side. This makes it difficult for them to stay attached to the vacuum and they'll slip off whilst cleaning. A set of spare parts can be bought on Amazon UK, though, so that you can give your robot vac a good refresh every six months or so.

How does it rate online?

Looking at reviews on Amazon, the Proscenic M8 Pro gets 4.3 stars out of five with lots of people commenting on its reasonable price tag considering its features and its impressive suction power. The only negative reviews seem to be from people who have received a faulty machine that won't actually work. 

The reviews direct from  Proscenic are all very positive, with more than 600 in total. Lots of these are in other languages than English, however, the ones that are in English explain it's an easy-to-use machine that's reasonable for the price tag and simply enough. It just does what it says on the tin, and I couldn't agree more.

How does it compare to similar models and its predecessors? 

Before the M8 Pro, there is an M8 version of this vacuum cleaner available direct from Proscenic for $499 (only available in the US). This vacuum is similar to the M8 Pro, but with a 120-minute battery life instead and different modes, which include Total Clean, Partition Clean, Area Clean, Point Clean, and Mopping Mode. Also, note that it does not come with a self-emptying base.

There's also a Proscenic M7 Pro vacuum cleaner sold at Amazon and direct from Proscenic in the US, which retails at £399/$618.99. This doesn't come with a self-emptying base either, and it offers only 150 minutes of battery life. These vacuum cleaners both offer the same suction power, but it seems that when using the M7 Pro by app, it doesn't look as easy to use.

I will always say that when buying tech or appliances, you're best to get the newest available model if your budget allows it. So long as there are actual differences between the models, that is. This way, you won't be tempted to upgrade a few months afterward, and you know you're getting the best technology available at that time. You also know you'll be able to buy spare parts for the machine more easily.

 Should you buy the Proscenic M8 Pro?

Yes! I cannot recommend this robot vacuum cleaner mop enough. Whether your home is carpeted or has hard floors throughout, this machine is a game-changer. It will shed valuable time off doing chores, and although the initial outlay is high, it will prove to pay for itself if, like us, you are using it several times a week. A few of our friends and family members have been over while this vacuum cleaner has been out and doing its thing, and they have commented on how clever it is. In fact, we've already inspired a few people to buy one and they are totally obsessed with it.

 About this review and the reviewer 

Annie Collyer is our head ecommerce editor at Real Homes with years of knowledge when it comes to reviewing a wide range of products, including BBQs, mattresses, mops, and scented candles. Annie previously owned her own robot vacuum cleaner, which admittedly did the job at hand but it was basic, and after a year and a half of use, it broke. With something to compare it to and two pets to help her test suction power, Annie has this robot vacuum in her living room, by her dining table. It comes out three times a week without fail, on a Monday, Thursday, and Saturday at 1:02 pm to clean her living room, kitchen, and hallway.

Annie first wrote this review in June 2022 but has since updated it after using it for a few more months.