The Xiaomi G30 Max proved itself to be a powerful, well-equipped cordless vacuum that makes light work of dust, debris, and pet hair, especially when left to its own devices in Turbo mode. It's got its issues; namely the 5kg weight, and battery life takes a noticeable dip the moment carpets enter the chat. It'll suit cordless converts just fine, possibly better. Cautious upgraders with only R8,800 to their name... maybe not so much.
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Design
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Performance
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Features
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Battery
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Value
If you like to handle all your own vacuuming instead of giving the ‘bots even more independence, then you’ve probably dreamed about ditching that cord for some time. The Xiaomi G30 Max does that, while simultaneously ticking boxes you probably didn’t even realise you wanted. It’ll clean your home and clean it well, but for the hefty price of R8,800. That cord is starting to sound pretty good, isn’t it?
Grab it by the handle
Pony up, and you’ll be rewarded with a cordless, premium handheld vacuum that proved fairly easy to set up and even easier to use. It doesn’t look particularly special. Its drab grey aesthetic does a good job of concealing any excess dirt that didn’t make it inside the vac. It’ll likely just be shoved out of sight, anyway.
That’s assuming you don’t use the included wall mount. As handy as it is to reach over and hoover up a bit of dirt, sticking utilities to the wall won’t gel well with everyone’s decor. It didn’t for us, but the option is there, ready to hold up to four of your most-used accessories. The rest? You’ll have to find them a new home.
Speaking of which, the G30 Max doesn’t skimp on the little extras that speed up the grander task. There are seven in total, some of which you’re probably familiar with and… some that you’re not. One of those is a designated pet brush that we’re afraid to say never quite made contact with our cats. We imagine that’s more a problem with the cat manufacturer than the G30 Max itself. Put a dog in its path, though? It’ll fare a bit better.
All the brushes and extension rods connect to the central handheld component, which houses a 4,000mAh lithium-ion polymer battery and a display to keep track of it all. It’s also where you’ll open up the attached 800ml dustbin. It was more than roomy enough for a single pass of our house (three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a lounge).
So far, so good, right? On paper, yes. But it all comes at the cost of waving around a 5kg hunk of plastic that’ll tire out the arms of smaller users by the time the battery nears its end. The added weight may ease the regret of an R8,800 purchase somewhat, but you may feel differently after lugging it around for 90 minutes.
Suction to the Maxth degree
Upon turning the G30 Max on, you’ll have a decision to make. Not a particularly big one — this isn’t Sophie’s Choice — but a decision nonetheless. There are three cleaning modes — eco, auto, and turbo — each designed to tackle different tasks. Be warned, you’ll likely stay away from eco until you hit the hardwood or tiled floors.
Give it something a bit more hectic — say, a cat-hair-ridden shaggy carpet that covers nearly every inch of the floor — and you’ll want to stick it in Turbo and leave it at that. Of course, auto mode is also an option if you’ve got a bit more manoeuvrability in the carpet department of your house. It’ll ramp up (or down) power as it sees fit.
Even in auto, the G30 Max hardly ever scaled down from Turbo. Not until we hit the (gratefully) un-carpeted kitchen, anyway. That shortened our runtime significantly, but it was well worth the sacrifice. We’ll never quite know whether the five-stage filtration system really did trap 99.98% of dust, but we’ve got no reason to doubt that claim after seeing the results. With 280AW (Air Watts) of power to draw on in Turbo mode, how could it not?
We had the most success with the electric brush bar accessory, which handles both tile and carpet, removing unnecessary barriers when moving from room to room. It’s also equipped with an LED light, literally highlighting all the dirt your, uh, normal vacuum missed. The ‘sofa’ brush also proved handy, and sucked up the leftover debris from movie night without complaint. It even handled our mattress, but didn’t get much exercise there.
We rarely ever let the standard extension rod out of our sight, as it allowed floor access without much hunching over. But on the odd occasion we needed to get up high, or behind that pestilential TV cabinet, the rest of the bits all had their uses. The extension hose got around corners easily without losing much manoeuvrability on our end, while the bendy tube (paired with the ‘crevice’ brush) navigated tight spaces on shelves.
You’ve got your whole life ahead of you
The Xiaomi G30 Max is a bit hit-or-miss when it comes to battery life. Sure, Xiaomi’s claim of a 90-minute-long life seems impressive — until you realise it’s talking about eco mode. That’s fine, if the only rug it’ll ever meet is the welcome mat at the door. The more carpet you give it, the shorter that runtime will last.
For a house covered almost head-to-foundation with shaggy carpet, we eked out a little over twenty minutes of life before dashing back to the charger. That’s without taking it out of turbo mode. Knock it down to auto and give it a few tiles, and it’ll stretch to roughly 35 minutes of life. Not bad. Not great.
We’d have liked to see Xiaomi take a page out of Dyson’s book and chuck us a swappable battery for our troubles (and R8,800). Even as a separate, optional purchase. It’d do a lot to ease that nagging voice at the back of your head, urging you to hurry up before the battery hits zero. Sadly, that 4,000mAh battery isn’t going anywhere.
While we can adjust our cleaning routines to accommodate the G30 Max, there’s no escaping the nearly 3.5-hour charge time. While we had no issue covering our house in one go, larger homes may not be quite so lucky. A ‘break from cleaning’ means we’re done for the day where we come from.
Xiaomi G30 Max verdict
At R8,800, the Xiaomi G30 isn’t the slam dunk we’d hoped for. If you can drop that kinda dough, you likely won’t be the one using it. It’ll be the help™ who will thank you for making their jobs simpler, and the home that much tidier. Don’t get us wrong. It’s powerful, versatile, and handled everything we threw at it without complaint.
It’s undeniably convenient, too, once you cut the cord — but that convenience comes at the cost of a rather weighty unit and middling battery life. If you’ve found yourself itching to ditch the cord, the G30 Max will serve you well. Everyone else… might find themselves getting over whatever spat they had with their corded appliance.
