Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra: A New Flagship with Advanced Features and Smart Modes

Hello to all readers of the project! In this review, I'll be looking at the new Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra robot vacuum cleaner. What's so special about it? First and foremost, the specifications list a suction power of a whopping 16,200 Pa. Furthermore, the manufacturer claims an object recognition system with backlighting. They've also implemented a hair and fur tangle prevention system by installing blades behind the turbo brush. And that's far from all this new product has to offer. It features an all-in-one cleaning station, two round rotating cleaning pads with baseboard and corner cleaning functions, and several smart modes that should increase the robot's battery life. For such a comprehensive package, you'll have to pay between $600 and $800. Below, I'll thoroughly test the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra, highlight its pros and cons based on my test results, and then share my personal opinion. So, let's get started!

Equipment

The robot vacuum cleaner arrived in a branded box like this:

In addition to the robot and station, the package includes two holders with wipes, two spare wipes, a spare turbo brush, a spare side brush, two spare meshes for the station, a cleaning tool for the robot, as well as a warranty card and an operating manual in Russian.

The kit is well-equipped. It includes all the necessary consumables for the robot's first use.

Appearance

Now let's take a look at the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra's design. It's black and features a square body with rounded corners, which should improve the efficiency of sweeping debris out of corners.

A wall sensor is installed on the right. The body is 11 cm above the floor, making it taller than most robot vacuum cleaners.

Navigation is handled by a tandem lidar and backlit object recognition system. The technology is called 3D-AI IntelliView. It claims to be able to recognize up to 150 object types, which is pretty impressive.

The promotional materials also mention support for remote home monitoring via a camera, but at the time of writing, I couldn't find this feature in the app. Apparently, they're updating it and will add it soon.

The lidar cover is spring-loaded, preventing it from getting stuck under furniture. Three mechanical control buttons are located next to the lidar.

The dust collector is located under the top cover. Its capacity is only 170 ml. The top indicates that the filtration system is washable with water.

The container contains a HEPA filter, foam, and a mesh screen. The water tank is hidden within the robot itself and holds only 45 ml.

The robot is equipped with six fall protection sensors on its underside. It also has a carpet detection sensor. It has a single, three-beam, quick-release side brush.

The central brush unit is floating. The turbo brush is even said to automatically rise when it detects puddles and stains. This system is called FlexiRise. The brush itself is made of bristles and petals, and can be removed on both sides to remove tangled hair and pet hair.

Blades mounted behind the turbo brush cut through tangled fur and hair. This technology is called FlexiRazor.

Floor cleaning is done with round, rotating cloths held in place with Velcro. The cloths are quite thick.

One of the holders extends to the edge of the robot's body for a thorough cleaning along walls and furniture. The engineers dubbed this technology ScrubExtend. The robot also features an automatic wiper lift function that automatically raises the wiper pads 12 mm when entering carpets, in dry cleaning mode, and when returning to the station.

Now about the station itself. It charges the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra, self-cleans, washes cloths with hot water heated to 75 degrees Celsius (165 degrees Fahrenheit), dries with warm air heated to 55 degrees Celsius (131 degrees Fahrenheit), and automatically refills the robot's water tank. There's no automatic detergent dispenser, nor is the station connected to a sewer or water supply.

The ramp for the robot to enter the station is removable, as is the tray for washing the wipes. Incidentally, it is equipped with scrapers for self-cleaning the station's bottom, which is a plus. A coarse liquid filter is also included.

A standard 3-liter waste bag is located in the center under the lid.

The robot is topped with spacious water tanks, holding 3.4 liters of dirty water and 4 liters of clean water.

So far, I can say that the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra has both strengths and weaknesses in its design. These will all be discussed in the final review. However, the improvement over its predecessor, the Midea VCR V12, which was reviewed, is noticeable.

Technical specifications

The main characteristics of the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra, as stated by the manufacturer:

Robot vacuum cleaner:

• Li-Ion battery 5200 mAh.
• Suction power up to 16200 Pa.
• Operating time up to 240 min.
• Dust collector 170 ml.
• Water tank 45 ml.
• Obstacle clearance up to 20 mm.
• Dimensions: 355*354*110 mm.

Station:

• Clean water tank: 4 l.
• Dirty water tank: 3.4 l.
• Bag in the station: 3 l.
• Dimensions (W*H*D): 395*458*468 mm.

Apart from the increased power, all the characteristics are generally standard for this price segment and the realities of 2025.

Functional capabilities

Speaking of features, the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra is controlled via the proprietary Smarthome app. It connects to the network without any issues. The interface is in Russian. The only issue at the time of writing is that the app is experiencing issues with the real-time map display. The robot creates a map, saves it, and displays it on the main control panel, but it periodically stops displaying its position on the map in real time. The route can only be viewed in the cleaning reports after a cycle has completed. I hope this will be fixed with a software update soon.

The main functions of the robot vacuum cleaner are displayed on the screen, with the additions highlighted in bold:

• Self-cleaning dust collector.
• Washing napkins with hot water (75 °C).
• Drying napkins with warm air (55°C).
• Recognizing objects on the floor.
• Recognition of dirt and puddles.
• Napkin placement along walls and in corners.
• Increased suction power near thresholds.
• Automatic hair cutting with turbo brush.
• Saving multiple cleaning maps in memory.
• Automatic zoning of premises into rooms.
• Selecting areas and rooms for cleaning.
• Virtual walls and no-go zones (and for wet cleaning mode).
• Suction power adjustment.
• Adjustable water supply to napkins (30 levels).
• Setting the frequency of washing napkins.
• Cleaning log.
• Setting up cleaning according to a schedule.
• Intelligent cleaning mode.
• Yandex.Alice support.

As you can see, we've thoroughly improved the robot's capabilities, adding smart modes for recognizing puddles and dirt accumulation areas, an intelligent cleaning mode, a unique automatic power boost mode for areas with thresholds, and a very smooth adjustment of the water flow rate to the cleaning cloth. We'll test everything in action.

Testing

A detailed video review of the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra, including all tests, has already been prepared and published on the channel:

Navigation

And finally, let's move on to the tests. First, we'll test the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra's navigation in a room with obstacles. First, the robot navigates the perimeter of the room, then cleans the entire accessible area in a serpentine motion. It didn't get stuck on the dryer's legs, but navigated neatly around them. It also swept around the box, but due to its large body, it couldn't navigate around the table's legs. It tried, but managed to move the table. Its maneuverability is still slightly inferior to that of a round robot.

Regarding navigation within the home, the robot vacuum cleaner cleans room by room, following the perimeter, then in a serpentine pattern. At intervals set in the app, it returns to the station and washes its cleaning pads, then resumes cleaning from where it left off. In total, the robot returned to the station and washed its cleaning pads four times during the cleaning process. There were no uncleaned areas; this model has excellent navigation!

Passing under low furniture

The minimum height at which the robot can pass was also tested. Considering the robot itself is 11 cm tall, I created an 11 cm clearance under the furniture, and it fits through it without any problem.

Autonomy

I also tested the battery life when running the robot at maximum power with wet cleaning enabled. It lasted 93 minutes, cleaning 64 square meters of usable space. In reality, that's nearly enough to clean a two-bedroom apartment twice. However, I should note that there's a resume cleaning mode after charging in the base station, so this model can clean twice as much. In my opinion, the robot's battery life is average.

Recognizing objects on the floor

Regarding the object avoidance system, in good lighting, the robot was able to accurately avoid three of six objects on the floor, correctly identifying two of them (slightly displacing a bathroom scale, a sock, and a fake pet surprise, chewing a wire). Interestingly, it accurately identified four of the objects and displayed corresponding icons on the map. It was also able to correctly identify and accurately avoid two of the three socks, chewing a black one, and avoid all four wires, recognizing two of them. Regarding the fake pet surprises, the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra correctly identified all six traps but accurately avoided only two of them.

The object recognition system can also function in complete darkness thanks to the backlight. The robot was able to recognize and avoid four of six household objects, chewing on a wire and a simulated pet surprise. It avoided all four wires, recognizing two of them, and also avoided three socks, recognizing two of them. As for the simulated pet surprises, it avoided two of the six, recognizing one, and thus avoided four.

Another test involves spot cleaning. The Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra can detect stains, and when it detects one, it turns off the suction, raises the turbo brush, and begins spot cleaning the affected area.

I was surprised by the algorithm used for spot cleaning. The robot vacuum cleaner moves backwards, scrubbing away stains. I think this is done to prevent the robot from running into stains with its front roller and wheels. It moves its cloths forward, minimizing soiling. I haven't seen anything like this from other brands, and it's an interesting approach. So, it had to go over each spot twice before continuing with its normal dry and wet cleaning. The stains weren't completely removed, but there were minimal traces left behind, which the object recognition system must have missed due to the pattern on the tile. Anyway, I pass the test!

In my opinion, the object recognition system certainly needs some serious work, but this is still the first Midea robot vacuum cleaner with artificial intelligence that I can remember, and for a debut model, the results are amazing. It actually recognizes objects, and does a decent job of it. The bigger problem is that it gets too close to recognized objects and sweeps them up with the side brush. If this issue were addressed, it would be able to confidently compete with Roborock and Dreame, far surpassing the technological advancements of top brands like Xiaomi and Ecovacs. Bravo, Midea Group engineers!

Cleaning behind the curtains

I also tested whether the new navigation system can clean behind curtains and drapes, something most lidar robots can't do. No, this robot, like most other robots, doesn't clean behind curtains.

Suction power

Regarding suction power, in Quiet mode, the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra was only able to fully clean a 2 mm-deep crevice. In Standard mode, the result remained unchanged, as did in Turbo mode. However, in "Very Strong" mode, it managed to partially clean debris from a 4 mm-deep crevice. So, its actual suction power is closer to the standard value. This is likely due to aerodynamic losses, which are also observed in most robots from other brands, despite the fact that they also list 15,000 and 20,000 Pascals.

Dry cleaning

The quality of debris collection on laminate floors was good. Various debris was collected from the rack, including cat litter pellets, which often clog the turbo brush. Importantly, this robot vacuum cleaned corners well, leaving no debris behind. This is thanks to its square body.

It got wrapped around the turbo brush Some hair and fur got caught, and the knives simply didn't have time to cut it. I'll test the hair-tangling protection system separately next.

I'll note that in challenging environments, the robot doesn't completely sweep outer corners, and even inner ones, leaving small blind spots. This would be a good issue to address.

Anti-tangle Hair Protection

I also tested how the built-in blades handled the turbo brush's self-cleaning of hair and pet hair. I laid hair of varying lengths on the floor. The robot picked it up, and we saw that the turbo brush had tangled up a lot of hair:

As I understand it, the turbo brush doesn't self-clean during the cleaning process. Indeed, I drove the robot to the station, and the hair cutting process began, simultaneously sucking it into the station's bag. After this task, the turbo brush untangled itself a bit, but it was still covered in hair. So, it failed the difficult test.

But in domestic conditions, after self-cleaning, the turbo brush is practically clean and a minimal amount of hair remains on it, so the hair cutting function at the station is useful.

Carpet cleaning

Additionally, debris was scattered on the low-pile carpet. I can say that the Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra thoroughly cleaned the carpet. It can also clean medium-pile carpet, but not as effectively. A minimal amount of debris remained in the pile. It's likely the robot simply didn't have enough power.

Self-cleaning

Immediately after the "dirty tests," I checked how well the robot vacuum self-cleaned. I returned it to the station and started the self-cleaning process. The results were good. The dust bin was empty, so this robot's self-cleaning function is working well!

Wet cleaning and carpets

When it comes to wet cleaning on carpeted floors, the robot offers several different modes of interaction. It can carefully navigate around the carpet during wet cleaning, or it can enter and touch the carpet with its cleaning pad if you want to clean it with the robot. It can also clean carpets during wet cleaning, automatically lifting the cleaning pads when entering the carpet. The latter option is the most efficient.

Wet cleaning

The cleaning performance is excellent. The wipes press firmly against the floor and absorb dirt. There's no narrow area along the baseboard, thanks to the wipes extending up to the baseboard. That's a plus!

Removing difficult stains

When it comes to removing tough stains, the robot even managed to remove dried-on coffee and sauce stains. Granted, not on the first try. To be precise, on the 11th. The result is slightly weaker than the standard, which typically requires 10 passes. However, it's worth noting that this model removes stains better than its predecessor, the V12, which required 13 passes.

Washing and drying napkins

I'd like to immediately talk about the effectiveness of the station itself. Let's start with the cleaning performance of the wipes. After extensive testing, the wipes look better after washing with the station, but the results are still far from ideal. I touched the wipes with my hand after washing and didn't notice them being extremely hot, like similar products. They just felt warm. I decided to test the temperature myself – in my case, the peak temperature in the drain area was 48.2 degrees Celsius. Measurement errors cannot be ruled out, depending on the sensor's installation location and the accuracy of the sensor itself; however, two indirect tests tell me that they don't measure 75 degrees Celsius.

In a domestic setting, after washing the floor, the wipes are thoroughly rinsed at the station. We see that the water pressure doesn't wash anything out of the wipes. The water is clean.

A few words about the wipe drying process—it's truly effective. After three hours, the wipe is completely dry. That's a plus! I also measured the air temperature while drying the wipes, and it was exactly 54.3 degrees Celsius, with a peak temperature of 59 degrees Celsius. Taking measurement error into account, I can confirm that the station actually measures 55 degrees Celsius.

The station itself is easy to clean. We remove the tray and drain, rinse them in the sink, and then return them. It's worth noting that the tray itself wasn't very dirty after testing in a domestic environment, as it has self-cleaning scrapers at the bottom.

Obstacle clearance

The robot has excellent maneuverability. It can easily cross a 2 cm threshold!

Driving on black surfaces

Driving over black carpets is no problem. The robot glides over the black carpet as if nothing had happened.

Noise level

As for the noise level, it ranges from 63 to 66 dB depending on the selected operating mode. The robot's noise level is actually quite low.

The station's noise level during self-cleaning is approximately 76 dB. And now it's slightly elevated.

Personal opinion

The Midea VCR V15 Pro Ultra robot vacuum cleaner has been thoroughly reviewed and tested. our evaluation system he managed to score 206 points and take 11th place in overall ranking of tested robotic vacuum cleaners, of which there are already almost 200 on the list. And, in my opinion, this is a very impressive result for the Midea brand, which doesn't specialize specifically in robot vacuum cleaners. For context, the predecessor Midea VCR V12 scored 152 points and is currently in 42nd place.

Speaking about the robot, I liked the following:

1. An all-in-one station where the robot vacuum cleaner self-cleans, washes cloths with warm water, and dries with hot air.
2. The station's design is easy to maintain. It features a removable tray with a drain, integrated scrapers, and spacious water tanks. Basically, it has everything you need.
3. An object avoidance system with a backlight is included. While not perfect, it does recognize what's on the floor, and the robot avoids many objects regardless of whether the room is bright or completely dark.
4. The spot recognition function and the unique algorithm for movement in this situation are worth mentioning separately.
5. High-quality dry and wet cleaning.
6. The robot vacuum cleaner is able to sweep debris into corners thanks to its special body shape.
7. Capable of removing even the most difficult stains.
8. Raising the turbo brush in stain removal mode.
9. The turbo brush's self-cleaning system, equipped with built-in blades, removes hair and fur. While not ideal in challenging conditions, it still delivers excellent results in everyday use.
10. The cloth moves to the edge of the case to clean close to the walls without blind spots.
11. Run the napkin into corners to wash these areas more thoroughly.
12. The wipers are lifted when driving onto carpets. Moreover, the wiper lift height has been increased.
13. Good filtration system in the dust collector.
14. A large number of functions in the application.
15. Yandex.Alice support.
16. The robot vacuum cleaner is not afraid of black surfaces.
17. Low noise level of the robot.
18. Good equipment.
19. Availability of warranty and service.

And it's also worth adding a separate feature for remote home monitoring via the robot's camera, which is about to be added to the app.

Cons:

1. At the time of writing, there are issues with the app, specifically with the robot's display on the map. It keeps disappearing. This doesn't affect operation or functionality, but I'd like to see this issue fixed.
2. The claimed highest suction power turned out to be quite ordinary, as with its predecessor V
3. The object recognition system requires improvement.
4. There are issues with washing the wipes. If they're too dirty, the station doesn't wash them well. I should also add that the wash temperature for the wipes wasn't confirmed in tests. In reality, the water was warm, not hot.
5. The built-in hair cutting system cannot cope with difficult conditions.
6. The robot has a small dust collector and water tank.
7. The robot vacuum cleaner is taller than the standard 10 cm.
8. There is no provision for automatic mixing of detergent at the station from a separate tank.
9. The station cannot be connected to the sewerage and water supply.
10. The robot vacuum cleaner does not clean behind the curtains.
11. The noise level of the station during self-cleaning is slightly higher than standard.

So what's the bottom line? In the end, if the robot were slightly improved, primarily in terms of design, it could very well crack the top five in 2025. It's truly a breakthrough for the brand, and many things about it were truly surprising. Yes, I can't call it the best, but it's truly good, and its high ranking is well-deserved.

If you're interested in its strengths and the criticisms aren't so important, I see no compelling reason not to recommend it. It's a neat, autonomous, and efficient robot vacuum cleaner for high-quality cleaning over large areas.

I'd like to end this review on that note. If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments below the video. Happy shopping, everyone. Bye!