For a family of five (seven, including the two resident walking carpets that are our Labradors), keeping the floors clean has basically felt like a second full-time job. We’ll vacuum and mop one day, and then the next, it’s as if nothing had happened; hair everywhere, muddy pawprints, crumbs from people who absolutely should know better by now… and that’s exactly why the Lefant M5 Pro Robot Vacuum Cleaner has quietly become one of the most appreciated gadgets in our house. This isn’t our first robovac, but we’re certainly hoping it’ll be our last; a couple of weeks of daily use – and a lot of Labrador hair – later, here’s where we landed.
Lefant M5 Pro Unboxing and Setup Experience
The M5 Pro came securely packaged and with everything you need to get going. Inside the box, you’ll find the vacuum itself, the base station (it’s not too heavy), a quick-start guide and an accessories box. Lefant have provided a bottle of cleaning solution, spare dust bag, roller, side-brush and filter element, which is great to see.
The setup process is straightforward. If you head over to the M5 Pro product page on Lefant’s website, you’ll find a series of helpful videos to get you started, though we didn’t need it; the instruction sheet is plenty useful. Setup will require downloading the Lefant app (available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store) and creating an account, but nothing much more after that.
Lefant M5 Pro Design, Build Quality and Base Station
The M5 Pro vacuum itself is pretty low-profile, in both dimensions and aesthetics. At roughly 10cm tall, it has no trouble sliding under the couch, the coffee table, and the gap beneath the TV unit; all the spots that manual vacuuming consistently misses, and precisely the spots where Labrador hair goes to retire. Build quality on the robot itself feels solid; no creaking or flimsy panels, and the roller mop and brush are easy to attach and detach. It’s definitely a step-up from the cheaper robovac we’ve tried in the past.
The base station is equally well-built; it has a premium look to it and isn’t an eye-sore stationed near our front door. We have the silver variant but black is available too. Compared to a basic charging dock, this fairly substantial unit has about the footprint of a bedside table, but shorter. It houses the clean and dirty water tanks, the dust bag compartment, and all the self-cleaning hardware inside.. It’s worth deciding where it lives before you start setting things up, since it needs a power outlet nearby and enough clearance for the robot to dock cleanly. That said, once it’s parked, it won’t need to move, which is sort of the whole point.
The 3.2L dust bag, according to Lefant, can go up to 90 days before needing a replacement. We haven’t been able to verify that timeline in a couple of weeks of testing, but the auto-emptying function works exactly as advertised; every time the M5 Pro returns to dock, it exhausts the dustbin contents back into the station with a loud whoosh. The spare dust bag included definitely provides some peace-of-mind. As our first auto-emptying robovac, this unit definitely impressed us by cutting out so much manual maintenance from our daily routine. It also hasn’t gotten clogged or bogged down by thick Labrador hair, which is a major plus.
Key Features of the Lefant M5 Pro
The M5 Pro is one of the most fully-fledged robovacs you’ll find on the market; 75° C hot water cleaning, smart-home integration for voice-controlled cleaning and 190° obstacle detection avoidance, to name a few. These aren’t by any means exclusive to the M5 Pro, but Lefant have dialed these in pretty well to the point we’re actually making solid use of nearly all those features; you’ll find with other vacuums features like mopping are more of a pain than a help, but that’s not the case with the M5 Pro.
Here are the most notable features to be aware of:
- Roller mop design and carpet detection: the M5 Pro features a pressurised 280RPM 20cm roller mop. This wider design we’ve found to work particularly well. If you have carpet in the house, the vacuum and mop combo will automatically increase suction power and lift the roller mop by 8mm to prevent your carpets from getting wet. We don’t have any carpet to test this on, but it knew to avoid mopping the front and backyard doormats. The M5 Pro is also able to easily overcome obstacles up to 1.6cm high; this includes door sills and any U-shaped furniture legs, meaning smooth and precise cleaning on all types of floors. We’ve noticed that each run, it tries to climb a floor speaker stand, which at first we thought might cause it to get stuck, but it handles it without any issues. We’ll discuss mopping performance later in this review.
- PSD 2.0 obstacle avoidance system: The upgraded PSD 2.0 avoidance system covers a 190° detection arc, which Lefant describes as providing all-around coverage without blind spots. During testing, it handled the usual household obstacles well, including shoes left in hallways, chair and table legs, power bricks, charging cables, dog toys, and even the occasional Labrador tail stretched across the floor. Rather than charging straight into obstacles and relying on physical contact to determine where they were, the M5 Pro was able to detect them in advance and adjusted its path accordingly. This resulted in smoother, more deliberate navigation and fewer instances of objects being pushed around the room. It rarely needed rescuing, and we didn’t find ourselves rearranging the room before scheduling a clean.
- 360° LiDAR navigation: the M5 Pro boasts advanced LiDAR navigation tech to scan and identify home layouts in 360°. It mapped our floor plan accurately (and quickly) on its very first run, correctly identifying rooms, furniture boundaries, and areas it couldn’t access. At the entrance to our laundry, there’s a small lip followed by a significant drop, and it correctly detected and avoided it. Admittedly, one of our Labradors decided to follow the robovac around during this process, temporarily confusing things, but the M5 Pro simply returned to the affected areas at the end of its run and completed the map without issue.
- Since that initial map was built, it’s been consistent. The vacuum is capable of intelligently switching between floor levels, adapting to carpet and hard floor differences to ensure optimal cleaning performance, even in low light conditions. We’ve been using it on the downstairs level of our home, and it has never gotten stuck in a room or corner. It easily reaches into the corners where Lab hair likes to gather, especially in spots our old robovac used to miss.
Lefant M5 Pro Vacuuming Performance: Pet Hair and Daily Cleaning
We’ve had the M5 Pro running daily for the past two weeks, vacuuming everyday and mopping on Mondays. Needless to say, the 18,000Pa vacuum suction is more than adequate. This isn’t chart-topping stuff, but it also means the M5 Pro will last about 3 hours on a single charge before needing to return to its station.
More importantly, the M5 Pro has had to contend with a particularly demanding environment. Our two Labradors spend much of their day doing zoomies around the backyard, only to then track dust, dirt, grass, and the not-so-occasional muddy pawprint back inside. Despite this constant stream of debris, the M5 Pro has not missed a beat. It’s very consistent, picking up loose dirt and pet hair before they have a chance to build up. As a result, when it’s mopping time for the robovac, it can clean efficiently without constantly returning to the base station to empty, clean, or refill.
We’ve used another brand of robovac in the past, and the difference in vacuuming quality is apparent; that model would sometimes require multiple passes to clean properly, and would on occasion leave visible debris behind. The M5 Pro, by comparison, has been quite a bit more thorough and reliable, requiring less intervention on our part. In this regard, it has genuinely felt like a step up in cleaning performance.
The anti-tangle system was also something we were particularly curious about. Anyone who’s owned a vacuum in a house with dogs or long hair knows the ritual: flip the vacuum over, find a matted cylinder of hair wound around the brush roll, spend ten minutes picking it apart with scissors. The M5 Pro uses a V-shaped roller brush paired with dual comb teeth designed to channel hair directly into the suction path rather than letting it wind around the brush. Lefant pitches it as a 0% entanglement rate, which sounds exaggerated – but honestly, across two weeks of regular use with the dogs and five people in the house, we haven’t had to manually clear the brush once.
Lefant M5 Pro Mopping Performance: Is It Better Than Budget Robovacs?
As for mopping performance, this is where the M5 Pro really stands out from most other robovacs. Many cheaper models do little more than dampen the floor and glide over it, rather than actively scrubbing or lifting stubborn dirt and debris. By comparison, the M5 Pro has proven highly capable at actually cleaning hard floors, being very nearly perfect across our weekly testing. Both the clean and dirty water tanks are generously sized, minimising ongoing maintenance.
That said, it does tend to take its time during mopping cycles. Rather than rushing through the job in a single pass, it will periodically return to its station to manage dirty water and refill with clean solution, which adds time but ultimately contributes to a more thorough clean.
Note that Lefant recommends using only its own branded cleaning products to avoid potential damage to the robovac. Fortunately, the included cleaning solution leaves a pleasant orange scent reminiscent of Orange Tic Tacs; it isn’t overpowering either, the dogs certainly haven’t seemed to notice!
After each mopping run, the station will automatically flush the roller mop with water heated to up to 75°C, breaking down grease, grime, and bacteria before they get a chance to set into the fibres. It’s something that we’d never bother doing manually, which is mainly why our old robovac was never used for mopping even though it had that function. After the hot wash, a cool air drying cycle kicks in to draw out residual moisture, reducing any unpleasant odours from forming and also extending the lifespan of the mop pads. This means less frequent mop pad replacements and lowered long-term consumable costs. You can set the drying duration to 2, 3, or 4 hours through the app depending on your preference. It sounds like a lot, but in practice, it means you won’t ever get a whiff of a damp, mouldy mop.
During vacuuming, noise levels sit around the 55dB mark according to Lefant, which tracks with our experience. It’s quieter than our old Dyson stick vacuum, and perfectly tolerable during the day. However, when the vacuum returns to its base station and starts to auto-empty, it does ramp up in volume significantly, but this is really only for 20 seconds or so. Just ensure you calibrate your do-not-disturb hours accordingly (even the app will warn you about this).
Lefant App and Smart Home Integration
Like the majority of robovacs on the market, the Lefant mobile app predominantly controls the M5 Pro, which, if you’ve owned any smart robovacs in the past, you’ll be right at home with. The home screen gives you a real-time map view showing the robot’s current position and cleaned areas, a quick-access start/pause control, and a summary of the most recent session including area covered, time taken, and any issues flagged. Digging deeper, you’ll find your custom no-go zones, four levels of vacuum suction power customisable on a per-room basis, adjustable mop wash frequency, mop drying durations, cleaning schedules… the list goes on. You’ll probably want to sit down for half an hour and dial everything in so the robovac will clean the way you want it to.
Voice control works through Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Watch – so if you’re already in one of those ecosystems, you can kick off a clean or send it back to dock without touching your phone. We haven’t needed to use this feature yet, as the cleaning schedule tool is plenty customisable and adaptable.
One niche detail: the app gives you granular control over the mop’s wash temperature (room temperature or hot water), which is useful if you’re cleaning more delicate flooring and want to dial it back. As our wooden floors are old and some parts are losing their sealant, this feature was quite important.
We also appreciated that the app gives a summary page of the vacuum’s status; whether the dirty water tank is full, if the dust-bag needs replacing, and so forth. This completely takes the guesswork out of maintaining the vacuum, which is super convenient!
Lefant M5 Pro Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?
Like with most household appliances, there’s a lot of both good and bad robovacs out there on the market; it’s not uncommon to read a bunch of Amazon reviews detailing how many robovacs they’ve had to purchase to find the ‘one’. Fortunately for us, we can say that the M5 Pro pretty much ticks all the boxes.
The vacuum packs powerful, consistent suction, and the mop system is actually worth using. Plus, that hot water self-cleaning cycle keeps the roller fresh so it doesn’t become gross after a few weeks. We’ve had zero issues with the LiDAR navigation and the anti-tangle system has held up across a bit more than two weeks of real-world daily use, without a single manual brush clear. The app gives you a level of control and customisation that most users will expect and appreciate, once they’ve explored it.
It might be a little overkill if you’re living by yourself in a smaller apartment (you can probably get by just fine with one of Lefant’s smaller robovacs) but there really isn’t much to knock against the Pro. Just be aware of the noise when the robovac auto-empties in the base station; you won’t want that running during the middle of the night! If you’re able to pick up an M5 Pro on one of the regular specials that go on from time to time, it’s a banger of a deal.
From 22nd June 2026 to 30th June 2026 (23:59 PDT), the Lefant M5 Pro Robot Vacuum Cleaner will be available on sale on Amazon at the following links.
Amazon (AU) (Original price: A$1799.99, Deal price: A$699.99 NO CODE)
Amazon (US) (Original price: USD$799.99, Deal price: USD$$599.99 NO CODE)
Amazon (CA) (Original price: C$1099.99, Deal price: C$692.99 CODE: VXTT5QQW, 10% off)
Amazon (UK) (Original price: £569.99, Deal price: £319.49 CODE: EIKOSH72, 44% off, only from 23rd June 2026 to 26th June 2026)
We would like to thank Lefant for providing this unit to review.
