Need a quick way to vacuum and mop? Try the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum

Having tested quite a few robot vacuums before the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum, I was curious to find out how it measured up to more expensive options. Relatively affordable compared to many robot vacuums, the Proscenic 850T promises to vacuum your carpets and hard floors, all via an app or remote control, and it throws in mopping functionality to boot. 

Our home is busy with a Golden Retriever, a long-haired cat, a 10-year-old child and two adults. There’s plenty of hair and crumbs to pick up and enough dog toys lying about to test even the most dedicated robot vacuum cleaner. We tested the Proscenic 850T over a series of tests and tasks, assessing its ability to manoeuvre around obstacles, pick up pet hair and other debris, and mop vinyl flooring. 

Our review covers all this and more, including how we found the smart, connected app in terms of extra features and functionality. So read on to discover if the Proscenic 850T could be the perfect robot vacuum cleaner for your home. If not, you’ll find plenty of other excellent options in our guide to the best robot vacuum cleaner.

Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum product specs 

• Model number: 850T
• Battery run time: Maximum 120 minutes in lowest mode
• Battery charge time: Around 4 hours
• Settings: 4 settings - auto cleaning, spot cleaning, edge cleaning and mopping mode
• Bin capacity: 500ml 
• Water tank capacity: 300ml
• Suction power: 3000Pa
• Weight: 2.5kg
• Dimensions: 32.5 cm diameter x 8.3 cm height
• Accessories included: Includes mop head
• Spares/Extras included: Filter, 2 rotating brushes and mop head pad
• Decibel level during operation: 58 decibels

Joanne Lewsley

I regularly test cleaning products for UK and US websites, including robot vacuums. I’m experienced with trying out vacuums, air purifiers, and cleaning devices, which means I evaluate the quality of home gadgets in these areas, putting them through their paces in a natural home environment for reviews, updating buying guides, and speaking to industry experts on the latest product advances.

I tested the Proscenic 850T in my home over several days, assessing how well it coped with pet hair, food debris, and the everyday flotsam and jetsam of a family home. I also evaluated the connected app that comes with the Proscenic 850T and compared it with other robot vacuum cleaners available.

Unboxing the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum

The Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum is sleekly and efficiently packaged in a shallow cardboard box, measuring 58cm by 38cm by 11cm. Inside, the robot and its components are encased in a moulded cardboard frame - all perfect for recycling. Everything is neatly presented and easy to identify using the manual provided.  However, most of these components are packaged in clear plastic, which may or may not be recyclable, depending on your local area. 

The robot comes with a multi-language manual and a quick start guide for downloading the accompanying Proscenic app, connecting your robot to the wifi and getting your robot charged up and ready for use.

The package includes a remote control (with batteries handily supplied), a water tank with a microfibre mop pad that replaces the dustbin for mopping sessions, a charging port, 1m of magnetic tape for cordoning off no-go areas and a cleaning and cutting tool for the roller.

It also provides some useful spare parts, including a filter, two extra rotating brushes, and a spare microfibre mop pad for fitting to the water tank.

The Proscenic 850T looks more expensive than it is, thanks to its glossy black casing. The cover includes a U-shaped design, giving it a sleek, streamlined look, and the border around the light-up touch buttons on the machine's surface adds a nice touch.

You’ll need to fit the two rotating brushes to the robot's underside. However, the dustbin is already fitted along with the HEPA filter, so there’s no need for further assembly.

Downloading the Proscenic app and connecting the robot to our home’s wireless was also relatively quick and painless. You’ll need to have your wifi password at hand, though.

Once everything was set up and the charging port was plugged in, we started charging the vacuum. Although it came with around 17% charge, I’d recommend getting to a full 100% before you attempt the first maiden voyage.

 Who will it suit?  

The Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum would be ideally suited to someone living in a flat or apartment with one level, so it can cover more ground without you having to move it from downstairs to upstairs. It’s ideal for open-plan design and can tackle carpets and hard flooring very well. 

It struggled with too much pet hair during my testing, so you may want to swerve this product if you have a lot of pet hair in your home. 

If you’re a tech geek, you may find some of the functionality in the app a little pedestrian. Although it works with voice-activated assistants such as Alexa and Hey Google, the mapping functionality isn’t great, and sometimes the robot forgets to record cleaning sessions, which can be frustrating. But if all you want is a quietly efficient, relatively affordable robot vacuum cleaner, this is an ideal entry-level model to start you off. 

What is it like to use?  

Vacuuming

I often find that any robot vacuum cleaner’s maiden voyage is a little bumpy and underwhelming. It takes time for the robot to get used to your home and at least a few vacuuming sessions before efficiently working its way around your space. 

It was no different for the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum. On its first outing, it seemed to focus on one side of our 210-square-foot living room, ignoring the other side of the room and repeatedly focusing on one strip in particular. Finally, after around forty minutes, I picked it up and set it over on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, this reset the vacuum cleaner, causing it to start over its cleaning session, so I lost the accompanying mapping in the app.

I also found the vacuum cleaner struggled with pet hair. After around fifty minutes of cleaning, the roller brush became entangled, and the robot stopped working. However, removing the roller brush, cutting away the hair, and reinstalling it was easy.

The second trip around the living room, and subsequent trips, were much better. This time the robot did a better job of covering as much floor space as possible.

I also noticed that the Proscenic 850T is excellent at getting under furniture due to its low profile, and it’s pretty good at clambering over thick rugs too. After a full clean, you could see the robot's track lines all over the thick carpet.

I was also impressed at how much this vacuum cleaner picked up on its first pass. The dustbin was packed, not including the dog hair I had to cut away from the roller brush. So it’s clear that there’s impressive suction power in the Proscenic 850T. Though be aware, if you have a lot of pet hair you may need to change the dustbin once or twice while your robot is vacuuming.

The edge cleaning is also good, and you can set your robot to do this after the general vacuuming or as a standalone clean. However, due to its round design the Proscenic 850T isn’t great at getting into tight corners.

I tested just how good the Proscenic 850T was at picking up debris by sprinkling some oats on the carpet and hard floors. On the carpet it was pretty good, taking just a few passes to pick up all the oats. A second test on the carpet using spot cleaning was even better, as the robot moves in tight but ever-increasing circles to give a thorough clean.

It didn’t fare so well on the hard floor, though. Instead of sucking up the oats it appeared to ride roughshod through them, scattering them to every part of the kitchen and trailing a line of oats in its wake! Leaving it to do its business, I returned ten minutes later to find all the oats had eventually been vacuumed. However, this experience makes me think the Proscenic 850T isn’t the kind of vacuum cleaner you get out if you’ve spilt a mound of something on the floor.

Mopping

The mopping function is easy to set up and does a pretty good job, albeit without the corners getting cleaned. If you prefer to mop with detergent, you might find the Proscenic 850T lacks that ‘clean’ feeling you get with a manual mop and detergent. But if it’s a general everyday clean you’re after, it does the job well.

It’s pretty quiet during operation, too, with an average of around 58 decibels. That’s about the same as a dishwasher, and actually, it’s a little lower than similar models I’ve tested from Samsung and Yeedi.

I was most impressed by the results when I used the vacuuming and mopping function. It managed to get rid of debris, clean away muddy pawprints and footprints, and it left the floor gleaming. Unfortunately, the robot doesn't offer this as a function on the app or the appliance, but if you choose auto clean with the mopping cartridge fitted, the vacuum does both. If you choose mopping in the app, it will only mop for you.

Is the app easy to use?

You can control every aspect of the robot from the app, including standard auto cleaning, edge cleaning, spot cleaning and mopping.

You can also use it to schedule vacuuming or mopping (or both), choosing the mode, time and frequency at which the robot comes out to play.

It looks like it’s also possible to direct the robot where to go using a remote function on the app, but I could never get it to work for more than a few seconds, so used the remote instead when I wanted to control the robot’s course.

The app also often failed to save longer cleans. It may be because, within some of the sessions, I had to help the vacuum out of a tight space, or remove pet hair from the roller brush, thus resetting the cleaning record. That’s guesswork on my part and probably isn’t the reason, but it’s something the people at Proscenic ought to look into as it may be confusing and frustrating for some users.

Cleaning the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum 

The Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum is easy to empty and clean. Simply take the dustbin cartridge out and flick it open to empty it into your bin. You can also use the cleaning tool provided to clean the filter of any dust and debris. 

Besides that, you may need to regularly remove the roller brush and cut off any hair or thread that wraps around it during vacuuming. And don’t forget to dust that glossy black casing if you want to keep it looking its best!

Storing and maintaining the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum 

The small charging port means the robot doesn’t take up much floor space. However, Proscenic advises leaving one metre of room on either side of the robot, around twice as some robot vacuum cleaners, so you may need to allocate more space.

While the cleaning and cutting tool is super-handy for removing pet hair around the roller brush, there’s no onboard storage for it. So put it somewhere safe and try not to forget where it is! You'll also need to store the mopping water tank, spare brushes, filter and mop pad somewhere.

The electric cord could be longer. At around 140cm, it’s not bad, but given the one metre you need to allocate on either side of the robot, the shorter cord could limit your choices of where to place it, unless you use an extension lead. 

There is a handy setting within the app called ‘Consumables record’, which details how many estimated hours each of the replaceable components has left. For example, on my consumables record I can see that I have 150 hours remaining until I need to replace my filter, and 200 hours until I need to replace my side brushes, etc. 

There are also plenty of ‘how to’ videos on YouTube explaining how to take care of your Proscenic 850T, from cleaning the sensors and wheels to the HEPA filter. 

The mop head is also easy to clean - simply peel it off the mop cartridge and throw it in the laundry. Since it’s microfibre be sure not to use fabric conditioner in the washing machine, as this can clog up the fibres and reduce cleaning power. 

How does the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum rate online? 

The Proscenic 850T gets great reviews on Amazon, with thousands of ratings and an average of 4.4 stars out of 5. Users praise how easy and convenient it is to set up and operate, while the app allows them to schedule daily vacuums whether they’re at home or away. 

Negative reviews tend to focus on how long the vacuum takes to charge, with some finding it can take 4 or 5 hours to get a full charge. Others find the mapping functionality in the app a little basic for their liking. 

How does the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum compare to similar models and its predecessors? 

Having tested a few robot vacuums at opposite ends of the market, I think the Proscenic is pretty good value for money. It’s relatively cheap, considering many robot vacuums are sold for over a thousand pounds. It’s reliable, sturdy in design, and performs well at everyday cleaning.

While the app isn’t great at showing you how the robot has performed in your home, it’s pretty good at setting cleaning schedules and controlling the robot from your phone, with no dropouts in service or connectivity. 

More expensive robots that use laser navigation systems are better at spotting obstacles and mapping out entire rooms, but you won’t find that kind of technology at this price. 

Compared to the Proscenic M8 Pro, which uses laser navigation and features a self-emptying station, the 850T may seem lacking in features. However, for an entry level robot, it offers good value for money. And the fact that it offers mopping too is definitely a bonus. 

Should you buy the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum? 

Even with some of the minor glitches I experienced in the at-home testing, the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum offers excellent value for money. Regularly priced under £160, it’s unusual to find a robot vacuum that offers a great performance and bonus features, such as mopping functionality or spare parts, all of which you get with the Proscenic 850T.

You’ll get more from this robot cleaner if you live in a reasonably minimalist home with few obstacles littering the floor. Even better if you live in a space that has one level. That way, you can set it to clean your entire home while you’re out or sleeping and not worry about it tripping up on toys or rugs.

About this review and this reviewer 

Joanne tested the Proscenic 850T Robot Vacuum over several days on various surfaces, thoroughly checking its performance, runtime, battery charging time and extra features, in accordance to how we test at Ideal Home.