iLife V3s Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Stellar Performance at a Budget Price

Our Verdict

Purchase it. iLife V3s Pro costs less than $200, yet outperformed robot vacuums costing hundreds more.

For

Splendid pet-hair-cleaning performance
Fantastic hardwood performance
Inexpensive

Against

Loud
Inconsistent cleaning pattern

Tom'south Guide Verdict

Buy it. iLife V3s Pro costs less than $200, notwithstanding outperformed robot vacuums costing hundreds more.

Pros

+
Splendid pet-hair-cleaning functioning
+
Fantastic hardwood functioning
+
Inexpensive

Cons

-
Loud
-
Inconsistent cleaning pattern

How much vacuum cleaner do yous really need? The iLife V3s Pro robot vacuum cleaner knows what it does well and sticks to it – namely, pet hair. While information technology lacks fancier features such as smartphone control, the $160 V3s Pro is a great deal for multi-pet households looking to spend less on cleaning and more than on chew toys. If your home has thick rugs, then yous'll want to await elsewhere, but if your flooring is primarily hardwood or tile with a few thin rugs, this is the best robot vacuum for less than $200.

Check out our guide to the best Roombas
The all-time robot mops for hardwood and kitchen floors
The best robot vacuums for pet hair

The iLife VS3 Pro Robot Vacuum besides earned a Highly Recommended nod for the All-time robot vacuum award in the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for smart home devices.

iLife V3s Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Blueprint

The iLife V3s Pro looks remarkably similar to its sibling, the iLife V5s Pro, though it swaps out the aureate plastic cover for a white one with white and black bumpers around the sides. At three inches high, the slightly raised lip on the front end of the vac keeps the V3s Pro from venturing to locations where information technology might get stuck. Two, three-spoke brushes that spin when the vacuum is running sit on either side, about the front end of the device, loosening debris and guiding it toward the robot'south gullet. Equally with other iLife robot vacuums, the V3s Pro lacks a spinning roller castor, opting for a 3-inch suction opening that funnels debris direct into the dustbin. The lunchbox-like dustbin, complete with a bright yellowish handle, sits in the center of the vac, beneath the white cover.

While the absenteeism of a roller brush certainly makes cleaning and maintaining the bot much easier, nosotros did detect that the V3s Pro struggled to pick up larger debris on a depression-pile rug. Robot vacuums equipped with a roller castor, such as the Shark Ion R85 — our favorite overall robot vac — did a ameliorate job.

More than: Robot vacuum ownership guide

iLife V3s Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Setup

Similar other non-connected robot vacuums, the iLife V3s Pro is a snap to gear up. Just like the V5s Pro, all we had to practice was plug in the base of operations, flip the power switch, and charge it. We appreciate that the ability adapter works with both the base of operations and the robot itself; information technology's a nice little slice of insurance in case the family dog absconds with the pocket-sized plastic base.

The iLife V3s Pro has three cleaning modes – whole floor, edge and spot cleaning, which sends the vacuum slowly spinning into a spiral as it focuses on one area.

iLife V3s Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Cleaning operation

	Smartphone Control	Overall Cleaning Score	Avg. Cleaning Time (Hrs:Min:Sec)	Cheerios Cleaning Score	Kitty Litter Cleaning Score	Domestic dog Hair Cleaning Score
iLife V3s Pro	No	97	1:31:01	99.7	91.75	99.five
iLife V5s Pro	No	94.8	1:xl:58	99.ane	88.2	97.iii
Eufy RoboVac 11s	No	85.8	one:18:00	100	ninety	67.5
Shark Ion R85	Yes	94	1:01:57	100	94	88

Though the iLife V3s Pro is a budget vacuum, its cleaning prowess on our hardwood floors blew us away. The machine picked upward small, flaky pieces of onion pare as it carefully wound itself around our baseboards in edge-cleaning mode. Like its V5s Pro sibling, it approached walls and obstacles slowly and gingerly. Though information technology's not always perfect, the irksome obstacle approach reminded us of more than premium vacuums, like the iRobot Roomba i7.

The V3s Pro vacuumed up a thick line of breadcrumbs we sprinkled horizontally into its path without a second idea. After the vac fabricated a few passes, the breadcrumbs were gone. By comparing, the iLife V5s Pro spread the crumbs around and never quite managed to capture all of them, leaving a gritty surface on our hardwood flooring.

In our lab tests, the iLife V3s Pro was a top performer. The robot earned a perfect score on our pet pilus on the hardwood test, picking upward 100%. Out of all of the robot vacuums we tested – in all price ranges – the V3s Pro was the only one that achieved perfection on this examination. The robo vac was equally impressive on carpet when dealing with pet pilus, picking up 99% of it, merely a hair (pardon the pun) less than the iLife V5s Pro'due south 99.5% pickup rate. The device's performance was remarkably better than the Eufy RoboVac 11s, which only cleaned up 75% of pet hair on rug.

Overall, the iLife V3s Pro was nearly perfect on our hardwood floor tests, picking upward an boilerplate 99.8% of the Cheerios, kitty litter and pet hair we threw at it. That score is the single best hardwood exam consequence average of whatsoever robot vacuum we tested. On carpet, the V3s Pro faltered slightly, cleaning up an average of 94.2% of the debris. However, the Shark Ion R85 was the only vacuum to best it, with it'south 97.2% carpet-cleaning average.

More: Best robot vacuums

The iLife V3s Pro completed its lab-test cleaning runs in an boilerplate of i 60 minutes, 31 minutes and i 2nd. This speedy bot is more than 9 minutes minutes faster than the iLife V5s Pro, but lagged backside the Eufy RoboVac 11'southward average cleaning time of i hour, eighteen minutes, likewise as that of the Shark Ion R85 (i:01). The device was likewise a full xl minutes slower than the robot vacuum boilerplate of i hour and 50 seconds.

While the iLife V3s Pro is an impressive cleaner, the logic behind its movements didn't always make sense to u.s.a.. The machine was particularly enamored of repeatedly cleaning our foyer and under our couch. Even when we coaxed it into our kitchen to clean instead, the vac made one laissez passer and and so returned to the vestibule. Likewise, when we used the remote control to send the robot back to its dock, it wandered around for awhile, eventually getting itself stuck in a blueprint under the couch. Thankfully, we were able to utilise the arrow controls on the remote to call back it.

The racket level of the iLife V3s Pro at 64.ane decibels in our lab, which is slightly louder than both the 62.5 decibels generated by the Eufy RoboVac 11s and the comparatively quiet 59.9-decibel iLife V5s Pro. We noticed information technology, too. It was hard to hear the scheming and dealing on "Billions" over the din of the vac.

iLife V3s Pro Robot Vacuum Review: Verdict

If you're on a budget and have pets, the iLife V3s Pro is the best robot vacuum for you. Fifty-fifty if you're not on a upkeep, at $160, the iLife V3s Pro is an excellent choice. While the vac won't ship alerts to your smartphone or let y'all to only clean certain rooms, the V3s Pro excels at what is probably the most desirable feature in a robot vacuum: bodily cleaning ability. The Eufy RoboVac 11's lower profile makes it more than skilful at traveling under furniture, merely the V3s Pro offers better performance for less money. Without a doubtfulness, the iLife V3s Pro is one of the best cheap robot vacuums around.

Meghan McDonough is a journalist who currently tests and writes about robot vacuums. Since 2008, she'southward written near laptops, mobile phones, headphones, speakers, and other consumer tech. When she sees an unfamiliar device, Meghan has a habit of asking consummate strangers, "What is that? Does information technology work well for y'all?"

In her spare time, Meghan enjoys seeing live music, disposed to her garden, and playing endless games of fetch with her Goldendoodle, Duke of Squirrel.