Let's start with how Roborock founded. The company was established in July 2014 by CHANG Jing. In a few months, Xiaomi invested in the company which means Roborock became an enterprise member of the Xiaomi ecological chain.
The largest shareholders of Roborock are: CHANG Jing (the founder of Roborock); Shunwei Ventures III (Hong Kong) Limited, controlled by XU DALAI, who is the director of Xiaomi; Tianjin Jinmi Investment, controlled by LEI Jun, who is the founder and CEO of Xiaomi.
The Xiaomi-related shareholders owns 24.7%, almost the 1/4 of the Roborock company.
In 2016, Roborock released its first robot vacuum, the Xiaomi Mi Robot that quickly became popular. To give the product some trust, Roborock released the product under Xiaomi label.
In 2017, the company releases its second and best-selling product, names it the Roborock S5. The Roborock S55 and S50 is the same robot vacuum, the S55 is a black robot while the S50 is white. Other than the color option, there is no difference between the two.
The company divides the product line into: "Roborock" for high-end products, and "Xiaowa" for budget robots.
For some time, Roborock uses the Xiaomi's sales channels, websites to promote the product but in about two years, they removes Xiaomi reference for the company's other products.
Source: Reddit post
There are 7 Roborock models:
- Roborock S5 (S55/S50)
- Roborock Xiaowa E2
- Roborock Xiaowa E3
- Roborock S4
- Roborock S6
- Roborock S5 Max
- Roborock S6 Pure
You can read more about each model in our Roborock comparison.
The Roborock Xiaowa are budget models, they are also 2-in-1 which means can do mopping and vacuuming.
The Roborock S4 is the only model in the family that can only vacuum.
Other models are 2-in-1 hybrids that can do both.
Xiaomi produced 4 robot vacuums under its label:
- Xiaomi Mi Robot
- Xiaomi MiJia 1S
- Xiaomi Mi Vacuum Mop P or Xiaomi Mi (or Mijia) Robot 2-in-1 (originally called STYJ02YM)
- Xiaomi MJia 1C
Roborock functioned as ODM and produced the MiJia 1S which is an updated model of the Xiaomi Mi Robot with some upgraded features. The MiJia 1S does not mop as well as the Xiaomi Mi Robot.
Another model that was build by Roborock for Xiaomi is the latest Xiaomi MJia 1C. It looks very similar to the MiJia 1S but it is not lidar-guided and is the cheapest robot in the family.
The most confused model by Xiaomi (meaning its naming), the MiJia STYJ02YM was not biult by Roborock. There is another manufacturer Viomi which is subsidiary of Xiaomi. The Viomi has produced a robot vacuum, the Viomi V2 which is exactly the same device as the MiJia STYJ02YM. They share the same two-in-one containers, Y-shaped mopping path, etc.
More about the Xiaomi robots, have a look at the models comparison chart.
Hope that helps with the confusion about the Xiaomi and Roborock products.
Feel free to ask any questions about each product in the comment section down below, I would be happy to help :)