Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: almost great but with one big flaw

• View Freo X Ultra at Narwal

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum two-minute review

If you have cash to splurge, the Narwal Freo X Ultra is an easy robot vacuum to recommend. That is, if your space isn’t an open floor plan. One of the main issues that I come across with a lot of the up-and-coming competition vying for best robot vacuum status is that they come with all sorts of interesting, cutting edge features and functionalities – and that’s certainly the case here – but somewhere along the line, they drop the ball on something fundamental.

And more often than not, that issue relies on how the app differentiates, or allows you to differentiate, between different rooms. In fact, if you look at most of my recent reviews, they all seem to have an issue with this whereas I didn’t have this issue with the mid-range Shark 2-in-1 robot vacuum I reviewed over a year ago.

Still, I’m not discounting the Narwal Freo X Ultra. I said it was an easy robot to recommend, after all. In fact, the only other real issue with it is that it’s pricey. In fact, if you don’t have an open floor plan, you might find it to be the best vacuum cleaner for your needs. It does a fantastic job of vacuuming and mopping, and, unlike most other models, comes with actual cleaning solution.

On top of that, it has an unusual space-age look that makes it a bit more attractive, or at least striking, compared with many of the other robot vacuums that come with a large base station in tow.

Surprisingly, Narwal has decided to forgo a dock dustbin, and while it claims some innovative compression in the onboard bin means it can hold seven weeks of dust and debris, in reality I suspect that's a little optimistic. Those dealing with lots of dust and debris might be better off with a traditional, self-empty model. That's the short version; read on for my full Narwal Freo X Ultra review.

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum specs

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum: price & availability

• List price: $1,399.99 / AU$ 2,299.00 (about £1,110)
• Available in the US and Australia

The Narwal Freo X Ultra is expensive. There’s no way around that. Sure, it might have some interesting incremental improvements over other models that come with a base station – it has two side brushes instead of one, it comes with cleaning solution, it washes and dries its own mop pads, and so on. But a lot of the models in this price range can do the same. so spending $1,399.99 / AU$ 2,299 (about £1,110) on this robot vacuum doesn’t necessarily offer the best value out there.

The Ecovacs Deebot T30 S Combo I recently reviewed does most of that and comes with a handheld vacuum, though it skips the cleaning solution and the second side brush (more on why that’s important later), and does a slightly better job of mopping. And it’s just a little cheaper at $1,199.99 (about £950 / AU$1,800), although it’s only available in the US at the moment.

You can spend even less on something like the more price-conscious and almost as fully-featured Yeedi Cube, approximately $699 (about £559 / about AU$1,054). Of course, that robot vacuum can’t manage edges nearly as well as the Narwal Freo X Ultra. If you want to push your deep cleaning as far as possible, that feature alone is worth the extra cost.

• Value score: 3.5 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: design

• Robot vacuum has two side brushes instead of the usual one
• Base station comes with LED panel for easy control
• Comes with cleaning solution

The Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum comes with a few design features that set it apart from the rest. To start, if you’re looking at just the robot vacuum itself, it comes with two side brushes instead of the typical one along with the two mop pads. Both mop pads lift up off the ground when just vacuuming, and the brush roll for sucking everything into its dustbin is made so that hair won’t get tangled around it.

The base station has a sleeker look than most, offering a deeper cavity for the robot vacuum so that the unit is completely engulfed when at rest. In my opinion, it has a bit of a space-age aesthetic.

But it differs from other high-end base stations in more than just looks. For starters it'll wash and dry mop pads automatically. Then there’s a small, round LED panel on top that offers some control without having to whip out your phone or push a button on the robot vacuum itself. Just a press and off it goes to vacuum or mop. This panel also comes with a child-lock feature, which is nifty.

Interestingly, there's no dustbin in the dock. Instead, Narwal says it uses a special compression method that means the onboard dustbin will hold seven weeks of dust and debris. It's designed to hold 1L of dust – most dock dustbins will hold 2.5L or 3L, so you should expect to have to empty this robovac more regularly than an option with self-emptying.

In the dock you will find clean and dirty water tanks. Hidden inside where the clean water tank resides is an area to put cleaning solution, which Narwal has thoughtfully included. If you do buy the Narwal Freo X Ultra, however, note that the cleaning solution container is inside the dirty water reservoir – something that’s not mentioned anywhere in the literature and I don’t make a habit of checking the dirty water reservoir until I need to empty it.

Regardless, it’s a nice feature that most robot vacuums seem to skip, going with just water to mop your floors. While I’ve had good results with those other robot vacuums with mops, I appreciate the ability to use actual cleaning solution on my floors to clean them.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: performance

• Excellent vacuuming, especially with edges
• Almost as good mopping, though not as good with edges
• Can take a long time since it washes its mop pads frequently

I may have come on a bit strong at the beginning of this review about the Narwal Freo X Ultra, but I can’t fault its performance one bit. It has multiple levels of vacuuming and mopping at its disposal, and can handle both hard flooring and carpeting.

When vacuuming, it’s able to get dust and debris just fine, but it’s also able to scoop up larger bits as well. I actually threw a handful of cheerios right in front of it to test. Some of them were scooped by a certain French Bulldog, but everything left in its path was swept up in a single pass. The outright suction power here is high, but not the strongest on the market – 8,200Pa, when some premium models reach as high as 10,000Pa or occasionally even more. However, I certainly didn't see any compromises in performance.

That includes the edges. Since it has side brushes on both sides and they stick out a bit more than I’ve seen on other robot vacuums, it’s able to sweep up debris on the edges of a room.

The only potential down side for some people will be the fact that there's no automatic self-emptying of dust into a larger dock dustbin. Narwal advertises that you only have to empty the Ultra's onboard dustbin every seven weeks. If you're using this robot vacuum just to keep pet dander, dust, and small dirt particles at bay, I think that's feasible. However, if you're dealing with large amounts of dirt or hair, or are using the robovac to also spot clean larger spillages, it will fill up sooner. That's especially true when dealing with larger particles – after all, there are certain things that might be vacuumed up that can't be compressed.

Its ability to avoid objects is pretty good. I haven’t seen it have any issues with anything other than cables and cords, which is kryptonite for every single robot vacuum I’ve encountered. Essentially, it’s as good as it’s going to get with a robot vacuum – it even avoids the dogs.

The mopping performance is almost as good. While I can’t confirm that it actually uses more pressure with its mop pads than other robot vacuums, it does an efficient job cleaning up stains and anything sticky. Besides using this robot vacuum to clean up after a couple of French Bulldogs who like to track in all sorts of stuff, I also poured a bunch of soy sauce in front of it (not to worry, it was the low-sodium stuff). It took about two passes to completely pick it all up. Plus, the floor didn’t smell like soy sauce after. This might be due to that cleaning solution that Narwal included.

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Where the mopping is not quite as good is on edges. Since this model doesn’t have one of those mop pads that extends out, it relies on the robot vacuum to angle itself in a way that the mop pad gets to the edges and corners of a room. However, I regularly saw that it didn’t quite get to those edges as it should.

While I was happy with the way the Narwal Freo X Ultra cleaned, it did take a long time as it regularly went back to the base station to wash those mop pads. Not that that’s a bad thing, though; just something to bear in mind.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: app

• App is intuitive to use
• Separating rooms in mapping is impossible in certain situations
• Seems to have a mind of its own when trying to clean only certain areas

My biggest hangup with the Narwal Freo X is going to be here. First, however, I do want to mention that the app in general is intuitive and easy to use. Pulling up the menu to adjust vacuuming or mopping strength is a breeze, and it’s just as easy to create a schedule to have it clean on its own. In fact, adjusting all sorts of settings for the robot vacuum and the base station, such as drying intensity, is straightforward.

Where I have issues is in using the map. The robot vacuum does a fine job actually mapping the necessary space, but Narwal decided to make it so that you have to use a line tool when separating the space into different rooms. Just like every other app that does this, you can’t use one line to go across another, meaning I basically can’t separate the four rooms that make up the accessible space on the ground floor into those four rooms.

My workaround is to cut the space into two rooms so that I can just clean half if I need a more localized cleaning. My issue here as that, while the Narwal Freo X Ultra did a fine job cleaning that half of the space, or what I designated as “room one,” it decided that after it finished cleaning “room one” that it would continue to clean everything, meaning I and my family had to spend another two hours listening to it slowly mop its way back and forth.

When I run the Narwal Freo X Ultra, as well as the other robot vacuums that suffer similar issues, I end up just running it over my entire space.

• App score: 3 out of 5

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: battery life

• 210 minute battery life
• Due to the way it runs, you won’t see it run out of battery

The battery life on the Narwal Freo X Ultra is advertised as 210 minutes, but I haven't managed to run it for 210 minutes straight as it regularly returns to the base station to empty its contents and wash its mop pads. However I have seen it go for three hours without any issues or needing to stop for a significant time to charge.

The only time I’ve really experienced it running out of battery is just like I have with any other robot vacuum, in that it gets stuck somewhere for a few hours while I’m not around, and needs to be returned to the base station to charge back up.

• Battery score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum review: also consider

Ecovacs Deebot T30 S Combo

The Ecovacs Deebot T30 S Combo has that extendable mop pad to mop edges, and extra handheld vacuum that auto-empties and stores in the same base station and is just a little cheaper. However, it doesn’t look quite as interesting and doesn’t come with cleaning solution.

Read our full Ecovacs Deebot T30 S Combo review

Yeedi Cube

The Yeedi Cube is not quite as good as the Narwal, but it gets you 90% of the way there for half the price. It still has very good mopping functionality and is one of the first robot vacuum and mops to do the whole mop pad drying thing to avoid mold and bacteria. Also note that it suffers from the exact same issues when it comes to the map.

Read our full Yeedi Cube review

How I tested the Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum

To test the Narwal Freo X Ultra, I used it for a couple of weeks to vacuum and mop the hardwood floors and carpeting in my house. I also tested all the features listed in the app, from mapping to scheduling. I took note of how well the vacuum cleaned the edges of a room as well as around obstacles, not to mention running how the handheld vacuum performed.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2024