Narwal Freo X Ultra Review: Best Robot Vacuum Dark Horse in 2024?
Is this the end of the three-way robot vacuum cleaner battle? Narwal has launched its 8,200 Pa heavyweight, the Freo X Ultra, promising nothing less than the "first robot vacuum with anti-tangling technology". does this mean finding tangled pet fur in the roller brush history? Read nextpit's detailed robot vacuum cleaner review to find out whether the Narwal Freo X Ultra will ascend to the top of robot vacuum Olympus and force the other robot vacuum cleaners from Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs to shake in their boots!
Good
- Space to store cleaning solutions in the station
- Great app
- Pet fur really did not get tangled up in the roller brush!
- Flawless navigation
- Impressive suction capability
- Superb mopping performance
Bad
- No self-emptying function
- Questionable disposable dust bag quality
- Not any cheaper than its competition
The Narwal Freo X Ultra in a nutshell
If you are looking for a top robot vacuum with mopping capability and a base station, the Narwal Freo X Ultra is the right choice for you. The new Narwal robot vacuum cleaner can do everything that even the best robot vacuum cleaner with mopping function, the Dreame L20 Ultra, can. With a suction power of 8,200 Pa and rotating mops in action, you won't have to sweat it out anymore to clean your home. Although Narwal has improved the suction power considerably, the battery life still remains very impressive.
From the app, you have all the setting options at your disposal. Narwal only made a small update to the base station, which is only noticeable upon closer inspection. The touchscreen has been given a facelift, but it is just cosmetics without featuring any new functions.
The base of the Freo X Ultra does not have a self-cleaning function though. Your intervention is still required here. With all the upgrades, Narwal has increased its price and lost any advantage it had in that department against other competitor models.
This article is part of a collaboration between nextpit and Narwal. This collaboration has no influence on the editorial opinion of nextpit.
Design and app
Narwal followed up from the standard Freo and only made a few changes to the design. Instead of a hinged cover, a removable cover sits in its place on top. However, the docking station of the Freo X Ultra looks confusingly similar to the Freo's. The Freo app, on the other hand, has been given a visual facelift.
Pros:
- Chic docking station.
- Great software support.
- Two side brushes.
Cons:
- Disposable dust bags are expensive in the long run.
- Cover is prone to scratches.
Narwal made a few changes to the design of the robot vacuum cleaner. The hood, where the QR code for the app is located underneath it, is now a removable cover instead of a flap. However, a peek under the hood revealed no new features. You get a 1 L dust container as usual. Optionally, you can place one of the three 1 L disposable dust bags that is included with each purchase.
The familiar LiDAR tower sits on top, where Narwal uses lasers for navigation in front and at the sides. You don't have much choice when it comes to colors as Narwal only sells the robot vacuum cleaner with a mopping function in white.
The cleaning assistant is controlled and operated via the Narwal Freo app. The set-up process takes anywhere from two to three minutes, or a maximum of five if you don't have your Wi-Fi password on hand. The Wi-Fi connection is set up via Bluetooth. As usual, mapping is the first thing it starts with. For our 520ft² (48 m²) test area which consists of two rooms, the robot vacuum cleaner with mopping function took 15 minutes to scour the area.
Even when mapping, the robot vacuum cleaner struggled to recognize table legs. As a result, the Freo X Ultra tried to reach the table leg with all its might, but it was all in vain. Apart from this slight hiccup, the robot vacuum cleaner shone when scanning our test area. If the Narwal robot vacuum cleaner had incorrectly scanned an area of your home, you can make the necessary corrections afterward.
After mapping, you can view the result in the Narwal Freo app. If you so desire, you can specify whether you want to view your apartment image in 2D or 3D. If you live in a multi-story house, mapping such a huge living area is no problem for the Narwal robot vacuum cleaner.
You specify exactly how and the order the Freo X Ultra should clean and mop your home via the app. Through different settings, you have an overview of the remaining service life of the individual components and can adjust settings such as the child safety lock and determine whether you own pets or not.
As mentioned earlier, not much changed with the docking station. The touchscreen located on the lid has returned, and apart from a facelift, the touchscreen offers no new functions. Probably the most practical use for it is having you see just how far the vacuuming and mopping have progressed.
Suction and mopping performance
Narwal promises no pet fur will get tangled up in the roller brush, but can we confirm this in an endurance test with two dogs around the vicinity? To ensure that the Freo X Ultra is up to the task, Narwal equipped the robot vacuum cleaner with a full 8,200 Pa of suction power.
Pros:
- Flagship-level suction power.
- No pet fur in the roller brush.
- Excellent navigation.
- Incredible battery life.
Cons:
- No self-emptying function.
- Thin cable and table legs are its nemesis.
At maximum suction power, the Narwal Freo X Ultra is definitely one of the louder robot vacuum cleaners nextpit reviewed to date, but how else can you pack 8,200 Pa of suction power into a robot vacuum cleaner? Even if the Narwal Freo X Ultra is irritating to listen to while it is at work, you cannot deny that it boasts a very powerful suction power. In the practical test, the new Narwal flagship collected 99 percent of the generously distributed oat flakes on a tiled surface.
Finer impurities, such as sand in our test, were also vacuumed away with ease by the Narwal robot vacuum cleaner. We discovered 98 percent of our strewn sand in the dust container. Speaking of the dust container: As an alternative to the conventional dust container, you can use the provided disposable dust bags.
Apart from the fact that you will increase the overall operating cost of the Narwal robot vacuum cleaner in the long term by doing so, it was not clear to us during the review why you should switch to the disposable dust bag. Throughout our review, the dust bag was bursting at its seams after just vacuuming for six hours.
| Test volume (g) | Suction volume (g) | Efficiency (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oat flakes (tiles) |
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| Sand (tiles) |
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| Sand (carpet) |
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The original Narwal Freo we reviewed a while back struggled with carpets. With the Freo X Ultra, however, Narwal managed to almost completely eliminate this weakness. The robot vacuum cleaner with mopping function sucked up 96 percent of the sand. Carpet detection worked flawlessly. As soon as the cleaning robot recognizes your beloved surface, it raises its mop pads by 12 mm to avoid leaving your carpets moist.
- Not good enough? Improve cleaning performance with these nextpit tips
Narwal described the Freo X Ultra as "the first robot vacuum with anti-tangling technology". We've all seen it before: manufacturers sometimes make absurd promises with their products that are not kept at the end of the day. Amazing as it may sound, after countless hours of vacuuming a household with two dogs, we actually didn't find any pet fur in the Freo X Ultra's roller brush.
Mopping is another strength of the new Narwal flagship. In the review, we immediately noticed the Freo X Ultra left behind a much wetter floor than its predecessor, the Freo. Don't get us wrong, a "Warning! Slipper floor" sign is not necessary, but the result is still another great upgrade to last year's model in our eyes.
The triangular mopping pads scrub your floor at 180 revolutions/minute. The result is impressive as the robot impressed us in the test as it made our floor squeaky clean. The Freo X Ultra effortlessly mopped away the entire splotch of slightly dried ketchup. Were there any sticky residues left behind? Not in the slightest!
The docking station cleans the mopping pads. In the Narwal Freo app, you can determine when the robot vacuum cleaner with a mopping function should return to the station to rinse the mopping utensils. The docking station then rinses the mopping pads thoroughly before it is dried quietly using hot air at 40 °C.
Navigation is on part with Roborock. You should move thin cables out of the way before any cleaning is done though. Thicker cables are not an issue for the Narwal robot vacuum cleaner. Just like any other obstacles or objects in the way, these are avoided without any contact. The Freo X Ultra only runs into trouble when confronted with table legs. When that happens, the robot vacuum cleaner with mopping function tries to get onto the table leg by any means necessary with dogged persistence!
Battery life of the Freo X Ultra is also amazing. As a reminder, the Narwal Freo already boasted a phenomenal battery life with a suction power of 3,000 Pa. The Freo X Ultra bursts onto the scene with a whopping 8,200 Pa! Despite this immense increase in power, Narwal managed to keep the robot vacuum cleaner's battery life at the very highest level.
- Can Roborock keep up here? Find out in the S8 Pro Ultra review
In the review, the Freo X Ultra plodded and worked for a full two hours before the robot vacuum cleaner reaches a remaining battery level of 20 percent and returned to the docking station. The robot vacuum cleaner with mopping function needed just three hours to fully charge itself. If it has not yet completed the entire cleaning task, it will resume so after recharging.
Final verdict
With the Freo X Ultra, Narwal leaves no stone unturned to offer a powerful competitor to established manufacturers of well-known robot vacuum cleaners. They packed significant upgrades in many areas compared to its predecessor, the Narwal Freo. First, there is the improved suction power, seeing a whopping 173 percent increase compared to the previous model. Fears that the increased suction power would have a negative impact on battery life were unfounded in our review.
The touchscreen was given a facelift, but it still featured the same range of functions. As with the Freo, Narwal also dispensed with a self-emptying function on the Freo X Ultra. Instead, the docking station only took care of rinsing and drying the mopping pads once it is done with its cleaning task.
The fact that all dust is collected in the robot is a matter of personal preference. The use of disposable dust bags drives up the overall price of the robot vacuum cleaner with a mopping function in the long term. From a financial and environmentally friendly perspective, we recommend using the 1-liter dust container, which can be easily emptied in a more environmentally friendly manner with a single downward press.
In our list of the best vacuum robots with mopping function, we named the Narwal Freo as a dark horse. With the Freo X Ultra, Narwal offers the next flagship-level dark horse if you haven't yet warmed up to Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs. However, Narwal isn't just tweaking the technical specifications here but also the price, and it is a huge jump. The Narwal Freo X Ultra costs $999 (on sale), sporting a MSRP of $1,399, which is significantly higher than the $1,099 for the rival Dreame L20 Ultra when it was launched.
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