“THINK DIFFERENT“
Having the opportunity to get in touch with Narwal and test the Freo X Ultra gave me the chance to understand why this company is starting to be seen by many as the Apple of robot vacuum cleaners, let’s find out together why, starting from the unboxing and up to discovering the numerous engineering choices and “out of the ordinary” solutions as well as the obsessive attention to hardware and software details.
PACKAGING AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Most robot vacuum cleaners are very similar in terms of style and design and usually the only differences are found in the size of the docking station, those who follow my reviews will surely know that I particularly appreciate courageous choices in design and innovation and this Freo X Ultra in my opinion falls into the category of robots that furnish and that you would never dream of hiding in a closet or behind a piece of furniture…. White, shiny and compact and minimal design
Aesthetically almost completely similar to the Freo, a predecessor that here in Italy has had little echo, it hides many improvements under the hood, with very particular engineering ideas. The very rounded shapes and the white are reminiscent of the clean shapes of the 80s, when designers looked for those features that added something to the room, but left room for individual interpretation, those who do not know the Narwal brand, could easily mistake it for an Apple design.
The construction and material quality is extremely high, no detail has been left to chance and everything flows perfectly both aesthetically and functionally, immediately conveying the idea of a premium and well-built product.
In the package we find everything as equipment beyond what is necessary to be able to use it immediately, side brushes, central brush, clean water tank and dirty water detergent, silver ion mop filter, dust box and dust bag with built-in filter as well as obviously the instruction booklet, really well made and therefore usable by all users.
HARDWARE AND FEATURES
There is a lot to talk about so let’s go in order.
On the lid of the base that measures 41.5×37×43.4cm and weighs a featherweight of 8.5kg, the round touch control screen is immediately on display, which allows you to carry out all the basic operations without having to connect to the app, such as starting and stopping global cleaning, making the robot go out and come back in, starting the self-cleaning of the mops with drying and the child lock. aBy opening the lid you will notice one of the many peculiarities that I will point out in this review, that is the color of the water containers, inverted compared to how we are used to seeing them, in fact, here the 4.5 liter clean water container is slightly opaque blue almost as if to recall the color of the ocean, certainly a more aesthetic than functional whim, while the 4.1 liter dirty water container is transparent, a choice certainly adopted to show the user how much dirt it can remove from the floors, the choice is so peculiar that they thought well to remember it with some writings on the base. Finally, I point out that in the clean water tank there is a sponge to filter the impurities that must be washed occasionally and a seat for the silver ion disinfection module which unfortunately is not yet present on the European market (at least the original one).
By removing the clean water tank you can access the compartment where the detergent container will be placed; the base has automatic dosing but you can disable it if you want and add a specific detergent directly into the water container. Narwal naturally recommends using the automatic dispenser and their detergent and given the convenience, the fact that it is dosed perfectly to avoid accumulations and streaks and the excellent quality of the same I have not found any particular reasons not to do so.
In the lower part we find the washing tub, composed of two pieces, the tray itself and the upper plate completely removable to be conveniently washed in the sink. We will hardly find the part of the base under the tray dirty, as unfortunately happens with other competitors, because the peculiar design of the tray, does not leave the possibility of residual dirt underneath, also leaving all the contacts and the back always perfectly clean. We also note in the washing tub various solutions to guarantee not only a perfect washing of the cloths but also various gaskets to avoid leaks. Rightly, Narwal boasts a lot about its washing system and it is no coincidence that it is the only manufacturer to use snow white cloths and that to my great surprise remain white for a long time … and this with washing the mops with cold water, so I think that the system designed is really very good. Another feature that is not mentioned by any reviewer is that the mops are enriched with silver ions for greater hygiene.
The base also integrates a dirt detection sensor called by Narwal DirtSense which as we will see works differently than other floor cleaning robots, there is not much else to say about the base since it does not have a self-emptying system except that I would have liked, given the extreme attention to detail, a recess on the back to collect the excess cable.
We now come to where the main ideas of the Brand are concentrated, namely the robot measuring 35×35×10.7cm and weighing a significant 4.25kg, a weight which as we will see has a specific reason. The declared suction power is 8200Pa so not the highest among the top of the range but enough to guarantee good performance if used properly. The real gem, however, is undoubtedly the conical-shaped brush and the rows of bristles and rubber blades inclined at 50°, this combined with the fact that the brush is floating and attached to only one side and the positioning of the suction mouth on the opposite side ensures that animal hair and hair never get stuck, and from my personal experience I can confirm, and if my word is not enough for you, there are TÜV and SGS that certify the brush called Zero Tangles, I don’t know how much the other features will impress you but I can say that this brush is something revolutionary. Staying on the lower part of the robot we notice other peculiarities starting from the two side brushes that contrary to the standard have only two arms, you will be wondering what the point of having only two could be and you will understand it only by seeing the robot at work, the side brushes in fact do not limit themselves to rotating but are moved intelligently according to the task that the robot is performing, when it cleans the edges the brush that makes the perimeter rotates faster than the internal one for better dust removal, while when it is doing the central part of the room they rotate alternately according to the cleaning direction to avoid shooting crumbs and debris into the areas already cleaned, personally I would have made them rotate slightly faster to compensate for the lack of an arm. But the real gem is when it returns to the base and both rotate under the robot to leave a tidy and clean appearance; details you will say, but they make the difference and make you understand how crazy (in a good sense obviously) the Narwal engineers are.
Continuing to observe the bottom we can notice the anti-fall sensors and the ultrasonic sensor to detect carpets and rugs but you will not find the directional wheel which is located instead in the rear area, where the majority of the robot’s weight is concentrated and where we find the two supports with the rotating mops, triangular in shape with asynchronous rotation and which we must necessarily stop to talk about later. The mops, in the suction phases naturally lift automatically and on carpets by 12mm, to keep the carpets dry.
Now we rotate the robot while observing the front laser sensor, the side one and finally on the upper part the Lidar turret, the navigation system called trilaser ensures excellent navigation and a good ability to avoid obstacles, we are absolutely not at the level of the top of the range Dreame or Roborock equipped with a camera and structured light, here we should pay attention to the cables and lower obstacles, but everything that the laser touches it avoids well.
After having given a fascinated look given their workmanship as well as the lidar turret and the two buttons on the robot for start/pause and docking we can finally lift the magnetic cover and here we find another unique feature of the Freo X, in the generous opening in fact both the classic plastic container and the disposable 1lt bag can find space, yes you understood correctly, the robot does not have self-emptying but can contain 1lt of dust and hair, to get as close as possible to the capacity of the classic self-emptying bags which on average range from 3 to 4 liters. Narwal has implemented an automatic compression system for the dust bag, the robot in fact, thanks to a powerful jet of air compresses hair and dust in the bag; this ensures according to their tests up to 7 weeks of collection, a parameter that in my opinion and in my tests can be true in averagely clean environments and without animals, but it is not the solution that I would recommend to those who find themselves daily collecting wagonloads of hair. Certainly, the system implemented by Narwal, ensures maximum hygiene, absolutely does not foresee dispersion of dust and bad odors
OPERATION AND CLEANING PERFORMANCE
Experience with many robots has taught me that perfection is not yet within our reach and although it is an engineering marvel, a downside to the Zero Tangle system is the positioning of the suction mouth at the end. This means that the greatest suction is on one side only and sometimes more than one crumb escaped, which is why I often preferred to set the power higher than normal to get optimal results. Luckily, the noise of the Freo X Ultra is among the lowest of the robots I have tested, if I had to compare the noise of the robot at work to the title of a song it would be “The Sound Of Silence”.
With a Collie, an Akita Shepperd and 3 cats that go in and out continuously, as well as a family of long-haired cats, I have found the Zero Tangle brush to be one of the best allies, never found a single tangled hair. The only downside, despite the dirt compression system working very well, is that at a certain point the 1lt disposable bags started to be tight and I switched to the rigid tank. Not a problem for me, and I’m sure that Narwal will correct this aspect in the new model that they will present at IFA 2024 on September 6, perhaps leaving the virtuous system of bags and compression in the robot, but also inserting the self-emptying in the base.
Nothing to object to about washing, I have really tested many robots and the Narwal Freo X Ultra’s washing is really perhaps the best. The Dirtsense technology, in combo with the FREO automatic mode, really makes the difference when we want to rely on AI, as well as in custom mode, the possibility of setting the various degrees of wetting of the mops, the type of path whether normal or meticulous and also how many suction and washing cycles we want it to do; the robot starting from the two cycles, activates a cleaning mode, called mesh, which really leaves no uncleaned space. Unlike competing robots, the FREO X ULTRA does not have an internal tank for continuously wetting the mops during the washing phase, and I will not hide the fact that before testing it, this aspect did not convince me… I tested it at length in all washing modes and I assure you that during the washing I never saw areas less wet than others, so even in this case I must say that the engineers have done a really good job. Let’s now move on to another very important feature of the Freo X Ultra; most robots apply constant pressure during each type of washing and regardless of the type of floor, a choice that I certainly consider acceptable if we think of more delicate floors such as parquet or marble, but which turns out to be poorly performing on hard floors such as stoneware. Narwal has overcome this problem by giving the user the possibility to really choose the type of floor that is in each room and above all to choose the pressure of the mops and consequently their degree of wetness. You can choose a minimum pressure and wetting of 7N for the most delicate floors up to a pressure of 12N for floors that require more intensive washing with 180 revolutions per minute.
Before you ask me because I know that today it is one of the benchmarks yes, it washes the edges and around the furniture and chairs, without extending the mop but with a rotary movement called EdgeSwing, certainly slower but equally effective in reaching the edges.
NAVIGATION AND MAPPING
Now two fundamental aspects, navigation and mapping. Let’s start with mapping, which I don’t feel like assigning an excellence rating. Given the very high overall quality of the hardware, I’m sure that the lidar turret is also of a very high level, but something at the software level and how the map is represented in the app doesn’t convince me. It seems less precise than the robot’s precision when navigating the environments, sometimes it fails to detect some separations of the environments that are then difficult to separate manually in the map editor. Narwal must update the mapping logic and make the map editor work in a more malleable way. But even here some aspects are surprising, such as the fact that if the robot reveals new areas or big changes in the environments at the end of cleaning, it asks for confirmation whether to add or modify the map and starts from the base with that specific task.
Another flaw is that if you move the base too far from the original position you necessarily have to remap everything, but even here you forgive it, since the rapid mapping even if I have not timed it is probably the fastest ever seen.
It precisely circumnavigates the perimeter of the rooms and the furniture, while on the more complex obstacles you feel the lack of an advanced system with “visual” recognition. But if you have the perseverance to keep the environment tidy you will never find it stuck or blocked, not even on carpets that it treats better than other robots given the lack of the front wheel and the two side brushes with two very intelligent arms and less rough in the approach to the edges. However, it avoids obstacles such as shoes, toys, food bowls, backpacks and all the bulkier obstacles without problems while more attention is needed for objects such as pens, keys, shoelaces and cables.
The declared autonomy thanks to the 5200mAh battery and excellent energy management is 3.5 hours for environments up to 260m2. Normally, like all the data declared by the manufacturers, they are to be understood at minimum settings and in non-complex domestic environments, yet my model in Freo mode really reached 3 hours, vacuuming and then washing a floor of about 126m2. If you think that is a long time for a cleaning, you are probably right, but a quick look at the report of the activity performed clearly reveals that it had to travel the 126m2 twice, in addition to being passed over several times in an area because it was dirty, it indicates how many times it washed the mops, the variation in pressure on the floor based on the material (in my case tiles and parquet), the amount of dirt on 4 levels and the extremely precise and careful cleaning patterns. Believe me, watching it work you will be amazed and the time taken will not seem so unreasonable.
APP AND AUTOMATIONS
As for UX and UI we are absolutely at top levels, the app is clear, simple and really beautiful from the exquisitely visual side, user friendly and full of information that many competing apps do not provide. Like a menu where all the operations it is carrying out are described in real time in an almost obsessive way.
Very complete in terms of options, as expected from any top of the range, you can customize the map, insert furniture and the 3D visualization is among the best to date. Very clear, it shows the position of the robot and indicates whether it is vacuuming or washing in real time, you can create up to 4 maps to manage different floors but for washing it is also necessary to move the base. It is possible to select 5 operating modes, vacuuming, washing, washing and vacuuming, washing after vacuuming and the customized mode where you can set the cleaning parameters for each room.
There is a menu that indicates the conditions of the base: when it is time to replace or empty the dust container, when to empty the dirty water, refill the clean water or replace the detergent bottle. A special menu is dedicated to weekly cleaning programming. In the settings, in addition to the mop drying and washing settings, you can choose the period of return to the base to wash the mops, the activation of the detergent dosage and the inevitable menus to choose the language, the volume, the activation of the DND mode, firmware updates and lots of information about the device, such as the state of wear of consumables and guides. But the goodies are not long in coming…
As unique functions there is the drying mode of the dust container, because in normal use not everything that is sucked up is dry and often you end up with smelly bags and the base. The Freo X instead applies a jet of air to dry the collected dirt, while avoiding bad odors and inhibiting the proliferation of bacteria. The “high altitude” mode that adapts the engine power if you live in the mountains, to counterbalance the difference in atmospheric pressure and the “pet” mode that when activated allows the robot to implement greater attention during cleaning and in the management of bags and drying. Finally, there is a mode called “without stairs” that simply disables the height sensors under the robot, allowing it to overcome obstacles and high thresholds. The maximum height is not specified but be careful to activate this function if you have stairs or balconies that the robot can access. Finally, I would like to point out the compatibility with Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri voice assistants, in line with competitors, in this sector something more certainly needs to be done, even if I must say that the integration is not exactly minimal as I sometimes see on other brands. Also in this case I hope that a proprietary assistant can be integrated that makes it easier to use even for those who may have some disability for which support is needed.
I’ll leave the function that I found most shocking for last, the “FREO mode” that adapts cleaning strategies based on an impressive amount of parameters, a function that no one talks about exhaustively. In Freo mode, in fact, everything is managed by sophisticated algorithms to adapt suction and washing to the environments, with particular attention to dirtier environments such as the bathroom and kitchen, to the material of the floor and, last but not least, since no other robot does it, to the temperature and humidity detected by the local weather, but also to parameters such as the frequency of operation. The incredible thing about this mode is that as long as the DirtSense sensor does not detect that the mop washing water is clean, it will continue to rewash the dirty areas of the floor and rinse the cloths several times until it decides that everything is absolutely clean. This brings with it the high water consumption as a negative aspect (here the lack of a kit for the water connection, at least here in Europe, is felt) and it lengthens the cleaning times, but seeing how the floor remains after vacuuming and washing without having to fiddle with the settings makes up for everything, believe me.
THE GOOD
- The Freo mode is incredible and the washing is among the best
- You will never find a single hair tangled in the brush
- Beautiful, simple, complete and very detailed app
- Refined aesthetics that decorate the rooms
- Silent
- Excellent autonomy
THE BAD
- The lack of self-emptying can be a big flaw for those who have a lot of hair around
- Mapping and room division logics to be reviewed
- The Freo mode, although incredible, has long times
- It would have deserved a video camera for object recognition
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The Narwal Freo Ultra is not the usual robot, the purchase must be consciously evaluated given the lack of self-emptying to which Narwal has tried to find an out of the ordinary solution. As out of the ordinary are many of its aspects: the brush, the Freo mode, the aesthetics of the robot, the app. I can say that the Narwal certainly pays attention to the overall cleaning experience and certainly does not disappoint.
The official price is 949 euros but at the time of writing this review it is discounted to 799 euros on Amazon.it.
It really makes sense if you use it regularly for cleaning and you don’t mind having to touch the water tanks and dust containers more often than with other robots. With it we haven’t reached the nirvana where a robot vacuum cleaner manages itself yet, maybe one day… maybe we’ll see something at IFA… but I’m sure that if you can come to terms with these aspects, you’ll pamper it a bit and appreciate its “think different” philosophy, it’s one of those robots that will amaze you and make you fall in love.
NARWAL ROBOTS ITALIA
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LINK SITO NARWAL
