Narwal Freo Z Ultra Review: The Robot Vacuum That Makes the Right Choices

Launched in 2020, Chinese brand Narwal Robotics pioneered the world's first self-cleaning robot vacuum and mop. The Narwal Freo Z Ultra stands as one of the brand's flagship models, and it boasts serious credentials. From its 12,000 Pa suction power to its dual rotating mops, twin-camera navigation system, and multifunctional docking station, the Freo Z Ultra hasn't come to play second fiddle. As you'll discover in our comprehensive verdict, Narwal's robot vacuum needn't blush when facing market leaders from Roborock, Dreame, or Ecovacs.

Narwal cuts straight to the point by providing minimal components to assemble. The vacuum represents the central unit onto which you simply clip the essentials: side brushes and mopping pads. The Freo Z Ultra's special touch: a bristle brush that attaches to the side for cleaning skirting boards and anything the vacuum might brush against.

The base station isn't excessively bulky, and its design proves sufficiently elegant that you needn't feel embarrassed to see it presiding over a room. Atop the lid sits a circular screen with touch controls. Lifting said lid reveals two sizeable tanks for clean and dirty water. The station's front panel attaches and detaches magnetically, exposing the dust bag and refill slot for detergent. The station connects to a wall socket.

To navigate its environment, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra employs a LiDAR laser system housed in its small turret, plus proximity sensors on the vacuum's lower section. It's additionally equipped with two RGB 1080p cameras (1,600 x 1,200 pixels) and two AI chips for obstacle recognition and avoidance. The whole assembly provides a 136° field of vision. An arsenal enabling it to navigate furniture unimpeded and recognise up to 120 objects.

Overall, it performs admirably. Only a few small children's toys escaped its vigilance (a "Plus Plus" for those familiar). You therefore can't simply leave everything scattered on the floor expecting the robot to sort matters, but it truly excels far beyond other robot vacuums on this point. The Freo Z Ultra also integrates fairly effective cable detection. It won't hesitate to circumvent them—provided it identifies them. Indeed, we encountered an issue with a thinner fairy light cable touching the floor.

For everything else, the Freo Z Ultra maps the cleaning zone excellently and recognises carpets. For the latter, the vacuum can raise its mops by 12 mm, which unfortunately isn't always sufficient to pass over the thickest specimens. The vacuum thus sometimes drags them along. No problems, however, with furniture and chair legs, which it avoids effortlessly. You can also leave the robot working in dimness—it will automatically illuminate its front light if the cleaning environment proves too dark.

The Narwal app presents comprehensive features but demands a certain learning curve to navigate. Upon adding the Freo Z Ultra, you're asked to connect to your Wi-Fi network and create an account. The home page displays shortcuts, but you must click the vacuum's name to access its functions—somewhat unfortunate if you only own one unit.

Cleaning can be performed by rooms or zones you manually define. A second menu appears top-right for changing how maps display (black and white, colour, 3D, etc.). In short, everything's very complete but requires investment to master. We also note several French translation issues in the interface.

The small camera icon activates video surveillance of your home (including remotely). You can instruct it to reach a precise point by selecting a spot on the map. "Patrols" can be programmed to monitor your home or keep an eye on pets during your absence. Regarding privacy, the vacuum holds TÜV Rheinland confidentiality certification, ensuring "all obstacle avoidance calculations won't be performed on cloud services, thus ensuring privacy protection." Narwal even specifies on a label affixed to its robot that "Recognition algorithms function solely locally within the robot, and photos won't be uploaded to the cloud to protect your privacy."

With 12,000 Pa of suction and dual mops, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra hasn't come for show. Even on aged parquet that isn't perfectly level, it vacuums superbly, including between slats if suction power sits on an elevated setting. We also appreciate the cleaning decisions made by the vacuum, which automatically stops suction when detecting a water puddle, engaging only the mops. A detail that's anything but trivial, as certain vacuums tend to spread liquids.

The circular mops perform their cleaning duties admirably, and the robot executes small lateral rotations so the mops also reach edges. Clever and effective. Unfortunately, we didn't have occasion to subject it to animal excrement, often the bane of robot vacuums (and their owners).

Special mention for the vacuum's highly controlled noise when working. Unless you activate maximum suction mode, you can easily hold a conversation whilst the robot operates nearby. The round mops tackle floor cleaning with impressive thoroughness, and the robot's lateral rotation movements ensure the mops reach right to the edges—ingenious and effective.

The Freo mode, in particular, intelligently determines suction power and water quantity based on floor dirtiness. This mode generally takes longer but also consumes more water. Cleaning a surface of approximately 65 m², more than half the water reserve remained after completion. An automatic water exchange system is also available, though sold separately on Narwal's website.

The station handles mop cleaning with hot water and self-cleans the station itself, sparing considerable manual maintenance. Everything's dried with hot air at 40°C. The app indicates when it's time to change the dust bag and detergent (which dispenses automatically from the station). We regret the latter being proprietary, but its quantity proves sufficiently substantial to avoid frequent changes. Again, everything depends on your usage.

The Freo Z Ultra benefits from an automatic water and dust emptying system through its base. For dust, however, we noticed the vacuum's reservoir never gets perfectly cleared. The fault of hairs creating dust bunnies sometimes difficult to dislodge from the reservoir's small opening.

Measuring a robot vacuum's exact battery life isn't always straightforward, but the Freo Z Ultra's proves substantial enough to function for over two hours without returning to base. This is what we observed after several weeks of testing. Unless you reside in a castle, it shouldn't therefore abandon you before completing its housework. Once returned to base, count approximately three hours for a full battery charge.