Narwal Freo Z Ultra robot vacuum review: Brilliant floors but some flaws

At a glance

Expert rating

Benefits

• Leaves floors sparkling clean
• Fully functional
• Easy to use

Disadvantages

• Dust bag adds ongoing cost and environmental waste
• Still some issues with obstacle detection and avoidance
• Dear

Our Verdict

The Narwal Freo Z Ultra is an easy-to-use robot vacuum cleaner that, with its built-in cleaning function, will leave your home sparkling clean. However, its price is high and there are some small flaws that bring the rating down, although we still recommend it.

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Last year, Narwal launched two robot vacuum cleaners: the Narwal Freo and the Narwal Freo X Ultra. Now time for another flagship model, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra. Some things have improved, but a few small negative signs unfortunately remain (and a few have been added).

If you’re in the US, you can purchase the Freo Z Ultra for $1,499.99 from Narwal.

One feature of this robot that previous models lacked is automatic dust bin emptying. This now happens automatically when the vacuum cleaner connects to the base station, just like with dirty water from cleaning.

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Certainly it is a good option for people with allergies, and it is true that the bag does not need to be changed very often because it is large (2.5 liters) and the dust it contains is compressed , even if the announced deadline is 120 days before having to change it. This is wishful thinking.

But it is clear that it is both more harmful to the environment and less economical than a simple container that could be emptied directly into a trash can.

Hopefully this will be fixed for the next release.

Easy to use and feature-rich

Like previous models, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is also very easy to learn and use. After plugging in the base station and refilling with water for cleaning, the vacuum cleaner automatically maps your home, which is done both quickly and efficiently.

However, as before, manual intervention may be required. On the one hand, if the thresholds between rooms are too high (in which case several different plans are necessary), and on the other hand if you have carpets or rugs.

Mat identification is supposed to be automatic, but in practice you will get better results if you edit the cards manually.

Once that’s done, all that’s left to do is get started. With the Freo Mind feature, you don’t need to enter and adjust cleaning settings if you don’t want to. Instead, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra analyzes the level of dirt itself and then decides for itself how to clean and how thorough it should be.

But of course, if you want, you can control most aspects of cleaning manually. Everything from the suction power to vacuum and the amount of water to clean, to the depth of cleaning.

There is also a wide range of settings for the base station and its maintenance, all packaged into a clean and simple interface.

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Overall, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is very feature-rich and equipped with little niceties, like the soft plinth module that cleans vertical surfaces and improves dust collection along moldings.

Sparkling clean

Automatic settings adjustment works surprisingly well, but for best results a little manual adjustment is often necessary. But when this is done, the result is a sparkling clean home!

Thanks to the combination of suction and cleaning, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra cleans really effectively. It gets into corners, under cabinets, etc., as you would expect from a good robot vacuum.

As a bonus, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is also relatively quiet, both when cleaning the floor and when processing and cleaning in the base station.

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

But unfortunately, another drawback of previous models remains: poor obstacle avoidance. Because even though the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is equipped with a camera (which is another of its smart features), it is not capable of avoiding all obstacles.

Large obstacles (like furniture) and medium-sized obstacles (like a lost stuffed toy or a sock left under the bed) can be avoided, but smaller objects (like a box of matches) are still happily ignored and sometimes cause problems when the robot vacuum breaks down. blocked.

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

Jan Sandbladh

So given these remaining negative signs and the fact that the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is priced higher than the Narwal Freo X Ultra, we give it a solid four out of five.