The Narwal Freo X Ultra is one of the brand’s first vacuum cleaners available in France. As with the vast majority of robot vacuum cleaners, the Chinese manufacturer has decided to enter the French market with a top-of-the-range model. What is this Freo X Ultra really worth? Let’s find out in this comprehensive test.
A neat, elegant design
The Narwal Freo X Ultra has a neat, elegant look, with a washing and charging station that looks a little rounded at the front. The latter is quite imposing, for good reason: it allows the vacuum cleaner to be stored entirely inside. It’s a good thing, too, as the station looks nice, and this way you can avoid accidentally kicking the vacuum cleaner at night. Yes, that’s happened to me on my Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo, it’s surprising.
The station features a slot for the robot at the bottom, allowing it to be housed, as I said, in its entirety. What I like is that it’s super-simple to remove the part used to clean the mop pads. Indeed, here, it’s been designed directly to be removed and cleaned underwater, which is super convenient!
When you move up a little, you don’t see anything really interesting, which means that the vacuum cleaner doesn’t have an auto-emptying function. While this is the bare minimum on a vacuum cleaner costing over 500 euros, it isn’t the case here, and that’s a real shame. But Narwal has come up with another solution, and I’ll tell you about it later.
On the upper part, you’ll find the traditional hood, with here, not buttons or anything else, but directly a touch screen – very practical indeed!
This makes it easy to control the vacuum cleaner, with the following functions:
- Activate Freo mode
- Call back to station
- Start/stop cleaning
- Wash rotating mops
But that’s not all, as a combination of several of these buttons, or a long press, enables other functions which I’ll mention later.
When you open the cover, you’ll find the two water tanks for clean and dirty water, allowing you to collect wash water, fill the vacuum cleaner with water for mopping and wash it naturally.
Let’s move on to the look of the vacuum cleaner itself. It’s as white as the station, in a glossy, lacquered white that’s quite pretty, unlike the Roborock Q Revo MaxV, which was a little more satin-finish.
On the front is the laser sensor for object detection, but no camera on this model. There’s also another sensor on the right-hand side of the unit – so far, nothing very original, as is the case with the vast majority of robot vacuum cleaners. On the front, you’ll also find the anti-shock bumper, as on all robot vacuums.
At the rear, you’ll find only the vacuum cleaner’s charging pads, but it’s when you remove the cover that you’ll find something original.
The waste collection system isn’t like on other vacuums here, it’s not a plastic bin by default, simply because the unit doesn’t empty automatically. Instead, it’s a small module with a fairly thin, transparent plastic bag and an integrated filter.
The thing is, it’s not very eco-friendly: while other vacuum cleaners offer a plastic bin and self-draining – or not – here, Narwal on its Freo X Ultra, systematically throws away something that, once full, is only good for ending up in the garbage can. The manufacturer supplies two others in the pack, but this means you have to buy a new one each time … or put in the hard plastic bin, which is not destined for the garbage can.
Let’s close the hood and look at the top of the vacuum cleaner, which consists of a button to start the appliance, and a button to return it to its station. The shape of these buttons is different from the traditional three-button design seen on the Dreame X40 Ultra.
With this, the small turret with the LiDAR sensor, which scans the room in 3D and also identifies potential obstacles.
On the underside of the vacuum cleaner, you’ll notice the wash pads, which here are rounded triangles, but also two mini castors, if the vacuum cleaner needs to climb onto a carpet, which is always handy. The stabilizing wheel is positioned at the rear of the unit, and the drive/steering wheels are fairly conventional.
However, there’s another oddity on this machine, and that’s the fact that the front brushes are two in number – but that’s all to the good – but have only two bristles each, not three. With this, the fact that they rub on the drive wheels with each pass, potentially to clean them? How original.
Narwal Freo X Ultra specifications
| Model | Narwal Freo X Ultra |
| Vacuum cleaner type | Robot |
| Suction power | 8200 Pa |
| Empty weight | 5 kg |
| Dust bag capacity | 1 liter |
| Voice commands | Voice assistant (Google, Alexa, Siri) |
| Battery capacity | 5200 mAh |
| Water tank volume | N/C |
| Minimum noise | 45 dB |
| Filter type | HEPA |
| Sensors | Laser rangefinder Fall sensor 3D scanner |
| Vacuum dimensions | 35 x 35 x 10.7 cm |
| Station dimensions | 41.5 x 37 x 43.4 cm |
| Mop | Yes: 2 rotating pads |
| Application | Yes |
| Clean water tank capacity | 4,5 L |
| Dirty water tank capacity | 4,1 L |
| Dust bag capacity | Not included |
| Available colors | White |
It vacuums well, but noisily
The Narwal Freo X Ultra is a good vacuum cleaner, with its 8200 Pa power rating, which is generally enough to get rid of the vast majority of dirt on the floor. I was able to test it with a wide range of materials, from sand to small gravels, and it sucked up over 95% of what it found on the floor.
The suction power is sufficient, compared with the behemoths that offer much more – soon to be doubled with new models coming out soon, if not more – but is it really indispensable? I don’t know. Here, the 8200 pascal are quite sufficient, and the vacuum cleaner is fully satisfactory. What’s more, with its ZeroTangle brush, which prevents hair from tangling around the brush, I had no unpleasant surprises after a few days’ use.
What’s more, its central brush alternates between bristles and rubber, making it very practical for removing pet hair from carpets. Indeed, when you have a carpet in the living room, it’s better to have something to remove pet hair from it, especially with a cat with long, fine hair.
However, the detection of certain fine cables is not always optimal. You could leave an iPhone cable lying around on the floor, and the vacuum cleaner wouldn’t be guaranteed to detect it. The same applies to the small cables of certain mood lights, so remember to put everything away properly.
Efficient floor cleaning
Where the Narwal Freo X Ultra excels is in floor cleaning. Indeed, it is relentless. It features two rounded triangular mops for optimal cleaning, rotating at 180 rpm.
The 12 NM pressure is just right for effective floor cleaning, leaving little or no residue. Of course, any stains that are difficult to remove will remain, and you won’t be able to remove them with a robot vacuum cleaner, unless you run it over the floor every day for 3 weeks…
Once the wash cycle is complete, it returns to its station to wash the pads, but it is possible to wash the pads more regularly, at intervals specified in the application.
The pads can be washed at three different intervals:
- 8m²
- 10m²
- 12m²
However, you can also choose to clean the mops in each room instead, but if you’re going to choose the most efficient mode, you might as well clean them at surface intervals. We also note that it raises its pads by 1.2 centimetres when it climbs onto a carpet, which is more than the average among competitors.
In-app configuration
In-app configuration is fairly straightforward, and the Narwal Freo X Ultra is automatically detected, which is a good thing. There’s no need here to scan a QR-Code or connect to the device via Wi-Fi; once the Freo X Ultra is plugged in and switched on, the app recognizes it immediately.
To get started, simply add a new device and select the model you wish to configure. Once the model has been selected, you can continue and connect to a 2.4 GHz network. As a reminder, this type of device does not support 5 GHz Wi-Fi. So connect it to your box or to a router whose 2.4 GHz band is separate from the other bands.
The vacuum cleaner completes its connection and it’s done – I’ve rarely seen such fast pairing on a robot vacuum cleaner.
In the cleaning parameters, it is possible to activate edge cleaning, so that the vacuum cleaner is in the best position to skim the edges and clean them as well as possible. You can select whether you want an intelligent mode, or for the vacuum cleaner to clean them systematically.
In the station settings, you can opt for silent, powerful or intelligent pad drying. I advise you to choose the “intelligent” mode, to dry the pads as quickly as possible, which seems to me to be the best option. Finally, you can choose the vacuum cleaner’s settings, either to wash at the same time as it vacuums, or to vacuum, then wash, or just one or the other.
What I appreciated in the configuration, before starting the mapping, is that the application asks if you have any pets. A little extra care to block certain robot commands, but cats aren’t used to being around this kind of machine.
Cleaning and maintenance
Here we come to the subject that’s causing a stir: the not-so-green side of this vacuum cleaner by default. I say “by default” because you can choose the type of waste collection you want. In fact, the vacuum cleaner comes with a module containing a plastic bag and a filter. Except that throwing this away every 7 weeks, as stipulated by the brand, means a lot of stuff to throw in the garbage can, for not much!
First of all, it’s not 7 weeks but rather 3, or even 4 weeks, depending on what your cat brings in from the garden, if you have one, and then the waste compression system isn’t totally infallible, sometimes failing to compact everything as much as you’d like.
Fortunately, the manufacturer offers a hard plastic bin, which is best emptied after each cleaning. This means that you only have to dispose of the waste, not the bin that goes with it – and that’s just as well!
What I really appreciated, however, was the fact that the unit’s wash tray can be removed for proper washing, which is a very good idea. It could have been a self-washing tray, but that’s happening with new models from certain brands anyway.
Finally, there’s the maintenance schedule for the various components. As always, check the condition of the component in question before replacing it; it’s best not to buy a central brush when your own is still working perfectly and showing no signs of weakness.
As for the rest, the vacuum cleaner washes the pads by itself. Just remember to empty the dirty water tank regularly, and fill the clean water tank at least once a week.
Excellent autonomy
The vacuum cleaner takes around 3 hours to charge, enough to fully charge the 5200 mAh battery, which is the same as on the vast majority of robot vacuum cleaners. The maximum charging power is 65 watts, so the vacuum won’t be a major drain on your electricity bill.
This model lasted around 2 hours at maximum suction power, which is excellent! With a power rating of 8200 Pa, I have to admit that we’ve rarely seen a robot vacuum cleaner this good, so it’s fully satisfactory.
Narwal Freo X Ultra : Opinion
The Narwal Freo X Ultra fulfills quite a few criteria when it comes to choosing a very good robot vacuum cleaner. Notwithstanding its lack of automatic waste collection and rather slow charging, I like everything about this vacuum cleaner overall, especially the fact that it fits entirely into its base and hides completely. All in all, a good product and a promising brand!