Narwal Freo X Ultra

We've tested hundreds of robot cleaners over the past 7 years. Over the years, we have seen the intelligence and cleaning performance steadily improve. In the beginning, they were robot vacuums with mopping attachments. The mopping was a gimmick and not really worth using.

More recently the mopping performance has improved to the level where they're remarkably impressive at both vacuuming and mopping. Narwal was at the forefront of this charge, building the first truly effective robot mop. The only downside, til now most great mopping robots have been over $3,000.

The vacuuming performance is very good, as it has 8,200pa and a bristled roller brush. Bristed roller brushes are far superior at hair and dust pick-up on carpet, however usually this also means that the hair gets badly tangled in the brush requiring regular maintenance. The Freo X and Freo Z both have an anti-tangle system which works flawlessly, so you get the cleaning benefits of the bristled brush without the frustrations.

The mopping is exceptional, as you'd expect from a Narwal. The rotational mops have plenty of downwards pressure, outperforming almost all flagship robots.

The Ultra dock means that the robot will wash itself when it returns to base. Instead of smearing muck around the house, it will return to base to wash its mops mid clean and resume from where it was up to. This functionality, at this price point, is what really sets the Freo X apart.

Connection to the phone app is more streamlined than other robots we've tested. Once you download the app, it discovers itself and connects to the internet. Very smooth and simple process, even for less tech-savvy people.

Instead of auto-emptying the dirt from the dust-bin into the dock, it has a unique compression which allows it to store a similar amount of dust as an auto-emptying dock (up to 6 weeks without manually emptying, depending on your home). This is a significant benefit, as auto-emptying is one of the most common errors with robot vacuums, particularly if you have lots of dust or hair.

The navigation is incredibly efficient and precise. It creates a map of your house on its own, which is usually accurate to within a few centimeters.

There are few downsides as it performs the same core functions as the more expensive Freo Z Ultra. However, there are a couple of areas where they have saved costs. In my opinion, there are very diminishing returns when compared with the price gap.

It has a slightly less effective object detection system than the Freo Z Ultra. The overall navigation isn't impacted by this, it's only relevant if you have a messy house with lots of cables or items lying on the floor.

It doesn't have an onboard water tank, instead it wets its mopping pads each time it self-washes at the dock. There may be a slight decrease in mopping performance just before it is due to re-dampen the pads. Overall, I think this is negligible and one less mechanical part to consider for servicing.

I would personally choose this robot in most homes, as it performs so well at both vacuuming and mopping.

There may be slight performance benefits with the Freo Z Ultra, however if money is a factor at all, the Freo X Ultra will do a sterling job and surpass most expectations.