Better than a Xiaomi? – Narwal Freo X Plus robot vacuum cleaner test
There are as many Chinese robot vacuum cleaners as there are stars in the sky, but is there one that can squeeze Xiaomi?
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Introductory
I have written several times, I like to test robot vacuum cleaners. Maybe I like these more than anything else. Well, powerful scooters are the tip of my heart, but for a different reason. Vacuum cleaners are to me what telephones used to be. Constantly renewing technology, more and more sensors, better and better artificial intelligence, more and more suction power, while the size of the machines does not change.
For me, the robot vacuum cleaner is a real engineering miracle!
Of course, this does not mean that every machine is a pleasure or a challenge to test, because there are stupid machines that are rather boring. Then there are those machines that are expensive, but based on their specifications, they are also good. Finally, there are the Xiaomi vacuum cleaners! Obviously, the latter category is the best if I have something to work with.
I wouldn't be honest if I didn't also mention that recently I've had Xiaomi, that is, roborock machines have not excelled in one thing, and that's obstacle detection. I've been using a Dreame machine (also Xiaomi) for years, whose ability to avoid obstacles, but even more so, to recognize obstacles, is quite impressive. Cleans up cables, small objects, e.g. duplo dice. In other words, it does not know about the latter that it is a Duplo cube, but it avoids and "sees" them as well. Not like roborock's machines.
But that story isn't here, and it doesn't start with roborock, so let's turn the page! This story begins when I was asked to test one of the machines of a relatively new brand, Narwal. What I took from it is that Narwal launches premium machines. This is already a red flag for me, because the premium comes with the premium price, then it turns out that the vacuum cleaner offers less for the high price than an average Xiaomi.
So here I pulled the brakes a bit and asked for the machine's data sheet, let's see what it can do! What I saw didn't look bad. Brutal suction power, lots of laser sensors, amazingly large dust container, excellent obstacle avoidance, does not wind up hairs, outstanding carpet cleaning ability, and I could list mg.
So far so good, but how much does it cost?
I asked the distributor for the expected price, and it turned out that the expected purchase price is nowhere near the price of a simple roborock. My eyebrows shot up, because on the one hand I was happy about the great price, but on the other hand, the little devil in me started to wonder why it's so cheap, if it knows so much? One thing, however, was not in question, I would take the test because the machine piqued my interest.
So this test is about a robot vacuum cleaner, more precisely the machine called Narwal Freo X Plus!
Unpacking, accessories
The vacuum cleaner comes in a display box, there is no fault in this. Inside are the usual things, basic machine, docking station, some filters integrated with a nylon bag, various MOPs, network cable, and two side brushes.
The machine is nothing extra, considering its size, it is a laser robot like most. White gloss finish, which is good because the dust won't show as much on it as on black or gray. The machine measures exactly 350 x 355 x 107 millimeters and weighs 5,2 kilograms. I mean, it's really quite average.
The first surprise comes when I pick up the dock. Folks, this LOOKS GOOD! Nice white with water-clear transparent plexiglass on the top and bottom, cultured inscriptions in a very well-hit font. So here I already felt something of what I can expect in relation to the machine. The premium feeling kicked the door down on me!
Before I took the machine out of the bag, I looked at the accessories, and here I found some strange things! For example, the side brushes, which did not carry the usual star-shaped bristles, it is as if one branch of the star was accidentally left behind. But no, it's just like that, not three, but only two bristles sticking out of the brushes.
The MOPs also surprised me. That is, not the MOP itself, because it is like a MOP, at least in form. But in terms of quality, at least Xiaomi, if not better. The fabric MOP has that little purple label, it's so cute, like it's a pair of pants or a hoodie or something. Okay, I know, it has no role, but it's a little plus that makes my kind of tester feel like working.
What really surprised me was that in the box (also in a separate nylon bag) I found two filters with new bags. The first time I tried to get this new goo off, I realized it was stuck to the filter. Confused, I turned it around, then put it aside, I'll find out what it is later.
Yes, but I got a piece of paper in my hand, which showed that the filter should be put into the vacuum cleaner with the dust.
That's when I got the vacuum cleaner, took off the top and looked in amazement, because where the filter bag should have been put there was a plastic dust container. then the tantus fell!
When I received the description of the machine, I found a picture in it, which showed that for 7 weeks, that is, 49 days, you don't have to deal with emptying the machine's dust container. I checked the size of the powder container and it read one liter. I also waved at him to leave him hanging with such bullshit texts. In an average robot, the dust container does not even reach half a liter, how the hell would a liter container fit? Well, that's right. They didn't think of the plastic container, but the replaceable one with a bag.
But that still doesn't explain the emptying every 49 days!
The fact is that, according to the manufacturer, not only is the dust bag large, but also extra, that due to the high suction power, the machine can compress the dust and other things in the bag twice as much as usual. Let's say no matter how I calculate it, it still won't be 49 days, because with an average machine, in a very good case, if there is no dog and the apartment is clean, it is still appropriate to empty the tank every 3 days. If the tank is twice as big, that's 6 days. If you double compress, it's still "only" 12 days.
For machines equipped with a self-emptying docking station, the monthly dust bag can be changed/emptied, but in return these machines are not cheap, since essentially we have to buy a second vacuum cleaner, which is built into the docking station. But this is not a big sacrifice (if our wallet can handle it), because we don't like robots that empty every day or two that much.
But emptying the dust container once every 12 days is fine for everyone, in addition, you don't need a self-draining dock, so this solution is much cheaper. Really genius, why didn't anyone think of this until now?
Finally, one more thing about the port bowl, which is not so small. Someone finally thought of making the tank easy to empty. They made it like upright vacuum cleaners, with the push of a button, the bottom of the container opens and the dirt falls out into the bin. This is a big red dot in my eyes again.
Okay, let's look at the machine!
Please, no one will have a problem with the quality here. The plastics, the assembly, the lid that snaps into place with magnets, the containers, everything is very straightforward. The wheels are the usual threshold climbers, the shape is the usual LIDAR, i.e. a turret on the top of the machine with a rotating laser sensor that maps our apartment.
So far so good, really. If they wanted to give me a premium, I had to sign it, I succeeded!
Okay, let's see what the machine can do on paper!
Let's start with the suction force, which is 7800 Pa. AND this is the Narwal's weakest machine! Just for context, you know where to put this value. The roborock S8 for HUF 200 (this is not the Hungarian price) has 6000 Pa, the roborock Q8 for HUF 160 has 5500 Pa. These are the new series of roborock (Xiaomi) vacuum cleaners. So the suction power of 7800 PA is quite a great value!
MOP isn't bad either. The water tank is already quite large (280 milliliters), the water is dispensed with a pump. This is bad from the point of view that it is appropriate to use ion exchangers instead of tap water, but from the point of view it is good that the machine can turn off the mopping if necessary, and the amount of water dosage can also be changed.
The fact that the machine can sterilize and dry the MOP after cleaning is just icing on the cake, so it won't stink.
If it's a MOP, don't forget that the MOP presses against the floor with a force of 6 newtons during mopping, and the machine can even lift the MOP, if e.g. works on carpet. In addition, the increase of the MOP is not the usual 6, but 9 millimeters. These are capabilities that can be found in the top Xiaomi vacuum cleaners, or not even there.
The manufacturer highlights that the roller brush in the machine is a ZERO TANGLE FLOATING BRUSH. I understand the first half of this, it doesn't get all kinds of hair and dog hair and so on. The second half is more interesting, because according to them, the brush does not actually touch the floor, it collects the dirt that way. Interesting! The manufacturer says that it also has a TUV SGS certificate for this, if it is true, then it is another skill that I raise my imaginary hat to!
The issue of sensors is very important. Vacuum cleaners generally use three types of sensors. There is a collision sensor in front, there are infrared sensors on the side and bottom, and there is a laser sensor either on the front of the machine or on top of the machine. This is the usual setup.
In comparison, the Narwal Freo X Plus has an ultrasonic sensor at the bottom (if I've identified it correctly), there are also infrared sensors at the bottom, a laser at the front of the machine, a laser at the side of the machine and a third laser at the top of the machine. Laser barrage. The most I've seen so far were two lasers, one for obstacle detection at the front of the plane and one for mapping at the top of the plane. Solved by infrared.
In comparison, the Narwal Freo X Plus works with three lasers!
What else? The noise level is a maximum of 58 dB, the battery operates the machine for 210 minutes with one charge (this may mean operation at a distance of approx. 200 nm). The machine can also be part of a smart home system if you use Alexa, Siri or Google Home systems. Of course, voice commands also play a role in these.
Okay, that's about it, let's move on!
Szoftver
It scared me at first, but it turned out that the vacuum cleaner still had beta firmware. Huhh, I thought this was the end of the test, but luckily it wasn't.
The software doesn't speak Hungarian, it has English, German, Polish, and some other languages. Let's say you don't need a diploma to use it, at least if you want to use the basic things. After the first start, the machine maps the apartment. Also write to open the doors, etc. In the settings, it's worth setting things so that you don't deal with steps no smaller than 2 cm, it doesn't take it as a step, it moves on. This function justifies the ultrasonic sensor at the bottom of the machine.
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If you don't mind, I won't go into the ordinary things, of course there is a virtual wall here, as well as protection against falling on the stairs, sector cleaning and the like. There is also a No-Go zone, where the plane cannot go. However, there are much more interesting things than these.
For example, on the completed map, you can see where there are carpets, you can specify what kind of floor the individual rooms have (e.g. hardwood). If it's already premium, then of course you can't miss editing the map, merging or separating rooms, naming the rooms, but as another extra, you can also manually add furniture to the map.
You can choose between a mono or color map view, and we also have a 3D map view. That's pretty good stuff too! There are statistics where you can see the size of the cleaned area and the time spent cleaning, as well as how many tasks the machine has completed. However, all these capabilities are dwarfed by one, which the manufacturer named Smart mode.
If you turn on Smart mode in the settings and click on the 3 dots that appear in the upper left part of the tabs, a window will appear, at the top of which you will find a FREO Advice switch. If you turn this on, a FREO text will appear on the tabs of the selectable cleaning methods (vacuum, mopping, vacuuming and mopping, etc.). And this FREO mode covers a fully automatic cleaning mode.
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The machine does almost everything by itself, it decides how strong to suck, how much water and where to use for mopping, so it basically figures everything out for us. Basically, because before starting the cleaning, you ask us 1-2 things, for example, to avoid or clean the carpet, whether the length of the carpet is more or less than 7 millimeters, and also whether there are any pets in the apartment. These only need to be entered once, and from then on, the machine will set the cleaning method based on the specified values.
If you do not use this FREO mode, you can set the values. You can choose for the machine to go through the apartment 1 or 2 times, you can choose between 4 suction strengths, you can choose for mopping to happen once or twice during cleaning, you can choose between 3 water volumes, and finally you can choose between a traditional and a more intensive cleaning . The latter means the number of times the machine should make the trip when going back and forth, standard is the normal cleaning route, strong doubles the number of round trips.
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I think we can agree that, based on what has been said so far, this machine really represents a premium category. Both in terms of material selection, design and knowledge, it competes with roborock's machines, and even leaves them behind in several areas.
There are only two things left. One is how the Narwal performs in real life, the other is how much we have to pay for all this performance!
Experiences
I think this chapter is the shortest, because the big situation is that the machine just there is room for improvement in terms of software capabilities.
What is good?
The suction power/sound is quite surprising. In other words, it is not loud compared to the suction power. I'm not saying it's quiet at maximum revs, but I didn't expect that. The sound that comes out of it is an even sound of air, there are no annoying clicks or rattles, so it is not particularly disturbing.
Vacuuming is flawless. I made a test course, cocoa, rice, flour and a little soup pearl, which is a pretty big ball, so I had my doubts that these would also end up in the tank.
Well, the result was that after vacuuming, I found 5, that is, five grains of rice on the floor. The cocoa disappeared without a trace, the flour disappeared without a trace, and the balls were all waiting inside the container, one by one. We can say that this is 99 percent efficiency. I would like to add that because of the bullets, I increased the suction power to the maximum, but this does not detract from the abilities.
So the cleaning is good, but so is the software. I dare to risk that in terms of quality in recent years (at least in the case of the machines I've had), this is the closest to Xiaomi. Resizable, easily editable maps, lines can easily be drawn if I want to separate rooms (this was quite silly with Viomi). Perhaps the indication of the vacuuming route is less accurate, and the walls of the rooms are slightly more pixelated, but these are not significant differences. One thing I couldn't find was the joystick mode, but I've never used that on any machine in my stinking life, so if that's the biggest shortcoming, I'm more than fine with it.
Mopping up worked for me. No, it doesn't pick up well-dried syrup stains either, but it waters the floor nicely and evenly, without leaving ugly streaks. You can definitely see that there is not a plain MOP at the bottom of the machine that you just drag along with the machine, the fact that it is constantly pressed to the floor can be felt during work. So canceling is fine. So far, everything is fine, the cleaning is excellent, the MOP works well, the suction power is great.
What's the matter?
Well, first with obstacle detection. The mapping of the apartment is fast and accurate, but the recognition of obstacles is nowhere near perfect. It brought roughly the same level as the newer roborock (Xiaomi) vacuum cleaners I've had. Disappointing. The first obstacle detection laser can only see ahead (or to the side), not directly in front of the machine. If an object comes in front of it that does not reach the laser's window, it does not see it, it just pushes it around the apartment.
Cords are absolutely no problem for the vacuum cleaner, because it simply leaves cold whether there is a cord, a phone charging cable or anything else on the floor. He goes on her, wraps her up, pulls her.
But, as I wrote, these experiences are no worse than what I had with the roborock Q8 Max+, that is, in terms of obstacle avoidance and recognition, I didn't do much better, in fact, I was quite disappointed.
What was here, but not in the case of roborock, is that the machine can get involved in an endless cycle. Well, not completely to infinity, but it certainly happened several times that for minutes all he did was turn right 110 degrees, then left 110 degrees, then right again, left again. In most cases, the result was that he seemed to be frightened by his own stupidity, jumped and went half a meter away at high speed, from where he continued cleaning without fail.
This clearly seems to be a software issue. With the first software version, there were problems even with avoiding the legs of my tripod, and after the update it was as if I had received a different machine. All I want to say is that if the manufacturer wants to keep the premium feeling, there is a good chance that there will be an update, there will be further refinements in the software, and these anomalies will disappear, just as the leg avoidance bug will also disappear.
I think it's important to note that the problem is that the cleaning will take a few minutes longer at most, so I wouldn't call it a cardinal error by any means.
Summary
The Narwal Freo X Plus actually did not disappoint. No, because it is a machine from a relatively recent manufacturer, whose first batch of machines can be plenty of opponents for Xiaomi. If we look at the paper format, it already beats the well-known competitor in many respects, to put it bluntly, the suction power is greater. It is on the same level as Xiaomi's S8 series in a lot of capabilities, and this obstacle avoidance and recognition is also on par with Xiaomi. Unfortunately.
This hurts me because it is autonomy that is damaged by this. In the case of the Narwal Freo X Plus, but also in the case of the roborock S8, I can't start cleaning without collecting the socks, the cables and the children's LEGO, and I could go on and on. In other words, it is the comfort that suffers.
With that said, at the moment I don't really know why I shouldn't buy this machine, if there is a fairly significant price difference between it and, say, Roborock S8. All this in addition to the fact that the S8 cannot work for 10-12 days without cleaning the dust container.
So I'd say there are few problems, few bugs, and a lot of very good capabilities combined in the Narwal Freo X Plus right now, and if they continue to refine the software, there won't be any bugs left.
I think I would pay for it now, even though I am a crazy big Xiaomi fan.
At the end of the article is the price, that is, how much is it? If you order, the delivery will be made from a Polish warehouse, a FXPLUX with a coupon code, the machine costs HUF 131. They even give you 700 dust bags as a gift, which is at least 6 months' worth (6 x 12 days). Of course, if it runs out and you don't want to spend money on it, you can also use the traditional dust container in the vacuum cleaner!
If for some reason you decide that the brutal Narwal Freo X Ultra is what you need, then a FXULTA you can also buy it for HUF 360 with a coupon code. In its docking station, you will not only find a dust bag, but also water tanks, so it is a real washing machine.
You can find the machine in the article here:
Narwal Freo X Plus robot vacuum cleaner - coupon code: FXPLUX
The more expensive machine with a regular mop function will be here:
