Narwal Freo Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Narwal Freo Pro is now available for $500 (a $300 discount).
Construction is optimized to prevent blockage and hair tangles, with a conical brush on a single floating arm and a hair-loosening side brush.
The dust bag didn't last me the claimed seven weeks, and the robot's object detection leaves a lot to be desired $699.99 at Amazon
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
A recent trip took me and my family out of town for 10 days. I like to leave my house as clean as possible before leaving town to ensure I come home to a clean house: fresh sheets on the bed, no dishes in the sink, laundry folded and put away. This last trip was hectic, with three little ones, so while I checked most of my items off my to-do list, I couldn't mop my floors before heading out.
Also: These 7 household gadgets were secretly driving up my power bill - unplugging them helped
To that end, I delegated the task to the Narwal Freo Pro. I'd set it up and tested it for some time before leaving, but running it daily in my absence would be its biggest challenge yet.
In my tests, the Narwal Freo Pro performed well in keeping my floors clean. It has fantastic suction on hard floors, performs a decent job of mopping, and can clean with minimal intervention. However, it didn't always avoid cords on the floor, the suction performance wasn't as great on carpet, and its dust containment didn't last me near seven weeks.
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
I was curious to see how the Narwal Freo Pro would do cleaning my house while my family and dog were gone on our trip. During testing, the robot's obstacle avoidance wasn't the best, though this is understandable at this robot vacuum's price point. Unfortunately, I've had to rescue the Freo Pro a handful of times after it tried vacuuming a sock, tissue, the corner of a blanket, and a few charging cords.
... continue reading