The Narwal Freo Z10 Delivers The Best Of Narwal’s ‘ultra’ Bots For Less Cash

Narwal Freo Z10

One of Narwal’s best, the Freo Z10 offers almost all of Narwal’s best features and focuses on mopping wood floors. With 15,000Pa of suction power, new and improved hair anti-tangle features, and PreciseEdge Cleaning, it is a highly capable robot vacuum that delivers ‘Ultra’ features without the sticker shock.

After unpacking it for testing, the first thing I noticed about the Narwal Freo Z10 was its similarities to the top Freo robot vacuums before it. This is for good reason: The Freo bot line is award-winning, and Narwal isn’t re-inventing its platform; it’s just continuing to improve on it.

The Freo Z10 is the best Narwal bot at handling hair, a leader in suction power, one of the best-navigating bots around, and is designed for maintenance-free operation. But coming in $200 cheaper than the flagship Freo Z Ultra — is it worth it?

What makes the Freo Z10 special?

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

There is an argument to be made that the Narwal Freo Z10 is the best Narwal vacuum to purchase right now. It offers the best smarts and big power and has a more competitive starting price than the Ultra range. Make no mistake: I believe that the Narwal Freo Z Ultra remains Narwal’s best robot vacuum — and the best robot vacuum bar none — at this time, but the Freo Z10 is a close second place, so close that the price savings tip the scales for value.

The water heater in the base station is a premium feature only seen on a few bots thus far, Narwal’s DirtSense technology remains a key selling feature in their line of machines, and the all-in-one base station with heated mop wash and heated dry is a winning combination, as far as I’m concerned.

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What stands out to me about the Freo Z10 is its navigation. Ever since the Freo X Ultra, I’ve been praising Narwal bots for safely and accurately mapping and navigating my space. They’re not perfect, sometimes mistaking the edge of a rug for a power cord or bumping into furniture with angled legs. This isn’t the case with the Freo Z10. I’ve never seen it run into anything. It cleans the walls right and vacuums my rugs.

It should be noted that the Freo Z10 was designed with a little extra focus on its ability to mop wood floors. With 15,000Pa of suction power, it’s a top contender for vacuum capabilities, but my home is mostly hard floors, and over half is wood, so the focus on mopping to a nice shiny finish makes a big impact on me. Automatic detergent control, Mop Extension, EdgeSwing configurations, and the ability to navigate with precision all add up to clean floors.

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Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

If only the Freo Z10 had electrolyzed water and a baseboard cleaner like the Freo Z Ultra; that’d be slick. I suppose those are the core differences between the two and the reason the Freo Z Ultra is the “Ultra” in Narwal’s lineup.

What you get in the Freo Z10, however, is a reliable and consistent floor cleaning experience. It is a premium-class bot, taking its place near the top of Narwal’s line.

How good is the Freo Z10?

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

The Narwal Freo Z10 is pretty great, overall. It has a few little things I don’t care for and one navigational nuance worth talking about, but as far as picking up dry debris and putting a little polish on the floors, it’s as good as the best bots out there.

Narwal is getting even better at making robot vacuums, and the Freo Z10 is proof of it.

This isn’t Narwal’s first bot with the SGS Certified Dynamic Auto De-Tangling Side Brush, but the simplicity of making a flush base, allowing the brush arms to fold to point the same direction, and pointing them toward the main Zero-Tangling Floating Roller Brush make for a virtually hair free existence. I ran the Freo X Ultra for a year straight in my home; the main brush collected just a few strands of hair at that time, and the side brushes only a few hairs as well. I’m happy to see the Freo Z10 improve on that, even if it wasn’t a serious pain point previously.

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

In terms of pain points, I will call out the noise created by the new side brushes. As they fold and unfold they make a little rattling noise. It’s quiet, and not at all a problem, but it sounds a little like when you get a bobby pin or similar caught in the main roller area. I tried to rescue the Z10 several times before I realized that this was just the noise it made.

I like the results of the EdgeReach Mop Extension arm on the Freo Z10. Again, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen it in action. Combining it with smart-swing, the Dual Triangle Mopping System not only creates a shiny finish on your floors, but it also gets completely to the edge of the wall or furniture.

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

In the race to produce the top suction pressure, Narwal is choosing to focus on the efficiency of the vacuum as opposed to jacking up their Pascal measurements. With 15,000Pa of suction pressure, the Freo Z10 is a leader in Narwal’s line. Considering the Freo X Ultra could suck up heavy objects, such as metal marbles and Lego, with just 8,200Pa, I’ll admit that the Freo Z10 is leaving the carpets a little cleaner looking, getting down into the threads to pull what little dust and dirt remains.

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Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

There is just one thing I am displeased with: the app’s rug detection. This isn’t an issue the the Freo Z10 directly, but it’s time to talk about it: The Narwal app is constantly redrawing the lines of your home as it cleans. If you move a rug, it will be relocated in the app for next time. That’s the concern, I tried removing a rug and asked the Z10 to mop the floor where the rug used to be. It did not mop the first time, because the map said there was a rug there. It did redraw the map so that it could mop the next time through.

It’s a minor thing, but, Narwal, please let me easily force the bot to do a one-off deep clean mop without having to fuss with the permanent map and settings.

Maintenance free? How’s that working?

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Narwal has opted for a large vacuum bag in the base station. The auto-empty cycle keeps dust and debris away from the bot itself. I’ve always been a fan of Narwal’s in-bot compression system, but I must admit that the larger bag in the base station should hold up for many months before I need to replace it.

The bot itself is very tidy. I just checked the in-bot vacuum canister, brushes, and mop heads. They have signs of use but are virtually dust and dirt-free after a few weeks of work.

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

The heated dry cycle for the mop heads and air dry for the vacuum canister make for a very clean experience. Nothing is worse than a mildew smell from your mop, or the stale dirt smell from your vacuum. The Freo Z10 may never have these issues.

While I give the Freo Z10 top marks for being maintenance-free, I will admit that I’m going hands-on a fair amount. The cost of better mop cleaning is increased water consumption. I do have things turned up, but a full tank of water lasts a little under 1,000 square feet of floor cleaning. This means I’m replacing water approximately every other time that it mops my space.

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

Fresh water once a week or so actually sounds positive. One of these days, I’m going to commit and install the Narwal system that taps directly into my home plumbing. That would result in only needing to touch the Freo Z10 once every month or so.

Narwal Freo Z10m review verdict: Is it worth it?

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

For those of you who do not have a modern robot vacuum, the Narwal Freo Z10 is an excellent choice as a first bot that isn’t quite as expensive as the ultra-premium vacs out there. The Freo Z10 is designed with a focus on mopping wood floors, which translates well to mopping other hard floors, but this is a lot of functionality that would be wasted if you do not need the mop. The Freo Z10 is a superb vacuum, but if that’s all you need, then you are buying too much machine here. Consider the Narwal Freo Pro ($599 at Narwal) instead, which has a little mop pad, but is more vacuum-centric.

If you are looking for the best of the best, we’ll steer you toward the Narwal Freo Z Ultra ($1499.99 at Amazon), or the Roborock Saros 10 ($1599.99 at Amazon) or Saros 10R ($1599.99 at Amazon). I’m happy to say that the Freo Z10 is nearly as capable as those flagship bots, but there are reasons they cost a good amount more than the Z10.

Jonathan Feist / Android Authority

If you are rocking the Narwal Freo X Ultra or another newer high-end Narwal bot, it would be hard to justify the upgrade at this time. If you have one of those bots, then you’ve likely had it for less than a year. The iterative updates in the Freo Z10 are good, and the price of the Freo Z10 is very competitive, but I’d hang on a little longer. To be clear, if you are deciding between the Freo X Ultra ($999.99 at Amazon) and the Freo Z10, go for the Z10.

With a launch price of $1,199.99 (or $849.99 if you order during the limited-time introductory deal), the Freo Z10 offers nearly every available feature from Narwal. You’ll enjoy a high-end robot vacuum experience, and your hard floors will be mopped to perfection.