The Narwal Flow 2 is a bit of a contradiction. It may be the best robot vacuum that I’ve ever used, but it’s not without issues.

As a child of the 1970s, robot vacuums may be the most hilariously underwhelming bits of consumer technology on the market. I grew up with the promise of a future with robots like R2-D2 and C-3PO, but the reality all I got was oversized hockey pucks. That’s not to say that these sometimes-fickle devices don’t make a difference, because they do. Investing in a robot vacuum like the Narwal Flow 2 could add an unsung hero to your household.

I love the dark styling of the Narwal Flow 2 vacuum, with its little headlight. It has a distinctive, futuristic look. Similarly, the docking station, again in a dark tone, makes for a more discreet unit that I found unassuming and easily tucked out of the way.

Setting up the Narwal Flow 2 is simple. The vacuum has a few stickers that need to be removed before use, and the side brush needs to be clicked into place. Then that’s it.

The docking station needs a little more prep. The dust bag and filter both come preinstalled (it comes with a spare of each). It just needs to be filled with the included detergent and the container filled with clean water. It is very compact, with the two removable clean and dirty water containers in easy reach, sitting next to each other at the top of the unit.

Stowed underneath is a container for the detergent that sits beside the filter and bag. There’s no front panel to unclip, and no bending over to fiddle with stuff. With the unit filled, all you need to do next is clip on the ramp and place the vacuum into its charging position.

From there, you just switch on the power, download the Narwal app and follow the instructions to set up the device’s connection to your network. It’s only going to work with your 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi channels, which isn’t unusual for devices such as this, but worth noting.

I have to say, the Narwal Flow 2 set-up process was absolutely painless.

The first job that the vacuum needs to do is map your house. For this, I needed to open all my doors and remove any objects. I left a few shoes around to see what would happen.

Robot vacuums are not perfect. At least not perfect in imperfect homes. The two vacuums that have routinely patrolled my house for years regularly find themselves tangled in wires or stalled due to the ingestion of a sock or a bit of Lego. To be honest, it happens so regularly that I wonder if finding the nearest obstruction isn’t just a ploy on behalf of the robots to get out of the day’s cleaning.

The Narwal Flow 2 took my unruly house in its stride, as not only did it do a really good job of mapping my house, but it also identified obstructions. So instead of getting itself stuck on an object, the robot has the good sense to note an obstruction and avoid it. Not once did the Narwal have a sock/dog toy/bit of Lego/USB cable stop it. The two RGB cameras, working with the AI obstacle avoidance system, spotted anything tricky, and the robot avoided it. The robot is always watching where it is going and uses smart object detection to actually label the items that it spots. Amazingly, it is also capable of climbing up 1.5” steps, giving my laundry room its first-ever robot vacuum and mop.

But it was not all plain sailing.

In my bedroom, the Narwal reported issues with its wheels. I checked them, and there were no obstructions. Placing the unit back on the floor, it resumed vacuuming, only to report a similar issue a minute later.

A quick browse on the Internet, and it seems that, like the OG Narwal Flow, the Narwal Flow 2 has difficulties with carpet, particularly deep-pile carpet. Narwal Australia confirmed that this could be the reason, and my carpets may not be a good use case. It’s puzzling as both my aging Ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro and its spritelier sibling, the Deebot T50 Max, have no trouble vacuuming my carpets. It would, however, seem that the Internet deems this to be a very minor issue with the Narwal flow 2, and that may be so in much of the US and in Australia, where warmer climates favour tiled or wooden floors over carpet. But still, a robot vacuum that doesn’t do carpet?

To be fair, I’d say that over 60% of my house is tiles. The few rugs scattered around, the Narwal had no trouble with. And, as I mentioned, it even negotiated the small step up into the laundry, something my other two robot vacuums are incapable of.

Away from my deep pile carpets, the Narwal Flow 2 performed exceptionally well.

Instead of spinning mopping pads that need to return to base for a clean, the Narwal has a mopping pad that is continuously cleaned and apparently supplied with warm water. This means that instead of just wetting your floor, effectively just smearing dirt around, your floor is getting a proper mop. Even spills, which my everyday mopping robot would just flick all over the place, can be sucked up in one go by the Narwal.

Whilst the Narwal robot seemed a little keener to clean around the house than the other robot vacuums I own, it still had its moments. The little rotating side brushes that sweep debris from corners became a casualty of the Narwal’s own cleaning vigour, with one of the little brushes managing to get itself caught in the main brush and wrenched off into the machine.

The Narwal mobile app is very good, giving you total control over the device. It lets you schedule cleans, set up and edit your map, and adjust the type of clean you want. Most of the time you will want a vacuum and mop. But with a spill, I was able to get the Narwal out to the exact area that needed mopping, and it did a great job.

You can also turn on a video mode and watch as the robot cleans and get it to find your pets or cruise your house taking photos. Regarding pets, there’s a pet-friendly mode that can be set for advanced detection of pet messes and avoid them. As well as the status of the vacuum, you can check the dock to make sure everything is OK.

The Narwal operates without any user input, so being asked to refill the clean water, empty the dirty water, or change the dust bag is a bit of a surprise. This is especially so if you set the device to clean whilst you are out, leaving you to just enjoy a clean house. It does need an occasional bit of maintenance, such as cleaning sensors and freeing fibres from the brushes, but other than that it is very self-sufficient.

I found it best to let the device adjust its operation using the AI Freo Mind feature to choose vacuum power, mopping humidity and coverage precision. If you set up the map properly with room names and furniture, the AI voice command system allows you to direct the robot, for instance, by telling it to clean the dining room or around the sofa, which is pretty cool. The vacuum also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Matter.

The Narwal Flow 2 looks nicer than many other vacuums and has a docking station that’s very well designed. The mop is great in that it is continuously cleaning itself, making it better placed to clear up spills. The way the robot can lift itself up small steps is pretty cool. But we are still not quite there just yet. The Narwal’s inability to vacuum most of my carpeted rooms (when my other robot vacuums can) makes it a challenging recommendation for carpeted homes. It did, however, do a very good job on my tiled floors.

If you’ve only got solid floors in your house, I’d 100% recommend the Narwal Flow 2 as it will do a fantastic job, and it’s clean, fully featured and easy to use. But if you’ve got thick carpet, there’s a good chance you’ll still need to vacuum those areas by hand.