Narwal’s New Robot Vacuum at CES Promises Massively Improved Object Avoidance. I Have My Doubts
Robot vacuums still struggle with object avoidance, as we learned in our recent lab exclusive, where we discovered that even the best robot vacuums we recommend weren’t capable of avoiding every single object we test against, and even the ones that claim superior avoidance weren’t so good at it. The Narwal Flow 2 is here at CES 2026, and the company’s newest flagship says promises it’ll come with significantly improved and AI-enhanced object avoidance that can even help find your lost valuables. It’s an appealing promise, but it’s one I take with a grain of salt from any robot vacuum manufacturer.
Still, I got to take a look at the Flow 2 and other products in Narwal’s lineup for CES, and there’s a lot to be impressed by beyond just the improved object-avoidance technology, though that will be the standout feature if it works as promised. Here’s some of what stood out to me.
The Flow 2 improves on the previous model with higher temp mopping and a dustbag that’s reusable.
Object avoidance and identifying valuables
The Flow 2 comes with Narwal’s NarMind Pro Autonomous System, a new navigation system that features dual 1080p RGB cameras with a 136-degree field of view. It runs the VLM OmmniVision AI Model, which Narwal says enables the Flow 2 to have unlimited object-recognition capability, unlike other robot vacuums that typically have a list of 20-30 objects they’re trained on.
Narwal says that Flow 2 is capable of capturing and interpreting surrounding spatial information in real time. If it can’t identify an object for local processing, it captures an image and sends it to the cloud-based AI model for analysis. Narwal says the combination of on-device processing and cloud-based AI makes it faster and more precise for obstacle recognition and avoidance.
Notably, the company says that it allows the robot to have millimeter-level obstacle avoidance strategies that can be tailored to the obstacle types. There are four different modes, including Pet Care, Baby Care and AI Floor Tag, that let it adapt cleaning to accommodate pets, babies and households. The Pet Care feature supports automatic cleaning of pet zones, finding your pet and even video calling for your pet. (I don’t think my cats would be able to figure this out.)
Narwal says the Flow 2 can even tag valuables and assign it the highest avoidance priority.
The Baby Care mode switches to quiet mode near cribs, sends reminders for lost toys and and avoids areas your baby crawls, though this seems a little counterproductive if you want to keep that area clean, so presumably there’s a way to change that setting. Lastly, the AI Floor Tag is a mode that recognizes valuable items and assigns them the highest avoidance priority, logging them in the app to send you an alert.
On a more practical level for cleaning, the Flow 2 can recognize different types of dirt and adapt the cleaning strategies depending on whether the dirt is wet or dry or heavy or light. It can also decide when the Flow 2 needs to return to the base station to rewash the mop and remop specific areas. These are all fairly useful features, and obstacle avoidance is a fairly tough nut to crack, as I learned in one of our most recent lab stories. As many experts have told me, the problem lies more on the software end than the hardware end, so I’m looking forward to getting the chance to test the Flow 2 at CNET Labs to see if the puzzle has finally been solved.
Reusable dust bag and washable debris filter to save on replacements
The Flow 2 has 30,000 pascals of suction and 12 newtons of downward pressure for mopping.
Not as flashy as advanced object recognition, the Flow 2 has some useful quality-of-life features. Most robot vacuums these days come with an all-in-one base station that charges the robot and automatically empties the dustbin into a dust bag. It’s a great feature for saving you time and effort, but the downside is that you end up buying dust bags and filter replacements on a semiregular basis. The Flow 2 aims to eliminate this entirely, featuring a reusable dust bag and a washable debris filter.
The Flow 2 is designed to build on everything we liked about the Narwal Flow and ideally improve on the aspects we didn’t like as much. It comes with an attractive new arc design, a base station featuring a frosted glass panel, and clean and dirty water tanks that are easier to lift. It supports 30,000 pascals of suction while vacuuming and features the FlowWash mopping system, which allows it to continuously refresh the mop with clean and hot water while cleaning. The new model supports mopping temperatures up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and has 12 newtons of downward pressure.
These are all pretty standard features on a higher-end robot vacuum, so I’m most eager to see how it fares when faced with our challenging object avoidance lab test. Narwhal has promised me that the Flow 2 will be conducting a demo to showcase its obstacle avoidance capabilities later this week, so I’ll update this story with my impressions after I see it.
New cordless vacuums and a mattress cleaner
The Narwal V50 comes with a docking station that stores all of the attachments.
The rest of Narwal’s lineup is interesting too, since the company is expanding into cordless vacuums and mattress vacuums. The V50 joins the ranks of rivals such as the Levoit Aero and Roborock H60 Hub Ultra. It’s a compact cordless vacuum that has an autoemptying dock. At just 3.1 pounds, I found it easy to hold and maneuver, but I wasn’t able to use it since it was just a prototype unit.
It also comes with the standard set of features for more premium vacuums, including smart dirt detection, stronger suction power for carpets, detangling brushrolls and replaceable batteries. As a nice touch, it comes with an extra battery by default and all the nozzles and attachments can be stored in the base station.
The V50 comes with an extra battery and the base station can store all the accessories.
Narwhal’s next vacuum doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s interesting because it strongly resembles the Dyson PencilVac that I went hands-on with last May. The entire vacuum is contained in an ultra-slim body, which makes it more resemble a broom or mop than a traditional vacuum. It felt super light when I held it, though again, I wasn’t able to actually turn it on and use it. I imagine that, like the PencilVac, this will be more suited for quick clean-ups due to its small dustbin, although it does have 140 air watts of suction, which should translate to solid pickup.
Narwal’s new unnamed vacuum resembles Dyson’s PencilVac.
On the plus side, Narwal’s model does include a docking station and an auto-empty dustbin. Narwhal says it has a 50-minute running time and a 1.6-quart base station that lets you go up to 60 days without needing to be emptied. That sounds optimistic, in my experience, especially if you have multiple shedding pets or a large household.
The U50 is a handheld mattress vacuum cleaner loaded with sterilization features.
Finally, there’s the Narwal U50 Series, which is a specialized mattress vacuum cleaner. It’s a compact handheld device with several sanitizing features designed specifically for beds. It heats up to 137 degrees Fahrenheit, offers UVC sterilization, and has 16,000 Pascals of suction power to remove bed mites and allergens.
The U50 has UVC sanitizing and heat to deal with mites and allergens.
The dust gets stored in a sealed dustbag that can hold up to two weeks of dust. Narwhal says it’s antibacterial and features a transparent window, allowing you to see when it’s full. It seems like a little bit of a niche product to me, since you can likely use an upholstery brush with a cordless vacuum to get at least some of the same mattress cleaning, but the sanitizing features are nice if you’re concerned about that.
Source: CNET
