GoKawiilOther Robot Mowers I Tested and Liked
Photograph: Simon Hill
Photograph: Simon Hill
Video: Simon Hill Chevron Chevron Save to wishlist Save to wishlist Roborock Rockmow Z120 Lidar Shop Now
Roborock Rockmow X120H Lidar for $3,200: Better known for its robot vacuums, Roborock also makes robot mowers, and the X120H Lidar is its flagship model (discounted to a far more reasonable $2,000 at the time of writing). I actually tested the UK model, the identical Z120 Lidar (£2,299). This mower employs Lidar and AI vision, so it can cut without satellite connections, with no RTK antenna required. It also supports 4G and comes with a 3-year data plan. It is Four Wheel Drive (4WD) and has ingenious front wheels that pivot and turn independently to navigate tight areas smoothly, with minimal churning of your lawn. There’s a single disc underneath with six cutting blades and a reasonably wide, 9.5-inch (24 cm) cutting width. It supports a 0.8 to 2.7-inch (20 to 70 mm) cutting height, can cover up to around 21,500 square feet, and, most impressively, can handle an 80 percent (up to 39-degree) slope. A full charge gives you 110 minutes of mowing time, and it takes around 50 minutes to charge.
After some minor setup hassles (battery error), the Rockmow Z120 has impressed me. It looks to be the most capable mower I have tested yet for navigating uneven terrain. Apparently, it can automatically create maps, but it defaulted to the manual mode for me, prompting me to remote control it around the borders of my lawn. Edge mowing is the big disappointment, with the mower regularly leaving a strip on one edge of my lawn. I’m not keen on the optional PreciEdge Module (£150) that promises to reduce edges to 3 cm. I haven’t tested it, but feel it should be included in a mower this expensive. Why is it optional? Who doesn’t want their edges properly cut? It avoided most obstacles just fine, but was occasionally oversensitive, avoiding plants swaying over the border edge. The Rain Protection mode is a little too sensitive, preventing the mower from starting several hours after rain, so I had to override it. It also lacks a Spot Mode, though it is so heavy I would not want to carry it between lawn areas. I think this design, with the rotating wheels, has real potential if Roborock can improve the AI/software. Unfortunately, it's not currently available in the US right now, but hopefully be back in stock soon since it was released just this past summer.
Eufy Robot Lawn Mower E15 for $1,300: This is another wire-free mower that uses a camera system to automatically map lawns and avoid obstacles. It’s very similar to my top pick, and also has a super handy Spot Mode that lets you drop and mow on unmapped areas. But even after a big price drop from its original RRP, it’s still more expensive than the TerraMow, and it’s not as good at cutting edges. It can cover up to 0.2 acres (8,700 square feet), cut from 1 to 3 inches, and handle up to 18-degree slopes. It is also fairly quiet and has GPS tracking, but you must have Wi-Fi coverage in your backyard, or you'll need a 4G data subscription. I found the setup lengthy due to a firmware download, but the mapping and the first cut were decent. Object avoidance is very good. The E15 can only run during the day, and doesn't cope very well with inclines. I also found it frequently failed to cut the edges of the lawn and doesn't perform well if the grass is damp. The more affordable Eufy C15 (£999) is very similar, but designed for smaller lawns (up to 5,300 square feet) and only available in the UK and Europe right now.
It kept my back lawn neat without issues, but my front lawn has a dip and ill-defined border that it struggled with. That said, every time it looked as though it might get stuck, it managed to maneuver out of trouble. There’s a dial to adjust mowing height for the C15, whereas you can do it in the app with the E15. Both come with a covered charging base, which often costs extra with rivals. If you’re interested, watch out for a sale event (I’ve seen the E15 drop below $1,000, which makes it far more tempting).
Segway Navimow X430 for $2,249: My backyard is both a Wi-Fi and 5G dead zone. Before manually mowing the yard I save all my podcasts and music to offline mode, and I let my fiancee know she’ll need to deploy a carrier pigeon if she needs to get my attention. So, it was a relief to see just how quickly the navigation system of the Navimow X430 recognized the unit across the treacherous triple lot that surrounds my house. It connected within seconds of beginning the initial setup and twenty minutes later, the robot mower was on its way using the handy auto-mapping function. As it turns out, I didn't need the three beers I'd brought with me when I embarked upon this process, assuming it would be on par with the weeks-long headache it took to get the Mammotion Luba 2 connected and operational last summer.
It did an above-average job on its first pass despite the endless flurry of compost piles, stray bushes, fencing and detritus from half-finished gardening projects that litter my half-acre lawn, though I opted for manual mapping to take advantage of its aptitude at hugging the wobbly brick borders of some raised beds with relative ease. The sites claims that it can handle “tall, thick and dense grass," which I had the perfect scenario to test. After a two weeks of dealing with an endless cycle of torrential downpours and blistering heat, I was left with few open windows for a good mow before my patchy, crabby grass got too unwieldy for the Navimow’s 4-inch height maximum. I watched with disappointment as it casually drove over some stray blades that went to seed without making any impact whatsoever. Despite that, the Navimow X430 has impressed me with its ease-of-use. We'll update our impressions here with additional testing, but so far so good.—Pete Cottell
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