I let this Segway robot mow my lawn for months – here’s why it’s been irreplaceable for me

jul / 2025

Mowing my lawn is no easy task for a robot — not because it’s especially large, but because it’s a challenging landscape. A few small hills and tree roots peeking out of the grass make getting around rather difficult for robot mowers. There are also some obstacles and no-go zones, including some well-defined garden beds (and others that aren’t), some bushes, a deck, and a large hill. 

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I’ve tested multiple robot mowers on my yard this year alone, but the new Segway Navimow X3 Series has stood out with its centimeter-level accuracy thanks to EFLS 3.0 technology. This Exact Fusion Location System is a multi-sensor innovation that combines an RTK antenna, VSLAM, and VIO for drone-like precision in navigation.

Setting up the robot mower was easy. The robot only requires installing the antenna and charging station before mapping your perimeter. The antenna was easy to install; it didn’t require my husband and I to walk around our yard for an entire afternoon looking for the best signal — already a big improvement over other models. 

The app walks you through the robot mower’s setup, and after you’ve installed the antenna somewhere with a clear view of the sky and paired your mower, you can start mapping. 

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We placed the Navimow X350 in the backyard and steered it around its perimeter to create a map. Since then, it has kept my backyard trimmed and mowed with zero intervention from us. 

Since May 2025, my Navimow X350 has mowed 92.7K square feet and deployed 67 times across two zones. In that time, it’s only had one mishap with an obstacle: it climbed about six inches of a low-lying backyard solar panel and broke it. I can see how it made this mistake, as the panel was very low on the ground, it has a glass surface that reflects images, and my husband moves it around every few weeks.

Every other time, however, the mower has consistently kept to its mapped area and hasn’t given me any trouble with uneven terrain, garden beds, bushes, or signals. 

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As I mentioned above, my yard has a lot of bushes, a few garden beds, a wooded area out back, and a large deck. The backyard is divided into a couple of areas on either side of the house, connected by a four-foot grass path along the deck. The Navimow X350 can cut the entire yard in about 90 minutes on a single charge, though it has an advertised mowing time of up to 200 minutes.

It’s definitely the fastest mower I’ve tried so far, as it glides effortlessly across my yard. It moves so fast that it’s hard to believe it actually mows along its path, but it does, able to handle slopes of up to 50% incline and an adjustable cutting height between two to four inches.

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Most robot mowers run a couple of times a week and gradually cut back the grass to maintain it. The clippings are left behind, but they tend to be so small that you rarely see them before they decompose. Robot mowers also don’t trim the edges of your yard, especially along fences and borders. 

However, the Segway Navimow X3 has an inlet (pictured above on the right side of the body) to add accessories, like an Edge Trimmer. I haven’t tested any of the X3 Series accessories, but the Edge Trimmer promises to be a groundbreaking move in the robot mower market. 

ZDNET’s buying advice

As soon as I started using the Segway Navimow X350, I realized it’s one of the best mowers on the market. The several months of use that followed only reinforced that observation. The Navimow X350 runs every other day like clockwork, keeping the backyard mowed and ready with no intervention on my part. I’ve never had to rescue it, and, aside from the single incident with the solar panel, it’s also never run over bushes or flower beds. 

Starting at $2,299, the Segway Navimow X3 Series isn’t the most affordable robot mower on the market, but it also isn’t the most expensive. Competitors like the Mammotion Luba 2 and Husqvarna IQ Series range from $2,500 to $5,000, so it is priced accurately for the market. But the X3 Series is also very reliable, more so than more expensive options, like the $5,000 Yarbo Robot Mower, in my experience. 

Looking for the next best robot mower? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.

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