Segway Navimow i105E review

Segway Navimow i105E: Introduction

Last year saw the first robot lawnmowers that didn’t need boundary wire but they were universally fiddly to set up and didn’t quite deliver on the fuss-free setup.

This year, the Segway Navimow i105E fixes a lot of those issues, delivering excellent cutting performance and a brilliant app.

Read our full Segway Navimow i105E review to find out more.

Design and components

• No boundary wire required
• Manual cutting height adjustment

There are two versions of this robot lawnmower available, the i105E (for gardens up to 500m²) and the i108E (up to 800m²).

Both are the same, bar the battery size, hence the difference in supported garden size. Even so, these are robot lawnmowers designed for small to medium gardens; those with larger gardens will need something bigger, such as the excellent Mammotion Luba 2 AWD.

Given that a lot of us don’t have huge gardens, the Segway Navimow i-series products will suit a lot of people, and has the advantage that the price is much lower than much of the competition.

Quite compact, the new roboto lawnmowers don’t take up a huge amount of room, so you don’t need much space for the dock.

It’s good to see that the VisionFence camera, which is used for obstacle avoidance and secondary navigation, is physically a part of the lawnmower’s chassis.

That’s much neater than on the previous Segway model and on the Luba 2, both of which must have their cameras manually installed.

As this robot doesn’t require a boundary wire, you have to install the external GPS receiver, which connects to the docking station via a cable.

In the box, there’s a pole mount that has to be pushed into the soil. If you don’t get a very good signal, Segway sells an extension cable and wall mount.

With the original Segway robot lawnmower, I struggled to get a reliable GPS signal; with the i105E, I didn’t have problems with the standard installation.

In addition to the GPS receiver, the robot itself needs a strong GPS signal. That’s because of the system Real-Time Kinetic (RTK) system, where the signals from both GPS receivers are compared so that the robot can precisely place itself.

To aid with robot placement, the app has a mode that lets you drive the robot around and find a strong position for the dock.

That helps avoid having to place the docking station, try the setup routine, then relocate the dock when there’s not a strong enough signal, and repeat.

As with most modern robot lawnmowers, the Segway Navimow i105E uses a cutting deck that takes three replaceable blades.

The cutting deck is 18cm wide, which is narrower than much of the competition, although well suited to the size of gardens the robot is aimed at.

Cutting height can be adjusted between 20 and 60mm, which covers most needs. However, the cutting height control is manual, using the dial on top, rather than a motorised control.

That’s the only minor downside of this robot.

Wi-Fi is built-in, as is Bluetooth, but the Segway Navimow i105E also has an optional Navimow Access+ module, which adds 4G into the mix.

This module adds remote control via 4G (useful if you have poor Wi-Fi outside), but also adds anti-theft features, locking the robot if it’s moved from its home location.

Features

• Can automatically create a map
• VisionSense is used for navigation and obstacle avoidance

Once installed, the Robot can be connected to the app and Wi-Fi with ease. The first job is to make a map, which can done using a combination of techniques.

Manual driving lets you move the robot around the borders of your garden, but there’s an automatic option that uses the VisionFence camera to spot borders and drive the robot by itself.

I found that the automatic option worked best when there was a strong boundary, such as a fence, and less well when there was just a flower bed. Even so, it only took less than 10 minutes to map out my garden.

Before starting to mow, there’s a choice of two boundary modes, standard and ride-on. Standard keeps the Segway Navimow i105E a few centimeters away from the edges of your garden; ride-on lets the robot move down the boundary, which is handy where grass meets a flat area, such as a path.

Once generated, no-go zones can be added to the map, such as around big trees and roots, and garden ponds.

It’s also easy to change the map at any time, so you can change where the Segway Navimow i105E mows based on changing needs in your garden, such as if you dig a new flower bed, or because you want to leave areas of your lawn longer to help with wildlife.

Although it’s easy to start a manual mow using the app, having a schedule let me go hands-free. There are two types of schedule: setting a time for the robot to go out, letting it run until it has covered the full map area; or using a set run time, where the robot will cut multiple times until its timeslot is up.

Realistically, for the size of garden that the Segway Navimow i105E will tackle, the former option is far more efficient.

VisionFence is turned on, using the camera to help the robot out. Primarily, VisionFence is there to help the Segway Navimow i105E avoid common obstacles, such as garden tables, hoses and shoes. VisionFence is also used to enhance navigation where there’s poor GPS coverage.

There’s no rain sensor in this model, although the app can be set to stop the Segway Navimow i105E from mowing the lawn if rain is predicted, with a choice of three levels of rain (light, drizzle and moderate).

Performance

• Excellent navigation
• Brilliant cutting performance

Before the Segway Navimow i105E can run for the first time, grass needs to be manually cut so that its less than 6cm high. Once that’s done, you can put the manual lawnmower away, as you’ll not need it again.

What I particularly noticed about the Segway Navimow i105E is how clever it is at cutting. As it knows where it is and how big the map is, the robot can precisely move around until the entire cutting area is covered.

There is some variation in runs. As the Segway Navimow i105E uses GPS, each run can see its positioning vary slightly, which can lead to parts of the garden not getting a cut on a run.

However, make the Segway Navimow i105E go out multiple times per week and this evens out so there aren’t any clumps of grass left, leaving lush, rich grass behind.

I liked the way that the Segway Navimow i105E deals with longer grass, spinning on the spot until the grass has been reduced. That’s handy if the robot hasn’t been out for a while because of rain.

For areas where Ride-On mode can be used, the Segway Navimow i105E eliminates the need for a grass trimmer; for standard borders, there’s around 10cm of grass that will need to be tackled manually. To be fair, there’s not a robot lawnmower around that eliminates all manual work.

Object detection and avoidance is top-notch. I watched the Segway Navimow i105E gently move around garden chairs and tables, and avoid running over the hose that I’d left out. That’s good news for messy lawns, although you will still have to move items around if you want a clean and even cut all over.

The wheels will deal with slopes of up to 30%, and are big enough to cope with some uneven ground. For a general suburban lawn, the robot won’t have any problems.

Final thoughts

For the vast majority of gardens, the Segway Navimow i105E or i108E are more than up to the job of cutting the lawn. An excellent app, brilliant obstacle avoidance and clean cutting make this a top choice for those who don’t like mowing lawns themselves. I’d have liked app-controlled height adjustment, but given the excellent price of this lawnmower, it’s easily forgivable.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot mowers usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robot for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test robots to learn more.