After spending a month using the Segway Navimow X390 on our two-acre yard, we’re fully convinced: robot lawn mowers have grown up, and they're going to continue to show up.
The X3 Series as a whole received a lot of claps when it launched last year, but the products are more than novelty gadgets; each mower in the collection is a smart lawn care tool that we found to cut consistently, navigate terrain, and take our mind off our most time-consuming summertime chore.
Like most technology, I won't say it's flawless, but it is very, very good. I have not looked out my window once and thought "the grass is getting long." And as a result, it really helped us shift our priorities.
"[The] rising adoption and normalization of AI technology will further revolutionize traditional outdoor power equipment, bringing new levels of convenience and simplifying tasks," shared Navimow's Head of Sales in North America, Wayne Kreifels. He goes on to speak to the evolution of robotic lawn mowers, including smart home integration, enhanced voice control capabilities, and standardized remote monitoring to improve the user experience.
Setup, Mapping, and Smart Navigation
The X3 Series is priced starting at $2,299 for smaller yards, with options for 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5-acre lots. The Segway X390, the largest model in the lineup, covers up to 2.5 acres and retails for $4,999.
What sets this series apart from others is its precise positioning. It doesn’t use a perimeter wire; instead, it combines Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS technology with vSLAM (visual simultaneous localization and mapping) and VIO (visual inertial odometry). Together, these navigation systems deliver centimeter-level accuracy.
While you're waiting for your Navimow to arrive, we'd also encourage you to watch all the tutorial videos. It'll simplify setup in a big way.
There’s a small base station with an antenna that must face the southern sky. While ours has a mostly open view, tree cover caused occasional connection drops, so we’ve considered mounting the antenna on the roof for better consistency.
To map your yard you drive the mower around with the remote control functionality in the app. You can switch between mowing along the boundary for yard edges, or mow ON the boundary for grass along sidewalks or driveways (if the height difference between surfaces is minimal). Once mapped, the mower can move automatically from zone to zone on a schedule or as a one-time mow, adjusting routes and mowing patterns using its built-in smart technology.
The lawn mower app is easy to use. We control mowing zones, days, and cutting height all from our phone. A remote cutting option in the app allows you to manually drive the mower to areas you want to go back over or that it may have missed, which happens once in a while. Only one device can connect at a time, which is a minor limitation; however, everything else about the user experience during setup feels intuitive and seamless.
Mowing Behavior, Terrain Handling, and Real-Life Performance
Our yard is mostly flat, but there’s a wooded slope just beyond the mapped grass. One morning, the mower hit a root near the edge and tried to navigate off it. Since the X390 can handle slopes up to 27 degrees while mowing—but only up to 14 degrees along its boundary—it slid past the border and ended up stuck down a leaf-covered hill. It couldn’t climb out. That’s the only time it’s really gotten into trouble. The solution? Re-map to avoid that area.
The mower is very quiet. We often forget it’s out until it needs help. When it does get stuck, it alerts us with a distinct triple-tone ping. You can turn off sound effects/voice to reduce noise, which we’ve done after one too many 5:30 a.m. alerts. It has a weatherproof design, but in the app you can tell it under what weather conditions NOT to mow (rain, snow hot weather, frost, strong wind). It gets real-time weather info from the internet, but also has rain sensors keep it off the lawn depending on how sensitive you want your landroid to be (drizzle, light rain, moderate rain). You can also tell it how long to wait after it stops raining before continuing its task so it doesn't spend its day in wet grass (especially if you have poorly draining soil).
It cuts in alternating angles leaving a well-groomed look without ruts. Its AI-powered obstacle detection is generally solid, but small sticks, twigs, and roots can be an issue. The cutting blades don’t mulch leaves or break up debris like traditional lawn mowers, so we still do some cleanup if we notice it heading toward a branch that may have fallen overnight. Its turning radius is tight enough to handle most spaces on our property.
The battery life is excellent. It runs for about three hours on a single charge, then returns to the base station to recharge. Recharging, also excellent. It takes just over 90 minutes, which, I might add, is faster than our Roomba. The mower resumes mowing automatically once recharged, which keeps the yard covered without much babysitting.
X390 Specs Worth Highlighting
- Cutting area: Up to 2.5 acres
- Cutting width: 10.2 inches
- Cutting height: Adjustable, set at 2.0 inches for us (4" max). Navimow also offers a Low-Cutting Kit accessory to reduce the blade height to 0.8" to 2.8", ideal for some warm-season lawns like bermudagrass.
- Slope tolerance: 27° mowing / 14° at boundary
- Battery life: 3 hours mowing
- Charge time: 90 minutes
- Connectivity: 4G LTE + RTK GPS (5 years of 4G is included)
- Noise level: Just 54 dB in Quiet Mode; everyone in our neighborhood who has stopped to watch it at work has commented on the lack of noise.
- Night vision: It has a headlight!
- Anti-theft system: GPS tracking, alarm, and an AirTag slot!
- Obstacle avoidance: Built-in sensors, multi-directional detection. It has a 300° wide-angle view!
- Smart features: Automatic navigation, real-time app control, weather-resistant design.
Why It Works for Our Yard—and Might Work for Yours
We’re using the X390 on 2 acres, with the cutting height set to 2 inches, which is slightly taller than our normal cut for Bermuda grass. We are anticipating the opportunity to try the Low-Cutting Kit that'll let us mow as short as 0.8". It handles it well, cuts evenly, and navigating around beds, trees, and bumpy patches without much issue. The mower doesn’t edge, and we skipped testing the optional trimming accessory, but it’s available if you want to reduce extra string trimming even more.
The weather resistance and adaptive mowing schedules give us peace of mind, especially when we’re away. We left for a long weekend! And returned home to a yard that looked great! Amazing.
The mower can skip mowing during high winds, heavy rain, or extreme heat; those are all details you can control in the app. It won’t activate if gusts are over 50 mph. It even earned a mention from Segway Navimow’s CEO as the best-selling robot mower during Amazon Prime Day—clearly, we’re not the only ones who are impressed.
The anti-theft system is also well thought-out, but, well, we haven't had to rely on it (yet!). There’s a built-in sound alarm, GPS tracking in the app, and even a compartment to hold an AirTag. I hadn't really considered that a robot mower would need security, but the extra layers of protection help when you’ve got $5,000 piece of lawn equipment sitting outside.
After weeks of use, we’re relying on it more and more. From May through September, we expect to do very little manual lawn mowing. That means fewer weekends spent sweating over a push mower, and more time enjoying the yard with family or traveling while the mower keeps everything trimmed.
For large lawns, this isn’t just a convenience, it’s a shift in how lawn care works. The Segway X3 series offers professional-level coverage with nearly hands-off performance. If you’ve been waiting for robotic lawn mowers to catch up with real-world demands, this one delivers.
