The installation went exceptionally smoothly. I used the NRTK option, which meant placing the included reference antenna was not necessary. The location determination is impressively accurate. Our garden is quite complex: 1,700 m² with about ten trees, a steep slope, various uneven surfaces, a deck, and a narrow passage to the front garden. The Navimow handles all of this effortlessly. Even in places where my Wi-Fi network no longer reaches, the mower remains accessible thanks to the multiple connection types and performs its tasks without signal loss.
After just three mowing sessions, the lawn looks remarkably neat. A major advantage is that the mower applies a different mowing pattern and direction with every pass, which benefits the quality of the turf. The obstacle detection works well; it stops neatly in time for our dog. If the mower is repeatedly blocked, you receive a clear audible signal and a push notification on your phone.
The navigation is not yet completely perfect. The edges between grass and paving are not always recognized flawlessly, causing it to sometimes drive over raised paving with a wheel. Mowing 90-degree angles along the fence is also still a bit sloppy. My expectation (and hope) is that Segway will smooth this out even further via AI learning in future software updates.
The accompanying app is relatively simple, although finding specific settings, such as your notification preferences, can sometimes be a challenge. I would like to see some more detailed notifications. For example, when the mower detects an obstacle in a narrow passage and needs to deviate from the preset route, so that I can specifically remove that obstacle. I am, however, very pleased with the automatic actions in response to weather influences such as rain or frost. For the home automation enthusiast, there is good news: the mower is easy to add to the Homey Pro 2023. Unfortunately, you cannot set it to mow based on sunset in the Navimow app itself, meaning you would have to manually adjust the schedules for every season. By controlling it via Advanced Flows in Homey based on sunset, that problem is immediately resolved. Do note a small bug in the original app: my mowing schedules started an hour later than planned by default (presumably a hidden time zone setting). By simply scheduling the plan an hour earlier, this is fixed for now.
The Navimow is a relatively quiet mower. What stands out most during operation is that the sound of the wheel drive is louder than the actual mowing of the blades. This is not disruptive, but it was immediately noticeable.
Conclusion: The Segway Navimow X420 is a powerful and versatile robotic mower that handles large, complex gardens exceptionally well. It is a significant investment, but the strong connectivity, NRTK accuracy, and good integration options make it worth the money.
