Segway Navimow X450E review: 4×4 drive, cameras and ToF sensor – this is no longer a lawnmower, but an off-road machine

When a box with the Segway Navimow X450E arrived at our editorial office, I had somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, excitement – it’s a flagship robotic lawnmower for which the manufacturer charges 76,990 CZK, and its specifications on paper are more comparable to a small work machine than a home appliance. On the other hand, apprehension, because my garden is only about 80 square meters, and this lawnmower is dimensioned for 5,000 m². In other words, I received a machine for testing that would eat my property for breakfast and still have room for the rest of the street.

Therefore, the following lines are not a classic review. Rather, consider them as extended first impressions from a month of living with technology that I couldn’t fully test in real-world conditions. Instead of testing the AWD drive on a fifty-degree slope, I was figuring out how to convince it on my mini-property not to mow the same line for the third time in a row. Even so, I got a pretty good idea of what the X450E can do – and who it’s worth it for.

A box like a washing machine and wire-free installation

The first contact with the Segway Navimow X450E is very… physical. The lawnmower weighs 29.2 kilograms, measures 850 × 610 × 351 millimeters, and the packaging reflects this. It includes a charging station, an extension cable, a GNSS antenna with a mounting kit, a power supply, a set of spare blades with screws, and printed materials. Standard among premium robotic lawnmowers, nothing more, nothing less.

What distinguishes the X450E from older generations of robotic lawnmowers is the complete absence of a boundary wire. Just a few years ago, installing a robotic lawnmower meant an afternoon of digging around the perimeter of the lawn, winding wire around every tree, and hoping a spade wouldn’t cut it during the next cultivation. Fortunately, that era is ending. The Navimow X450E relies on satellite navigation and its own sensors, so apart from placing the base station and antenna, all groundwork is eliminated.

Garden mapping is done using the app – you drive the lawnmower in manual mode around the perimeter of the area it needs to mow, or you mark out zones it shouldn’t enter (flowerbeds, children’s sandpit, pond). The whole process took about twenty minutes, including occasional “oh damn, not this way.” The map itself can then be freely edited directly on the phone screen, which will be appreciated by anyone who occasionally moves things around in their garden.

No boundary wire, but with an antenna overhead

To know its exact location, Navimow combines several technologies. Segway named the main one EFLS NRTK, which is essentially satellite positioning with corrections via a mobile network, supplemented by a trio of cameras covering 360° around the lawnmower and a visual odometry system. When it gets a good GPS signal in an open area, the lawnmower primarily follows satellites. When the signal weakens under dense tree canopies, the cameras take over the main work, and the lawnmower calculates its position based on the image.

At my home, the GPS signal isn’t ideal; there are two tall trees around the garden and a house that blocks part of the sky. Nevertheless, I didn’t observe a single instance where the lawnmower started aimlessly wandering or got lost. Once, I let it work after dark – I wanted to see if the camera-based navigation worked in the dark – and indeed, the X450E continued its work as if nothing had happened. The lights on its body help, as does evidently sophisticated image contrast processing.

What’s a big bonus, and Segway communicates it quite loudly: NetRTK is free forever with this lawnmower. Competitors charge an annual subscription for the correction signal, which can add up significantly over time. Here, that’s eliminated. The manufacturer provides mobile 4G connectivity for free for one year from activation – after that, it’s necessary to resolve with the seller or Segway how to proceed, but for the mowing itself, it’s not critical; the lawnmower also works without 4G via home Wi-Fi.

More sensors than my car

The second layer of intelligence is the VisionFence system, which handles obstacle detection. It combines 360° cameras with a ToF (Time of Flight) sensor – this measures short distances by sending a light pulse and measuring how long it takes to return. The lawnmower thus not only sees that there is a shape in front of it but also knows how far away and how large it is. The manufacturer promises recognition of over 200 types of obstacles – from leaves to cables and toys, to pets.

In practice, I tested it primitively but effectively. I threw a shoe, a sports bottle, and an old rag onto the lawn. In all three cases, the lawnmower slowed down, went around the obstacle in an arc, and continued. When I placed a cardboard box in its path, it backed up and tried a different direction. Conversely, it correctly ignored dry grass or small pinecones – it would be a disaster if it panicked over every fallen leaf.

The manufacturer itself admits that the system has its limits. In slightly uneven terrain or narrow passages, the lawnmower sometimes stops and thinks for a moment about how to proceed. I would even classify this as a drawback – in a narrower corridor between the fence and a flowerbed, it happened several times that the X450E literally shuffled in place for several tens of seconds, searching for the optimal trajectory. When given free space, it works like clockwork. When put into tight situations, it becomes apparent that it’s more of an analyst than a rally driver.

4×4 that a house with a large garden will appreciate

Here I come to what I couldn’t truly test. The Navimow X450E has all-wheel drive (AWD), double suspension, and according to the specifications, it can handle slopes with an incline of up to 84% (40 degrees). For context – typical robotic lawnmowers get stuck somewhere around 30–35 percent. This one can tackle terrain that would rock or even overturn other machines. Furthermore, the front axle is steerable, so when turning, the lawnmower doesn’t dig its wheels into the lawn but smoothly changes direction.

My garden is flat as a table. No slopes, no unevenness, just a patch of green between the house and the fence. So, the AWD drive did probably the most boring job of its life for me. However, from tests I’ve seen from media colleagues with hilly gardens, it’s clear that the X450E can truly do things that other brands wouldn’t dare. Anyone with a property with sloping sections, terraces, or transitions between levels will appreciate it the most.

What I could test, however, was the speed and cutting width. 43 centimeters is a decent figure for a robotic lawnmower, and the combination of two independent 180W motors with twelve blades (on two discs) mowed even slightly taller grass that had grown after the rain without any issues. The lawnmower operated confidently, without snagging, and without needing a second pass. The noise level remains at 68 dB, which is the sound of a normal conversation – I ran it on a Saturday afternoon, had the windows open, and inside the house, I only heard it as a gentle hum.

I have a minor reservation about the tires. They have an aggressive off-road tread pattern, which undoubtedly helps in dirt and on slopes, but in wet conditions, the tire teeth eagerly pick up wet soil and spread it everywhere. After mowing in the morning dew, the lawnmower occasionally brought a fair amount of garden debris into my garage. Nothing dramatic, but expect to have to wash and clean the machine a bit after rain.

A mobile app that checks the weather forecast

The Navimow app is an area where Segway has clearly invested a good deal of money. The interface is clear, localized into Czech, and logically organized. The main screen shows battery status, mowing schedule, garden map, and lawnmower status. Among the individual features, I was most impressed by the smart weather-based mowing schedule. The lawnmower downloads the forecast and plans its work accordingly. Is rain threatening? Mowing will be postponed. Will it rain all weekend? The lawnmower will finish work on Thursday before the rain arrives.

A physical rain sensor acts as a backup – if the forecast is wrong, the lawnmower simply returns to its station and waits for the rain to stop. It works. During a month of testing, I experienced three showers, and the X450E reacted to all three in time and on its own.

The app also offers minor creative add-ons – you can draw patterns on the lawn, whether stripes at regular intervals or simple graphic motifs. For a practical person, this is more of a curiosity, but I admit that a neighbor who roars with a rotary mower before work in the morning would be amazed. Among the features that make real sense, I highlight voice control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home, multi-zone planning (the garden can be divided into up to 120 zones with their own rules), and the ability to adjust the cutting height in the range of 20 to 95 millimeters directly from the app, without any screwing. Classic robotic lawnmowers force you to crawl on all fours and look for a control dial – here, you just tap your phone.

Security that should ruin a thief’s day

When you pay almost 77,000 for a lawnmower, you probably don’t want someone to steal it. The Navimow X450E has layered protection – a PIN code for startup, an alarm when lifted off the ground (the lawnmower starts screaming), GPS location tracking, and Apple Find My network support, which allows you to locate it even if its main power is off. Additionally, the app monitors a “GeoFence” – if the lawnmower leaves the garden, you’ll receive a notification.

This is an area where the X450E is among the best-equipped robotic lawnmowers on the market. I don’t need to elaborate that you’ll appreciate this most if you have a property without a fence or a cottage you visit once every two weeks.

Who will get their 77,000 back (and who definitely won’t)

And now for the unpleasant part. The price of 76,990 CZK is, of course, set for a narrow group of customers. For someone with my garden, I wouldn’t recommend the X450E even by mistake. In this price range, the lawnmower is intended for three types of people: owners of family homes with properties from approximately 1,000 m² upwards, owners of cottages and weekend residences, and green area managers.

The return on investment can be calculated quite precisely. If you pay a gardener 800–1,200 CZK per week for regular mowing, you’ll spend 25,000–35,000 CZK annually during the season (roughly April to October). At a price of 77,000, your acquisition cost will be recouped in two and a half to three seasons. The lawnmower starts itself, mows itself, tidies itself, and recharges its battery itself. You only occasionally remove it for cleaning and annual blade replacement.

The other side of the coin: if you own a garden under a thousand square meters, you will likely be fully satisfied with one of the cheaper versions of the Navimow X series (X320E or X330E), or a solid robotic lawnmower from another brand at a third of the price. The top-tier X450E is not a lawnmower you buy just because. It’s an investment in peace of mind for a very large property.

What else to add?

The Segway Navimow X450E is a technologically impressive piece of hardware. All-wheel drive with a steerable front axle, a fusion of GPS, cameras, and a ToF sensor, a top-notch app, free lifetime NetRTK, and a three-year warranty on the lawnmower (two years on the battery and adapter) place it at the absolute top. The month I spent with it was absurd in a way – I have a garden the size of a large living room, and the lawnmower was clearly in a different league. But even from that limited test, I took away a clear message: whoever has a property that matches its capabilities will get a machine whose abilities surpass most of the competition.

76,990 CZK is not a price that would excite anyone with a normal budget. But for the right target audience, it makes sense – and if you’re currently paying an external company for lawn maintenance, calculate the return on investment. You might find that it ultimately costs you less in total.

The lawnmower was loaned by Segway for the purpose of this review.

Editor’s rating: 95 %

Would you invest in a robotic lawnmower of this high class, or would a cheaper option suffice for you?