I let the Segway Navimow i215 roam free in my yard for two months — here's how well it cut my lawn

Tom's Guide Verdict I used the Segway Navimow i215 in my yard for most of the summer, and it worked well with few complaints, but I wish it had features found in some of its less expensive rivals, such as the edge mowing of the Worx Landroid, and the object identification of the Sunseeker S4. Pros +Easy to set up +Good at mowing +Anti-theft features Cons -Can’t mow patterns in the lawn -Doesn’t identify obstructions in app Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. The promise of many smart home devices is that they can free your time up to do other things, but how often is that reflected in reality?We could finally be there with robot lawnmowers. I’ve been using the Segway Navimow i215 in my yard for the last few months, and a few exceptions aside, I haven’t thought about mowing my lawn for a long time. But is the Navimow i215 the best robot lawnmower for your yard? It depends on a lot of factors, such as the size and slope of your grass, but there are a few universal takeaways I found from testing this, as well as several other robot lawnmowers.Read on to see how well the Navimow i215 performed for me, and if I’d pick it over other models.Latest Videos FromTom's GuidePicking the right size (Image credit: Future)When I first talked with Segway about reviewing one of its lawnmowers, I initially requested the Navimow X4, the company’s top-end device that costs $2,500, can tackle just about any terrain, and has independent wheels that allow it to make zero-degree turns. It’s a truly impressive mower — and it proved to be too much for my yard.The main reason I requested the X4 is that my front yard, despite being very small, is on a bit of a hill that in the past proved too daunting for some robot lawnmowers. However, after running the X4 for a while, I noticed that it would repeatedly skip over certain sections. Confused, I talked with Segway, which said that because my lawn was so small — we’re talking less than 500 square feet — it had trouble taking care of it properly.Segway then sent me the Navimow i215, which costs about $1,000 less, and is more suited for mid-size to smaller yards.Price and availabilityThe i215 is the newest of Segway’s mid-tier robot lawnmowers. It came on the market in 2026, costs $1,599, can cover up to 0.37 acres, and uses both LiDAR and vision systems to map and navigate your yard.Tom's Guide: Direct to Your InboxGet instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.It’s a bit more sophisticated than the i210 AWD ($1,299, 0.25 acres) and the i206 AWD ($999, 0.15 acres), both of which have obstacle avoidance, but lack LiDAR.An easy — but not trouble-free —setup (Image credit: Future)Like most new robot lawnmowers, the Navimow i215 has everything it needs built right into the mower, so there’s no need to install a tower or a boundary wire around your property. I simply set up the base station where the robot docks to recharge, and then followed the instructions in the Navimow app to connect it to my home Wi-Fi network.As part of the setup process, you can send the mower out to automatically map your yard, or you can perform this task manually by driving the bot around the perimeter.Even after creating the map, it still required some tweaking, as the i215 kept nose diving off one corner of my lawn; I would have hoped its Lidar would have recognized the dropoff. However, all I had to do was go into the app and re-draw the map to shave off a few inches. After those adjustments, I rarely encountered an issue with it going astray.Obstacle avoidance and mowing performance (Image credit: Future)The Navimow did a good job at avoiding objects. It successfully navigated around a small soccer ball, as well as a plastic child’s toy, but ran right over an orange ball the size of a baseball; perhaps it felt it was small enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.However, unlike the Sunseeker X3, which I tested last year, Segway’s mower and app doesn’t mark on its map that it encountered an obstruction. The only indication I got was that the app showed a spot of the lawn that was unmowed. (Image credit: Future)After scanning your yard, Segway’s mower will also plot the ideal direction to mow your lawn most efficiently. In my case, it was a diagonal line along the long axis. Taking this route also meant it was able to avoid driving directly up the steepest part of my lawn. I still worried about it creating divots in my lawn; more than once, I saw it spin its wheels in place on some of the steeper sections, which tore up the grass a bit.Within the Segway Navimow app, you can adjust the direction of the mowing, but unlike most other robot lawnmowers we’ve tested, Segway’s app doesn’t let you mow patterns, such as a crosshatch or diamond. Some companies’ mowers will even let you mow shapes, like hearts. While I think that’s a little frivolous, I do wish Segway would offer a little something more in terms of letting you control how the mower cuts your grass.Smart home and security features (Image credit: Future)Even the least expensive robot lawnmower will cost upwards of $500, so some sort of security feature is warranted, so that someone doesn’t simply walk away with your mower as it’s making its rounds.Segway built two protections into the Navimow to keep would-be thieves from absconding with your stuff. Within the Segway app, you can set a geofence boundary around your property, so that if the bot is moved beyond a certain radius, it will sound an alarm. You can set it anywhere from a 33-foot to up to a 164-foot radius; obviously, if your yard is larger than that, you might want to disable this feature.Should the alarm not be enough of a deterrent, the Navimow i215 is also equipped with Apple FindMy, so you can locate the mower if it goes missing.Finally, the i215 also works with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can use your smart speaker of choice to command the mower to start working, or connect it to your other smart home devices and routines.Bottom line (Image credit: Future)I was initially skeptical that the Segway Navimow i215 would be able to negotiate my front yard, but the little machine defied my expectations. While it’s not quite as smart as I hoped — it drove itself right off one of my retaining walls — it ultimately performed well over the long run.I also liked the i215’s security features, but there are still a couple of things I wish were included. For example, the Worx Landroid has an edge-mowing feature, and the Sunseeker S4 will show in the app any objects it encounters in your yard. And, both of those models — which cost less than the Navimow — also let you mow your yard in specific patterns.So, while Segway has made a very capable robot lawnmower, there are still others that are a cut above. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. U.S. Editor-in-Chief, Tom's GuideMichael A. Prospero is the U.S. Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Guide. In his spare time, he also tests out the latest drones, electric scooters, and smart home gadgets, such as video doorbells. Before his tenure at Tom's Guide, he was the Reviews Editor for Laptop Magazine, a reporter at Fast Company, the Times of Trenton, and, many eons back, an intern at George magazine. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College, where he worked on the campus newspaper The Heights, and then attended the Columbia University school of Journalism. When he’s not testing out the latest running watch, electric scooter, or skiing or training for a marathon, he’s probably using the latest sous vide machine, smoker, or pizza oven, to the delight — or chagrin — of his family. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.