Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD two-minute review

If you’re in the market for wire-free robotic lawn mower that cuts grass as well as a human using a good-quality mower, the new Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD is an absolute shoo-in. I’ve been using this F1 racing car-inspired mowbot for the past three weeks and I’m struggling to come up with anything negative to say about it.

The LUBA 2 AWD’s inch-accurate GPS RTK navigation and grass-cutting technology is so dependable that every time I look at the finish of my lawn I wonder how on earth an autonomous robot could be so capable of such a flawless job without me having to endure any major technical shenanigans. If you want unswervingly straight and wide 15.7" / 40cm grass stripes 24/7, this is the lawnbot for you. Yes, it’s extremely expensive but then again the level of engineering on display here is near Formula One spec.

The LUBA 2 features all-wheel drive and has the ability to scale inclines up to a ridiculously steep 80%. It can also traverse very rough terrain, turn on a sixpence and negotiate borders and obstacles with aplomb. It is, to all intents and purposes, one of the very best pieces of technological kit this reviewer has seen over the years.

Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD review: price & availability

• Price: from $2,099 / £2,149
• Available now
• On sale in the US and UK

Are you sitting down? Good, because even the cheapest model, the LUBA 2 AWD 1000, costs a whopping $2,099 / £2,149. However, given the huge amount of advanced technology on board, the enormous amount of time saved mowing the lawn yourself and possibly the cost of employing a human gardener to do it for you, this seemingly high price is actually pretty reasonable, especially given how well it does the job.

So where can you buy one of these sci-fi machines? If you’re in America, try Mammotion, Amazon or Walmart where the LUBA 2 AWD costs from $2,099. If you’re in the UK, head to the Mammotion store or Amazon where prices start at £2,149. 

• Value for money score: 4.5 out of 5

Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD specs

Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD review: design

• Formula One styling
• 3D camera
• Omni-directional front wheels

Robotic lawn mowers have been around since the early 90's but they’ve always been regarded as a bit of a niche product, due to the fact that they have all required having a long, complicated boundary wire installed to prevent them from straying into flower borders, ponds, swimming pools and other no-go zones. But that’s all set to change with the advent of the latest slew of self-navigating robot mowers that no longer need a perimeter wire.

Not only do the latest autonomous wire-free lawnbots require very little setup, they’re also incredibly efficient at keeping a lawn and, in many cases, several interconnected lawns perfectly manicured on a daily basis. With their advanced sensors, GPS navigation and smart connectivity, these cutting-edge sward scythes will negotiate a wide variety of complex lawn designs with ease, leaving you to get on with some of the more important things in life. I have one such technological marvel mowing my lawn right now, so let me tell you more about it.

I’m a sucker for a well-designed piece of kit and the sterling LUBA 2 AWD is right up there when it comes to looks. Just seeing a photo of this robot mower’s striking Formula One-inspired body makes you want to rush out and buy one. And should you do that, you’ll doubtless be thrilled to discover during the unboxing process that it’s not just the body that screams high-end quality but practically every on-board component, too.

Let’s start at the beginning. After you’ve manhandled the giant box onto your lawn and sliced through the sealing tape, you’re presented with the gleaming robot in most of its glory. I say most because you will need to screw on the provided 3D camera and clip in the front bumper – but more on that in a moment. Reach down to the sides of the robot to get a hold of its two hidden grab handles and haul the 38.9lb / 17.12kg beast out of the box. Spend a little time at this juncture to admire what might turn out to be one the best purchases you’ve ever made.

Before I get to setting it up, here are a few tantalizing specs that make this mower such a stand-out product. Firstly, because this model uses ultra-accurate RTK GPS and a camera to navigate, there are no perimeter wires involved so you won’t need to spend hours on your knees digging silly little trenches around the edge of the lawn – a major bonus that cannot be ignored. Secondly, the LUBA 2 comes with a 15.7" / 40cm motorized cutting deck with remote-controlled height adjustment from 1 to 2.7" / 25 - 70mm in 5mm increments. The deck itself comprises two spinning discs, each equipped with four razor blades that cut and mulch grass almost as well as a cylinder mower, and as close to the edge of the lawn as any conventional mower. 

Since the deck is the same size as a standard medium-sized push lawn mower, it means that the specific LUBA 2 model on review here will cut lawns up to 0.25 acre / 1,000 square meters in next to no time. Fear not if your lawn is on the large size because the same unit is available in three other variants – 0.75, 1.25 and 2.5 Acres / 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 square meters.

The LUBA 2 AWD is renowned for its ability to traverse even the gnarliest of terrain and inclines up to a phenomenal 80% (38˚) – trust me, that’s steep! It manages this feat by dint of its all-wheel drivetrain, a pair of wide ribbed wheels on the rear, two grippy omnidirectional front wheels designed for zero turns and front suspension to help keep all four wheels on the ground.

Since practically all functions of the LUBA 2 are controlled via an app, there are just five buttons on the unit itself – on/off, mow, home, start and emergency stop. Facing straight ahead is the all-important 3D camera which is used for three levels of obstacle avoidance – direct touch, slow touch and less touch – plus self navigation when there is poor satellite reception. Meanwhile, various onboard sensors on the body and in the bumper help with further navigation, obstacle avoidance and detection of rain.

The LUBA 2 AWD features a long-lasting battery that provides ample runtime for extensive mowing sessions – up to two hours. When it runs low, the robot makes a bee-line for the charging station in readiness for the next task or, if the plot is extra large, completion of the current mowing session.

Most wire-free lawnbots are equipped with a range of security features. While there’s no guarantee this model won’t be lifted off the lawn, it does at least securely lock itself to the individual’s wi-fi network making it redundant to anyone beyond the wi-fi range. Mammotion also provides a slot for a 4G sim to further enhance its security by making the LUBA 2 trackable, though I haven’t been able to test that. For extra peace of mind, Mammotion also suggests fitting an Apple AirTag under the camera housing.

When it comes to setting it up, the LUBA 2 arrives with what seems like a daunting bunch of accessories. However, you’ll find the setting up process a veritable breeze. For the record, the package includes the robot, a top-mounted camera and obstacle bumper that need to be screwed into position, a charging base station (optional roof advised to keep sun off the bot), a 12v transformer for the charging base, a circular satellite receiver on a 1.7m pole with ground spikes for positioning next to the charging base, two lengths of 10m low-voltage cable, a bunch of ground screws to hold the base in position and a box of eight spare razor-style cutting blades.

Once you’ve mounted the aforementioned camera and bumper, installed the charging station and satellite receiver as instructed, and logged into the Mammotion app (iOS and Android), it’s time to map your lawn – or lawns, as the case may be, since this mowbot can handle up to 10 different lawns (or zones) by linking them all together using virtual passageways.

To map a lawn, simply tap ‘map’ in the app and create an area. Now drive the LUBA 2 around the perimeter of the lawn using the app’s virtual joysticks – just like an RC car. And that’s all there is to it – the LUBA 2 is now ready to roll out and do its first cut. I should add at this point that you should first mow the lawn yourself using your old-fashioned lawn mower so the grass is down to about 40mm in height. That way, the LUBA 2 can continue cutting the lawn at a height of, say, 35mm on a regular basis, without the sight of grass clippings littering the lawn. Instead, these tiny clippings will work their way into the soil, adding lots of lovely nitrogen which in turn will keep the lawn looking swanky throughout the summer.

There are two main types of navigation that today’s wireless robotic mowers employ: an HD camera like the Worx Landroid Vision and, as in the case of the LUBA 2 and others like the Segway Navimow iSeries, military-style RTK GPS which provides unerringly accurate navigation to within a few centimeters. This amazing pin-point accuracy allows RTK GPS-enabled mowbots like the LUBA 2 to mow the lawn in perfectly straight lines, leaving beautiful Wimbledon-style stripes in their wake. GPS guided lawnbots also work in a very logical manner, rather like a human being.

However, a good line of sight to at least 20 satellites is imperative for the system to work as advertised; the good news is that, even on a garden like mine where nearly two sides of the lawn are completely surrounded by tall trees, the LUBA 2’s RTK GPS aerial and the receiver in the bot itself have been able to see between 20 to 26 satellites at any given time, so all is not lost.

• Design score: 5 out of 5

Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD review: performance

• Game-changing navigation
• Creates pristine stripes
• Excellent obstacle avoidance

When it comes to cutting performance, the LUBA 2 AWD truly excels. Its powerful but surprisingly quiet 60dB motor and AWD capabilities enable it to tackle steep inclines and grass as tall as the unit itself, though the latter isn’t advised unless you don’t mind clumps of grass littering the lawn. Crucially, the LUBA 2’s intelligent RTK GPS navigation system ensures extraordinarily efficient and very logical mowing patterns which cover every inch of the lawn without the mower ever venturing off into the flower beds. This beast’s wide 40cm cutting deck can handle large areas quickly, making it an ideal choice for sizeable properties.

My main lawn is about half the size of a tennis court and pretty much square so it posed no challenge to the LUBA 2. It has been out every two days and, aside from one anomaly where it would stop in front of a border bush, it has performed impeccably well, cutting right to edge with its wide rear wheels leaving incredible pseudo stripes in their wake. And by stripes I mean truly stunning, perfectly straight lines that have been noticed by every guest who’s popped in for a visit. 

It turns out the aforementioned hiccup was due to my poor mapping in that area so I pulled up the app and edited it by steering the bot around that area once more, this time leaving more space to the border. I have had no stopping issues since.

My next test involved programming the LUBA 2 to cut our smaller front lawn and that of our adjoining neighbor, whose small lawn is much more complex and separated by a driveway. Unfortunately there’s a set of steep stairs between my main lawn – where the charging station and GPS receiver are situated – and the front lawn, so I wasn’t able to connect the two unless I created a permanent ramp between them. Had I done that, I could have theoretically connected all three lawns together by creating a set of different zones and connecting them all using the app’s clever virtual passageway function.

Instead I simply carried the LUBA 2 to the other side of the house and drove it RC-style around the perimeters of both lawns to create two different maps. I then created a virtual passageway between them. Given that the RTK GPS station was on the other side of the house I was amazed that it seemed to make no difference to how the LUBA 2 performed. Just like my main lawn, it cut the front section in straight lines, then did a perimeter lap before raising its cutting deck and crossing the driveway to my neighbour’s lawn where it dropped the deck again and performed the same exquisite cut while negotiating the curvy borders without its wheels falling into the flower bed. This truly amazed me because I spent very little time on the mapping of both lawns and didn’t expect the LUBA 2 to perform nearly as well as it did when used on my main lawn. In the pantheon of autonomous lawnbots, this thing is astonishingly competent and a bit like being thrust into the future.

Another thing that has impressed me is the noise level, or rather the lack of it. Like most robot mowers, the LUBA 2 is unbelievably quiet. It can be passing you within a few feet and all you might here is the sound of grass being snipped – the motor itself is practically silent. This means you can mow the lawn at any time of day and your neighbors need never know.

In terms of any improvements to the overall cutting system, I personally would like to see Mammotion offer a similar automatic method like the Segway Navimow iSeries I recently reviewed for TechRadar’s sister publication T3. Without asking, the Navimow cut my lawn differently each time it went out. For instance, day one was vertical as expected but on sessions two and three, it cut the lawn horizontally and then diagonally. This method of cutting is thought to be good for the lawn so it would be great to have a feature like that with the option to turn it off if not required. You can still perform a multi-directional sequence like this with the LUBA 2 but you will have to program it yourself to cut in different directions each time and therefore create several different schedules in the process.

• Performance score: 5 out of 5

Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD review: Mammotion app

• Provides full remote access
• Highly customisable
• Perhaps too complex for some

Like most modern wire-free lawnbots, the LUBA 2 AWD is best used with the Mammotion app which allows you to control and monitor the bot, schedule mowing sessions, adjust an insane amount of settings including cutting height, angle of cut, speed of cut and the number of perimeter laps. You can even drive the LUBA 2 around FPV-style while viewing the image from the front camera. Furthermore, a brand new feature was recently launched that enables the user to create patterns and even words on the lawn.

It’s called ‘lawn printing’ and, although I haven’t tried this function, it shows just how accurate the LUBA 2 is at inch-perfect navigation. The app also provides the wherewithal to install firmware updates and these should not be ignored because they not only address known minor issues but chances are they will also include some features that will enhance the experience of using the mower.

However, while I find the app relatively easy enough to navigate, some users consider it too complex and confusing, especially with some of the terminology used. I agree that there is room for improvement in this regard. Nevertheless, like the comprehensive Roborock app for its robot vacuum cleaners and DJI’s Fly app for its drones, it's definitely worth spending time in the Mammotion app so you can familiarize yourself with its myriad features and functions. At first it may seem overly convoluted with all its customizable settings, but judicious scrutiny of the app will bear fruit and you’ll soon be setting the LUBA 2 up in exactly the way you want it.

• App score: 4.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD?

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How I tested the Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD

I’ve been putting the LUBA 2 AWD 1000 through its paces for the past three weeks on a simple large square lawn layout plus a test of its multi-zone functionality and ability to pass from one zone to another without any input by the user. In many respects, the LUBA 2 has been one of the easiest of products to test because it hasn’t thrown up any conundrums or done anything out of the ordinary. It has just worked – and that’s quite a rarity.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2024