Anthbot N8 robot lawn mower review: Arguably the most versatile wireless robot mower on the market right now

This year's extremely dry weather has not been kind to lawn mower reviewers. Just as some products arrived, the southern half of the UK experienced one of its hottest, driest summers ever, with lawns going into complete shut-down. Hence, a complete lack of lawn growth made it almost impossible to accurately appraise any lawnmower, whether conventional or robotic. But thankfully lawns across the UK have since sprung to life – and that means garden product reviewers like myself can finally get down to some serious catchup.

Today, I bring you one of the most unique wireless robotic lawn mowers currently available, a model that not only properly mulches grass but collects grass clippings and dead leaves before dumping them in a designated spot, just like a pick-up truck. It's called the Anthbot N8 and it might just be the robot mower of your dreams.

Let's look at this little lawn-meister in more detail.

Price and availability

In the UK, the Anthbot N8 is available to buy direct from Anthbot for €1,599 or Amazon, where it’s selling for £1,699. If shopping in the USA, try Anthbot direct and Amazon, where it’s shifting for $1,699.

Specifications

• Recommended Mowing Area: 1,500m²
• Functions: Mows, mulches, collects grass clippings and sweeps up leaves
• Cutting width: 20cm
• Cutting heights: 30m to 70cm in 5mm increments, motorised
• Collection bin: 23 litres, auto dump
• Maximum slope: 44.5% (24˚)
• Multi-zones: Up to 30
• Navigation: RTK + NetRTK over WiFi and 4G + Dual Vision 150° AI vision
• 4G data: One year included
• Waterproof rating: IPX6
• Weight: 16.5kg
• Warranty: Machine 3 years; Battery 2 years

Set up

Some wireless robots I’ve tested have been much easier to set up than others. For instance, I enjoyed a completely fuss-free experience with the TerraMow V1000, Mammotion LUBA 3 and Segway Navimow i210E LiDAR Pro that I've reviewed previously, but had a torrid time with a Husqvarna model that made my blood boil.

This model fits into the easy-peasy category. Simply remove the robot and charging station from the box and site the charging station on the side of the lawn nearest to a power outlet. You have a choice of either using the spiked RTK aerial if you have poor WiFi or 4G reception or using netRTK over the internet which doesn't require spiking any aerials into the lawn.

Once in position, switch on the mower, initiate any inevitable firmware upgrades and choose whether you want to map your lawn automatically or manually using the app's virtual joysticks. When mapped you can then choose the type of mowing you want to perform, whether its collecting, sweeping or mulching. The mower comes with the three-blade grass collecting cutting disk already mounted so don't forget to change it to the alternative six-blade disk if mulching.

Design

The Anthbot N8 isn't the first robot mower to collect grass cuttings and leaves because that accolade goes to the Mammotion YUKA 1500 which I reviewed in 2024. However, the Anthbot N8 definitely takes the concept to new heights. Let me explain.

Unlike the YUKA 1500 which used a revolving plastic sweeper brush to help fling leaves and grass cuttings into its collection bag, the Anthbot N8 behaves more like a conventional rotary mower only on a much smaller scale.

For instance, where a rotary mower uses a gently pitched, fast-spinning blade to both cut grass while creating a cyclonic effect that sucks up and blows the cuttings into the mower's collection bag, the N8 uses a specialised cutting disc replete with three acutely curved razor blades that generate a similar type of cyclonic lift that works a bit like a vacuum cleaner.

Hence, the grass is not only cut, but the majority of clippings are blown into the robot's grass collector and then dumped pick-up style in a predesignated spot. The downside is the noise it makes when mowing, which is very similar to that of a rotary mower. Yes, the Anthbot N8 is quite a lot quieter but it's nowhere near the silence of a conventional robot mower.

Now, I'm the first to question why someone would need a grass-collecting robot mower when the whole idea of having an autonomous bot is so that it can mow several times a week, lopping off just a millimetre or two of grass on each occasion. However, after having run the N8 on my lawn for the past few weeks, I can now see some very valid reasons why one might prefer a machine like this.

Firstly, some robot mower owners tend to get rid of their conventional push mowers as soon as they've seen the excellent results created by their new robot. However, there will be times when your grass has grown too long for a robot mower to cut without leaving clumps of long cuttings on the lawn, and this usually happens at the beginning of the season or while you're away on holiday. Regarding the latter, you could rightfully let the robot continue to run while you're on holiday but the internet is still full of users reporting stranded robots with dead batteries that had a hissy fit while owners were sitting on a beach hundreds of miles away with no way of rectifying the issue. It's the nature of the beast.

Although I have no evidence to prove it, I suspect that collecting grass clippings could also help limit the spread of certain unwanted grasses and weeds, including dandelions, by removing some of their seeds before they have a chance to germinate. It’s difficult to say how significant the effect would be, but surely a machine that collects as much debris as possible has at least a small part to play in reducing the spread of unwanted plant growth.

However, for me, this mower's main raison d'etre is its leaf-sweeping ability. My garden is surrounded by very tall beech, birch and horse chestnut trees which have already started shedding their leaves and this little bot has so far been a godsend in that department. Later this year I expect a monster deluge of leaves, so will add further thoughts to this review in due course.

Cutting system

Depending on the height of the cut, most robot mowers leave at least a light trail of grass clippings in their wake, but the Anthbot N8 takes a much more versatile approach by allowing the user to switch between a full grass and leaf collection system – replete with a generous collection bag – and a mulching chute that returns finely chopped clippings to the lawn.

Anthbot supplies a 23-litre fabric collection bag, a fabric mulching deflector and two separate 20cm cutting disks, allowing the N8 to be configured for different tasks, whether it's cutting the lawn with the grass and leaf collector attached or mulch cutting using a different blade configuration and the mulching chute.

Let's looks at the grass and leaf collection system first. With the collection assembly fitted, the N8's three curved blades generate cyclonic airflow that sucks up and blasts the clippings or mulched leaves into the bag.

Not one to miss a trick, Anthbot has equipped the collection bag with a sensor that can tell when the bag is full, initiating a magical process whereby the robot trundles over to a predetermined dumping ground to empty the contents, just like a pick-up truck. And it doesn't just lift the bag once when it's there, it lifts it twice to ensure the bag has been properly emptied before moving forward beyond the pile with the bag raised in the air so it doesn't scoop up any of the detritus it's just dumped. Clever.

For mulching, you will need to turn the robot over and replace the disk used for grass collection with a different six-blade cutting disc comprised of three traditional razor-style blades on the top and three curved cyclonic blades on the bottom. You will also need to replace the rear collection bag with the specialised mulching chute.

Now, you may be wondering why you need this specialised mulching kit when practically all robots use the mulching technique as a matter of course. The main difference with this system is that the grass is cut twice and then blasted towards the rear chute which distributes the cuttings far more evenly than standard robot mowers. The result is not only finer clippings but a much more even spread than the conspicuous clumps that can spoil the appearance of freshly mown grass.

Granted, the collection bag makes the N8 bulkier at the rear and trickier to map a lawn without the rear end snagging on a fence or a border, but I'm willing to work around that given that this is a machine that's designed to maintain a lawn throughout more of the gardening year, rather than merely keeping the grass short.

However, there is one major caveat with the Anthbot N8 that may put off some prospective buyers – the noise it makes. The beauty of robot mowers is that they are so silent when working on the lawn that they simply can't be heard, even from a few metres away. That is most definitely not the case here.

Since the Anthbot N8 uses curved blades that suck as well as cut, the compressed air whizzing about underneath makes it sound like a traditional rotary mower when in operation. Admittedly it's a lot quieter than a rotary mower and you can, at least, set it to run its blades more slowly and less efficiently, but even this setting is still audible from indoors. And that means your neighbour may hear it, too. Bear this in mind.

Like all good robot lawn mowers, the N8 comes with a motorised cutting deck and a range of cutting heights from 30m to 70cm in 5mm increments. I find 35mm to be the sweet spot for British grasses but Americans will likely prefer a taller cut of between 3 and 3.5 inches (76 to 90mm) for grasses like Kentucky Bluegrass and 1.5 to 2.5 inches (40 to 63mm) for Bermuda and Zoysia. If in doubt, follow the one-third rule and never remove more than one-third of the grass blade in a single mowing session.

Navigation

The Anthbot N8 uses RTK satellite positioning either via a spiked aerial or netRTK over WiFi and 4G, plus dual vision cameras to accurately navigate a garden without the need for an old-fashioned perimeter wire.

Mapping is handled through the Anthbot app, where you create a digital outline of the lawn's perimeter and define the areas the mower is allowed to work in. Like many mowbots, the N8 can map automatically but because of the sticky-out grass bag which can snag on objects when performing turns, I would suggest manually mapping your lawn by walking behind it and steering it like an RC car using the app's virtual joysticks. That way you can steer the bot closer to edges and end up with a more accurate lawn map.

If you have multiple lawns, you can also create up to 30 different zones and have the robot automatically move from one lawn to the next. However, you would need to ensure that there are no obstacles like steps or gates in the way or it will simply come to a halt. Each zone can have its own settings, including cutting height, mowing direction and obstacle-detection sensitivity, and no-go zones can be programmed to protect areas such as ponds and tree roots, or areas of the garden you'd rather the mower avoided.

The N8's obstacle avoidance is handled by two forward-facing cameras and AI recognition software. If the system identifies people, animals or most small items, it steers around them and continues the task. You can adjust its obstacle avoidance sensitivity in the app in two steps: High for avoiding smaller obstacles and Medium for larger obstacles and better performance.

Overall, the N8's navigation and mapping system is up there with the best models I've previously tested. However, if there's one limitation, it's that the mower with grass collector attached is almost a metre long, making tight turns, narrow passages and awkward corners a bit more challenging. As a result, I think this model is best suited to relatively open lawns where it has more room to manoeuvre.

Anthbot app

The Anthbot app is one of the most feature-filled command centres I’ve come across. Consequently, it’s loaded to the gills with a smorgasbord of features that allows you to adjust the mower’s cutting height, manage mowing routes, monitor the mower’s progress remotely, create virtual boundaries and no-go areas, divide your garden or gardens into multiple zones, establish individual mowing schedules, adjust the mower’s obstacle avoidance sensitivity, and customise cutting directions to achieve the perfect finish. Top marks in this respect.

Performance

Since this model is more complex than others on the market, it took me a lot more time to evaluate but, in the main, the Anthbot N8 has really impressed me with its overall performance, particularly the accuracy of its navigation, how well it cut my lawn in perfect parallel stripes before dumping the cuttings in a place of my choosing and, above all, its leaf-sweeping ability.

Let’s start with its navigation which has been rock solid from the moment I installed it. I prefer manually mapping my lawn and this model was pretty much plain sailing. Consequently, it has never ventured off piste, lost its RTK signal – in both aerial and WiFi modes – or not been able to find its charging base.

The N8's obstacle avoidance is less effective than most other robots I’ve tested and I can only put this down to a possibly intentional tailoring back of the N8’s obstacle sensitivity, especially since it is also designed for sweeping up leaves of all sizes.

Hence, it completely ignored a tennis ball (a tough ask for many robots) and a small plant pot with a dead plant poking out. I may be wrong, but my thinking is that the robot may have ignored the pot on purpose, because it was roughly the size of a large horse chestnut leaf, and were it to avoid everything that size it would never perform the task it was designed for.

Perhaps Anthbot could update its list of recognised object so its avoidance system is a bit more accurate. On the plus side, it avoided a slightly larger lantern as expected. While the N8 doesn’t have the worst obstacle avoidance I’ve ever seen, some users with kids and pets might wish to look elsewhere.

I have no reservations regarding this robot’s cutting quality. While I much prefer the wider tract of the Mammotion LUBA 3, the N8 has always left a neat stripe in its wake. I’ve been especially blown away by how well the grass collector has worked and found myself waiting for the moment it trundled over to the corner of the lawn where I set its designated dumping spot.

Like clockwork it has sauntered over, reversed into the spot and then lifted the grass collector twice to ensure all cuttings have fallen out. Even more impressively, on subsequent dumping sessions it has avoided any previous piles of cuttings and dumped new batches alongside.

I also tried the mulching system by swapping over the blades (easy to do) and fitting the mulching chute. In this set up it chopped the grass into finer clippings and distributed them across the lawn very effectively, with very little obvious evidence of any cuttings in the mower's wake.

However, it’s this robot’s leaf-sweeping ability that really clinches the deal for me. I normally run my Worx Nitro push mower on a higher cut setting to clear leaves and the combination of its fast-spinning blade and cyclonic air system does a sterling job of sucking up 80% of leaves on the lawn. This little robot is just as effective. Granted, it takes much longer to complete the task than the push mower but, because it’s a robot, it can be programmed to go out every day during autumn and then all you have to do is bin all the leaves its collected. Job done.

What’s not so great about the Anthbot N8? Well, aside from the toned-down obstacle avoidance, its above-average length, the loud noise it makes and the slight faff of having to change the blades for different tasks, the only issues I’ve come across is the rain water that pools on top of the grass collector when it’s sitting on its charging dock, and the fact that you can’t use the robot without either of the rear attachments should you simply want to cut the grass like a traditional robot mower. It simply won’t let you.

Verdict

No question, the Anthbot N8 is arguably the most versatile autonomous lawn-care machine I’ve ever come across. Its ability to sweep up fallen leaves and automatically dump them at a designated spot is an especially welcome convenience that tackles one of the most mundane of all garden duties. Autumn leaves? Bring 'em on.