Husqvarna Automower 308V review: Effortless lawn care (if your Wi-Fi can keep up)

No one actually wants to mow their lawn, right? Apart from strange people like me who review garden technology for a living, that is.

What would you rather do on a Saturday morning – lie in bed with a freshly brewed coffee, or tramp around behind a noisy lawnmower? I think Husqvarna has answered that question for you with the Automower 308V. Sure, it’s expensive and needs a solid Wi-Fi connection across your entire garden, but solve that problem and you can claw your free time back for good.

Launched alongside two other models in the range – including the more advanced 312V – the 308V sits firmly in the middle, aiming to balance performance, features and price. Here are my full thoughts after testing.

Price and availability

The Automower 308V retails for around £1249 and is available directly from Husqvarna or through garden machinery specialists Sam Turner & Sons and Mow With Us. If you require the RS1 EPOS system for internet-free mowing, it’s an extra £299 direct from Husqvarna.

This is a premium robot lawnmower with an equally premium price-tag, even without the extra accessories. If, like me, you wanted to install this robot in a garden with shaky Wi-Fi signal, then the extra £300 for the EPOS module and Husqvarna approved dealer installation service pushes this price even higher.

Unboxing and set up

Setting up the 308V is quite simple, but only if your garden has a stable Wi-Fi connection throughout. If you don’t have this luxury, then Husqvarna have designed a solution. It’s the RS1 EPOS module, a clever little gadget that attaches to a pole or on the side of your house that does away with the need for a decent internet connection at the bottom of your garden.

Bear in mind though, this retails for nearly £300 and you can’t install it yourself. To enjoy Wi-Fi free mowing from the 308V, you’ll need to get an approved Husqvarna dealer to install it for you. Ideal if you’re not tech savvy, but I can’t see why it would be any different from the dozen or so other robot mower setups I’ve done in the past.

Once the connection issues were resolved, I didn’t have any problem placing the 308V’s garage at all. This is thanks to the enormous amount of low-voltage cable that Husqvarna include. The 10 metre long power cable meant that I had plenty of options for placing the garage close to the Wi-Fi router.

Setup via the Automower Connect app is pretty straightforward. Following the instructions on-screen, I set up the Automower’s map by driving around the perimeter of the lawn, while dropping pins at every corner. It’s not as streamlined as the auto mapping featured with a lot of other mowers, and it doesn’t like sharp corners, but it’s easy enough on uncomplicated lawn shapes.

Creating routines is an easy process too. There’s even an “autoschedule” function that takes into account the size of your lawn(s) and picks the best times for the robot to function.

Design and features

A truly wire-free robot lawnmower, Husqvarna’s new 308V uses both EPOS (Exact Positioning Operating System) and an AI-enhanced camera to navigate around the garden. If have a decent Wi-Fi signal across the garden, the Husqvarna Cloud takes care of positioning and guidance. However, as mentioned, if you don’t have complete coverage across the garden, you’ll need the RS1.

Everything is controlled by the Husqvarna Automower Connect app. The clean and intuitive interface is a joy to use. I was able to set mowing schedules quickly as well as define no go areas and pathways between lawns.

In terms of different mowing patterns, there are classic parallel lines, checkerboard, and triangle patterns to choose from. For a truly even cut, an irregular mowing pattern is also available to avoid cutting the grass from the same direction each time. The 308V can cover up to 800 m² in pattern mode, and up to 500 m² irregular mode.

Something I think is missing from the app is a way to “manually” mow the grass. Some robot lawnmowers, such as the Mammotion Yuka 1500 3D Vision, allow you to drive the robot around like a remote control mower. It saves having to get the mower out of the shed if patches are missed.

Flip the 308V over and you’ll find three replaceable razor blades mounted below a sturdy aluminium skid plate. A clever addition, the plate should stop grass from tangling up the blades and protect the motor too.

It happily tackles slopes of up to 40% within the lawn area and 15% at the perimeter, which means it is happy in a garden with slopes and dips across it. To help keep the mower safe, it’s PIN coded, has a geofence feature, and an alarm that can tell if it’s been picked up or moved.

Performance

During the testing period, I discovered the 308V performs an utterly perfect little three-point-turn at the end of each pass, evidence of good design on the part of Husqvarna. In fact, this is one of the smoothest driving robots that I’ve reviewed so far. Everything about the 308V’s movements feel refined, the result of decades of improvements made by this legacy brand.

By selecting the parallel cutting pattern, I achieved a striped lawn that wouldn’t have looked out of place at Wimbledon. The robot seems to follow almost the same cut path in the middle of the lawn every day, which is impressive.

Although I haven’t had much rain since this robot has been on test, I wouldn’t hesitate to leave it outdoors almost permanently. Being IPX6 rated, it’s rated to withstand high pressure water jets from any angle, which should easily cover it for the British weather.

Obstacle avoidance is as good as I expected from a premium mower like this. The single camera on the front detects obstructions on the lawn and neatly routes round them. However, like most of the robot mowers I’ve tested it leaves a thin band of grass uncut at the edges of the lawn.

The onboard battery will run the 308V for up to 100 minutes at a time and takes the same amount of time to recharge itself.

Verdict

The 308V is undoubtedly one of the most refined robot lawnmowers I’ve tested. With exceptional build quality and a pedigree stretching back more than 30 years, it’s easy to see why it cuts so well. After several weeks of mowing, my test lawn has never looked better, and I haven’t had to adjust boundaries or schedules. It just gets on with the job. As frustrating as the 308V’s Wi-Fi dependency can be, especially at this premium price, it’s a quality robot lawnmower that should serve your garden for years to come. For a medium-sized garden with solid Wi-Fi coverage, it's an excellent choice.

Alternatives to consider

If you want a robot mower that can go over almost any terrain and has an effortless setup experience, I recommend the brilliant Mammotion Luba Mini 2 AWD. Boasting three AI-enhanced cameras and an extra cutting deck for getting up close to edges – it’s a feature packed mini mower for any garden.

Another robot that deserves a mention is the WORX WR303E Landroid Vision Cloud. It’s a wire-free robot with no unsightly antenna to worry about, effective automapping feature and good object avoidance – and it’s available for less than £700