Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: a little lawn hero

Of all the home tasks I would be delighted to hand over to a robot for good, mowing the lawn is right up the top of the list.

In fact, the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD is one of the first robot lawn mowers that makes me feel this is finally a viable option. It’s not perfect and still needs some supervision, but it definitely is a robot that gives back a lot more time than it takes up.

Here's my full review of the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: price and availability

The 800 model of the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD is available for $1,599 in the US and £1,499 in the UK, putting it towards the mid-high end of the price range for robot lawn mowers (although take both of those prices with a pinch of salt as discounts are regular and often significant). You do get a decent amount of features for your money though, with similar rival models sometimes costing significantly more.

An upgraded version (for areas up to 1500 square meters instead of 800) is available for $1,999 in the US and £1,899 in the UK, but again, wait for a deal to get it cheaper.

In the US, it's available with two different cutting heights, 2.2"-4.0" for the H version, 0.8”-2.6” for the S version. Only the S version is available in the UK.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: set-up

One of the major selling points of the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD is the easy setup without the need to install perimeter wire around the areas you want cut, but there is still some level of setup before you can get mowing.

As well as positioning the docking station in an appropriate spot, you will need to install the RTK station where it can send a clear signal. To work best, this needs to have a clear view to the sky and be as high as possible. Mammotion provides a ground spike for raising it, but you can also attach it to a building for a higher reach. If at ground level, it needs to be at least 10 ft from buildings or trees, but bear in mind it also needs to receive power - either by connecting it to the docking station or to its own outlet.

Mammotion also has a service called iNavi that uses a 4G network to provide centimetre-level navigation without the need for the RTK station. This is currently only available in the UK (not Northern Ireland), Germany, France Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Slovenia and specific areas in Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. As I tested it in the US, this wasn’t available.

Setting up the zones to be mowed is fairly straightforward. As the lawns I tested it on are irregular and separated by obstacles I manually set the zones although there is an automatic mapping feature for simple and enclosed lawns.

To manually set the zones you simply direct the robot around the borders of the zone like a remote control car through the controls in the app. This was responsive and also could be used with the camera to give you a view of what the robot can see as you direct it – although for best performance Mammotion suggest you walk a short distance from the robot as you direct it.

Once set you can then add additional zones (up to 20) and this was easy to do, allowing me to add zones for the lawn at the back of the house, as well as the front lawn as two zones, one either side of the driveway.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: design and features

The Mammotion Luba Mini AWD looks more like a squashed Formula One car toy than a lawn mower, to the point one of my neighbours was looking for my son operating it when they first spotted it moving around our front lawn.

The camera sticks up at the front (like the driver in an F1 car) giving it a good view of any obstacles to avoid, and there is a large, prominent emergency stop button on the top of the body in case it gets into trouble.

It charges in a dock that you will need to screw into your lawn to keep it in place. Not only does this help the Luba dock, but it helps it keep in position to its saved map, but if you want to move the docking station you’ll need to remap your lawn. It also has a RTK (real-time kinematic) positioning station to help it orient itself.

As a perimeter wire free lawn mower, you can set it up and operate it without having to install wire around your garden to define where it needs to work. Instead, the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD uses a base station to orientate itself, and you can mark out different zones of operation by manually directing it around your garden.

It features a camera and AI functionality to navigate and avoid obstacles, variable height cutting, and is rugged enough to deal with slopes of up to 38.6°.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: performance

Once set up, starting a mow is easy in the app, although for zones that don’t include the docking station you will need to drive the robot into a zone before you can start mowing it. When the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD starts, it will automatically adjust the height of the cutting blades to what it thinks will be best (you can override this), then it systematically works its way around the lawn and covers all of the zone.

Like other robot lawn mowers, the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD is a mulching lawn mower and so will leave the clippings as it cuts rather than collecting them as is an option on regular mowers. Mowing performance is good with it producing a uniform cut at the set height. Coverage of the area was great and it had no trouble traversing any of the parts of my garden.

It’s also surprisingly quiet, especially compared with regular lawn mowers that can be loud enough to disturb a neighbourhood. It officially clocks in at 58 dB according to Mammotion and I didn’t catch it exceeding this in my testing.

The only issue I found is that it works better on larger patches of lawn, as when I tried to add the verge of grass between our sidewalk and the road this was a little thin for it to adequately mow without slipping off the curb into the road.

The obstacle avoidance works well. The first zone I defined includes a wellhead in the middle and without any intervention from me, the Mammotion Luba Mini AWD made its way around this, mowing the grass around it but without bumping into it.

You can schedule cuttings, but bear in mind if you have zones that don’t include the docking station you are still going to need to direct it to the zone before you can start a mow.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: verdict

The Mammotion Luba Mini AWD is an excellent robot lawn mower, providing consistent coverage of defined zones with little maintenance needed. It’s quiet enough not to disturb you in your garden (or your neighbours) and only requires minimal setup compared with perimeter wire models, although keep in mind you will need an appropriate spot for the RTK station, especially if you live in a country where the iNavi service isn’t currently available.

Mammotion Luba Mini AWD review: alternatives to consider

If finding a spot for an RTK station is proving an issue (and you have a fairly simple, enclosed yard) the Eufy E15 may be a solution as it uses its camera to navigate your lawn. This makes it a lot easier to setup, but coverage doesn’t quite match that of the Mammotion Luba Mini or other RTK-driven robots.

Segway Navimow products have impressed us in the past and its X Series offers similar features (AWD, RTK navigation and AI vision) although it comes at a higher price than the Luba. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, the Navimow iSeries models are more affordable and worth a look.

If you have a larger yard Mammotion has also recently launched a new Luba 3 model that is not only designed to handle larger areas but also adds LiDAR to its navigation features so should potentially be better at making its way around your garden. This does come at a higher price though, and without putting it to the test yet I can’t vouch for its ability.