The Landroid mower does away with boundary cables and tricky GPS receivers and uses cameras and AI technology to mow your lawn instead. It connects to your phone or tablet via the Landroid app, but you can also control most of the functions via the onboard LCD screen and dial if you like. The cameras know where your lawn ends, keep an eye out for obstacles, and even avoid hitting wildlife or pets. The cutting height ranges from 30 – 60 mm and the three blades underneath are offset, allowing the mower to cut close to the edge of hard boundaries. It creates its own mowing schedule to suit the time of year and is packed with features and clever technology, the only thing that might put you off is the price. The mower comes with a two year warranty that can be extended to three years. We awarded it a BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Best Buy for installation and features.
How is the WORX Landroid WR213E robotic mower installed?
Compared with laying hundreds of metres of boundary cable or wrestling with unsightly GPS antennae equipment, the Landroid installs in seconds. After patrolling your lawn for garden furniture or other obstructions, all you need to do is plug in the docking station using the generous amount of power cable, download the app, place the Landroid on the lawn, and let it go to work. It uses its onboard cameras to discover your garden and plan its mowing programme.
If there are parts of your lawn that you want the mower to completely avoid, like delicate plants or other grassy sections, the mower comes with a pair of five metre long magnetic strips. They can be cut to length and then dug into the ground or pegged down to form a magnetic barrier in almost any shape you want. These “islands” you create with the magnetic strips are recognised by the Landroid, even if the cameras can’t see them. It works well and the mower won’t trespass across the strips, although it can get expensive if you need to create multiple “islands”.
Is the WORX Landroid WR213E robotic mower easy to programme?
There’s very little installation required, and thankfully little programming to get your head around either. If you have a basic shaped lawn, you can just let the mower get to work, but setting your boundaries isn’t difficult. To get to know your lawn, you simply put the mower into “learning mode”. It trundles around the garden borders without mowing, looking for the borders of the lawn and obstacles like trees, garden furniture, and other things that might get in the way.
You can use the camera on your phone via the app to define the edges of your lawn and different zones if you need to and walk the boundary to make sure the Landroid knows where it can, and can’t, go.
How well does the WORX Landroid WR213E robotic mower cut?
The big knobbly wheels help the mower to keep a good grip on slopes up to 35%. It doesn’t struggle at all getting around and it leaves an excellent finish on the lawn. Although it doesn’t mow in stripes like the Segway Navimow, it doesn’t leave many tufts or patches of uncut grass after a few days of mowing. It’s also quiet, at just 59dB during operation. For such a large mower, the driving motors work almost silently.
What features does the WORX Landroid WR213E robotic mower have?
All the features that you might expect from a robotic mower in this price bracket are there. The app is packed with features such as setting your soil type and grass species, whether you have lawn sprinklers, and a party mode that stops your mower from disturbing any gathering you might have at home. The robot senses rain and delays the automatic schedule to allow the grass to dry out before cutting. You can set different zones in your garden and even select a different cutting height for each zone. The mower comes with a pair of RFIDs, small green circular targets that you can use to help it navigate between areas of your garden. They guide the mower along a “corridor” without the need for boundary wires. You can adjust the mowing height via the app or the LCD screen, but the Landroid also self-levels the cutting deck to ensure that uneven ground is cut properly.
It’s compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so if you want to integrate your Landroid into your smart home setup, you can send the mower out into the garden with your voice alone.
Because it’s connected to your Wi-Fi network, the mower can update itself “over the air” with new features and can tweak its performance to suit your geographical location and local climate. If you’re out of range however, you can still update via USB.
WORX have chosen to use one of their 4.0 Ah PowerShare batteries to give life to the Landroid. It’s one of the benefits of a robotic mower made by an established tool company. You can swap the battery out in seconds, borrow it to use in a drill or saw, and exchange it easily should the battery life degrade over time.
Is the WORX Landroid WR213E robotic mower good value for money?
You can’t avoid the fact that this is a considerable investment in your garden. There are robotic mowers that are a third of the price that will cut your lawn for you. But, if you really don’t want to install boundary cables and the idea of setting up GPS antennae in your garden is a no go, then the Landroid is an excellent choice. It can tackle huge gardens up to 1,300 m² as well, so it’s a must for enormous lawns, and can even replace a ride on lawnmower.
Are there other models available?
The following models are currently in the Landroid Vision range-
M600 WR206E - Cuts up to 600 m²
M800 WR208E – Cuts up to 800 m²
L1300 WR213E – Cuts up to 1300 m²
L1600 WR216E – Cuts up to 160 m²
This review was last updated in November 2023. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.
