The short version
- Roborock launched six wire-free mowers in Australia on 1 September, from the $1,409 RockNeo Q105 for lawns up to 500 m² to the $4,999 RockMow Z150 rated for 5,000 m², sold through Bunnings and other retailers.
- Segway Navimow’s Australian store lists 12 models from $1,799 (i105, 500 m²) to $8,299 (X390, 10,000 m²), and says its network RTK positioning is included at no extra cost where the service is available.
- Mammotion’s Australian range runs from the YUKA at $2,199 to the LUBA 3 AWD from $3,899, with its flagship pairing LiDAR, RTK and cameras.
- On our arithmetic, the price per rated square metre falls steeply with size: about $2.80 to $4.80 a square metre for 500 m² models, and roughly $1 or less for the 5,000 m² and larger machines.
- Mow in daylight. A 2024 study of 19 robot mowers found that all but one had to physically touch a hedgehog before detecting it. Australia has no hedgehogs, but lizards, frogs and ground-feeding birds use lawns, and the researchers’ advice to restrict mowing to daylight is cheap to follow.
Why the wire went away
A traditional robot mower finds the edge of your lawn by sensing a low-voltage wire buried or pegged around the perimeter. It works, but installing it is a weekend of work, a break in the wire stops the mower, and changing the garden means re-laying it. The new generation replaces the wire with a map you draw in a phone app. What differs between brands is how the mower knows where it is on that map. There are three approaches in the Australian range, and most current models combine two or more.
| RTK (base station) | Satellite positioning corrected by a fixed reference antenna in your yard, typically mounted on or near the dock. Centimetre-level accuracy in open sky; can struggle under dense trees or beside tall walls, where satellite signals are blocked. |
|---|---|
| Network RTK | The same correction, but supplied over the internet from a network of reference stations instead of an antenna in your yard. Navimow advertises it as standard in Australia “where service is available”. It depends on coverage and a connection. |
| VSLAM / cameras | The mower builds and follows a map from what its cameras see, and uses the same cameras to recognise obstacles. Independent of satellites, but dependent on light and on the garden looking roughly the same from week to week. |
| LiDAR | A spinning laser scanner measures distances to everything around the mower in 3D. Works in shade and low light; Roborock’s Z120 and Mammotion’s LUBA mini 2 AWD and LUBA 3 use it. |
Reasoning beyond the sources: the combinations exist because each method fails in a different place. RTK is weakest under the backyard jacaranda; cameras are weakest at dusk; LiDAR adds cost. A mower that pairs two of them has a fallback when one struggles. If your lawn is open to the sky, RTK alone is a proven approach; if it is shaded, narrow or wraps around the house, look for a model that adds LiDAR or cameras.
What Roborock brought to Australia
Roborock’s local launch, reported by the Digital Reviews Network on 21 August, covers two brands. The RockNeo Q-series is the entry range; the RockMow S and Z series sit above it. Australian recommended prices:
| RockNeo Q105 | $1,409 · up to 500 m² · RTK + VSLAM |
|---|---|
| RockNeo Q110 | $1,899 · up to 1,000 m² · RTK + VSLAM |
| RockMow S108 | $1,999 · up to 800 m² · RTK + VSLAM |
| RockMow S115 | $2,499 · up to 1,500 m² · RTK + VSLAM |
| RockMow Z120 LiDAR | $3,499 · up to 2,000 m² · 360-degree 3D LiDAR with dual cameras · claimed 160 m²/hour, 80-minute runtime, slopes to 80% |
| RockMow Z150 | $4,999 · up to 5,000 m² · RTK + VSLAM · claimed 250 m²/hour, 130-minute runtime, slopes to 80% |
Cutting heights are quoted at 20 to 60 mm on the Q-series and 20 to 70 mm on the S and Z series, and Roborock says the Z120 and above cut to within 3 cm of the boundary. Across the range it lists app scheduling, up to 15 mowing zones, obstacle recognition, rain sensing, GPS anti-theft tracking and voice-assistant integration. The feature list also includes night mowing and “hedgehog protection”, a hangover from the European market that tells you what the mower is designed to avoid, not that it is safe to run after dark. More on that below.
The rest of the Australian field
Segway Navimow. The broadest range on sale here. Prices below are as listed on Navimow’s Australian store on our capture date:
| i1 series | i105 $1,799 (500 m²) · i108 $2,199 (800 m²) |
|---|---|
| i2 AWD | i206 AWD $2,399 (500 m²) · i208 AWD $2,599 (800 m²) |
| H2 series | H215 $3,599 · H230 $3,999 |
| X3 series | X315 $3,699 (1,500 m²) · X330 $4,199 (3,000 m²) · X350 $5,199 (5,000 m²) · X390 $8,299 (10,000 m²) |
| X4 series | X430 $5,499 (2,000 m²) · X450 $5,999 (5,000 m²) |
The X4 series is the range Segway unveiled at CES in January; Engadget reported it as built for large, steep yards with all-wheel drive and dual cutting motors. The “AWD” label on the i2 is the thing you are paying $600 over an i105 for: all-wheel drive is for slopes and soft ground, not for area.
Mammotion. Its Australian store lists the LUBA 3 AWD from $3,899 (1,500 to 5,000 m² depending on version), which the company describes as combining 360-degree LiDAR, RTK and AI vision; the LUBA mini 2 AWD at $3,499 (1,500 m², LiDAR); the YUKA mini 2 at $2,299 (1,000 m²); and the YUKA, which also sweeps up clippings, from $2,199. Mammotion shows these as sale prices, so treat them as the price on the day rather than a list price, and it sells an optional 4G service and an RTK wall-mount kit separately.
Husqvarna still sells wired Automowers alongside its wire-free NERA models with an EPOS plug-in kit, through dealers rather than a single national price list, so we have not included it in the comparison. If you want a dealer who will install and service the mower, that is the reason to ask for a quote.
What a square metre costs
Our arithmetic, dividing each price by its rated maximum area. Rated area is a manufacturer’s best case for an open, flat lawn, so real capacity is lower, but it is a fair way to compare like with like:
| 500 m² class | Roborock Q105 $2.82 · Navimow i105 $3.60 · Navimow i206 AWD $4.80 |
|---|---|
| 800 to 1,000 m² | Roborock Q110 $1.90 · Mammotion YUKA mini 2 $2.30 · Roborock S108 $2.50 · Navimow i108 $2.75 · Navimow i208 AWD $3.25 |
| 1,500 to 2,000 m² | Roborock S115 $1.67 · Roborock Z120 LiDAR $1.75 · Mammotion LUBA mini 2 AWD $2.33 · Navimow X315 $2.47 · Navimow X430 $2.75 |
| 5,000 m² and up | Navimow X390 $0.83 (10,000 m²) · Roborock Z150 $1.00 · Navimow X350 $1.04 · Navimow X450 $1.20 |
Reasoning beyond the sources: the table rewards buying big, but that is the wrong lesson. You pay for area you do not have. The useful reading is within a size class, where Roborock’s launch prices undercut the established brands by a few hundred dollars at most sizes, and where the premium models charge for AWD, LiDAR or slope rating. Measure the lawn itself, not the block, and buy the smallest rating that covers it with some headroom. A 500 m² mower on a 450 m² lawn will be mowing most days; that is how these machines are designed to work, with short, frequent cuts rather than a weekly one.
Mow in daylight
The most-cited research on robot mowers and wildlife is a 2024 paper in the journal Animals by Sophie Lund Rasmussen and colleagues, which tested 19 models against hedgehog carcasses. Apart from a single instance, every mower had to physically touch the animal to detect it, and some models caused injuries while others did not. The authors’ practical recommendation was to restrict robot mowing to daylight hours, because many owners run them at night, when hedgehogs are active.
Reasoning beyond the sources: Australia has no hedgehogs, and we found no equivalent Australian study. But blue-tongue lizards, skinks, frogs and ground-feeding birds all use suburban lawns, and the finding that matters, that obstacle detection mostly works by bumping into things small and low to the ground, is about the mower, not the animal. Several mowers in the Australian range advertise night mowing as a feature. Scheduling the mower for the middle of the day costs nothing.
Before you buy
- Check the sky. If you are considering an RTK-only model and your lawn is under trees or hemmed in by a two-storey house, ask the retailer about the return policy. That is the setup these systems find hardest.
- Check the connection. Network RTK and app control depend on your Wi-Fi or mobile coverage reaching the back fence. Navimow’s “where service is available” wording is worth confirming for your address.
- It is a connected camera in your yard. Mowers with cameras, apps and remote access fall under Australia’s smart device security rules, which we covered in our five-month check. Look for how long the maker commits to security updates.
- Price is not the whole cost. Blades are consumables, and Mammotion sells 4G service separately. Ask what replacement blades and any optional connectivity cost per year.
- Look for independent tests. Roborock’s mowers are three and a half weeks into the Australian market. Wait for independent reviews on local grasses such as buffalo and kikuyu before treating any claim as proven.
The bottom line
The wire was the reason most Australians never bought a robot mower, and it is now optional at every price point. Roborock’s arrival matters less for its technology, which matches what Navimow and Mammotion already sell here, than for where and how cheaply it sells: a $1,409 wire-free mower on the shelf at the hardware store is a different proposition from a dealer-installed machine. The questions left for buyers are the same ones as with any smart-home device: whether it works in your particular garden, whether it keeps getting updates, and whether you run it at a sensible time of day.
Sources
Figures and quotes above are drawn from these sources, captured 27 September 2026:
- Digital Reviews Network - Roborock takes its robots outside with new Australian lawn mower range (21 August 2026): the 1 September launch date, Bunnings availability, all six Roborock model prices and area ratings, navigation technologies, mowing rates, runtimes, slope claims, cutting heights, edge distance and feature list.
- Segway Navimow Australia - official store: Navimow model prices and area ratings as displayed on 27 September 2026, and the network RTK “no extra cost” statement.
- Mammotion Australia - official store: LUBA 3 AWD, LUBA mini 2 AWD, YUKA mini 2 and YUKA prices, area ratings and navigation descriptions as displayed on 27 September 2026, and the separately sold 4G service and RTK wall-mount kit.
- Engadget - Segway’s Navimow brand unveiled a new line of robotic lawn mowers at CES 2026 (January 2026): the X4, i2 and H2 series announcement.
- Rasmussen et al. - Testing the Impact of Robotic Lawn Mowers on European Hedgehogs and Designing a Safety Test (Animals, 2024): the 19 models tested, the physical-contact detection finding and the daylight-only recommendation.
- Husqvarna Australia - Automower 430X NERA with EPOS plug-in kit: Husqvarna’s wire-free option in Australia.
- New Technology - Australia’s smart device security rules, five months on and Matter 1.5 and Thread in 2026: our earlier smart-home coverage referred to above.