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Intro

The Landroid Vision M800 (WR208E) is part of Worx's newest robot mower range, the WR2xx Vision series. The range is split into S, M and L categories for small, medium and large gardens, with the M800 sitting at the top of the Medium garden range, it is recommended for gardens or yards up to 800 square meters (approximately 8600 square feet).

Right from the start, we need to say we're impressed. Worx have clearly learned a lot of lessons from their previous range and have applied these to come up with a better mower in lots of ways. With its new looks, the same powerful cutting capabilities, and AI powered vision this mower has the potential to be a market leader. In this review, we'll dive into the technical details, features, and performance of the Worx Landroid Vision M800 and see if it makes the cut (sorry!).

Design and Build Quality

With this second generation of robot mowers, Worx has moved on from the tried and trusted chassis and solidly robust build you find on the likes of the WR-165. The new chassis is wider and taller than the previous models, and has swapped rear-wheel drive for two larger and wider front wheels, with the unpowered third wheel relocating to the back of the mower. This really helps to avoid some of the digging problems that the previous generation experienced in dusty or muddy conditions.

The new rear wheel is a massive upgrade from the shopping trolley design from the previous front-wheel, and the metal bracket that holds it in place feels really solid. The only niggle we found was that in very muddy conditions or if you have a lot of small debris on your lawn, that these can catch between the back wheel and the metal casing sometimes, and cause it to drag rather than roll.

Also worth noting is that the larger wheels have similar plastic tread patterns to the last generation, which you may or may not be a fan of, and there seems to be less opportunity given the surrounds on the wheels for after-market modding (which was a feature of the older models).

Design-wise this is one funky looking mower and no mistake. The future has definitely landed! From the front the Worx Vision looks like a Terminator-style battle tank with orange plate armor, red eye rings around the charging contacts and a bull-dozer grill to herd any human prisoners unwanted garden objects out of the way.

We love the overall look of the M800, it's really different and clearly Worx have put a lot of effort in here, with fins at the back, a new layout (of the usual Worx buttons/display) on top, and high-tech chrome highlights. Definitely a luxury feel, and it retains the durable plastic housing that is both weather-resistant and UV-protected, that made its predecessors so enduring despite exposure to the elements.

It wouldn't be a RobotMower.info review if we didn't mention the underneath of the mower, and the WR208E Vision has a lot of improvements here too. Chief of which is the IPX 5 water-proofing that means you can now clean the underside of your mower with a quick hose down. This saves soooo much time and effort in cleaning that we really think this is a must-have now for all future mowers. The Vision retains the standard Worx 3 blade cutting disc which is a good thing - it works well, uses standard mower cutting blades (think old fashioned razor blades) that are easily replaceable, and cuts in both directions. The disc is height adjustable via a large dial on top of the mower, but will also self-adjust itself based on a sensor at the front to avoid roots and other ground-laying obstacles. The cage that protects the blades is still there, but reduced in size and complexity from the previous generation which is a good thing as the cage could sometimes pick up mud and debris. We didn't see any sign of that with the Vision, but we weren't testing at a muddy time of year. If it does get stuck, the Vision now sports a handy handle for carrying it.

The charging station is made of black plastic and looks broadly similar to previous generation, but now in a big improvement the Vision range are front chargers, i.e. they drive in and reverse out. So you now only need a 2 meter (6.5 feet) straight edge to place the charger on. This allows greater flexibility for placing the charger, which is always helpful when you have to get power to it.

The new base station uses a QR code to tell the Vision Landroid that it has reached it's charging point, and if the QR code gets obscured then you may hit problems. For this reason (and if you live in a hot climate to keep the mower cooler whilst charging) we would recommend the optional roof that you can buy for the base-station. Although you can always add this afterwards, based on our experience it's a lot easier to fit the roof at initial set-up time.

* Worx official housing for the WR208E is an optional extra.

Technical Specifications:

• • Boundary type: AI Vision
• • Cutting width: 19cm (7.5 inches)
• • Cutting height: adjustable 3 - 6cm (1.2 - 2.4 inches)
• • Mowing capacity: 800m² (1/5 acre or 8612 square feet)
• • Battery: 4.0Ah lithium-ion battery (replaceable with larger batteries if needed)
• • Navigation system: random bounce within wired area
• • Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID
• • Weight incl. battery: 14.6kg (32 pounds)
• • Dimensions: 626 x 460 x 265 mm (24.7 x 18.1 x 10.4 inches)
• • Noise: 57dB

Performance

The manual is good, but does give the impression you can just drop the mower in your garden and it will mow by itself. This is not quite right, you will need to have the charging base set-up to get it doing anything useful. But this is still so much better than the older wired mowers, where you would spend hours setting your wire up and then the same again adjusting it over the next few weeks. The Vision is easier in comparison, you just need one good edge run at the start to set it up.

If you have steps or a drop in your lawn (>30%), you still need to tell the Vision to beware of the edge, and there is a magnetic strip included to mark these areas off limits to the WR208E. The magenetic strips are also useful for protecting flower-beds, plants, anything that the Vision thinks might be lawn and wants to mow! You get 5m (16ft) of magnetic strip in the box, but you can buy more if you need it.

The mower has RFID for multi-zone (separate lawns). You will need to use RFID cards to mark near the edge of a lawn so the Vision knows to move on to the next zone (also marked by an RFID card). The big call out here is that the distance between lawns can be a MAXIMUM of 6m (19 feet), so really it's for crossing paths rather than heading round your house from a back yard to a front lawn. If you have more than two lawn areas, you can purchase additional RFID cards, and the WR208E will just handle it without issue.

Once you're up and running the Landroid Vision is fairly reliable. It charges itself, it stays inside the lawn, and for the most part just gets on with it.

The mower's cutting performance is great - with a good cutting width (19cm / 7.5inches) and an adjustable cutting height of 3-6 cm (1.2 - 2.4 inches). As with most robotic mowers, the WR208E's blades are designed to mulch grass clippings, leaving your lawn looking healthy and well-manicured. The blades are the standard razor blade types for robot mowers, meaning cheap replacement blades are available on eBay and other sellers for when these ones become dulled (see our maintenance page for more info on this).

The Vision retains the standard Worx mowing pattern, which to us seems pretty basic despite the computing smarts on board. The M800 seems to follow a random bounce method once it's out of the charging station - there's probably more to it - and it does ensure that it covers the lawn evenly as it does a good job. Let it mow daily and the Landroid will keep your lawn in great shape. Despite the many other innovations on the WR208, what it doesn't have is some of the mowing pattern features (stripes or write your name in your lawn) that you can get with some other brands, but we don't feel this is a big loss.

Vision AI

The big innovation for the Landroid Vision M800 WR208 is the Vision AI, so let's do a deep dive now on the Vision element itself. Unlike the first generation mowers that had wired perimiters, and the newer GPS & RTK+ guided mowers, Worx has taken a different route with the Vision range. Instead the Landroid Vision has a wide-angle High Definition camera that captures 15frames per second video of what's infront of the mower. The information from this downward pointing camera is passed to the onboard neural network which compares what it sees to known imagery of objects, and uses that to determine whether to mow ahead, to move around an obstacle, or whether the mower has reached the edge of the lawn.

This is a tough task, if you consider all of the possible things a mower may come across in gardens around the world, and although this works fairly well for the most part, we did encounter a few issues. The mower struggled to recognise patches where the grass was very thin or balding as a mowable area, so it would avoid these. It also seemed bad at identifying leaves on the grass, and would skirt around them, meaning that over time grass would get longer wherever leaves had fallen. It wasn't all bad news, we were impressed at how well the Vision recognised toys, the garden hose and other obstacles on our lawn, and avoided these very smoothly.

Additionally we found that it was a little too careful when detecting the edge of the lawn - the Vision seemed to give them too wide of a gap, meaning that a tuft of grass would be left all around the edge of your lawn when the mower was done. Note, we did get a firmware update part way through our review which did seem to improve this, and importantly also the vision of the mower twilight/darkening conditions.

Like other Landroids, the Worx random bounce algorithm seems to be behind the Vision's edge routine, and when it meets the edge of the lawn, it will head off in a different direction.

The Vision has done away with the bump sensor we are used to seeing on Worx Landroids, and so if the camera fails the Vision can get stuck on an obstacle and will be calling you on the app to rescue it.

Technically the Vision AI approach is a real innovation for robot mowers, and we can see a few updates down the line this will allow mowers to be more autonomous, and do away with powered perimeter wires and satellite links altogether. Worx is gathering new data all the time (if you let it), so we have very high hopes for the future of this technology.

The App

The WR208E is controlled by the phone app, not in a remote-control way as with some brands, but instead by setting up the properties of your lawn and then it will determine the best way to mow your lawn for you. The app is available for both ios and Android, and is essentially the same as the Worx app for all their other mowers. I've never had it crash, and it provides a good range of features. Users can schedule mowing times, adjust settings, and monitor the mower's performance remotely, as well as tweak their mower's performance with grass type and other info.

Features

Cut to edge: The Landroid features an offset cutting disc, meaning the mower can cut nearly to the edge of its silhouette, and this allows it to get closer to the lawn edge if you set your wire up correctly.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Connectivity: The mower can be controlled and monitored remotely using the Worx app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices. The mower uses wi-fi to communicate with charging station and your phone.

Customizable Mowing Schedules: The mower allows you to create custom mowing schedules, so you can choose when and how often your lawn is mowed. And we especially like the save-the-hedgehogs mode which avoids mowing in peak hedgehog hours after sunset.

Rain Sensor: The mower is equipped with a rain sensor that detects rain and automatically returns the mower to the charging station. You can set within the app how long the mower should wait after rainfall before it ventures out again.

Ongoing firmware updates: Worx is one of the best robo-mower manufacturers for providing ongoing software updates for their mowers. They tend to have the same firmware for all mowers, which means a great longevity for mowers, but perhaps there is a trade-off for some mower specific features.

Interchangeable Battery: Worx batteries can be used in any Worx device (they make a whole range of power tools). Crucially this means you can replace the battery when it fades without getting a new mower!

Options: There are fewer additional options available for the new WR2xx range than the older WR1xx range. But we really love the head-lights you can get, and as mentioned elsewhere we feel the house is something you'll really want.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• • Powerful cutting performance, cutting right to the edge
• • Customizable mowing schedules
• • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote monitoring and control, plus easy firmware updates
• • 3-year Worx warranty
• • Super simple set-up and no tweaking of boundary wires required

Cons:

• • Limited to Medium Yards: The mowing capacity of 800 square meters may not be suitable for larger properties. Although Worx sell Vision mowers that can cover up to 1600 square meters (1722 square yards) with the L1600 model.
• • Price - you are paying a premium for the new tech. But we saved 25% with a Black Friday voucher, which makes it much better value!
• • Vision can sometimes get confused.

Conclusion

The Worx Landroid Vision WR208E M800 is mid-range robotic lawn mower that is a show piece for new technology. Not only have Worx bettered the previous range with a number of great design and quality of life improvements, they've brought AI vision into the world of robot mowers, and if you have wide grassy spaces this would work really well. Solid performance, powerful cutting, and no messing around with perimeter wires. If you're looking for a reliable and efficient robotic lawn mower with all the latest bells and whistles then the Worx Landroid Vision WR208E M800 is definitely worth considering.