MOVA LiDAX Ultra 800 Robot Lawnmower

Conceived by Dreame as an affordable alternative to its premium robot lawnmowers, the MOVA sub-brand nevertheless draws from the same basket of technologies when formulating its own offerings. Given how good the Dreame mowers are, that could spell a potential bargain in the offing.

The latest MOVA line-up comprises three models differentiated mainly by the navigation systems used, and the amount of lawn area they can cover. The £519 ViAX 300 handles up to 300m2, the ViAX 500 up to 500m2 (are you detecting a pattern yet?) and the model I’m testing here, the top of the range LiDAX Ultra 800, covers lawns of up to, drum roll please, 800m2.

Design and build

Offering a slightly smaller 20cm cutting deck than the similar-looking  £1,249 Dreame A2, the LiDAX Ultra 800 uses fundamentally the same wire-free UltraView 2.0 camera and AI-enhanced 360-degree LIDAR-based mapping/navigation combo (also found on the cheaper ViAX 500).

This means you can dispense with the need for an external RTK GPS station or perimeter wires. App control is via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, although there’s an option of a subscription-based, 4G link module for use in more remote areas (cost tbc, but unlikely to be cheap).

Physically, the MOVA’s aesthetic is all sleek, swooping, radiused curves, with a large carry handle located at the rear, and the onboard control panel hidden under a top-mounted flap. In front of that sits the UltraView LiDAR detector dome, with a front-facing UltraEyes 2.0 1080p HDR RGB camera pointing straight ahead.

Underneath, there’s easy access to the removable battery, a single cutting disc (sporting three blades), as well as small, swivelling wheels at the front, and large, ribbed 2WD wheels at the rear. Small twigs often get stuck in the latter, but the upside is that the wheels offer great traction (in the dry) and allow the mower to safely climb a maximum incline of up to 24 degrees. Whether they chew up the grass when it’s wet, and they’re turning, is something that remains to be seen. 

The mower is pretty useless if stolen as it’s password-protected, but there’s also a perimeter alarm that can be set to go off if it’s removed from your garden.  MOVA has also fitted an AirTag compartment on the underside, though it wouldn’t take long for a thief to spot and remove it.

Onto the accompanying app, This is definitely one of the better ones I’ve come across, clearly benefitting from Dreame’s robot vacuum cleaner expertise.  It employs very simple, clear graphics and legends – although the 3D mapping capability is a little pointless – as well as offering the option of live video streaming.

Heck, there’s even a TrueGuard ‘patrol’ mode that lets the mower trundle around your garden when you’re away, looking out for humans that shouldn’t be there. If the mower was a little more quick on its feet, I daresay you could use it to detect and scare off pigeons, too. Which, I can’t lie, I’d find mightily satisfying.

A word of praise, too, for the robot ‘Voice’ options. Not only can you choose to hear announcements in one of 20 different languages but, bizarrely, you can also set your robot mate to speak in the throaty tones of Luka Modric, the Croatian captain, AC Milan central midfielder and, of course, MOVA’s Global Ambassador. Vrlo dobro, as he might say…

Performance

One of the practical, day-to-day advantages of this slimline MOVA is that it can slip through passages as narrow as 60cm wide, making it easy (and tempting) to set it up to operate in multiple zones (up to 150) across two maps. I set it to mow a more modest two zones in two maps without issue, the mower travelling through a (opened) side-gate to reach the farthest bit of lawn.

If the mower needs to traverse areas of different heights between zones, though, it’s limited to a 4cm difference; anything greater than that will likely prove too great a challenge for it to clamber across.

Testing the auto-mapping feature in the daylight did at least demonstrate it worked reliably, but I chose to follow up with a manual mapping of my particular garden areas; it just gave me better results in my situation. If your garden has clearly defined boundaries, flower beds, fences etc, the Mova’s auto mapping will get the job done with minimal fuss.

Got to say, powered up, this robot goes about its business really quietly; the loudest it gets is when its super-sized wheels roll over tarmac. Other than that, the most intrusive thing you’ll hear is the cautionary warning message when the robot pops out of its garage and turns around. And even that can be turned down/off.

On my main lawn, I set the cutting height to 3cm (the max is 10cm) and, within just a few days, was rewarded with a very crisply mown lawn; the default U-shaped mowing path results in easily discernible striping. You can also change the mowing direction and create a variety of shapes – including hearts – in your lawn, should you be a sentimental sod.

One clever feature I particularly warmed too was the UltraTrim 1.0 Edge handling system. Underneath the cutting disc there’s a guide rail that allows the former to slide out to cut within 5cm of your lawn’s boundaries (cutting at a fixed height of 3cm), if you set it to do so. That wasn’t so useful for my legendarily ill-defined garden zones, but I can absolutely see how the feature would benefit those with better manicured efforts

If you’re feeling civic-minded, it’s also good to know that it’s possible to share the mower with somebody else, say a neighbour, so you can give their lawn a cut, too. Useful if, perhaps, you have older folk next door, who would appreciate a helping hand. 

The one area where I did feel that the MOVA slightly blotted its copybook was when it came to object avoidance. Despite allegedly being pre-programmed to recognise some 300 objects, a dog’s aluminium water bowl doesn’t appear to be one of them. When I placed my mutt’s example in the MOVA’s path, it was 50/50 whether it would sense it, and steer around, or just roll over it, blades still spinning. When the latter happened, it wasn’t pretty…

Being blunt, if you own, say, a hamster, which gets an occasional run-out in the garden, I wouldn’t take a chance on it being in the MOVA’s obstacle database. Best to keep it indoors while the LiDAX Ultra 800 is doing its thing, I’d say.

Operationally, the main caveat is that this mower needs more frequent day-to-day maintenance than models that use an RTK-based system. Maybe it was the heatwave we had, but the Mova seemed unusually prone to gathering dust, a tendency admittedly exacerbated by the fact that my garden was doing a passable imitation of the Serengeti during the test period.

Happily, there’s a brush attached to the garage that automatically wipes any dust off the LiDAR dome when the mower parks. But there’s no such equivalent for the front-facing camera; that has to be cleaned manually. Even if you fail to remember to give the camera window a wipe, however, the good news is that app gently reminds you whenever general maintenance is required.

VERDICT

A robot lawnmower that sets you back £799.99 and can tackle up to 800m2 of mowing a day represents good value in my book. Quite how the closely-related Dreame A2 justifies its higher price when this LiDAX Ultra 800 does pretty much the same thing is something of a mystery. Conceptually, the Segway Navimow i208 LiDAR is probably the closest competition for it, but, again, that costs a lot more.

If you have a large, reasonably flat garden with crisply defined borders and boundaries, I think you’ll love this latest robot. It successfully removes the need for an RTK station, comes with a very intuitive app, can cut close to the edge of your boundaries and, assuming you’ve picked Luka Modric’s voice, will constantly remind you of England’s historic 4-2 result against the Croatians in the 2026 World Cup.

Back of the net, as they say…