Affordable no-name robotic lawn mower impresses: Natural Expressions Performance 7 review

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Natural Expressions Performance 7 in Europe is 799.99 euros. It is available, for example, from Amazon.

The Natural Expressions brand is likely to be familiar only to those who have previously searched extensively for new garden furniture. For the 2026 gardening season, the manufacturer is now offering a robotic lawn mower for the first time.

As is common today, the Natural Expressions Performance 7 is a wire-free model. At an MSRP of around 800 euros, it is also relatively affordable. Our Natural Expressions Performance 7 robotic lawn mower review reveals what this mower—which requires neither a boundary wire nor RTK—has to offer and what it can do.

Natural Expressions did not develop the Performance 7 itself. Instead, it is an AuraMow robotic lawn mower that Natural Expressions has branded with its own name. That said, the similarities to the Eufy C15 (approx. 800 euros on Amazon) and to robotic mowers from TerraMow are also hard to ignore.

But let’s focus on the test unit itself. The Performance 7 is a compact robotic lawn mower for gardens with mowing areas of up to approximately 500 square meters. It requires neither a traditional boundary wire nor an RTK antenna, the latter being widespread in this price range, as seen, for example, with the Roborock RockNeo Q105. It does not use LiDAR either, which would also be surprising at this price point.

Instead, the Performance 7 uses VSLAM in combination with an AI-assisted triple-camera system at the front. We are familiar with comparable technology from the Eufy C15 and the previously mentioned TerraMow models, in which this solution generally worked well. We reveal further below in our Natural Expressions Performance 7 review whether it works just as well for this test candidate.

First, a few more words about the features. The mower uses an 18-cm-wide cutting deck with three blades. The cutting height can be adjusted manually between 20 and 60 mm. The robotic mower comes with a charging station and roof (garage), which is assembled using tool-free screws, as well as nine replacement blades.

The AuraMow app is required to set up and control the Natural Expressions Performance 7 robotic lawn mower, as indicated by a QR code. Natural Expressions therefore does not offer its own app, although this ultimately makes little difference.

In our test, establishing the connection between the robot, the app, and the Wi-Fi network worked without any problems. The app guides users through the setup process step by step. Voice prompts are also available and can be switched to German and other languages if desired. There is no 4G option.

Once the garage has been assembled and connected to the power supply, the new working area is mapped. Unlike many other models, however, the Performance 7 is not remotely steered across the lawn for this purpose. Instead, it explores the area fully automatically using its cameras and AI. Unlike other robotic mowers with AI mapping, it does not simply follow the lawn edge once in a more or less targeted manner; instead, it surveys the area lane by lane. This is time-consuming and took more than an hour for our nearly 300-square-meter test area. However, because no user intervention is required during this process, setup involves little work overall.

The advantage of surveying the entire area is that the robotic mower automatically detects flower beds and other obstacles within the lawn. This means that little subsequent adjustment with exclusion zones is required. If you want to keep the robotic mower away from a particular area during mapping, you can pause the mapping process and create an exclusion zone in the relevant area. However, this can be somewhat imprecise because the zone has to be positioned on a map that is still being created. The Natural Expressions Performance 7 is therefore particularly suitable for smaller gardens with a contiguous, clearly defined lawn area.

The AuraMow app has the typical layout of a robotic lawn mower app. The overview page displays the saved map, on which live progress can be viewed during mowing. At the bottom, alongside the Auto, Spot, Zone, Box, and Edge operating modes, are controls for starting or pausing, stopping, and charging.

The right edge of the display provides quick access to important mowing settings. In addition to selecting whether the same or different mowing settings are used for different zones, users can adjust the cutting distance from the edge (more on this below), the spacing between mowing paths (6 to 15 cm), the travel speed (Fine, Standard, Fast, or Adaptive), the cutting deck’s rotational speed in three levels, and the mowing direction.

Above these settings are additional icons, including access to the live-video function and map management. In addition to creating and editing up to 20 zones, albeit on only one map, map management also supports passages and exclusion zones. Some other manufacturers offer more options here, although some of them are little more than gimmicks. The usual menu button is also located at the top right. In addition to scheduling and mowing logs, the menu contains various settings for configuring, for example, how the Performance 7 behaves in the rain and responds when potential hazards are detected.

Navigation is entirely camera-based. There was little to criticize in our practical test. The Performance 7 reliably recognized the lawn area during both mapping and mowing. Its lawn-friendly turning maneuvers also stood out positively. However, the terrain should not be too challenging, as inclines are not exactly its strong suit.

Obstacle detection worked just as well and reliably as lawn detection. Like the Eufy C15, the Natural Expressions Performance 7 did not put a foot wrong in our test. All natural obstacles and test objects—including a model hedgehog, a piece of garden hose, and a yellow tennis ball—were reliably detected and avoided without contact. There is no cause for criticism here.

Thanks to its precise navigation, the Performance 7 reliably kept our test area uniformly trimmed. Its 180 mm cutting deck is quite compact and is equipped with the usual three blades. There are certainly robotic mowers on the market that produce an even cleaner cut with more blades and wider mowing paths while also working significantly faster. However, the Natural Expressions Performance 7’s performance is absolutely acceptable for its intended use and price class.

The robotic mower delivered somewhat mixed results along the edges in our test. Thanks to the mower’s compact width, its centrally mounted cutting deck sits just under 9 cm from the edge of the unit. At times, the Performance 7 traveled very close to lawn edges and transitions. During its final edge-mowing pass, it also closely circled flower beds and other obstacles within the lawn in many cases.

Unfortunately, this was not always the case everywhere. At times, the robot maintained a fairly large distance of around 10 cm even though there was no apparent reason for doing so. If plants from an adjacent flower bed extend over the lawn, the robot also gives them a wide berth. This behavior cannot be adjusted either during the initial mapping process or in the settings.

However, the app does allow users to set the “cutting distance at the edge”, determining whether or not the robotic mower can cross the boundary. A value between +/-15 cm can be selected using a slider. This allows the mower to cross level transitions, such as those next to patios and similar areas, and mow without leaving an uncut edge. Unfortunately, the setting applies to the entire map. It would be useful to divide the map into specific areas for this purpose, as offered by the Anthbot M9 (approx. 720 euros on Amazon), for example.

The robotic mower’s battery life depends in part on mowing intensity. On our regularly mowed test lawn, where only the tips of the grass are cut, the Performance 7 significantly exceeded the manufacturer’s stated runtime of 120 minutes with the standard settings. It covered approximately 250 square meters on a single battery charge, although this is still rather modest relative to the operating time. In addition to the narrow cutting deck, this is due to the low travel speed in Standard mode.