The new RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE promises to be the best-value robot mower for small lawns: Just press play

There aren’t many home gadgets that improve your quality of life more than a robot lawn mower: One of these compact, quiet devices will happily take care of any amount of grass cutting without complaint, saving you hours of time—usually, all you’ll need to do is press the start button in the accompanying app.

Robot mowers aren’t complicated to set up, won’t distract you, and won’t bombard you with unnecessary extras. They’ve got one job, and they’ll do it very well, assuming you pick one of the best models on the market—which brings us to the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE.

RoboUP has been in the business for almost a decade, but in terms of ease-of-use and intuitiveness, the Raccoon 2 SE is the best model it’s put out yet. It’s designed to be a robotic lawn mower where all you have to do is ‘just press play’—not as a marketing gimmick, but as a genuine guarantee once you get it out of the box.

About to launch on Kickstarter, the Raccoon 2 SE could be the perfect robotic lawn mower for you. Here’s everything you need to know about.

See Raccoon 2 SE at Kickstarter

The story behind the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE

RoboUP the company started in 2016 with a mission to innovate and excel, so there’s a pedigree behind the hardware that it puts out. Every robot mower it launches has been extensively researched and tested, by a team committed to developing the best and most reliable devices for its customers.

There are multiple motivations behind mowers like the Raccoon 2 SE, RoboUP says: To help customers improve their living space, to lead the field in the quality and features of their products, and to do it all with thoughtfulness and optimism. The aim is broad appeal and tech simplicity.

The company also abides by the UN Sustainability Goals, to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems”. RoboUP makes it clear that sustainability can start in the backyard, through the use of materials that are sourced responsibly, components that are energy efficient, and manufacturing processes that minimize waste.

When it comes to the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE in particular, that means a commitment to using fewer materials in its construction, and building everything to a lighter spec that reduces power usage (and cuts down on the number of recharges needed). Efforts to limit pollution extend to noise pollution too: This is a surprisingly quiet mower, registering less than 56dBA when in use.

Key features of the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE

As mentioned above, one of the key messages behind the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE is that you should just be able to unbox it, power it up, and set it off—even if you haven’t had any prior experience with robotic lawn mowers. There are no settings menus to wade through, and you don’t even need to install an app, cutting down on any unnecessary tech headaches and making the mower accessible to everyone.

Part of the reason you can ‘just press play’ with the mower is that it’s designed to adapt to a whole host of different yard types and different grass lengths. It’ll tackle lawns of any shape, navigate slopes and steps (up to 4 centimeters), cross potholes and squeeze through narrow paths, and mow under trees, around corners, and underneath eaves with the same precision you would get if you were doing the job.

As far as power goes, the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE is fitted with a 5Ah battery. It can be fast charged in as little as 70 minutes, which will give you 150 minutes of mowing time—enough to cover plenty of green space. What’s more, there’s an auto-recharge feature that means it can return to its base station when it’s out of juice and then get back out again to complete its job.

The Raccoon 2 SE can automatically map your yard without any help from you: No boundaries or RTK installations are required (that’s real-time kinematic positioning, and while it can help with mapping accuracy, it adds to the complexity of the tech setup and isn’t always reliable (if your yard is covered by foliage or buildings, for example). However, if you want to take the time to set up manual maps and zones, that’s perfectly possible too, through the companion app.

Doing more with the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE

The Raccoon 2 SE has clearly been built with simplicity in mind, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t advanced features here that you can dig into if you need to: Mowing schedules, cutting height adjustments, and obstacle detection and avoidance are all included here for the benefit of pro users.

You can even operate the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE remotely through the app, when you’re away from home: As it can map out the terrain itself, and automatically recharge itself, it can get going without your supervision (and you’ll get back home to see a perfectly cut lawn when you return). The mower is also smart enough to detect when it starts to rain, and protect itself from damage.

There are also different modes of operation to play around with on the RoboUP Raccoon 2 SE, including a target mowing feature that will cut a small area around where it’s currently positioned—perfect if there’s a spot on the grass that particularly needs a trim. When software updates are needed, they arrive over-the-air and can be applied automatically, so again you don’t need to worry about complicated installation procedures.

So, the big question, how much is it going to cost you? Well, less than you might think. When the Kickstarter launches, you’ll be able to grab it for a price of just $299, which is more than half off the expected full retail price. When you weigh that up against a smartphone, coffee maker, or laptop, you’re getting a lot for your money. For more on RoboUP and its mowers, see the official YouTube channel.

See Raccoon 2 SE at Kickstarter