Brotherhobby Land Snail 930 Review

Watch:

Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to stay up to date with electric skateboard reviews, news and giveaways.

This is an interesting electric skateboard. I am both impressed by this eboard and very disappointed. It has some great features and rides well but is ultimately let down by its specs. What’s even more frustrating is that the company inflates the specs dramatically.

It’s made by a company called Brotherhobby who have previously been producing drones and have now decided to create their first electric skateboard.

It’s called the Land Snail 930.

The name alone is enough to put people off even considering this eboard, but let’s not judge this electric skateboard based on a factor that is irrelevant to the performance.

I did ask them if they were married to the name and they said, “yes, we believe that the land snail never gives up.”

I don’t know, does the name really matter that much? You can let me know what you think in the comments of the YouTube video above or on this Instagram post.

Personally, I don’t really care about the name as long as it’s got the performance to back it up.

So, let’s jump in to the Land Snail 930 review and see if it really “never gives up…”

First of all, the Brotherhobby Land Snail will cost you US$999 (price has increased since release of the video), so you would hope that it has some decent specs to support this price tag for a new player in the market.

And taking a look at the specs on their website, you’d be impressed. It has a 30mph (48kmh) top speed and an 18 mile (30km) range. That’s our benchmark and we’ll be testing to see if it lives up to this.

Unboxing

It’s a good solid set of accessories. You get all the basics plus a couple of extras which is a nice touch. Contents include:

Deck

The deck is 36.5″ long and 9.5″ wide is made of a one piece carbon-fibre deck.

I was curious because we have seen this style of deck before in the Exway X1 Pro and in that review you can see that when I chipped it, it was exposing some wood.

So, with a hammer and chisel, I opened up the Land Snail to see what it was really made of and it’s true, it’s a unibody carbon-fibre deck.

The reason I didn’t trust them about this will be apparent later on in this review.

The deck has zero flex, so it is really stiff. It is also touted to have a bulletproof coating around the entire deck to prevent it from getting scratched.

And well, yes it does a good job of preventing scratches but you just saw that I could cut some away with a hammer and chisel. I can only imagine what a bullet’s going to do to it.

Obviously, you’re not going to be going at this board with a hammer and chisel very often. This deck is actually quite strong and can carry a load of up to 230kg (507lbs) and it doesn’t weigh that much either it only weighs 7.3kg (16.1lbs).

A major benefit of this coating is that it has a waterproof rating of IP55 which means light splashing is going to be fine. You can even hose it down to clean it but don’t go submerging it in any water.

It has a slight concave shape which assists with turning and helps to lock your feet in nice and comfortably. It is nice and sleek because all of the electronics are housed inside the deck and the grip tape has a thin layer of shock absorbing foam which helps to soak up a lot of the vibrations from the ride.

Wheels

The wheels are 90mm and have a contact area of 64mm so that’s a tad wider than most eskate street wheels which means it’s going to give you a lot more stability and traction on the road

They’re made of a 50a natural rubber which is the softest material I’ve ever come across in an electric skateboard wheel aside from pneumatics.

They’re also slightly treaded which will help maintain traction when the road is slightly wet or there is a little bit of debris on the surface.

The design pretty much emulates a car tyre so it’s perfect for riding on uneven roads and pavements but I would not recommend taking them off-road.

Trucks

The trucks are very interesting.

Brotherhobby are calling them non-independent leaf spring. They run at an angle of 45 degrees and add a tiny bit of suspension to the ride which is very welcoming with a stiff deck.

To be honest, I was a little bit skeptical about what the stability would be like with these trucks but after taking them for a ride I am extremely impressed. They absorb a lot of bumps in the pavement and they weren’t as wobbly as I expected. In fact, they were really stable.

Getting your desired tightness on your trucks is a challenge on any eboard, but the Land Snail tops them all.

The locking nut is tucked away in the middle of the spring, so I had to get a small shifter and struggle my way into the opening of the spring to lock that nut in place while tightening the bolt on top.

You would think that the shifting end of the supplied T-tool would be perfect for the job, and while it perfectly slips into the spring, the hex piece is too small for the nut.

eSkaters are hardly different from regular skaters when it comes to maintaining their boards. We want and need to be able to easily tighten the trucks and change the wheels. If your ‘innovation’ hinders this, don’t do it.

The Electrics

The Land Snail is running dual 750W hub motors, a Ling-Yi ESC and a 222Wh battery.

Ling-Yi ESCs have gotten a bad wrap in the past and probably for good reason, but the ESC on the Land Snail is surprisingly good.

The remote has four speed modes, reverse and a cruise control function. Pretty standard for an eskate remote these days.

One major flaw in the remote is that all of the values are incorrect. When accelerating in the highest speed, the remote displays 67kmh, which is just ludicrous. I told the Land Snail team about it so hopefully they can fix this up.

Performance Tests

Let’s get down to business. We know what Brotherhobby claim the Land Snail can do, but is it really capable of doing it? 

Top Speed Test

The top sopeed I hit on the Land Snail was 2.5mph (41kmh). That’s shy of about 5mph (7kmh).

Is that all that bad?

Well, the riding environment is going to differ dramatically from rider to rider. I’m about 196lbs (89kg) and the road was rough asphalt just like on most car roads.

Lighter riders could possibly get faster, but I don’t think it’ll be able to get that much faster. Whether it could actually hit its specced top speed is questionable due to my findings in the next test.

Range Test

I’m not going to sugar coat this. In Pro mode, the range I got was 6 miles (9.7km). That is so low compared to the range Brotherhobby have on their spec sheet that I thought I had made a mistake. Maybe my tracking app wasn’t working properly, maybe the eboard wasn’t charged up the whole way.

So, I took it out for another ride and this time I rode entirely in high mode and cruised around at a more casual pace. I managed 7.2 miles (11.7km).

There is no chance any rider will be able to get an 18 mile (30km) range on this eboard.

The 50a wheels will likely have a lot to do with this. And I’m now curious to see what 

Hill Climb Test

It’s no shocker here that the Land Snail does not possess the power necessary to climb hills that have even a 10% hill grade.

They say it can do 30% which is simply not true. I don’t know of ANY hub motor eboard that can climb that kind of steepness.

The Land Snail did eventually get up a hill of 10% but it did it at a crawl.

The feeling of wonder of being able to ride up hills on a skateboard was quickly diminished by the embarrassment of people watching me try to ride up the hill at a snails pace.

The Riding Feel

Despite the Land Snail fiercely under performing in all areas, it has one saving grace. The actual riding feel.

It is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable rides I’ve ever had.

It absorbs nearly all vibrations and even some of the harder bumps and cracks in the pavement. I was riding over stones, sticks and even small pot holes and I hardly batted an eye lid. The killer combination of the 50a wheels, spring trucks and shock absorbing grip tape is awesome.

Not only do the trucks have great shock absorption, they are also really fun to carve with. The extra rubber stopper that sits between the top and bottom of the spring helps you to rebound out of a hard slide.

It was one of the better carving experiences I’ve had. Nowhere near as good as something like La Croix but still enjoyable.

Final Thoughts

Here’s what would make this eboard something worth purchasing.

If Brotherhobby dropped their spec down to 10 miles (15km). Then dropped their price waaayyy down to follow suit.

The original Exway X1 has similar specs, has a better reputation and costs half the price of the Land Snail.

As a new entrant to the market, you can’t expect to battle it out at this price point until you build some trust within the community. Especially when your specs don’t add up.

The Land Snail does have some good things going for it, like the car tyre wheels and spring trucks, all wrapped up with a sleek carbon fiber deck.

It has an amazing riding feel and has so much potential to be a great electric skateboard. Unfortunately, the specs let it down.

It’s also a shame that eskate companies over inflate their specs just for marketing purposes. I know this happens in every industry, but I’ve never seen it as bad as it is in the eskate game. I just wished eskate companies would be a little more honest and transparent with their community.