1X Technologies/Consumer
NEO
The first home humanoid you can actually pre-order.
- The first home humanoid with a real price and a delivery date
- A soft 30 kg body in a knit suit, built for safety first
- $499 a month puts a humanoid within reach
Realism index
40/100
Our editorial estimate of how close this machine is to a lifelike human companion — six weighted dimensions, built from public evidence. How we score · The whole field, ranked
See it move
Photos flatter; motion is where realism is won or lost.
NEO is the category's reality check, in the best way. It is not the most lifelike machine here — it has no face, and it isn't trying to be a companion in the romantic sense. What it is might matter more: the first humanoid an ordinary person can put a deposit on and expect to receive.
The design choices all flow from one decision — this robot will live around people, so it must be safe before it is strong. At 30 kilograms, wrapped in a soft knit suit over a compliant polymer body and driven by tendon-like actuators, NEO is built to bump into you and a child without harm. That softness is also a limit: it lifts and carries far less than a rigid industrial humanoid.
The most important thing to understand before you romanticise it is Expert Mode. When NEO meets a task it can't yet handle, a remote 1X operator can drive it through a VR rig while the onboard AI watches and learns. It's an honest, clever bootstrapping strategy — and a real privacy consideration, since it can mean a human is briefly seeing through your robot's eyes inside your home. 1X ships face-blurring and no-go zones to manage exactly that.
The delivery window is the open question. As of October 30, 2026, two months before the end of the year 1X promised, its order page still takes $200 deposits, and we found no public confirmation that a NEO has reached a customer's home. 1X says NEO "arrives with basic autonomy for early owners", and in September Børnich set a goal of shipping 50,000 in 2027, far beyond the roughly 10,000 a year its Hayward plant is built for. Treat the date as a promise until owners start reporting.
NEO isn't the dream. It's the on-ramp to it — and the first time the dream has had a price tag and a delivery window at once.
Our verdict
The case for
- The lightest, softest-feeling home humanoid in its class
- Lowest entry price in the category at $499/month
- Actually orderable today — ahead of rivals on go-to-market
The case against
- Early units lean on remote human teleoperators ("Expert Mode")
- Many published specs are maker claims, untested by reviewers
- Limited true autonomy at launch
What it can do
- Light household chores — tidying, fetching, simple manipulation
- Conversational assistant with object recognition and memory
- Learns new skills through over-the-air updates
The paper trail
Dated milestones — announcements, prices, promised ship windows — as they were made. We add to this record; we don't rewrite it.
Still taking deposits; no confirmed home deliveries
1X's NEO page still offers a $200 deposit and gives no delivery date. We found no public confirmation that a NEO has reached a customer's home.
Børnich targets 50,000 shipments in 2027
In an interview, 1X's CEO set a 2027 goal of 50,000 NEOs across enterprise, home and developer customers. A goal, not current output.
Hayward factory opens for full-scale production
A vertically integrated NEO plant with 10,000-unit annual capacity; first consumer shipments reiterated for 2026.
US preorders open: $20,000 or $499/month
$200 refundable deposit, US deliveries promised for 2026; 1X was open that early operation leans on human-in-the-loop teleoperation.
Show 2 earlier milestones ↓Hide earlier milestones ↑
Refined home prototype in a knitted nylon suit, slated for limited in-home testing; 1X cautioned it was far from commercial scale.
1X's first public look at its home humanoid — safety, quiet operation and natural interaction over industrial capability.
Quick answers
Composed from the directory record above — so they can't drift from the data.
- What is NEO?
- NEO is a consumer-class machine (built for the home) from 1X Technologies (USA). A soft, 30 kg home robot that tidies, fetches and chats — and, for now, quietly hands off to a human when it gets stuck.
- How much does NEO cost?
- $20,000 outright, or $499/month, plus a $499/month AI subscription. Prices in this category move often — the paper trail on this page records every change we log.
- Can you buy NEO right now?
- Not yet — NEO is taking preorders, with delivery still a promise rather than a fact. The maker's current label is "Preorder · 2026 deliveries promised, none confirmed". We treat ship dates as claims until real deliveries are verified.
- How lifelike is NEO?
- We rate NEO 40/100 on the gfs.ai Realism Index — an editorial score across six weighted dimensions, built only from public evidence. It scores strongest on motion (58/100) and weakest on face (10/100).
- Who makes NEO?
- NEO is built by 1X Technologies — founded 2014, headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company's focus: consumer & home humanoids.
