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.
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.
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.
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 "Home delivery late 2026". 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.
