Unitree H1

If the G1 is Unitree's pocket humanoid, the H1 is its athlete. A full-size, 1.8-metre, 47-kilogram biped, it made headlines in 2024 by clocking 3.3 m/s — a world speed record for a full-size humanoid at the time — and by dancing, jumping and taking stairs in viral clips. The pitch is raw dynamic ability at a price that embarrasses the West.

What you get

Serious legs: roughly 19 degrees of freedom, 360 N·m peak knee torque and a torque density (~189 N·m/kg) among the highest of any electric humanoid, plus 3D LiDAR and depth sensing on Unitree's vertically integrated motors. It runs on onboard Intel CPUs with an optional NVIDIA Jetson Orin and slots straight into the ROS2 research ecosystem, which is where most H1s actually live — university and corporate labs studying bipedal locomotion and embodied AI. The upgraded H1-2 adds 7-DOF arms for real manipulation.

The catch

This is a research and embodied-AI platform, not a companion — and Unitree is upfront about that. No face, no skin, no warmth, an exposed chassis, and a roughly 1–2 hour battery. The famous speed and the party tricks are tightly choreographed demonstrations; the gap between "did a backflip on stage" and "did useful work in your building" is still wide. From ~$90k it is a bargain for a full-size humanoid — a fraction of what Western rivals quote, from the maker that already ships more humanoids than anyone — but it is a tool, not a person.

Why it scores 24

A hair above the smaller G1. The same near-zero on face, skin and mind — there is simply no companion surface here — but full human scale and best-in-class dynamic mobility nudge it up. The H1 matters to this site as the high-water mark for cheap, fast hardware: it shows how quickly the body problem is falling to price, while making it obvious how much of "lifelike companion" still lives in the face and mind that machines like this don't even attempt.