- 1X unveils the Neo Home robot
- It costs $20,000 and can do many household chores for you.
- Pre-order now, arriving in 2026
The dream or nightmare of a humanoid domestic robot is getting closer to reality. The 1X Neo Home Robot, a cleaning, dancing, listening, talking, and potentially helpful home assistant, is now up for pre-order, ready to come into your home and even plug into a wall outlet if needed.
A little over a year after the unveiling of the Neo Beta, and nine months after the launch of the Neo Gamma, 1X presented its Neo Home Robot.
Visually, Neo has come a long way – from the slightly creepy, perhaps too eye-catching Neo Beta (they showed him with a gangly arm draped over a female companion) – to the Neo Home robot, a soft cloth-covered, soft-faced (though mouthless), 5-foot, 6-inch, 66-pound automaton.
He wears soft, sleek sneakers that could fit the feet of any All Birds sneaker fan. On the head are a pair of circular LED lights that help signify the robot’s intent. But he could also do it by talking to you.
According to 1X and the launch video, Neo Home Robot can hear through its four built-in microphones and speak through its three speakers. It runs a custom Redwood AI powered by Nvidia silicon. According to 1X, Redwood AI is “a visual language transformer tailored to the humanoid form factor and capable of performing end-to-end mobile manipulation tasks such as retrieving objects for users, opening doors, and navigating the home.”
In other words, it’s an AI algorithm tailor-made for the home.
Look on it
As shown in the video, the Neo Home robot can perform various tasks or household maintenance tasks. He is shown doing laundry, unloading the dishwasher, and vacuuming the floors. There are things he can’t do, like mow the lawn; The robot is not intended for outdoor use. He doesn’t know how to cook (yet). The rubberized, articulated hands are waterproof, but the rest of the washable, cloth-covered body is not.
In the FAQ, 1X jokes: “If your NEO gets wet, an automatic order will be placed for a child-sized plastic swimming pool and 100 kg of Basmati rice*. *Not really, but please don’t get NEO wet.”
Very smart, 1X.
But the robot, which should arrive in homes in 2026, is very expensive. You can pay $20,000 outright or sign up for a $499 per month subscription. This is not a payment plan. You simply pay until you want to return the robot.
The California-based 1X promises autonomous operation, using AI to scan its surroundings and engage in conversations that include, in a launch video scene, helping you find your lost glasses (they’re hanging on your shirt, of course!).
However, for all those household chores, you will use the app. “For scheduled or recurring tasks, users can use the 1X mobile app to schedule Neo household chores,” the FAQ notes. Neo connects to the internet via 5G or Wi-Fi, although 1X recommends Wi-Fi.
Not all tasks or tasks are covered, and for new ones you might need help from 1X. The company can, upon request, let an X1 employee access your Neo Home robot and guide it through the task, essentially training it for next time (they promise not to save any personal data collected during the training process). At least it can handle stairs, however, 1X only mentions going up stairs and not going down them. I wonder if you will have to bring it back to ground level.
The robot should run for four hours on a charge, and when the power gets low, it can walk to a standard wall outlet and plug in (if only we could do the same).
As for safety, 1X depicts the robot interacting and dancing with its owners, but I noticed that there are no more videos showing it touching humans.
“Safety guided every step of NEO’s design to ensure it could function among humans,” 1X writes in the FAQ. “This includes a host of passive and active safety features. NEO should only be used as intended. Users should remain attentive during operation and should always follow product safety instructions and guidelines when using NEO, particularly in the presence of children, vulnerable people or pets.”
Aside from the warnings about children and pets, the comments about the need to remain attentive during operation are noteworthy as the video clearly boasts about leaving your house during Neo Home Robot’s cleaning activities. It’s unclear what happens if the robot gets stuck, falls, or accidentally knocks over something. The good news is that you can still log in via the app and see what Neo sees through its dual 8MP fisheye camera eyes, although I imagine watching it do the tasks you’ve been trying to avoid might get old pretty quickly.
This is far from the first housekeeping robot we’ve heard about this year. A few weeks ago, Figure AI unveiled Figure 03, another home help robot that likes to do laundry. Unlike Neo Home Robot, Figure 03 is not on the fast track to your home. Instead, the initial version of Figure O3 won’t even be ready for home use.
On the other hand, Figure AI might be able to sit back in 2026 and observe Neo’s performance at home before releasing its own humanoid home help.
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