1X Neo
The first humanoid you can buy for your home. Inside, for now, there is a person.
Why this verdict · Updated July 2026
We rate it TELEOPERATED, and this is the most nuanced case in our catalog. When The Wall Street Journal tested Neo in 2025, almost everything it did in the demo was piloted by a person in a VR headset from another room: fetching a bottle from the fridge took over a minute; loading three dishes into the dishwasher, five. 1X doesn't hide it: it calls this expert mode, wraps it in privacy controls, and its founder defends it plainly ("if we don't have your data, we can't make the product better"). It is not staged because there is no deception: it is teleoperation sold as a learning phase. Our verdict describes who decides, and today, in your kitchen, an operator decides.
What it does well
- The first consumer humanoid you can actually buy
- Unusual honesty: teleoperation is disclosed and contractually bounded
- A body designed for homes: 30 kg, soft, quiet and dressed in knitwear
- Privacy controls: off-limits rooms, schedules and person-blurring
What it doesn’t
- Almost nothing is autonomous today: the WSJ demo was piloted nearly end to end
- A remote operator can see your home through its eyes (with controls, but still)
- $20,000 for an autonomy promise with no committed date
- Your home becomes the company's training data
Specifications
| Maker | 1X Technologies (Norway / California, 2014) |
|---|---|
| Height & weight | ~1.65 m · ~30 kg |
| Body | Tendon-driven actuators + washable knit suit |
| Price | $20,000 or $499/month |
| Reservations | First year (10,000 units) sold out in 5 days |
| Production | Hayward, California factory (since April 2026) |
The demo that took a minute per bottle
The scene that defines Neo wasn't filmed by 1X, but by The Wall Street Journal. In columnist Joanna Stern's 2025 test, the robot took over a minute to fetch a water bottle from a fridge ten feet away, and five minutes to load three dishes into the dishwasher. None of it was decided by an AI: every gesture was piloted by a 1X employee in a VR headset in another room. Of the whole demo, the company claimed only two things as autonomous: answering the door and taking away a cup.
That makes Neo the most interesting case in our verdict system. It is not the deception we documented in our demos investigation: 1X discloses the teleoperation, calls it expert mode and offers it as an optional service under the owner's control. It is the teleoperated versus autonomous thesis taken to its commercial extreme: the company sells the body today and promises to deliver the brain via updates, trained on whatever the operators do across 10,000 homes.
A 30-kilo body dressed in knitwear
Where Neo genuinely is original today is the body. While the Tesla Optimus and Figure 03 are designed for factories, Neo was designed to walk past a child: it weighs about 30 kilos (less than half an industrial humanoid), moves its joints with tendon-driven actuators that yield on contact instead of rigid gears, runs quietly and wears a washable knit suit. It is the first time a commercial humanoid has treated softness, noise and clothing as engineering specifications.
The dinner-table fact is on the scale: the first humanoid that wants to live in your house weighs less than a large dog and ships wearing a sweater. The full comparison with its industrial cousins, prices and verdicts included, is in our humanoid comparison; the context of everything promising to enter the home, in the home robots guide.
What you are really buying: the robot's education
Neo's business makes more sense read backwards: 1X isn't selling you a finished butler, it is selling you a seat in its training program, paid up front. Every chore an operator performs in expert mode generates data from a real home, and that data is the raw material of the autonomy the company promises to deliver through updates. Bernt Børnich, its founder, says it without varnish: without your data they can't make the product better. In exchange, the owner decides when an operator may connect, which rooms are off-limits, and people appear blurred.
The bet may pay off (nobody has more real-home data than whoever operates in 10,000 of them) or become consumer robotics' biggest case of dashed expectations. Our recommendation is the usual one: buy what the robot does today, not what it promises. Today, Neo is the humanoid with the most domestic body on the market and a brain that still works remotely, paid in data.
Industries
Frequently asked
Is 1X's Neo robot autonomous?
Today, essentially, no: its complex chores are performed by a remote human operator in a VR headset (expert mode). In The Wall Street Journal's 2025 test, almost the entire demo was piloted. 1X promises autonomy will arrive via updates trained on that data.
How much does the 1X Neo cost and when does it ship?
$20,000, or a $499 monthly subscription. First deliveries are in the US and Canada during 2026, with international expansion planned from 2027. The first year's 10,000 units were reserved in five days.
Can 1X operators see inside my home?
Yes, when the owner activates expert mode: the operator sees through the robot's cameras to pilot it. 1X bounds this with controls: schedules, off-limits rooms, person-blurring, and operators under background checks and confidentiality agreements. It remains the product's biggest objection.
How is Neo different from Optimus or Figure?
In market and in body. Optimus and Figure target factories and warehouses; Neo is the only one designed and sold for homes: about 30 kilos, soft tendon-driven actuators, quiet operation and already on sale to consumers, with disclosed teleoperation while autonomy matures.
Sources
- NEO humanoid designed for household use, available for preorder
- 1X Neo is a $20,000 home robot that will learn chores via teleoperation
- The Neo home robot that's breaking the internet promises to change the world, but there's one huge problem
- 1X kicks off full-scale production of humanoid robot Neo
- 1X details NEO's human-in-the-loop strategy and hardware as $20,000 pre-orders go live