Quick verdict
NEO, from Palo Alto-based 1X Technologies (founded in Norway as Halodi Robotics), is a soft-bodied humanoid built in Hayward, California, and pitched as a home assistant for chores like tidying, carrying groceries, fetching items, answering the door and folding laundry. Preorders opened on October 28, 2025, and 1X says its first-year capacity of 10,000 units booked out within days. This review is based on 1X’s published specifications and independent reporting, not hands-on testing.
What NEO is, on paper
NEO stands about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs roughly 66 pounds, with a soft exterior and tendon-driven actuation designed to be safer around people than rigid industrial robots. 1X’s published figures claim lifting up to about 154 pounds, carrying around 55 pounds, noise as low as 22 decibels, and roughly four hours of runtime per charge. Its onboard Redwood AI handles navigation, basic retrieval, door answering and conversation through a built-in language model, with face and voice recognition.
The Expert Mode catch
Here is the part to read twice. NEO works autonomously on basic tasks; for chores it has not learned, owners schedule a 1X Expert — a real human — to teleoperate the robot through the task while it learns. In the most prominent journalist hands-on, household tasks were teleoperated. 1X offers privacy controls: no-go zones, blurred bystanders, owner-set operator hours, and a light in the robot’s ears while someone is connected. Those safeguards are manufacturer claims; reporting in 2026 noted no independent audit of them yet.
Pros and cons
- Pros: a real consumer price and preorder for a category rivals still sell only to factories; soft, relatively light body designed for homes; quiet operation on paper; the teleoperator model means hard tasks can still get done while autonomy improves; refundable deposit lowers the cost of reserving a place in line.
- Cons: autonomy is partial — complex chores currently mean a human driver who can see into your home; $20,000 (or $499/month) is car money for an unfinished product; US deliveries were slated through 2026 with no publicly verified customer delivery in reporting to date; four-hour runtime and first-generation reliability are unproven in real homes.
Who is it for?
Wealthy early adopters who want to be part of the first wave of home humanoids and are comfortable — genuinely comfortable — with scheduled human teleoperation and early-access growing pains. Everyone else should watch the first verified customer deliveries and autonomy reports before spending anything beyond the refundable deposit.
Frequently asked questions
How much does 1X NEO cost?
$20,000 to buy, or $499/month on subscription, reserved with a fully refundable $200 deposit.
Is NEO fully autonomous?
No. Basic tasks run autonomously; complex chores use Expert Mode, where a scheduled 1X human operator teleoperates the robot.
When do deliveries start?
US deliveries were slated for 2026, with international availability following in 2027; 1X says some buyers will receive theirs this year and some later.
Price and availability
NEO is preorder-only direct from 1X at $20,000 or $499/month with a $200 refundable deposit. It is not sold on Amazon, so there is no Amazon link — reserve direct only if you have read the Expert Mode section above twice.