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InnovationHome robots

For $20,000, a humanoid robot will do your household chores for you like unloading the dishwasher and watering plants—but it still needs help

By
Matty Merritt
Matty Merritt
and
Morning Brew
Morning Brew
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By
Matty Merritt
Matty Merritt
and
Morning Brew
Morning Brew
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February 26, 2026, 2:40 PM ET
Neo has a soft body and moves slowly, lasting for four hours on a single charge.
Neo has a soft body and moves slowly, lasting for four hours on a single charge.Photo courtesy 1X

For the price of a pretty solid used Chevy Malibu, you could soon get a very new 5-foot-6-inch humanoid robot to fold your laundry. Robotics company 1X announced preorders for Neo, which it claims is the “world’s first consumer-ready humanoid robot.”

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For $20,000—or a $499 per month rental fee and a six-month commitment—the lanky robot can do simple tasks around the house, such as unloading the dishwasher and watering plants, and can answer your questions through its built-in large language model.

Unlike those sharp, metal military dogs that are always doing flips, Neo has a soft body and moves slowly. The bot can carry about 55 pounds and lasts for four hours on a single charge.

Is Neo ready to become the Rosie of your family? Well, sometimes it falls over, and it still needs a lot of human help. In fact, all of the tasks Neo performed in a test run with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal weren’t done autonomously. If you want Neo to do something complicated like clean the bathroom or vacuum, you’ll have to let a 1X employee wearing a VR headset remotely access the body (and cameras) to assist with training.

Neo is watching. 1X claims safety guardrails are in place to protect your privacy, but there’s still a camera-equipped walking, talking robot in your house.—MM

This report was originally published by Morning Brew.

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on October 30, 2025.

More on robots:

  • An MIT roboticist who cofounded bankrupt robot vacuum maker iRobot says Elon Musk’s vision of humanoid robot assistants is ‘pure fantasy thinking’
  • Meet your new robot fry cooks: inside the $28 billion race to disrupt White Castle and Jack in the Box
  • One man accidentally gained access to thousands of robot vacuums, exposing the AI cyber nightmare risk facing millions of Americans
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