When someone says “robot for the home,” the mental image is still closer to a Roomba humming around the living room than a full humanoid walking, talking and tidying. Enter the NEO Home Robot from 1X Technologies: a machine that promises to do much more than vacuum. You can preorder today with a $200 deposit, and pick between paying the full price of $20,000 outright or opting for a subscription plan at $499 per month.
So what does NEO actually do, how do you control it, and is it worth the investment?
NEO is a humanoid robot designed to live in your home, move around, recognise objects, hear you, talk back, and perform chores like opening doors, fetching items, turning lights on & off and organising spaces. Built with a soft body, tendon driven actuators and intelligence built around a large language model and vision system, the goal is a machine that blends into domestic life rather than standing out like a futuristic gadget.
Users can interact with NEO in several ways:
- Voice Commands: Speak to NEO naturally to ask it to schedule tasks, fetch items, answer questions or help with chores.
- Mobile App/Remote Control: Through the companion app you can schedule chores, monitor NEO’s activity, set “no go” zones, and in some cases remotely pilot it.
- Expert Mode/Teleoperation: For tasks NEO doesn’t yet know, you can schedule an “expert” from 1X Technologies to remotely assist or train it, which then allows NEO to learn the task for next time.
- Autonomy & Learning: Over time, tasks you assign become training data for NEO’s AI, which means the robot gradually improves and learns new capabilities. Over time, tasks you assign become training data for NEO’s AI, which means the robot gradually improves and learns new capabilities.
If you’ve ever wished your house could tidy itself, fetch your coffee or carry on a conversation in the way only a slightly sarcastic butler might, NEO raises the bar for home assistants. But with its price tag and early stage of capability (the robot still relies on remote training for unfamiliar tasks), it’s as much a tech investment as a lifestyle upgrade. If all goes well, it may be worth every penny. If not, you’ll have a $20K decorative humanoid waiting in the corner.
