You go to buy a phone case and end up throwing a robot into your cart (123 cm, 27 kg) — one that can do a cartwheel and run downhill.
In China it costs $4,370, but for the global market the price will be higher — starting at $6,800.
Compared to the competition, those numbers are still laughable. Tesla Optimus and Boston Dynamics' Atlas either aren't for sale at all or go for somewhere in the $50–150k range. And while the American players keep showing off slick demos (having shipped maybe around 150 units a year), Unitree sold 5,500 of these humanoids in 2025 alone.
The one thing I couldn't figure out is why you'd even want this robot at home. If you were thinking it'd wash the dishes and clean the litter box — forget it. It can't do any of that.
The company itself positions the R1 as "born for sport." The robot runs on a battery for exactly one hour, and 70% of all units don't go to people's apartments — they go to universities and labs.
IMO, right now it's just a relatively cheap platform for researchers and developers who need to run their AI models on real hardware. What an average person would do with it at home is completely unclear — maybe scare delivery drivers (why not) ¯_(ツ)_/¯
*P.S. You can't fine-tune the robot with new movements. The standard R1 and R1 AIR are closed systems with no custom development support. Custom programming is only available on the R1 EDU version. But even EDU won't help with dishes — it has no hands with proper motor skills, it's just not built for that kind of manipulation.*
*Unitree's own philosophy: "Movement first, tasks as well" — movement is the priority, tasks come later. "Later" is a very optimistic way to put it.*
Source — Wired