PrimeBOT
Experts Say Robotics
On September 20, Qiyuan Robotics, a subsidiary of PrimeBOT, launched the Q1 and T1 in Shanghai. The starting price for both is CNY 19,999. The Q1 Explorer Edition is priced at CNY 26,999, and the T1 Pro at CNY 29,999. They are available for sale immediately, with deliveries rolling out starting October 1.
The Q1 stands 88 cm tall and weighs about 15 kg. It features 22 compliant force-controlled degrees of freedom (DoF) across its body, can be folded to fit into a backpack, and has a 3D-printable shell. Its appearance, personality, movements, and voice tone are all customizable. The T1 is about 1 meter tall and weighs approximately 16 kg, with a battery life of 2 to 3 hours. Its most distinctive feature is the autonomous switching between humanoid wheeled-legged and quadruped modes: it can glide and pivot in place on its wheels while standing, and switch to a quadruped mode when lying down, capable of stepping over 15 cm obstacles, climbing 30-degree slopes, and carrying a 3 kg payload.
The most noteworthy hardware feature is the self-developed QDD (Quasi-Direct Drive) joint, weighing 260 grams with a diameter of 47 mm and a peak torque density of 85 N·m/kg. Interaction does not require a remote control, relying instead on the multimodal model PrimeVista. Functions are divided into two categories: for companionship in learning and play, it offers spoken language practice, homework tutoring, graphical programming, and riddle games; for outdoor use, it provides follow-along filming, night lighting, and Bluetooth music playback, all underpinned by facial and voiceprint recognition, long-term memory, proactive conversation, and autonomous return-to-charge when the battery is low.
Pre-sales opened on August 23 via the official mini-program, Tmall, Douyin, and Bilibili. A CNY 1,000 deposit is deducted as CNY 2,000 off the final payment, and offline experience stores are located in 7 core cities.
What is truly worth pondering is not its low price, but its chosen heights: 88 cm and 100 cm. Over the past few years, there has been an almost undisputed consensus in the industry: humanoid robots will enter factories first, while entering homes is the hardest fortress to conquer. Yet, Qiyuan is targeting the living room, and with a small stature at that.
01. The Long-Accepted Sequence
Tian Hua, CEO of Qiyuan, also reiterated the industry narrative: entering factories is relatively easy, while entering homes is extremely difficult—industrial data is structured, whereas the home is a highly complex, unstructured environment.
However, "factories are easy" comes with conditions. The first applications in factories are for single processes with loose error tolerance, bypassing generalization by relying on fixed workstations and fixed takt times. But bypassing is not the same as solving, and the home scenario requires considering an additional responsibility: the presence of children and the elderly nearby.
Therefore, "factories first" does not mean "factories are simple," but rather that "the difficulties in factories can be partially circumvented through engineering means."
02. Ranking These 17 Models
Over the past two years, the industry has accumulated a batch of small-sized humanoid robot products. "Experts Say Robotics" attempted to compile a list of the 17 officially released models currently available. By ranking them according to their reference prices, the long-accepted sequence reveals itself.
The first layer is price. There are 4 models priced under CNY 10,000, ranging from the USD 399 Microduck to the CNY 9,998 Bumi;7 models are squeezed into the CNY 19,800 to CNY 40,000 range; and above CNY 40,000, only Unitree G1 and G1+ remain. Qiyuan's CNY 19,999 price point sits exactly at the upper edge of that gap.
The second, more noteworthy layer is positioning. The 2025 batch was positioned for university laboratories, developers, and commercial performance venues, priced from CNY 38,900 to CNY 95,000; the 2026 batch shifts to emotional companionship, education, and trendy toys, with prices dropping to CNY 6,499 to CNY 19,999. The size hasn't changed, but the buyers have.
The third layer is easily overlooked: whether the price is publicly disclosed is itself a statement. Those marked "undisclosed" mostly target the B2B market or development platforms, while those with explicit figures are prepared to sell to individuals.
03. Why the Small Ones Can First Knock on the Door
Safety is the most frequently mentioned, yet the most incomplete point. A smaller mass means less kinetic energy; the consequences of a collision are not on the same order of magnitude. All 22 DoF on the Q1's body are designed to be pinch-free. Reportedly, to verify safety, Qiyuan destroyed 1,235 real machines and iterated through 153 versions of the model.
The second point is that the price falls into the home appliance budget. The 65 to 94 cm tier is priced between CNY 6,499 and CNY 9,998, while those over 1.2 meters cost CNY 39,000 to CNY 95,000. The former is a decision akin to buying a refrigerator, while the latter is akin to purchasing a piece of equipment; the speed of parting with money is entirely different.
The third point is the least mentioned: small ones naturally do not need to be anthropomorphic. Luvbotics calls itself an "alien cute creature," and Hugging Face simply made a robot duck—a 65 cm round-headed little guy not looking human is reasonable, whereas a 1.7-meter robot not looking human would be awkward.
04. But the Home Has Two Doors
The home is actually two scenarios overlaid. "Accompanying" leads to companionship, education, and trendy toys, which has high error tolerance; one failure is not fatal. "Doing" leads to housework, caregiving, and storage, requiring high generalization and high reliability.
Small-sized humanoids can only open the first door. The 88 cm Q1 cannot reach the kitchen counter, nor can it lift a bucket of water—this is a physical constraint, not an algorithmic one.
The evidence lies in Qiyuan's own R&D investment table. In the first half of 2026, the "consumer-grade small humanoid robot project" invested CNY 72,300,500, and "consumer-grade deformable robot R&D" invested CNY 59,557,000; whereas "pre-research on the hardware of housework robots for home scenarios" only received CNY 1,576,400, approximately 2% of the former.
The order in which a company spends its money is more honest than the words at a launch event. First, build what can accompany; housework will have to wait—Dong Hao gives a timeline of 3 to 5 years.
05. Qiyuan is Changing the Sequence, Not the Difficulty
The significance of this launch is not that "homes are easier than factories," nor that "housework robots are coming," but rather that home scenarios do not need to wait until the robot "can do chores" before going on sale—sell the "companionship" first, get the users, data, and habits running, and then reach for the "chores."
However, advance receipts are not revenue; revenue must wait for delivery confirmation. In the first half of the year, PrimeBOT's robot business revenue was zero, with R&D investment at CNY 164,000,000 and a net profit attributable to shareholders loss of CNY 167,000,000. The orders arrived first, but the revenue has not yet arrived—this is the hardest footnote.
Conclusion
Must we wait for factories to take root before it is the home's turn? Qiyuan's answer leans towards no. The first to open the door are not the most capable batch, but the smallest, cheapest, and least human-like batch—they are opening the "play with you" spot in the living room, not the "do it for you" spot in the kitchen.
But once a door is opened even just a crack, the subsequent sequence may change accordingly.
This article is compiled based on publicly available online information and is for reference only, not constituting investment advice.