Unitree shipped over 4,000 humanoid units in 2025. Two platforms drive the volume: G1 and H1. Their engineering priorities diverge in ways that matter for industrial deployment.
Key Specifications
G1: 127 cm, 35 kg, 43 DOF, 88 Nm peak hip torque, 2.0 m/s walking, 7-DOF hands, 1.5 kg payload per hand, ~$16,000. H1: 180 cm, 47 kg, 27 DOF, 120 Nm peak hip torque, 1.5 m/s walking, parallel gripper, 5 kg payload per hand, $90,000+. Both run joint control at 500 Hz.
G1: High Dexterity, Lower Payload
Seven degrees of freedom per hand enables fingertip manipulation — rotating objects, pinching small components, and independent finger positioning. G1 is relevant for electronics assembly, connector insertion, PCB handling, and pharmaceutical packaging. The tradeoff is payload: 1.5 kg per hand excludes most metal components in automotive or heavy manufacturing. At 127 cm, G1 fits standard industrial workbench height (85 cm) without reach envelope mismatch.
H1: Higher Payload, Human Scale
At 180 cm and 120 Nm hip torque, H1 walks on inclined surfaces and traverses uneven factory floors. It carries 5 kg per hand, enough for most automotive sub-assemblies under 10 kg total. The parallel gripper limits dexterous manipulation — H1 suits grasping, transporting, and placing objects in material flow applications. Its 27 DOF versus G1’s 43 means simpler motion planning and lower programming complexity for repetitive cycles.
Task Matching Guide
Electronics assembly under 200 g: G1. Automotive sub-assembly 2-8 kg: H1. Connector insertion with force control: G1. Tote and bin transport: H1. Research and AI data collection: G1. Mixed material flow replacing AMR: H1.
Which to Buy in 2026
Parts under 1.5 kg requiring finger dexterity: G1. Parts between 1.5 and 8 kg or material transport: H1. At $16,000 versus $90,000+, G1 has a fundamentally different ROI timeline. For pilots evaluating humanoid feasibility, G1’s lower capital cost makes it the natural starting point even if H1 is the ultimate production target.
Full humanoid ranking: Top 40 China Robot Rankings 2025. Factory profiles: robots manufacturer in China.
Sources
- Unitree G1 and H1 technical specifications, unitree.com 2025
- ESM China: Humanoid robot deployment data China 2025
- Xinhua: Unitree production scaling to 20,000 units/year (2026)
