German robotics firm NEURA Robotics GmbH didn’t just attend the CES 2026 party; it pretty much gatecrashed it with a rather brilliant announcement: preorders are now open for its next-generation humanoid robots. Fancy a robot for your home or factory? For a mere €100 fully refundable deposit, you can bag yourself a spot in the queue for the flagship 4NE-1 Gen 3.5, a snip at €98,000, or its dinkier sibling, the 4NE-1 Mini, for a far more palatable €19,999. This move, quite frankly, is a game-changer, positioning NEURA as one of the very first Western outfits to offer its humanoids for direct online sale – a rather bold play in a market that’s heating up faster than a kettle on full boil.
The full-sized 4NE-1, which was designed in collaboration with Studio F.A. Porsche, is likely the best-looking thing in any factory it enters. Standing a respectable 1.8 metres (that’s 5ft 11in in old money) tall, it’s engineered to hoist a hefty 100 kg (220 lbs) and stride along at a rather brisk 5 km/h (a good 3.1 mph). Tucked inside its rather sleek chassis, you’ll find a spanking new water-cooling system alongside an NVIDIA Thor T5000 processor – a genuine powerhouse chip specifically engineered for the demanding worlds of AI and robotics. During a booth interview at CES, CEO David Reger stated the first units of the 3.5 model would begin shipping as early as June 2026.
The 4NE-1 Mini, meanwhile, is being pitched as the “Western world’s answer” to affordable humanoids, with a price tag that lands squarely in the same ballpark as trying to import a Unitree G1 from China – no dodgy import fees or customs faffing about here. At a more modest 132 cm (that’s 4ft 4in) and weighing in at 36 kg (79 lbs), the Mini still packs the same clever cognitive AI as its larger sibling, all squeezed into a more diminutive frame. Perfect, then, for research, education, or even a bit of light office grunt work. It boasts 25 degrees of freedom, a 3 kg payload, and an active battery life of around 2.5 hours. According to Reger, the Mini and a newly announced quadruped robot will begin shipping even sooner, in April 2026.
Why Is This Important?
NEURA Robotics is, quite clearly, making an utterly aggressive push to cement its status as Europe’s premier humanoid manufacturer. Opening direct preorders is a crystal-clear signal that they’re not just dabbling in R&D anymore; they’re very much in the game for commercial reality. While rivals like Germany’s Agile Robots and Italy’s Generative Bionics are also very much in the running, NEURA’s direct sales model and refreshingly transparent pricing could well give it a rather significant leg up. The company’s also busy expanding its global footprint, planting a brand new facility in Hangzhou, China, and beefing up its US presence in Detroit, with ambitious plans for Boston and San Francisco on the horizon. By making its robots – and crucially, their prices – publicly accessible, NEURA isn’t merely flogging hardware; it’s selling its grand vision for a genuinely commercially viable robotic workforce. And frankly, that’s rather smashing.
