Since the washing machine and dryer were invented, humans have dreamed about offloading all the other chores involved with laundry, including sorting, loading and folding. I watched Switchbot’s Onero H1 attempt the first two of these tasks, and I wasn’t impressed, especially since, unlike most other humanoid robots we’ve seen at CES 2026, you might actually be able to buy this one.
A not-so-capable robot
The Onero H1 is another one of the many vaguely humanoid cleaning and sorting robots that popped up at CES. The H1 is designed to be a general-purpose chore robot, capable of not only doing laundry but also loading a dishwasher and organizing items. The promotional video Switchbot posted suggests that it can do essentially anything a human can, including serving food and drinks, similar to LG’s CLOiD robot.
For the demo, the robot picked up a single item of clothing off a couch one at a time to load it.
After seeing it in action at Switchbot’s booth at CES, I don’t think it’s one you should consider preordering, as it still feels very much like a proof of concept and not a consumer product. It took the H1 nearly a full two minutes to very slowly move to a couch, pick up a single item of clothing and put it into the washing machine, making it even slower than LG’s version that David Watsky, CNET managing editor, saw.
The version I saw for the demo didn’t have a fully articulated five-fingered hand, like the one shown in the demo video. It seems there will be at least two models. I’d like to assume that it’s capable of carrying more than one item of clothing via a basket, but even at the most optimistic level, you’re likely looking at an hour for it to load a single load of laundry — or even longer for a larger household.
The demo I saw showed the robot with more of a claw than fully articulated fingers.
Notably, it also had to physically bump its body against the washing machine door in order to push it open, despite initially reaching out to open it with its arms. Between the demo sessions, I also watched a booth representative have to go in and manually change the battery. I assume this is because it’s a prototype and the future consumer model will have a docking station that charges it.
Hardware and software
It looks cute and friendly, but I wonder how long the battery will last.
But this also raises the question of battery life. While a robot vacuum can last for an hour or more of cleaning, how long does a fully humanoid robot last without needing a charge? If the answer is any shorter than that of a robot vacuum, then this isn’t a practical product, as it’ll constantly be running back to the dock to recharge rather than getting anything done, which is one of consumers’ biggest gripes about robot vacuums.
As a person with three cats who are none too bright, I also have concerns about how well it can recognize and avoid pets. A robot vacuum’s ability to avoid a cat or a dog isn’t nearly as significant a deal. It’s unlikely that it would be able to do much damage to them. The H1 is a much bigger and heavier device. If it runs over or tips over on a pet or a child, it could very well cause serious injury or death.
It took about two minutes for the H1 to load this washer with just a few items, loading one at a time.
That said, I don’t want to be unrelentingly negative about the H1. To its credit, it did work in the demo, and it managed to load the washer multiple times. Switchbot has also created a variety of robot vacuums and smart home devices that work quite well, including the Switchbot S20 Auto Fill & Drain, which had one of the better object avoidance capabilities we’ve tested.
In terms of hardware, it features RealSense cameras for vision and navigation, and an AI model is integrated under the hood, as expected. Currently, we don’t have any concrete information about pricing, availability or other hardware details. However, it’s rumored that the device will be priced under $10,000 and will be available in 2026, which still places it in the luxury range rather than the affordable consumer appliance range.
