The more you watch the NEO robot video, the creepier it gets

The more watch the new NEO robot hand video from 1X, the creepier it gets. Palo Alto robotics company 1X posted footage of its humanoid performing dexterous household tasks—then slowly unzipping a man's jacket and bending its fingers backward. The demo is genuinely impressive, but repeat viewings amplify the uncanny valley discomfort. As Mashable puts it, the clip will probably haunt viewers forever.

For decades, friendly home robots lived only in science fiction and Saturday-morning cartoons. We imagined helpful machines that folded laundry and cracked jokes. On July 10, 2026, Mashable senior editor Stan Schroeder highlighted a very different reality: a tendon-driven hand so capable it can separate grapes from stems, yet so unsettling that repeat viewings only deepen the discomfort.

Key Takeaways

• 1X CEO Bernt Bornich shared a viral video of the NEO robot using new 25-degree-of-freedom hands for chores like screwing in a lightbulb and picking up a steel glass.
• The footage turns creepy when NEO slowly unzips a man's jacket and bends its fingers backward—moments that trigger the uncanny valley.
• 1X says the IP68 waterproof, food-safe hands include sensors that detect slipping objects and handle fragile items like origami.
• The company claims it can manufacture 10,000 hand units per year in-house, even as consumer humanoid robotics remains early-stage.
• The clip matters because it shows how far real robots have come—and how far they still are from the cozy sci-fi helpers many of us grew up expecting.

What happened in the new NEO robot video?

According to Mashable's report, one of modern robotics' toughest challenges is replicating the human hand. Our hands are powerful, versatile, and precise—making a robotic equivalent extraordinarily difficult.

1X, based in Palo Alto, appears to have made meaningful progress with a tendon-like operating system. In the video Bornich posted, NEO performs tasks that are simple for people but historically difficult for machines: separating grapes from their stems, lifting a steel glass, and screwing in a lightbulb.

Then the tone shifts. The robot slowly unzips a man's jacket. In what Mashable calls a particularly creepy moment, it demonstrates that its fingers can bend backward. The company's own marketing shows dexterity that sometimes surpasses ordinary human ability—but the robot's emotionless face only amplifies the unease.

Why does the more you watch the NEO video, the creepier it feels?

Mashable writes that the footage veers deep into uncanny valley territory. Humans are very sensitive to things that are almost—but not quite—human, and NEO's new hands land right in that uncomfortable zone.

The first pass can feel like a breakthrough: look at those fingers handle delicate work. The second pass lingers on details that are harder to shrug off—the blank face, the slow unzip, the joints flexing in ways flesh and bone do not.

Mashable's headline captures the loop perfectly—the more I watch the new NEO robot video the creepier it gets. That is not a knock on the engineering. It is an honest reaction to how quickly awe can flip into discomfort when silicon mimics flesh.

How advanced are NEO's new robotic hands?

In a company blog post cited by Mashable, 1X explains that NEO's new hands offer 25 degrees of freedom. The firm claims the robot can perform virtually any task a human can do with their hands.

The hardware is built for real homes, not just laboratory demos. The hands carry an IP68 waterproof rating and are food-safe, meaning NEO can wash its hands the way a person would after messy chores.

They are also sensor-rich. Rather than acting as blunt grippers, the hands can react to delicate situations—recognizing when an object is about to slip, for example, or handling something as fragile as origami without tearing it.

Perhaps most notably, 1X says these are not vaporware prototypes years from production. The company claims it can build them in-house at a scale of 10,000 units per year. That is not global mass manufacturing yet, but it is a serious statement in a field Mashable notes is still in its infancy.

From sci-fi dreams to your doorstep: is NEO the future we imagined?

If you grew up watching robot helpers on TV, NEO looks like the prophecy finally arriving. The tendon-driven fingers, tactile feedback, and household task demos echo the futures we were sold in reruns and blockbuster films.

Yet the viral clip also exposes the gap between nostalgia and reality. The same video that proves robotics progress also reminds us how strange it feels when a machine invades personal space—unzipping clothing, staring blankly, flexing joints in ways human fingers should not.

For more stories tracing how yesterday's pop-culture predictions collide with today's gadgets, browse our Nostalgia: Then & Now coverage. The through-line is consistent: the future arrives on schedule, but rarely feels the way childhood imagined.

Should you be impressed or unsettled by NEO?

Honestly, both. Separating grapes, installing bulbs, and sensing a slipping glass are legitimate engineering wins. Any team that can pair dexterity with waterproof, food-safe hardware deserves credit.

At the same time, Bornich's video is a case study in how presentation shapes perception. A lightbulb demo reads as helpful. A slow jacket unzip reads as invasive. Backward-bending fingers read as body-horror. Same robot, wildly different emotional receipts.

1X is betting that capability will eventually outweigh creepiness as familiarity grows. Mashable's verdict is more immediate: the footage is impressive, very creepy at times, and will probably haunt viewers. Whether that makes you preorder or close the tab may depend on how many times you dare to rewatch it.