Humanoid robot specifications are published unevenly. Some makers list height, weight, battery and price; others list nothing numeric at all. This article reads three official pages from the same day (Boston Dynamics for Atlas, Unitree for the G1 and H1, and Agility Robotics for Digit) and sets out what the numbers mean, what they leave out, and the questions to put to a maker before treating any of it as a comparison.
All figures below were read from the manufacturers' own pages on 2026-10-31. These pages are updated without notice, so the date matters. We did not test any robot, and nothing here is an independent measurement.
What the three makers actually publish
The table lists figures exactly as the pages state them. "Not listed" means the page we read did not give the figure, not that the robot lacks it.
| Spec | Boston Dynamics Atlas | Unitree G1 | Unitree H1-2 | Agility Digit 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 1.9 m (6.2 ft) | 1320 x 450 x 200 mm standing (as listed) | About 178 cm | Not listed |
| Weight | 90 kg (198 lbs) | About 35 kg with battery | About 70 kg | Not listed |
| Degrees of freedom | 56 | 23 (EDU: 23 to 43) | 27 | Not listed |
| Payload | 50 kg instant, 30 kg sustained | Arm maximum load about 2 kg (EDU about 3 kg) | Arm load about 21 kg peak, about 7 kg rated | Not listed |
| Battery life | 4 hours | About 2 hours | 864 Wh battery, runtime not listed | Not listed |
| Price | Not listed | US $13.5K excluding tax and shipping | Not listed | Not listed |
| Environmental rating | IP67; -20 to 40 C | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
Sources: Atlas, G1, H1 and Digit pages.[1][2][3][4][5]
Two things stand out before any analysis. First, the amount of disclosure differs more than the robots do: Boston Dynamics lists eleven figures including an ingress-protection rating and operating temperature, while Agility's Digit page states in a footnote that Digit 5 is in development and its features, specifications, capabilities and designs are subject to change.[4][5] Second, only one of the four columns carries a price.
Why the numbers do not line up
Payload is three different questions
Atlas lists "weight capacity" in two forms: 50 kg instant and 30 kg sustained.[1] The G1 page lists an arm maximum load of about 2 kg for the base model and about 3 kg for the EDU model, and a footnote says the arm load varies greatly with arm extension posture.[2] The H1-2 page gives about 21 kg peak and about 7 kg rated for arm load.[3]
These are not the same quantity. The Atlas label does not say whether the figure is carried in the hands, on the body or in some other way, so we cannot tell from the page alone whether it is comparable to an arm load. Our interpretation is that "instant" and "sustained" or "peak" and "rated" pairs signal that the peak figure is a short-duration limit. A buyer lifting a box repeatedly should ask for the sustained or rated figure, and for the posture and duration behind it.
Degrees of freedom is not a dexterity score
A degree of freedom is one independent joint motion. The G1 page lists 23 in total, with 6 per leg, 1 at the waist and 5 per arm; the EDU model lists 23 to 43 depending on options such as hand degrees of freedom and two extra waist axes.[2] Atlas lists 56, and the page says its range of motion is continuous.[1]
Counting conventions vary. The G1 EDU range exists because optional hands and axes are included or excluded. So 23 against 56 tells you the base G1 has fewer controlled joints than Atlas, but it does not say how well either robot can manipulate objects. That depends on hands, sensing and the software driving them, none of which a joint count captures.
Battery life needs a workload
Atlas lists 4 hours and the G1 lists about 2 hours.[1][2] Neither page states what the robot was doing. Standing still, walking and carrying a load draw different power. The H1 page lists an 864 Wh battery (15 Ah, 67.2 V maximum) for both H1 variants, which is a capacity, not a runtime.[3] Using only the published values, we can say the H1 battery holds energy, but we cannot compute how long it lasts without a power draw figure the page does not give.
Mass and size shape what the robot is for
The G1 is about 35 kg and 132 cm tall; Atlas is 90 kg and 1.9 m tall.[1][2] By our arithmetic from those figures Atlas is about 2.6 times as heavy. The pages themselves point to different intended uses: Unitree lists a G1 price and offers an EDU model with extra options, while Boston Dynamics describes Atlas as built for enterprise use with select customers.[1][2] A heavier robot with a higher payload and an IP67 rating is aimed at different work than a lighter one with a 2 kg arm load.
Reading the availability language
Specs say what a robot is. Availability language says whether you can get one.
- Unitree lists a G1 price and a warranty of 8 months, and notes that parameters may vary by scenario and configuration and that some sample functions are still in development and testing.[2] The H1 page notes the product keeps iterating, so the shipping unit may differ from the page.[3]
- Boston Dynamics says the electric Atlas is the start of a path to a commercial humanoid product, that it is in a customer facility with Hyundai for field testing on part-sequencing tasks, and that it is working with a select number of early adopters and accepting inquiries.[1] The page gives no dates for these statements.
- Agility Robotics describes Digit as the first humanoid commercially deployed in logistics warehouses and names Toyota, Amazon, Mercado Libre and GXO as customers; it also says some Digit 5 safety features are still in development and that safety features do not remove all operational risk.[4] These are the company's own claims, and we did not verify the deployments independently. The page also quotes a customer, Schaeffler, saying it could deploy a significant number of humanoids across its 100 plants by 2030, which is a statement of potential, not a purchase.[4]
The gap between "price listed", "early-adopter inquiries" and "in development" is itself a specification. It is the one most often missing from comparison tables.
A checklist before you trust a spec sheet
- Date and version. Which robot revision is the page describing? Agility and Unitree both say specifications may change.[2][4]
- What the payload number is. Whole-robot or arm; peak or rated; at what posture.
- What the runtime assumes. Workload, payload and temperature.
- What is optional. EDU or base, extra axes, hands.
- What is missing. If the page omits weight, payload or runtime, ask the maker rather than infer.
- What the safety language says. Unitree's footnotes tell users to keep a safe distance from people; Agility says some safety features are in development.[2][4] Ask which standards the robot is certified to, and for the document.
- Evidence of the task. A deployment claim is not a benchmark. For how researchers try to make robot success rates comparable, see our explainers on how robot policies are evaluated and vision-language-action models.
What a spec sheet cannot tell you
Even a complete page does not report reliability over thousands of hours, how often a human has to intervene, cost of ownership, repair turnaround, or how the robot behaves on your task in your building. None of the three pages publishes those. They are the questions that decide whether a deployment works, and they are best answered with a paid pilot on your own task rather than by comparing tables.
Our reading: the useful comparison is not "which robot has more degrees of freedom" but "which maker will tell me the conditions behind each number, in writing". On the pages we read, Boston Dynamics and Unitree publish more numbers than Agility, while only Unitree publishes a price for the G1. Disclosure is not quality, though. A long list of figures can still omit the one that matters for your use.
Limits of this article
We read five vendor pages on one date and did not run or inspect any robot. Page contents can change. We did not find or read an independent test of any of these figures. Tesla's Optimus page returned an access error when we tried to read it, so it is not covered here. Other makers were not read.
