Unitree announced the Dex5-S on 21 September — a human-sized dexterous hand priced from $6,500. The company claims 22 degrees of freedom but does not say how many are actually actuated. Weight, grip force and delivery timing are also missing.
Key takeaways
- Priced from $6,500 excluding tax and shipping, or 39,900 yuan in China
- 22 degrees of freedom, backdrivability on all joints, impact-torque protection at each joint
- Unitree disclosed no weight, grip force, tactile-sensing configuration or delivery schedule
- The earlier Dex5-1 has 20 degrees of freedom but only 16 active, and weighs 1.1 kg
- Rival OmniHand 3 Ultra-M from AGILINK specifies 20 active degrees of freedom
What Unitree actually disclosed
The entry price is $6,500 before tax and shipping. In China the hand sells for 39,900 yuan.
Unitree claims 22 degrees of freedom, backdrivability?Backdrivability: A drive property where an external force moves the joint back through its drive mechanism instead of being blocked by it. across all joints and impact-torque protection.
That matters around people and fragile objects. But Unitree gave no numeric thresholds and no test protocol for that protection.
Degrees of freedom are not actuators
This is where comparisons break down. Unitree's own spec sheet for the previous generation shows why.
The Dex5-1 has 20 degrees of freedom, but only 16 are active — the other four are passive. The cheaper Dex2/5 makes the gap even clearer: 10 degrees of freedom, of which two are actuated. Four fingers share a single degree there.
| Model | Degrees of freedom | Of which active | Weight | Fingertip force | Tactile sensing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unitree Dex5-S | 22 | not disclosed | not disclosed | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| Unitree Dex5-1 | 20 | 16 | 1.1 kg | 10 N | none |
| Unitree Dex5-1P | 20 | 16 | 1.1 kg | 10 N | 94 sensors |
| Unitree Dex2/5 | 10 | 2 | 365 g | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| AGILINK OmniHand 3 Ultra-M | 20 | 20 | not disclosed | not disclosed | vision-based fingertip |
For the Dex5-S, Unitree published no such breakdown.
AGIBOT is not leaving that gap open
According to Humanoids Daily, the OmniHand 3 Ultra-M from AGILINK — a spin-off of AGIBOT — specifies 20 active degrees of freedom and vision-based fingertip tactile sensing.
This is not a performance ranking. It is a difference in what each vendor is willing to put on a datasheet.
Why it matters
The dexterous hand is the bottleneck in manipulation robotics. A $6,500 price puts the component within reach of labs and smaller integrators, which accelerates training-data collection.
The trouble is that without actuator counts, weight and grip force, nobody can calculate whether the hand will lift a given part. A claim without a spec sheet is marketing, not an offer.
What's next
- Unitree gave no delivery date or production schedule — that is the first number to confirm
- Weight, grip force and tactile-sensing configuration must reach the datasheet before any comparison with the OmniHand 3 Ultra-M is meaningful
- With no interfaces listed, it is unclear which robots beyond Unitree's own platforms (G1, H1, H2, R1) the hand supports
Sources
- Humanoids Daily — Unitree Unveils Human-Sized Robot Hand Starting at $6,500
- Unitree Robotics — Dex5-1 Dexterous Hand
- Unitree Robotics — Dex2/5 Dexterous Hand
