Unitree Robotics launched the Dex5-S, a human-scale five-finger dexterous hand with 22 degrees of freedom priced from RMB 39,900 (about US$6,500 before tax and shipping), according to coverage from 21st Century Business Herald on 21 September and a summary from Pandaily published on 22 September 2026.
Key points
- 22-degree-of-freedom hand with every joint motor-driven, backdrivable and dual-encoder controlled
- Little-finger roll axis added compared with earlier Dex5 hardware
- Peak payload of 2 kg per hand with about 1 kg for sustained work
- Priced from RMB 39,900 per hand, well below many research-grade manipulation systems
- Full tactile map for the S SKU, ROS and SDK packaging, and mounting guides for G1, H1 and H2 platforms are missing pieces for integrators
Twenty-two degrees of freedom and a little-finger roll axis
Each joint on the Dex5-S is driven by its own motor and can be backdriven under dual-encoder control, with a little-finger roll axis that earlier Dex5 hardware did not have, Pandaily reports. The hand reaches a peak payload of roughly 2 kg per unit with about 1 kg for sustained work. Backdrivability lets external forces move powered joints, which Unitree says can soften contact-rich failures during teleoperation, imitation learning and reinforcement learning. Unitree advertises impact torque protection at every joint, while the launch notes give little detail on sustained torque ratings, fingertip force figures, control bandwidth or tactile options. The preceding Dex5-1 model was specified with 20 degrees of freedom (16 active, four passive) and optional dense tactile arrays.
A developer-facing price point for manipulation research
The China starting price of RMB 39,900 per hand (roughly US$6,500 before tax and shipping) puts a pair at about RMB 80,000 or US$13,000 before controllers, mounts, tax and integration, Pandaily notes. That is well below many research-grade manipulation quotes, while Unitree’s G1-class humanoids already give labs a body to attach the hands to. The Dex5-S is positioned as a manipulation peripheral, separate from the company’s UnifoLM-WLA-1.0 model and G1+ platform refreshes.
Integration documents and tactile maps still to arrive
For those building with the hand, the gaps include a complete tactile map for the S variant, ROS and SDK packaging, and published electrical or mechanical mounting guides for the G1, H1 and H2 platforms, Pandaily reports. Footage released with the launch showed the hand closing around a tennis ball, striking piano keys, slicing paper with scissors and manipulating a spoon. The product specification lists a maximum load capacity of 2 kg.
