Xiaomi
Xiaomi CyberDog 2
- Autonomy
- IIAssisted
- Score
- Not scored
- Readiness
- Ready Now
- Price
- $1,800list
ComparisonXiaomi CyberDog 2 and Sony Aibo ERS-1000
Sony
Sony Aibo ERS-1000
- Autonomy
- IIAssisted
- Score
- 78/100Strong
- Readiness
- Ready Now
- Price
- $2,899list
Up to three
Autonomy Ladder
- IManual
- IIAssisted
- IIIConditional
- IVEnvironmental
- VGeneralized
All specialty robots. Every figure below is placed against the whole class, so a gap can be read against how much the class itself varies.
How far apart is a long way?
A number only means something next to the spread it sits in. Each track is the real range across every classified robot in the class, with the median marked.
Price30 with a published figure
$1,800$2,899
- Xiaomi CyberDog 2$1,800
- Sony Aibo ERS-1000$2,899
$29median $649.50$100,000
Runtime31 with a published figure
90 min120 min
- Xiaomi CyberDog 290 min
- Sony Aibo ERS-1000120 min
30 minmedian 300 min960 min
Charge time19 with a published figure
100 min180 min
- Xiaomi CyberDog 2100 min
- Sony Aibo ERS-1000180 min
30 minmedian 180 min360 min
Weight41 with a published figure
19.6 lbs4.9 lbs
- Xiaomi CyberDog 219.6 lbs
- Sony Aibo ERS-10004.9 lbs
0.1 lbsmedian 24.3 lbs2,646 lbs
Height41 with a published figure
18.9 in11.5 in
- Xiaomi CyberDog 218.9 in
- Sony Aibo ERS-100011.5 in
0.9 inmedian 20.2 in82 in
Not compared, because fewer than two of these robots carry a published figure: Noise.
What the numbers leave out.
Written on each record, and the only thing here every robot on the site carries.
The trade-off
What each design gives up to be good at what it is good at.
Xiaomi CyberDog 2
CyberDog 2 undercuts Unitree Go2 on price but fragments support across Chinese and English communities; language barriers slow troubleshooting and skill transfer.
Modular payload and developer API enable research, but firmware updates and documentation follow Xiaomi’s China-first release cadence; international users lag feature availability.
Sony Aibo ERS-1000
You are buying emotional attachment to a proprietary closed system. Sony controls the subscription and the service behind it, and nothing documented lets an owner keep full function locally if either ends. Sony has never closed an aibo cloud service; the precedent that does exist is the end of official repair support for the 1999 to 2006 line, in 2014.
Eight years of ownership stories prove Aibo’s reliability and engagement value. But the lack of practical task capability means the robot does not reduce household workload, it adds one more device to maintain and charge.
Who each one is wrong for
Stated by the record itself. A robot being wrong for a household is a fact about fit, not a fault.
Xiaomi CyberDog 2
- Users seeking English-language documentation and support
- Official documentation, firmware, and support are primarily in Mandarin Chinese. English community translations trail official releases and vary in technical precision.
- Buyers wanting North American warranty and service
- Xiaomi sells CyberDog 2 in China only and publishes no international warranty, service, or RMA terms. Buyers importing through resellers have no documented repair path.
- Organizations requiring regulatory compliance (FCC, UL, etc.)
- CyberDog 2 carries no North American regulatory certification. Deployments in regulated environments are not practical.
Sony Aibo ERS-1000
- Owners expecting autonomous home task capability
- Aibo is a companion, not a task robot. It has no gripper, and it does not clean, carry or fetch. The one exception is aibo Patrol, a named Sony feature on the premium plan: Aibo walks a scheduled route through the home, looks for registered people and reports back through the app. Sony offers it as entertainment rather than as a security system, and it does not reduce any household workload.
- Buyers uncomfortable with mandatory cloud subscriptions
- Full behavioral learning and app interaction require $13/month cloud subscription. Offline mode is severely limited; feature gating is aggressive.
- Owners with poor home network or privacy concerns
- Aibo carries two cameras, the nose camera and a dedicated SLAM camera, maps the rooms it moves through, and enrolls up to 100 faces to tell people apart. It needs Wi-Fi for behavioral updates and interaction syncing, behavior data syncs to Sony's service, and no local-only operation mode is documented.
What stays your job
The upkeep ownership hands back to you, whatever the autonomy level says.
Xiaomi CyberDog 2
- After every 10 hours of operation: Check leg joint tightness; inspect for servo stiction.
- Weekly: Clean optical sensors and paws; verify Wi-Fi and Bluetooth pairing.
- Monthly: Battery capacity check; confirm a USB-C charge is holding a full cycle.
- Every 6-12 months: Servo joint lubrication; battery replacement as capacity falls. Xiaomi publishes no parts pricing outside China.
- Before firmware updates: Record the current version. Xiaomi publishes no rollback procedure.
Sony Aibo ERS-1000
- Daily: Charging on the station; 2-3 hour runtime per charge.
- Weekly: Clean the eye lenses and the nose and SLAM camera windows to remove dust and fingerprints; light surface wipe-down.
- Monthly: Subscription payment verification ($13/month for cloud features).
- Every 3-6 months: Joint lubrication check if movement becomes stiff or grinding appears.
- As needed: Sony repair service for actuator wear. Sony publishes no price list for repairs.
How much each of these is standing on.
Classifications rest on different depths of evidence. A pre-release assessment and a verified one are not the same kind of claim.
| Robot | Evidence status | Sources reviewed | Last assessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xiaomi CyberDog 2 | Pending | 2 | Aug 2026 |
| Sony Aibo ERS-1000 | Verified | 9 | Aug 2026 |
Evidence status counts the sources behind a classification, not their kind. A high count can be maker documentation and price coverage, so read it as how much was reviewed rather than as independent testing. How we weigh evidence.
Keep going.
The full recordXiaomi CyberDog 2Specifications, evidence, the Fit Check in full, and every tracked change.
The full recordSony Aibo ERS-1000Specifications, evidence, the Fit Check in full, and every tracked change.Robovations classifies robots; it does not rank them. Nothing on this page is a recommendation, and no manufacturer influences a classification or its placement here.
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