Honor’s Robot Phone is a weird guy who likes to dance

If you’ve ever wished your smartphone had more personality, the Honor Robot Phone might be just the ticket. Teased at Honor’s launch event in Barcelona this weekend as MWC begins in earnest, the Robot Phone is still largely shrouded in mystery – but its vibe is unclear.

I’ve never been impressed by something that I can put straight to the point of “Why on earth would anyone want this?” column. The Robot Phone is an Honor smartphone with a foldable camera mounted on a four-degree-of-freedom gimbal. All things considered, it’s an amazing piece of engineering – although at first I thought it would pop out of the top of the phone awkwardly, the gimbal and camera instead fold into the back of the device when not in use, popping up again when you turn it on.

Robot Phone is powered by AI and although it looks silly, there are some real useful things on offer here. The small gimbal offers the best motion reduction and automatic tracking technology in the industry, because the three-axis gimbal can stabilize footage and track your movements in 360 degrees. I have seen content creators very clearly to see the sad drip in imagination.

To build the Robot Phone, Honor partnered with Arri, a supplier of high-tech camera equipment to film sets around the world. The goal is to bridge the gap between cinema-grade video and that offered by standard smartphones; Honor says this space has already been closed as far as photography is concerned, but hopes that the Robot Phone can do the same job for the film.

The best thing about Robot Phone – for me, at least – isn’t its cinematographic potential, though. No, this phone is more than just an amazingly powerful action camera – it’s also a little friend. Thanks to a set of anthropomorphising heads, moving and moving, next to a sweet voice (read: grating), the Robot Phone comes to life. Ask if the outfit you’re wearing fits you, and the Robot Phone will nod encouragingly or shake its “head”; put on some music, and the Robot Phone will do the best dance level with you.

Here is the moment when my cold heart melted:

I’m not filled with hope for the future with AI, but I have to say, the Robot Phone is very interesting.

Sadly, we don’t know anything about the smartphone it’s linked to – but we can safely assume it’s the same as Honor’s flagship Magic 8 Pro. We do know, however, that the camera mounted on that little gimbal is a 200MP sensor, which shows excellent image quality. We also know that the micromotor inside is 70% smaller than others of its kind, which is another amazing feat of engineering made possible by the same super steel/titanium alloy that went into the hinge of the Honor Magic V6.

The Robot Phone will be launched in the second half of 2026. Stay tuned for more information as we get it.

Written by

Is Georgiadis

Managing Editor

As of 2018, Will has been a professional review engine. From Sub-Editor to Managing Editor (with a few gaps in between) his knowledge of the industry and website he calls home is second to none. With a library of detailed monitoring and PC reviews behind him and thousands of edits, micro-edits and triple checks behind him, Will is now responsible for setting the commercial and editorial direction of Professional Reviews – making sure he helps his readers as much as possible in an ever-changing environment.

More about