- Honor Releases Robot Phone Concept AI Video
- It is suggested to include advanced artificial intelligence tools and a foldable camera mounted on a gimbal.
- Honor hopes to reinvent smartphones as “more than just a tool”
Honor has just released details of its new smartphone concept, dubbed ‘Robot Phone’, and it’s very strange.
In an announcement video that has all the makings of a trailer for a Disney animated film, complete with a sprawling soundtrack, the Chinese manufacturer revealed a CGI rendering of its new concept phone. The so-called Robot Phone features a gimbal-mounted camera array that deploys from the back of the device and rotates 180 degrees, to allow the capture of selfies and photographs from a variety of other angles.
This arm bears a striking resemblance to the rumored DJI Osmo Pocket 4, but with the convenience of being integrated into the body of a smartphone.
In the video, Honor sells the AI element as a curious, childlike camera lens that almost seems to have a mind of its own. The camera pans up and down, panning through a variety of scenes, while the unit makes cute wow noises, possibly in an effort to reassure us that there isn’t a malevolent AI entity hiding behind the attractive facade.
From this brief cinematic introduction, it seems like Robot Phone is more interested in watching fireworks, skydiving, and stargazing than fighting Tom Cruise. While details are a bit scarce at the moment, it seems like Honor has tried to evolve the idea of an AI assistant by giving it more personality, perhaps in the hopes of encouraging a greater willingness to interact with it on the part of the user.
Not everyone enjoys the idea of talking to software, especially photographers who like the idea of being in control of their own creative process. The irony is that the demo itself appears to have been generated by AI, but if the robot phone piques your interest, this is unlikely to bother you.
A truly revolutionary design?
The gimbal is certainly an interesting idea for a smartphone camera, which could prove popular in this video-centric world of content creation. Being able to capture footage and still images seamlessly, using a compact device that fits in your pocket, opens up enormous possibilities for filmmakers.
Professional smartphone users only need the best phone gimbals, which usually require additional investment. While we’ve seen pop-up cameras on phones before, like the Honor 9X and OPPO Reno series, this motorized design provides a much wider range of motion. Of course, there’s the question of how robust the arm will be on the final production device, but for that we’ll have to wait and see.
“Honor envisions the phone of the future as more than just a tool,” the company says. With its striking resemblance to the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, it seems Honor is hoping to appeal to both the vlogger and the smartphone user. Of course, the true usefulness for serious photographers and videographers will depend on the actual specifications of the sensor and lenses; Stabilized images and AI features will mean nothing if the phone can’t produce sharp, low-noise files.
I’m also curious how the gimbal camera affects battery life. If corporate hyperbole is to be believed, the Robot Phone could end up being among the best smartphones for photography, but charging it three times a day is a regressive step that I personally wouldn’t be willing to compromise on as a photographer.
So far, all we have is a fancy AI-rendered model, but let’s hope that the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona in 2026, will give Honor the opportunity to properly develop its plans for the Robot phone. Will it be a truly revolutionary device or simply an exaggerated reworking of existing ideas? Watch this space.
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