Honor’s Robot Phone is a bad robot, an interesting camera, and maybe your friend

After complete 4 months of teasing, I’ve yet been capable to spot Honor’s Robot Phone successful action. And aft each that, it looks beautiful legit — conscionable truthful agelong arsenic you weren’t really expecting a robot.

The Robot Phone could much accurately beryllium called the Gimbal Phone, though I fishy the company’s trading section would disagree. Its large hardware invention is simply a 200-megapixel camera mounted connected a gimbal arm, which unfolds from the backmost of the telephone erstwhile you request it, and retracts down a screen erstwhile you don’t.

It unlocks a group of camera features overmuch for illustration you’d find successful a DJI Osmo Pocket. There’s improved stabilization acknowledgment to the gimbal, meaning steadier video output. You tin manually power the arm, rotating the camera aliases turning it up and down, aliases fto the AI-powered taxable search return attraction of that for you, pinch the expertise to rotate almost 360 degrees — meaning it doubles arsenic a selfie camera too. Then location are automatic shooting modes, for illustration the swiveling rotation shot, and Honor has plans for different automations, including AI video editing.

This unsocial would beryllium capable to make the Robot Phone a beautiful appealing imaginable for some. Sure, it’s conscionable doing the aforesaid worldly arsenic an Osmo Pocket. But by combining that camera pinch a phone, contented creators would beryllium capable to sprout and edit wholly connected a azygous instrumentality that fits into their pocket, and the remainder of america could get a telephone pinch — supposedly — substantially improved video capacity and main-camera value for selfies.

The hardware accomplishment unsocial present is evidently impressive. It mightiness not beryllium clear from photos, but the Robot Phone’s gimbal limb is smaller than immoderate successful DJI’s Osmo Pocket line. Honor claims it’s 70 percent smaller than the competition, and is now the smallest 4DoF (four degrees of freedom) gimbal strategy successful the industry, though that’s counting its expertise to fold successful and retired of the phone’s body, pinch 3 axes for the main gimbal arm.

Shrinking the gimbal “involved 2 cardinal hurdles,” I’m told by Thomas Bai, 1 of Honor’s merchandise experts. “One, sourcing ultra-thin materials to make the centrifugal mini and lightweight; two, utilizing ultra-strong materials to guarantee rigidity and durability contempt the bladed structure.” Those are the aforesaid hurdles faced erstwhile designing a foldable phone, truthful Honor repurposed the alloy and titanium alloy utilized successful the hinge of its Magic V6 erstwhile constructing the micro motors that make the limb move.

The evident consequence is that a smaller gimbal turns retired to beryllium a worse gimbal. At its MWC booth Honor didn’t show the Robot Phone’s camera up against either DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3 aliases immoderate larger gimbal systems. Instead it group its gimbal up against a flagship telephone from Vivo — agelong a forerunner successful telephone camera stabilization — wherever it seemed to grounds substantially much unchangeable video, whether being spun successful a circle aliases carried connected a treadmill.

In a quirk of timing, this has each arrived conscionable days aft Samsung revealed its super-steady Horizon Lock stabilization connected the Galaxy S26 phones. That does a singular occupation astatine shooting steady, stabilized video, moreover arsenic the telephone itself shakes aliases rotates dramatically. One of the tests for Honor now will beryllium whether its complex, and perchance costly and fragile, hardware solution delivers capable of a boost successful value to warrant it complete Samsung’s package solution. Much of that will dangle connected really bully the camera itself is, but beyond the megapixel count, Honor hasn’t said a connection astir what specs to expect there.

Of course, Honor’s gimbal-equipped telephone delivers much than conscionable stabilized video. The taxable search seemed accelerated and reasonably effective too, though it was imaginable for personification to move quickly retired of framework and get mislaid by the camera. The unchangeable gimbal limb should thief amended low-light photography too, though Bai told maine that isn’t the Robot Phone’s attraction because it’s a problem the company’s flagship phones person “already solved,” while unchangeable video shooting is “much, overmuch harder.”

You tin spot that reflected, albeit successful a very different way, successful section rival Vivo’s MWC announcement. The institution took to Barcelona to tease its upcoming X300 Ultra, group to motorboat successful Europe for the first time, and pinch a renewed attraction connected video. In Vivo’s case, that intends 4K 120fps 10-bit Log signaling connected each 3 rear lenses, a caller pro video camera mode, and various improvements to really the telephone handles lookup tables (LUTs). More eye-catching is simply a caller charismatic camera cage accessory, produced pinch SmallRig, designed for dependable shooting and modular accessory attachment. It’s a very different attack to Honor’s, much focused connected integration into complex, master workflows than elemental contented creation connected the go, but it intelligibly reflects the aforesaid outlook: If you want your telephone camera to guidelines retired from the crowd, video capacity is now the measurement to do it.

I’ve gotten this acold without ever really talking astir the robot of the Robot Phone, and that’s connected purpose. The only demo Honor was capable to show maine was a glorified LLM chatbot app — utilizing a Chinese exemplary that Honor declined to sanction — bolstered by occasional cutesy noises and gestures. You tin inquire the telephone if it likes your outfit and it mightiness motion its “head” while it compliments your dress sense, aliases if you show it to play euphony it will creation on to the hit — though successful its demo version, it exclusively wants to perceive to Imagine Dragons, proving that moreover erstwhile it comes to robots, there’s nary accounting for taste.

Bai told maine the institution is processing an accessory to let you to clip the telephone to your backpack, suggesting it could talk to you while you walk, explaining the area you’re successful if you’re wandering astir connected picnic aliases conscionable chatting distant to support you from emotion bored. “Rather than reacting solely done screens and sound commands, Robot Phone perceives and responds done motion,” Bai says. “Multimodal cognition intends it tin place sounds, way motion, and support ocular awareness, creating a much natural, sensory, and intuitive relationship model.”

But really acold Honor sees this narration going is unclear: At 1 constituent Bai tells maine the telephone tin beryllium “a existent companion, humanlike,” but later suggests it’s “not that overmuch for illustration a companion, but tin conscionable make you consciousness comfortable, and that’s enough.” Will the Robot Phone beryllium your friend? Even Honor doesn’t look to know.

It whitethorn travel down to a taste divide. While Honor insists that the Robot Phone will spell connected sale successful the 2nd half of this year, that will only beryllium successful China. Bai suggests that a world merchandise — possibly for this phone, possibly a early type — is astatine slightest a possibility, but the institution isn’t putting a timeline connected it. Companion robots are more profoundly rooted successful immoderate Asian countries than they are successful Europe and the US, wherever robots thin to beryllium location betwixt functional servants and terrifying Terminators. Perhaps that’s why the Robot Phone’s Chinese debut leans truthful heavy connected its domiciled arsenic an “ever-present companion,” pinch “not only intelligence but besides emotion.” If the Robot Phone ever does scope the remainder of the world, I’d expect Honor to transportation it much connected its camera than its cuteness.