What you need to know
- Honor’s “Robot Phone” teaser is an AI-generated trip through a curious AI-driven device with a flip-up camera on a gimbal.
- The Robot Phone’s design seems to have taken cues from Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro, though its camera bar is quite thick because of the camera gimbal.
- Honor states it wants to create a device with the “Super brain of AI” that can “perceive” the world around the user.
While we’re all caught up with the Magic 8 Pro reveal, Honor’s trying to turn some heads with another phone, one that’s supposed to rock a “new” form factor.
Shortly after its flagship reveal, Honor started teasing what it’s calling the “Honor Robot Phone,” and AI runs this device entirely (via 9to5Google). The company’s official page for the Robot Phone begins with a prelude, explaining how it considered “what if a device could exist with the super brain of AI, perceiving the world around you in an instant.”
The video for the Robot Phone begins by showing the new Magic 8 Pro, before spinning around into the next thing from Honor. The phone’s design seems to have taken cues from Apple’s newest iPhone 17 Pro. In this form, the phone features a triple camera array; however, the camera bar itself is incredibly thick.
While Honor is likely packing several photography and videography-focused features into this phone, there’s one reason the bar is like this: the Robot Phone features a flip-up camera on a gimbal. The teaser freezes on a Robot Phone name drop with the camera flipped up, towering above the top of the phone attentively.
The video then goes in a different direction, which kind of reminds us of Disney’s WALL-E—a curious little robot. Considering Honor’s focus on AI, the camera is seemingly where the AI will live when flipped up. It watches the world around you as you move, potentially snapping photos or recording videos for you, so you’ll never miss a cute moment from your baby or something random in the city.
Man & Machine
The AI-generated video portion also shows the camera helping a woman shop for a new dress, and then disagrees when she finds something that it doesn’t think works for a future event. It then surfaces a more appropriate dress for her.
Additional information about the Robot Phone, which Honor states will be “revolutionary” with its flip-up camera, isn’t available right now. Honor plans to unveil even more about this new phone during MWC Barcelona 2026. For those curious for more, you can sign up to win a few goodies, like “Exclusive Progress Updates,” “Co-creation & Feedback” chances, and “Priority Trial Access,” meaning you could be one of the first few to try this phone.
Honor has been on this massive future-forward AI kick since February, when it announced the Alpha Plan. While it kind of seems like we’re just getting the same AI features repackaged with different branding from different companies, Honor’s trying to really break the mold for a true sci-fi future.
This was reiterated earlier this morning (Oct 15) when Honor launched the Magic 8 Pro with its upgraded YOYO AI, the Magic Color photography engine, and more. This unveiling also briefly teased the “Robot Phone,” to which Honor said would mark a “significant milestone” in its Alpha Plan strategy. The company is looking to merge and redefine the human-machine experience with coexistence that makes sense.
If the Robot Phone’s camera is as curious as this teaser makes it seem, perhaps that’s where we’re headed.
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