After months of anticipation, Honor has officially unveiled in China the extraordinary Robot Phone, a smartphone that aims to reinterpret the mobile photography sector through a decidedly out-of-the-box solution.
On the back there is a camera mounted on a motorized gimbal system, capable of moving and interacting with the surrounding environment. Unveiled last October and shown at CES, the device was born as a Concept Phone but ultimately became a real commercial model.
The development of the camera system required over 60 manufacturing steps and more than 100 precision components, while Honor states it has filed more than 100 patents related to the device.
The result is what the company defines as the smallest 4D gimbal system in the sector, with dimensions 65% smaller than traditional gimbals such as those used on the DJI Osmo Pocket series.
The mechanism uses a titanium motor weighing just 2.6 grams and with a thickness of 6 mm. The entire system still fits inside a smartphone 9.6 mm thick, although the total weight rises to 248 grams.
The camera mounted on the gimbal uses a 1/1.28″ sensor with 200 MP and f/1.6. It can record video up to 4K resolution and is paired with the Honor H1 imaging chip. The chip works together with the <strong AiMAGE 2.0 engine, which handles in real time:
Returning to the gimbal, its movement can also be controlled via voice commands: you can, for example, ask the smartphone to rotate the camera or to focus on a specific point.
The system also uses artificial intelligence to recognize and automatically track subjects. During vlogs, live streams and video calls it can perform real-time tracking and autonomously adjust the framing to keep the subject at the center of the scene.
There is also a more distinctive feature: through the Yoyo AI assistant, the gimbal can observe the environment, interact with surrounding objects and perform some tasks autonomously. Honor has implemented over 100 expressions and movements, including nods, glances, and even a mode where the camera can move to the rhythm of music.
Robot Phone is also the first device born from the collaboration between Honor and ARRI, the historic German brand specializing in cinematographic technologies. On the video front, the smartphone natively supports Log-C3 encoding and color correction via LUT processed directly on the device.
There is also a dedicated Cinema mode, developed to reproduce the look and feel typical of ARRI cinema cameras.
The photographic department is not limited to the motorized camera. On the back there is also a 200 MP periscope telephoto with a 1/1.4″ sensor and 2.7x optical zoom, plus a 50 MP ultra-wide camera usable also for macro shots.
The front panel hosts a 6.3″ LTPO OLED display with 1.5K resolution and a variable refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz. Local peak brightness reaches 6,800 nits, while Honor has applied an AR anti-reflective coating designed to reduce reflections on the panel.
Powering the device is Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, accompanied by up to 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal storage. The operating system is MagicOS 10 based on Android 16, while battery life is supported by a 7,060 mAh battery.
Wired charging reaches 120 W, while wireless charging goes up to 50 W. Despite the presence of the rear camera assembly, Honor has managed to keep a sizeable battery inside the chassis (thanks to silicon-carbon technology).
Honor Robot Phone will launch in China starting August 18, in Silver and Gray color options. The configuration with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage costs 9,999 yuan, equivalent to about €1,283 at the current rate.
The 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage version costs 12,999 yuan, about €1,667 at the exchange rate. It seems Honor’s photographic revolution costs less than leaks had suggested (which pointed to more than 15,000 yuan, over €1,940 at the rate).
At the moment there is no information on the availability of Honor Robot Phone in other markets.
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