Chinese tech giant Honor has unveiled a concept video for what it calls the ‘Robot Phone’, a smartphone featuring a prominent, gimbal-stabilised camera system that folds out from the main body. The design immediately brings to mind DJI’s successful Osmo Pocket series, suggesting Honor might be exploring integrating advanced camera stabilisation directly into future handsets.
The teaser video showcases the camera mechanism unfolding from a bump reminiscent of current high-end smartphone camera arrays, such as the one on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. When deployed, the gimbal camera, combined with AI features, is shown tracking subjects, much like DJI’s drones and pocket cameras. Honor’s presentation leans heavily into personification, suggesting the camera gives the device a ‘face’ like the animated robot WALL-E.
In a statement accompanying the reveal, Honor elaborated on this vision, saying,
With the Robot Phone, Honor envisions the future phone as more than just a tool. It becomes an emotional companion that senses, adapts, and evolves autonomously like a robot, enriching its users’ lives with love, joy, and wisdom.”
While the ’emotional companion’ angle sounds like typical marketing hyperbole, the underlying technology is interesting. Integrating a mechanical gimbal into a phone presents significant engineering challenges, particularly regarding durability and bulk. Previous attempts, like the rotating camera on the Samsung Galaxy A80, failed to gain widespread traction. However, the success of DJI’s dedicated pocket gimbals demonstrates a clear market demand for stabilised, compact video solutions.
Honor’s concept emerges at a time when DJI faces potential bans in key markets like the United States due to geopolitical tensions. This could create an opening for competitors, although Honor itself does not currently sell devices directly in the US.
According to industry leaks, the concept represents Honor’s ‘alpha plan’, referenced by the Greek letter appearing in the video. The company reportedly intends to showcase the Robot Phone concept to journalists at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona next March. Whether this intriguing camera system ever makes it into a consumer device remains to be seen, but it signals Honor’s ambition in pushing mobile camera technology forward.
As for this blogger; I’m all for pocket robots.
