Remember Honor’s weird little concept Robot Phone from midway through October? The one that mounted a camera on a gimbal, and was powered by AI, so it could move freely and follow whatever it wanted? That was a hoot, wasn’t it? They’ll let you make anything into a concept these days.
Except, it’s real. Or, well, it’s going to be. Honor’s CEO Li Jian confirmed at the World Internet Conference that the Robot Phone would be coming in 2026 (via Android Headlines).
Foldable phones are so yesterday
We first saw the Honor Robot Phone a scant month ago, when Honor released a surprise YouTube video showing a brand-new smartphone. While a phone with a pop-up camera isn’t really a new idea, the Robot Phone took it a step further by adding a gimbal for free movement, and AI-powered behavior, so it could follow you and react to your words or actions. It’s an impressive concept, and even if the video was very clearly AI-generated, we still love a cool concept. But the heavy use of AI to create the video might have led you to believe that this wasn’t a concept that would graduate into actual hardware.
Well, nothing could be further from the truth, at least where Le Jian is concerned. He claims Honor will introduce the phone to consumers next year, though whether it’ll be mass-produced is another question. Most likely it will be a very limited run that doesn’t make it outside of China — but regardless of that, it would still be an impressive phone to create. The announcement video showed the camera reacting to people in real time, even going so far as to play peek-a-boo with a baby. While it’s probable these promises will have to be reined back slightly, including an AI model in this could give it powerful capabilities. As long as it comes out before the bubble bursts, of course.
But the most important thing the Robot Phone would prove is that smartphone originality isn’t dead, and the humble black oblong still has plenty of room for weird new ideas. With the death of LG’s mobile division, there’s a certain amount of crazy missing from phones these days, and it’s great to see that Honor is keeping the freak flame lit.
Credit:Â Honor
Honor is promising a lot with the Robot Phone, that’s for sure. However, we can’t help but root for them, especially when the Robot Phone is such a cutie. While I’m not sure how I’d warm to the idea that my phone is watching me as well as potentially listening, there’s a lot of character in Honor’s Robot Phone, and honestly, if this ends up being the future, I’ll be happy with it.
