I Need Honor’s Outlandish Robot Phone With a Self-Aware, Pop-Up Camera to Be Real

What do you get if you cross an AI-powered phone with a DJI Osmo camera? The answer resembles that of the Robot Phone, developed by Chinese technology company Honor.

The phone maker showed off the concept device in a video posted Wednesday, promising more to come at MWC in March.

I was immediately intrigued by the design of this phone, which appears to include a self-aware robotic camera. The less said about the video itself, the better. But if you can overlook the fact that it’s very obviously AI-generated with stock music that sounds lifted from a Netflix Christmas sequel, it’s worth watching just to understand the concept.

The design features a pop-up camera that rotates from the back of the phone, perched atop a gimbal-shaped robotic arm.

This is not a simple selfie camera. The video shows the camera nodding in approval at an outfit the person holding it is trying on, and playing hide-and-seek with a baby when the phone is face down on a desk. Honor says in a press release that it wants to transform phones into devices that function as “emotional companions that sense, adapt and grow with their users.”

We’re already seeing phones evolve, with the addition of AI Agentsinto omniscient digital personal assistants. What Honor envisions goes beyond that, introducing robotics into the mix to create a next-generation device capable of physically responding to people and their surroundings.

The idea is compelling and not undesirable in a generic phone design landscape. It remains to be seen whether engineering can realize the vision generated by AI. I’ll be at MWC in Barcelona next year and I’m already looking forward to seeing if the company can show me tangible proof that the Robot Phone is more than just a concept.

Meanwhile, the company also unveiled the Magic 8 series in China. Honor is touting this latest flagship device as “the first self-evolving AI smartphone,” which will continue to get smarter through AI-based learning. It comes equipped with a dedicated AI button to activate Honor’s YOYO AI agent, which it claims can perform tasks in 3,000 different scenarios. This might include telling your phone to delete all your blurry screenshots, or summarizing a month’s worth of expenses and sending them to your manager.

The Magic 8 will be one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s latest version Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipalongside a 7,200mAh silicon-carbon battery with 120-watt SuperCharge and an AI-driven telephoto lens system. It should be noted, however, that this version of the phone will only be available in China. The specifications could therefore be different for its European launch later this year.