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When Honor first announced its strange robotic phone in October, I said I had to see her and hold her To believe it’s real. Three months later, I’m at least halfway there.
in Consumer Electronics Show 2026 We got a first look at the prototype of the phone with its DJI Osmo-like pop-up camera and gimbal. Since this part of the phone’s body is dedicated to housing these items when folded away, it’s understandable that it’s not among the array of ultra-thin devices we’ve seen over the past year or so.
There’s some real depth to the Android phone.
I wasn’t allowed to touch or manipulate the phone or the arm, but I watched an Honor team member move the camera between different positions. It was interesting to see how neatly the arm was assembled, leaving the black phone looking, at a glance, almost like any other generic device with a particularly enlarged camera module. But I can’t deny that I’m still keen to get my hands on it to see how well the motorized element of the phone works.
Fortunately, I don’t have long to wait. At Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona in March, Honor will let me touch and hold the phone. At this point, the robotic arm will engage, so it will not need to be manually adjusted. We know little about the phone at this point other than its design, but its full specifications will also be announced at MWC.
Android phone from the back, the camera is hidden.
When it finally launches, the Robot Phone will likely serve as a niche product that will primarily appeal to content creators. But it will also inject a much-needed dose of design boldness into an industry that has struggled to show much imagination over the past decade.
If Honor can pull this off with a moving robotic arm, I’ll be impressed.
Tech journalists, myself included, are guilty of complaining about the homogeneous designs of most smartphones, while urging companies to take more risks and give us something that we’re really excited about. The introduction of foldable phones has been a breath of fresh air, but the robot phone is a next-level example of thinking outside the traditional boundaries of phone design.
Personally, I can’t wait to see and wait for more.