I need Honor’s weird robot phone with a self-aware pop-up camera to be real

What do you get if you combine an AI phone with a DJI Osmo camera? The answer is something closer to the Android phone, which Chinese tech company Honor is developing.

The phone maker teased the idea of ​​the device in a video it released on Wednesday, and promised more at MWC in March.

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

The design features a pop-up camera that swings out from the back of the phone, and is placed on top of a gimbal-like robotic arm.

This isn’t just a selfie camera. The video shows the camera nodding approvingly at the outfit the person holding it is trying on, and playing peekaboo with a child while the phone is face down on the desk. Honor says in a press release that it wants to turn phones into devices that serve as “emotional companions that sense, adapt and grow with their users.”

Indeed, we are witnessing an evolution in phones, with the addition of… Artificial intelligence agentsinto fully knowledgeable digital personal assistants. What Honor envisions is a step further, bringing robotics into the mix to create a next-generation device that can physically respond to people and its environment.

The idea is both compelling and unwelcome amid a landscape of generic phone design. However, 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 excited to see 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 describes this latest flagship device as “the first self-evolving AI smartphone,” one that will continue to get smarter through AI-based learning. It comes with a dedicated AI button to activate the Honor YOYO AI agent, which it says can execute tasks across 3,000 different scenarios. This might include asking your phone to delete all the blurry screenshots, or summarizing your monthly expenses and sending them to your manager.

The Magic 8 will be one of the first phones to feature the latest Qualcomm hardware Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipalong with a 7200 mAh silicon-carbon battery with a 120-watt SuperCharge charger and an artificial intelligence telephoto camera system. However, it should be noted that this version of the phone will only be available in China, so specifications may be different for its European launch later this year.