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Honor has announced what it’s calling the “Robot Phone,” a concept device with an AI-enabled, gimbal-mounted camera that unfolds from the phone’s rear and can shoot photos and film video in any direction.
The phone — so far only seen in CGI form in a teaser video, with no glimpse of real hardware just yet — looks like a typical, albeit thick, smartphone. Instead of an Honor logo it bears an alpha, representing the company’s “Alpha Plan” corporate vision, and the main giveaway that something’s up is the chunky camera module, split into two parts.
From here a camera arm unfolds with a cartoonish giggle (it… really does giggle, at least in the video), revealing that the main camera can flip up to take selfies, but also to shoot from a variety of positions and angles, seemingly moving under its own direction. That would make this a more advanced successor to the likes of 2019’s Asus Zenfone 6, which flipped its main cameras up and over to take selfie shots.
The robot camera can be used for simple selfies. Image: Honor But the flexible orientation means it can film even when the phone is lying down. Image: Honor It can also look around, seemingly independently. Image: Honor Can your phone stare in quiet awe at nature’s beauty? Image: Honor
It looks for all the world like the mini gimbal camera on top of the DJI Osmo Pocket, though Honor’s video would like to give the impression that it’s been imbued with enough intelligence to frame photographs, soothe babies, and gaze in astonished wonderment at the stars above.
“With the Robot Phone, Honor envisions the future phone as more than just a tool,” the company wrote in a press release. “It becomes an emotional companion that senses, adapts, and evolves autonomously like a robot, enriching its users’ lives with love, joy, and wisdom.”
It looks mostly like a regular phone when the arm is stowed away. Image: Honor Here’s how the arm folds up. Image: Honor
We’ll find out more about the Robot Phone — and maybe even get the chance to see it in the flesh — when Honor reveals more at Mobile World Congress next spring.
The Robot Phone was Honor’s “One more thing…” announcement at the end of a more typical launch event for Honor’s two Magic 8 flagship phones, which go on sale in China this month and will launch internationally before the end of the year.