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The Robot Phone, which launches today in China, doesn’t sound like a good idea — and not only because it’s not actually a robot. Instead it’s a regular Android smartphone with its main camera installed on a compact gimbal arm that unfolds from the phone’s rear. Cramming the equivalent of a DJI Osmo Pocket inside a smartphone sounds like a great way to get the worst of both worlds, but after an hour of testing, I’m cautiously optimistic that Honor has made this Frankenphone work.
This is a smaller gimbal than you’ll find on DJI’s compact Osmo Pocket line — Honor claims it’s the smallest in the world. It still makes the phone bulkier than normal, at 9.6mm thick (not counting the chunky camera section itself) and weighing 248g. Only the Samsung and Huawei trifolds are bigger, and my first impression was that the phone felt oddly dated as a result, despite the cutting-edge camera inside.
The gimbal camera will spend most of its life tucked inside the phone’s camera module, protected by a small plastic screen. Even folded away, the 200-megapixel, 1/1.28-inch-type sensor serves as the phone’s main camera, joined by a 200-megapixel periscope telephoto and a 50-megapixel ultrawide.
The camera folds neatly into the phone. You can keep it covered by a plastic cover, slid to the right in this shot. When triggered by the software, it unfolds automatically.
But the real fun comes when the camera arm unfurls. First, you slide the plastic screen off — manually — so it covers the phone’s other two cameras instead. Then, activate the gimbal through the software, and it springs into action. (If you try to activate the gimbal without sliding away the cover, the phone won’t let you.)
During previous hands-off showcases, Honor has focused on the “Robot” part of the name, highlighting a cutesy chat interface powered by the company’s Yoyo AI assistant. The camera can nod or shake its “head,” dance to music, and make other expressive movements. It’s a cute gimmick, but little more, and I was relieved that in this briefing I was instead given the chance to put the camera to the test.
Having the gimbal makes it easier to take selfies using the more powerful main camera, shoot at odd angles while keeping the display head-on, and record video with smooth panning and tracking. You control it using the phone’s default camera app, which offers simple controls in its photo and video tabs, and more complex options in a dedicated pro video section. Honor has also thrown in the fun option to take a panoramic selfie, the gimbal spinning around to take multiple photos and stitch them together.
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