I didn’t believe Honor when they first teased the Robot Phone last year. Thought it was a gimmick. A marketing stunt meant to distract from the boring slab of glass everyone else is shipping. But I held a prototype at Mobile World Congress in March. Played with it. That changed my mind. It’s real. Now we just wait for the third quarter launch in China.
They brought it to the Cannes Film Festival. Rubbed faces. Took selfies. Made a big announcement.
Not Ready Yet
The phone? Ready-ish.
What about the actual humanoid robot? The big walking one that debuted at the same trade show? Don’t hold your breath. That’s not launching for consumers anytime soon. It looks unfinished. Maybe intentionally.
But the phone is weird enough on its own.
In a sea of incremental updates and slight color shifts, Honor decided to build a phone that moves.
Slide the cover up. There it is. A robotic arm. With a gimbal. With a camera. You show it your palm. Turn your hand around. The arm swings out like a snake tasting the air. It’s mechanical theater in your pocket.
And it’s not just a party trick.
The gimbal keeps shots steady. Smooth tracking. I watched it dance once. To movement, not music. It followed me around. Then it did something strange. AI software scanned me. Top to bottom. Judged my outfit. It said I looked good. Surprised?
The real test isn’t the gimmick though. It’s the footage.
Chasing Creators
Who wants this? Influencers. YouTubers. The folks who already carry around handheld gimbal cameras like the DJI Osmo. Why buy a phone with an arm if the picture looks muddy?
Honor knows this.
They needed firepower. Not just specs. Prestige.
So they partnered with ARRI.
For the uninitiated: ARRI built the cameras for the movies you watched in theaters for decades. They’ve been doing it since 1917 before iPhones existed before sound existed in most films. High end. Serious cinema.
David Bermbach, head at ARRI, called smartphones a “serious tool in professional filmmaking.” A bold statement for devices we check while waiting in line for coffee. He claims core ARRI image science is now inside the consumer phone. Direct integration. Not a filter.
If they pull it off.
If the arm doesn’t break. If the lens delivers what ARRI promises. Creators might actually ditch the separate camera bag.
Unlikely?
Maybe.
But it’s certainly not boring. Fall is coming. Keep your eyes peeled. The industry hasn’t seen a phone launch quite like this yet. Will you care? Probably not. Until you do.
