Honor's New Robot Phone Has a Pop-Up Camera That Dances
The China-only device, priced from around $1,480, packs a titanium camera arm that can spin 360 degrees and even wiggle on command.
Honor has started taking preorders in China for its Robot Phone, a smartphone built around a motorized camera arm that pops out of the top and can spin a full 360 degrees, according to Engadget and Wired. The company made the device official on Wednesday, Wired reported, ending months of teasers that began in late 2025.
The phone is sold only in China for now. Buyers can choose between a version with 12 gigabytes of memory and 512 gigabytes of storage, priced at 9,999 RMB, or about $1,480, and a version with 16 gigabytes of memory and 1 terabyte of storage, priced at roughly $2,075, according to Engadget. Shipments and official sales begin August 18.
A Camera That Follows You Around
The titanium gimbal, which Honor calls the heart of the "robot" branding, has four degrees of freedom and can be triggered from the camera app or with a palm gesture at the selfie camera, Wired reported. It supports preset cinematic movements such as a tilt lock, an FPV view and a spinshot, along with an AI tracking mode that pans and tilts to keep a moving subject in frame, according to Engadget. Honor told Wired it had to build a custom micro-motor for the gimbal because existing parts were too bulky, and the finished mechanism weighs just 2.6 grams.
The rear camera system pairs a 200-megapixel main lens on the gimbal with a 200-megapixel telephoto lens and a 50-megapixel ultrawide, plus a 50-megapixel selfie camera, Wired reported. Honor partnered with Arri, the cinema camera maker, to add tools including RAW footage output, real-time preview and Arri's LogC3 color format, according to both outlets. The phone is rated IP54 for dust and water resistance only when the gimbal is retracted, Wired reported, so users likely will not want to shoot in the rain with the camera deployed.
An AI Assistant With a Face
Honor built a mode called Yoyo Robot Mode that gives the gimbal camera something like a personality, according to both outlets. Engadget said it watched the camera dance to music, wiggle in agreement and rotate on command during a hands-off demo in March. Wired described asking the assistant to act happy or angry and watching the camera move accordingly, though it noted the assistant cannot yet narrate a scene the way Honor eventually hopes it will.
The phone runs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a 7,060 mAh battery and a 6.3-inch OLED screen, according to both outlets. At 248 grams, Wired reported, it is heavier than an iPhone 17 Pro but felt better balanced than expected given the added hardware up top.
Honor, once a Huawei subsidiary and now an independent company, sells phones in the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa and Latin America but has no presence in the United States, Wired reported. Neither outlet said whether the Robot Phone will reach markets outside China.
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