Honor finally unveiled the most interesting phone of the year. The Robot Phone will dazzle with its camera on a retractable arm

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor has unveiled one of the most interesting smartphones of recent years. The model called Robot Phone, which had previously been shown at various trade fairs, features a camera mounted on a short arm that extends, tilts, and looks around while in operation – effectively turning the phone into a small pocket film crew. The phone was officially introduced on the Chinese market on Wednesday, when pre-orders also began.

A camera that looks around for the action on its own

The star of the show is the movable camera. While a typical phone has lenses fixed in its back, this model hides the main sensor on a small motorized arm that extends from the body and begins to track the action. The manufacturer calls it the Titanium Agile Gimbal and speaks of four degrees of freedom – meaning the head can tilt and rotate, not just sway from side to side. According to Honor, the titanium motor can rotate at speeds of up to 360° per second, and according to earlier information, the arm should extend in approximately eight-tenths of a second.

Of course, artificial intelligence takes care of the movement. Thanks to object tracking and sound localization, the phone automatically ensures that it keeps you in frame – whether you’re shooting a vlog, live streaming, or moving during a video call. The arm also extends with a gesture, so you can record without touching the device. The company has packaged all these features into YOYO Robot Mode and adds cinematic modes like Tilt Lock or FPV.

As for the individual sensors, the Honor Robot Phone features a pair of 200Mpx cameras: the main wide-angle sensor is located on the gimbal, and the second is a periscopic telephoto lens with 2.7× optical zoom. These are complemented by a 50Mpx ultrawide-angle sensor with a 122° field of view.

Honor finally unveiled the most interesting phone of the year. The Robot Phone will dazzle with its camera on a retractable arm Adam Kurfürst News Adam Kurfürst News

Last but not least, Honor highlights its partnership with ARRI, a company world-renowned for its professional cameras. Thanks to this, the main camera can, for example, shoot in the ten-bit ARRI LogC3 format, which retains more information in highlights and shadows for later color grading. In practice, this means that footage from the phone can be processed through professional editing software like DaVinci Resolve, similar to footage from a real cinema camera. According to Honor, the same technologies will also appear in the upcoming Magic9 series.

Packed with other features

To handle AI, robotics, and recording simultaneously, Honor relies on the most powerful available chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Power is supplied by a 7,060 mAh battery based on silicon-carbon technology, which can be recharged with a 120W cable or 50W wirelessly. The front is covered by a 6.31-inch OLED display with an adaptive refresh rate of 1–120 Hz and brightness that the manufacturer states up to 6,800 nits – however, this is a laboratory maximum; under normal conditions, the phone will be significantly less bright. The body is then crafted from a single piece of metal, which the brand presents as the first “unibody” among Androids.

Price starts at 31,000 Czech crowns

In China, the phone is sold in two versions: 12/512 GB for 9,999 yuan, which is roughly 31,000 Czech crowns, and 16 GB/1 TB for 12,999 yuan, which is about 40,500 Czech crowns. Pre-orders started on the evening of August 12th, with the new product heading for general sale on August 18th.

And now for the main point for us. Although Honor CEO James Li spoke on stage about a “global” launch, the company has not yet revealed a specific date or price for Europe. However, experimental and foldable devices from this brand have only rarely made it to our market in the past, so when – and if at all – you will be able to buy the Robot Phone in the Czech Republic remains a big unknown.

Would you bet that the Robot Phone will ever make it to Czech stores?

Sources: HONOR, PR