TL;DR
Earlier this week, HONOR teased a phone with a unique camera gimbal arm.
While the company said we’d see more at MWC, the very AI-looking nature of the video left it unclear how far along this project is.
A new source claims that work on the prototype is 80% complete.
In 2025, telling the difference between what’s real and what’s not can feel like a Sisyphean task. Generative AI tools are becoming more sophisticated every day, and while lots of AI content is still easy to spot, who knows how much you’re missing? Earlier this week we checked out one of the most impressive-looking phone hardware teasers we’ve seen in a minute, but was it even real?
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HONOR introduced a phone with a camera unlike any we’ve seen before, calling it the Robot Phone. The main gimmick is an articulated, multi-axis gimbal arm with a camera on the end, rising out of a sliding panel in the rear camera island. It is a very, very cool idea, but the video that HONOR published to show it off just stank of AI out of every corner:
The problem is that while you won’t have us arguing that it’s not a great idea, with something like this the devil’s in the details — specifically, the hardware implementation. And while it’s no big deal to put together some renders that look good, will that translate to hardware that’s simultaneously robust, lightweight, responsive, and just overall capable enough to deliver on these kind of promises?
It may be months and months before we have a really solid answer to that, as HONOR already told us to expect news about the Robot Phone at MWC 2025 in early March. But far ahead of that, leaker RODENT950 has shared a little gossip about the company’s progress:
Next year we will see the first physical prototype of the new Robot Phone, It is 80% complete so I would guess that the final version of the phone will be released in Summer/Fall 2026.
Honor may Have other new products coming to MWC, Magic 8 series Ultra and Mini models. #Honor pic.twitter.com/XegDilhhaf
A prototype that’s 80% of the way towards completion sounds promising, but we also imagine that it’s in those final few percentages where some of the problems you’ve been working around really start making their presence felt.
We’ve also got to keep in mind: Even assuming this assessment is accurate, we’re only talking about work on the prototype, and there can be a big difference between getting something working once, and making something that’s going to work at production volumes.
Still, while plenty of unknowns remain, it is sounding more and more like this is a project that’s actually based in reality, and is a lot further along than just an intriguing design concept. Right now we’d kill to just see a demo of actual hardware in operation, but for the moment we’ll have to be patient.
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