Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year

The Verge · Mar 1, 2026 · Collected from RSS

Summary

I saw the camera arm unfold from this demo phone, though it didn’t do much else. Honor has revealed more details of its so-called Robot Phone at MWC 2026, and finally showed a working unit in action alongside a dancing humanoid robot. Specs are still thin on the ground, but the company has confirmed it plans to release the phone in the second half of this year - though I've been told that will only be in China. The Robot Phone doesn't quite live up to the name - really it's a smartphone with a gimbal-stabilized camera arm crammed into the back. Honor has now revealed that the main camera will have a 200-megapixel sensor, and is built into what it says is the smallest 4DoF gimbal system in the industry, though those are … Read the full story at The Verge.

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Dominic Preston is a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.Honor has revealed more details of its so-called Robot Phone at MWC 2026, and finally showed a working unit in action alongside a dancing humanoid robot. Specs are still thin on the ground, but the company has confirmed it plans to release the phone in the second half of this year — though I’ve been told that will only be in China.The Robot Phone doesn’t quite live up to the name — really it’s a smartphone with a gimbal-stabilized camera arm crammed into the back. Honor has now revealed that the main camera will have a 200-megapixel sensor, and is built into what it says is the smallest 4DoF gimbal system in the industry, though those are all the official specs we have so far. It includes various AI camera tracking modes, along with more robotic features like the ability to nod or shake its head in conversation, and “dance” to music.I fought through a throng of journalists to see a working unit in the demo area, which I saw unfold from the device, hold an AI-enabled conversation, and fold back in. So I can confirm it moves, but I didn’t get to see the rest of its capabilities — still, that’s more than I saw at CES.This Robot Phone was “asleep,” so didn’t really do much.Honor’s main demo was this chat app with interactive cartoonish eyes.Honor showed the Robot Phone off on stage together with a diminutive humanoid robot. It gave no details at all about that device, though has previously claimed it does have plans for a commercial launch. The robot danced and backflipped across the stage — though whether or not it was under teleoperation, Honor wouldn’t say. I later saw it haltingly wave and shake hands with press in a demo area, though did that inconsistently enough that I’m confident it wasn’t under remote control.Honor hasn’t said if it has partnered with an existing robotics company for this humanoid.I saw the robot wave back to a journalist, but only after being prompted a few times.I’ll be seeing more of both the robot and Robot Phone on the MWC floor tomorrow, when I should get a better idea of what to expect from Honor’s robotics plans.Photography by Dominic Preston / The VergeFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Dominic Preston

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