HONOR has officially launched the Robot Phone in China, bringing its much-hyped “world’s first robotic smartphone” from concept to commercial reality. First shown publicly earlier this year, the device combines flagship smartphone hardware with a fully motorised camera system, advanced AI features and a large silicon-carbon battery, making it one of the most unconventional smartphones to reach the market in 2026.
At the centre of the Robot Phone is HONOR’s Titanium Agile Gimbal, a compact 4DoF mechanical system with a fully motorised 3-axis gimbal. The mechanism uses a 2.6g titanium gimbal motor capable of movement speeds of up to 360 degrees per second, allowing the camera to pan, tilt and reposition itself automatically for photography, video recording and video calls.
200MP Gimbal Camera With ARRI Cinematic Features
The Robot Phone is also the first commercial product from HONOR’s partnership with professional cinema camera maker ARRI. Its main camera uses a 200MP 1/1.28-inch sensor with an f/1.6 aperture mounted directly on the robotic gimbal, while a second 200MP periscope telephoto camera uses a 1/1.4-inch sensor with 2.7x optical zoom. A 50MP ultra-wide camera with a 122-degree field of view completes the triple-camera setup.
Professional video features include 10-bit ARRI LogC3 recording through ARRI CINEMA mode, along with ARRI Wide Gamut 3 and ARRI Looks for greater colour grading flexibility. HONOR has also included its H1 Imaging Chip, while the mechanical camera arm supports movement modes such as Tilt Lock, First Person View, FPV Vertical and AI SpinShot.
YOYO Robot Mode Brings the Camera to Life
The robotic hardware is paired with HONOR’s new YOYO Robot Mode, which uses multimodal perception and contextual understanding to automatically follow users during filming or video calls. It can pan and tilt to keep subjects in frame, while voice commands and hands-free gestures allow the camera arm to deploy and capture images without users physically touching the phone.
HONOR has also added YOYO Auto Execution, allowing its system-level AI agent to carry out complex multi-step tasks on the user’s behalf. The Robot Phone can even perform playful physical interactions such as nodding, peeking and moving along to music, giving the device more personality than a conventional smartphone.
Flagship Hardware With a 7,060mAh Battery
Beyond the unusual camera system, the Robot Phone is equipped with flagship-grade hardware. It features a 6.31-inch LTPO OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of up to 6,800 nits, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 powers the device alongside up to 16GB RAM and 1TB storage.
A 7,060mAh silicon-carbon battery provides power, with support for 120W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. The all-metal unibody measures 9.6mm thick and weighs 248g, making it heavier than most traditional flagship smartphones, although much of that can be attributed to its integrated robotic camera hardware.
Pricing and Availability
The HONOR Robot Phone is available in Grey and Silver in China. The 12GB+512GB configuration is priced at CNY9,999, approximately RM6,056, while the 16GB+1TB version costs CNY12,999, or around RM7,873.
For now, the Robot Phone remains exclusive to China, with HONOR reportedly having no plans to launch it in Malaysia. Still, its commercial debut represents an interesting glimpse at how smartphone manufacturers could combine physical robotics, AI and advanced imaging hardware in future devices.
