What if your phone didn’t just digitally follow you, but physically moved its camera to track you, follow the stars, or act like a tiny gimbal? Honor’s unusual “Robot Phone” — which sounded almost like a gimmick when it was first teased last month — has now shown up in real photos, and it looks even stranger in person.
The device made its second appearance at the Honor User Carnival in China, where Honor kept a few prototypes in glass cases. They were shown in black, white, and gold, with either a glass back or a faux-leather finish depending on the variant.
The main camera sits on a motorized arm with a built-in gimbal — easily the wildest part of the phone. When the arm is folded down, it behaves like a normal rear camera. Tap a button, though, and the whole module pops up, giving the phone some unusual tricks. You can take selfies using the primary sensor—and you don’t even have to rotate the phone. It shoots steadier video thanks to the gimbal, or lets the phone track and frame a subject on its own. It can even follow you when the phone is placed on a table or tucked into a shirt pocket, with AI controlling the angle.
One of the standout features is a star-tracking mode meant for long-exposure shots. The robotic arm adjusts itself slowly to keep the lens aligned with the night sky — something no other phone can do today.
I’ll admit, a mechanical arm inside a phone to follow your face or mimic a gimbal sounded like a waste of space at first. But things like the star-tracking mode actually make the whole thing seem a lot more worthwhile.
There’s no guarantee this thing will turn into an actual retail product. For now, it stands out as one of the most bizarre and interesting smartphone experiments we’ve seen in a long time — part camera, part phone, part sci-fi gadget.
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