Okay, This AI-Powered ‘Robot Phone’ Has My Undivided Attention

MWC 2026 kicks off in Barcelona subsequent week on Mar. 2. Short for Mobile World Congress, the annual mobile-focused present has historically been the worldwide stage for a lot of Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Honor to indicate off their newest cellphone improvements. The present has been quieter because the pandemic, however this yr there’s one cellphone that can have my full consideration. I’m speaking about Honor’s “Robot Phone.”

Other than a couple of photographs that leaked round CES 2026, there’s not likely a lot data on Honor’s Robot Phone. Its defining characteristic is what seems to be a gimbal-based digital camera that extends from the bottom. Presumably utilizing AI and a few type of laptop imaginative and prescient, the Honor Robot Phone can “see” and “hear” a consumer, tilting and fidgeting as if it’s some type of robotic companion. The animated actions strongly remind me of Pixar’s Luxo Jr. lamp or Wall-E.

© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo

At first, it appeared just like the Honor Robot Phone can be a glorified cellphone with a gimbal digital camera, very similar to the one on cameras like DJI’s widespread Osmo Pocket 3 (and shortly to be Pocket 4) that permits for tremendous easy, stabilized video seize. But Honor’s latest promotional video exhibits the digital camera interacting with customers in numerous methods—ways in which make it virtually appear alive and sentient.

https://twitter.com/raywongy/status/2026430178667213153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The video—one which’s clearly AI-generated in case you couldn’t inform from all of the rubbery-looking folks in it—exhibits the Robot Phone will be positioned in your shirt pocket and “see” as you are taking a stroll, it might sing a lullaby and play peek-a-boo with a child, and even supply critiques of your outfit. And, after all, it will probably shoot stabilized video.

© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo

Such an AI-powered robotic cellphone, with a motorized and animated digital camera head, appears like one thing out of a sci-fi film. It additionally may be too good to be true. While Honor might very nicely exhibit a working model of its robotic cellphone, I wouldn’t be stunned if it’s merely an idea that by no means will get commercialized.

As a man who critiques loads of telephones, cellphone makers are nonetheless within the very early phases of constructing our telephones “AI phones” with the intelligence of huge language fashions (LLMs) and agentic computing, which is a elaborate means of claiming a pc does stuff in your behalf as an alternative of you manually tapping by an app. Are telephones actually able to have motorized limbs when our voice assistants can barely “think” intelligently and parse by our troves of non-public information? I feel we’re nonetheless many, a few years away from that taking place if robotics and telephones ever converge in any respect. Remember how briskly motorized selfie cameras got here and went?

I like how bizarre this concept is, however I even have so many questions. How sturdy is that this Robot Phone? One flawed bump or tumble and your digital camera could possibly be lifeless for good. How a lot would the sentient-like digital camera impression battery life? It’s gotta be a heavy drain on battery life. Can it communicate?!

© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo

Needless to say, Honor has my eyebrows perked. I’m excited by the thought of a robotic cellphone infused with “intelligence,” however I’m not holding my breath that it’s the following large factor after foldables.

At the very least, Honor may have one thing extra lifelike to stay up for at MWC 2026: its subsequent foldable, the Magic V6. The machine would be the firm’s fifth-generation book-style foldable that competes with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7. Rumors suggest it’ll be even thinner than the Magic V5, boast the world’s first IP68 and IP69 scores, and embrace upgrades to its “Super Steel Hinge” and foldable glass display.