Forget the DJI Pocket 4 – Honor's ‘Robot Phone’ concept builds a gimbal-mounted camera into your smartphone

AI is front and center in what looks to be one of the wackiest smartphones we’ve seen

· TechRadar

News By Peter Fenech published 16 October 2025

Wall-E, is that you? Honor's recent teaser for the Robot Phone gives off enough animated movie vibes to get Disney's legal team frowning (Image credit: Honor)

  • Honor release AI video of concept Robot Phone
  • Suggested to feature advanced AI tools and gimbal-mounted fold-up camera
  • Honor hopes to reinvent smartphones as "more than just a tool"

Honor has just released details of its new concept smartphone, dubbed the ‘Robot Phone’, and it’s all kinds of strange.

In an announcement video that has all the makings of a teaser trailer for a Disney animated movie, complete with a sweeping score, the Chinese manufacturer revealed a CGI rendering of its new phone concept. The so-called Robot Phone features a gimbal-mounted camera assembly that folds out from the back of the device and swings through 180 degrees, to enable selfie capture and photography from a range of other angles.

This arm has a striking resemblance to the rumored DJI Osmo Pocket 4, but with the convenience of being integrated into the body of a smartphone.

In the video, Honor sells the AI element as a curious and child-like camera lens that almost seems to have a mind of its own. The camera pivots up and down, sweeping across a variety of scenes, while the unit gives off cute noises of awe, possibly in an effort to reassure us there isn’t a malevolent AI entity hiding behind the attractive facade.

From this short cinematic introduction, it seems the Robot Phone is more interested in watching fireworks, skydiving, and stargazing than fighting Tom Cruise. While details are a little scarce at this stage, it seems that Honor has attempted to evolve the idea of an AI assistant by giving it more of a personality, perhaps in the hope of encouraging greater willingness to interact with it on the part of the user.

Not everyone enjoys the idea of talking to a piece of software, not least photographers who like the idea of being in control of their own creative process. The irony is, the demo itself appears to be AI generated, but if the Robot Phone tickles your interest, this is unlikely to bother you.

A truly revolutionary design?

Although the Robot Phone won't be the first smartphone with a pop-up camera, this design will give the user huge flexibility of composition (Image credit: Honor)

The gimbal is certainly an interesting idea for a smartphone camera, which could prove popular in this video-centric world of content creation. Being able to smoothly capture footage as well as stills, using a compact device that fits in your pocket, opens up tremendous possibilities for filmmakers.

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