What do you get if you cross an AI-powered phone with a DJI Osmo camera? The answer is similar to the robot phone, which is being developed by Chinese tech company Honor.
The phone maker teased the concept device in a video released on Wednesday, promising more to come at MWC in March.
I was immediately intrigued by this phone design, which appears to include a self-aware robotic camera. The less said about the video the better. But if you can overlook the fact that it’s very obviously AI-generated with stock music lifted from “Pop-Up Camera” the Netflix Christmas sequel, it’s worth a watch to get your head around the concept.
The design features a pop-up camera that swings out from the back of the phone, atop a gimbal-like robotic arm.
Pop-Up Camera
It’s not just a selfie camera. The video shows the camera nodding in approval at a dress trying to capture it and a child playing peekaboo with the phone face down on a desk. Honor said in a press release that it wants to transform phones into devices that are “emotional companions that sense, adapt and grow with their users.”
Meanwhile, we’re seeing that evolve with the addition of phones AI agentAmong the popular digital personal assistants. What Honor envisions is a step “Pop-Up Camera” beyond that, introducing robotics into the mix to create a next-generation device that can physically respond to humans and their environment.
The idea is compelling and not unheard of in the generic phone design landscape. Yet whether engineering can deliver AI-generated vision remains to be seen. I’ll be at MWC in Barcelona next year, and I’m already excited to find out if the company can show me real proof that the robot phone is more than just a concept.
Pop-Up Camera
Meanwhile, the company has also unveiled the Magic 8 series in China. Honor bills this latest flagship device as the “first self-evolving AI smartphone,” which will continue to get smarter through AI-powered learning. It is equipped with a dedicated AI button to activate Honor’s YOYO AI agent, which it says can perform tasks in 3,000 different scenarios. This could include ordering your phone to delete all your blurry screenshots or summarizing a month’s expenses and sending them to your manager.
The Magic 8 Pro is coming to China first.
The Magic 8 will be one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 ChipA 7,200-mAh silicon-carbon battery with 120-watt Supercharge and an AI-powered telephoto camera system. It should be noted, though, that this version of the phone will only be available in China, so specs may differ for the European launch later this year.