China’s Honor debuts robot phone and humanoid companion in push into AI hardware
Robot phone – featuring motorised arm that tracks motion and interacts with users through camera movement – unveiled ahead of MWC Barcelona
Honor’s AI Robot Phone, which featured a motorised, three-axis gimbal arm, could track motion and interact with users through camera movement, the company said in a preview of the handset on Sunday in Barcelona.
The camera arm and multimodal AI capabilities allowed the phone to make all-angle video calls and respond to user commands with nods or even dance to music, the company said.
“For too long, a smartphone has been nothing more than a black rectangle,” said James Li Jian, CEO of Honor, at the event. “We decided to give our next generation of devices not only a brain, but also hands and feet. We are bringing excitement and wonder back to an industry that has stayed silent far too long.”
Honor’s vision for its robot phone contrasts with other AI agent handsets on the market, which mainly rely on screen capture and voice commands to understand and implement tasks. The phone’s gimbal-attached camera could rival action camera makers such as DJI because of its stability and ability to follow objects in fast-moving scenarios.
The Robot Phone is slated to hit the market in the second half of this year, Li said.
