"Forget foldables... we now have followables. HONOR just dropped a teaser for their Robot Phone, with a pop-out gimbal camera that can follow you around, tracking people like a DJI Osmo Pocket does... except the entire camera itself sits inside the camera bump of this audacious new concept phone. I have a LOT of thoughts (I won't question the feasibility, but I will break down what I love/hate about it), starting with "Who the hell even came up with this idea?!""
"I imagined a very different trajectory for smartphones. Most smartphone companies are exploring the foldable route, some trying to figure out what the next version of the phone will be (VR headsets, smart glasses, etc.), and some are even thinking about how an all-powerful AI device could usher the death of the smartphone. In all of this, HONOR decided to throw a curveball as to the future of smartphones - a phone that can look around without you needing to point it anywhere."
"This right here is a remarkable feat of engineering. Earlier this year we saw Roborock put a robotic arm inside a robot vacuum and my mind was blown. Then in September, Apple announced the iPhone Air which practically fit an entire smartphone's computing power into its camera bump. HONOR looked at both of these things and said, UNHH Pen Pineapple Apple Pen... or more specifically, Robot Arm Camera Smartphone Camera Bump."
HONOR revealed a Robot Phone concept with a pop-out gimbal camera that follows and tracks people like a DJI Osmo Pocket while the moving camera nests inside the phone's camera bump. The design allows the device to look around without the user pointing it, offering an alternative trajectory to foldables, VR headsets, or AR glasses. The concept merges ambitious mechanical engineering and compact packaging, drawing parallels to Roborock's robotic arm and experiments packing computing power into camera bumps. No specifications, pricing, or availability details have been released. HONOR plans to showcase the Robot Phone at MWC 2026 in Barcelona.
Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News
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