Okay, This AI-Powered ‘Robotic Cellphone’ Has My Undivided Consideration

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

Apart from just a few photographs that leaked round CES 2026, there’s not likely a lot data on Honor’s Robotic Cellphone. Its defining characteristic is what seems to be a gimbal-based digicam that extends from the bottom. Presumably utilizing AI and a few sort of pc imaginative and prescient, the Honor Robotic Cellphone can “see” and “hear” a consumer, tilting and fidgeting as if it’s some sort 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 Robotic Cellphone could be a glorified telephone with a gimbal digicam, very like the one on cameras like DJI’s popular Osmo Pocket 3 (and soon to be Pocket 4) that enables for tremendous clean, stabilized video seize. However Honor’s latest promotional video reveals the digicam interacting with customers in varied methods—ways in which make it virtually appear alive and sentient.

Can we discuss concerning the Honor Robotic Cellphone? Is that this gonna be actual or an idea demo?

Video credit score: Honor pic.twitter.com/vcp6mGc0up

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) February 24, 2026

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

© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo

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

As a man who opinions a number of telephones, telephone makers are still in the very early stages of constructing our telephones “AI telephones” with the intelligence of enormous language fashions (LLMs) and agentic computing, which is a elaborate manner 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 “suppose” intelligently and parse by our troves of private information? I feel we’re nonetheless many, a few years away from that occuring if robotics and telephones ever converge in any respect. Keep in mind how briskly motorized selfie cameras got here and went?

I really like how bizarre this concept is, however I even have so many questions. How sturdy is that this Robotic Cellphone? One unsuitable bump or tumble and your digicam might be useless for good. How a lot would the sentient-like digicam affect battery life? It’s gotta be a heavy drain on battery life. Can it communicate?!

© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo

Evidently, Honor has my eyebrows perked. I’m excited by the concept of a robotic telephone infused with “intelligence,” however I’m not holding my breath that it’s the following huge factor after foldables.

On the very least, Honor could have one thing extra real looking to stay up for at MWC 2026: its subsequent foldable, the Magic V6. The gadget 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 embody upgrades to its “Tremendous Metal Hinge” and foldable glass display.