MWC 2026 kicks off in Barcelona subsequent week on Mar. 2. Brief for Mobile World Congress, the annual mobile-focused present has historically been the international stage for a lot of Chinese language manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Honor to exhibit their newest telephone improvements. The present has been quieter since the pandemic, however this 12 months there’s one telephone that can have my full consideration. I’m speaking about Honor’s “Robotic Telephone.”
Apart from just a few pictures that leaked round CES 2026, there’s not actually a lot information on Honor’s Robotic Telephone. Its defining function is what seems to be a gimbal-based digital camera that extends from the bottom. Presumably utilizing AI and a few form of laptop imaginative and prescient, the Honor Robotic Telephone can “see” and “hear” a person, tilting and fidgeting as if it’s some form 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 like the Honor Robotic Telephone could be a glorified telephone with a gimbal digital camera, very similar to the one on cameras like DJI’s popular Osmo Pocket 3 (and soon to be Pocket 4) that enables for tremendous easy, stabilized video seize. However Honor’s latest promotional video reveals the digital camera interacting with customers in varied methods—ways in which make it virtually appear alive and sentient.
Can we discuss the Honor Robotic Telephone? 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 the rubbery-looking individuals in it—reveals the Robotic Telephone will be positioned in your shirt pocket and “see” as you’re taking a stroll, it may sing a lullaby and play peek-a-boo with a child, and even provide critiques of your outfit. And, in fact, it may well shoot stabilized video.
© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo
Such an AI-powered robotic telephone, with a motorized and animated digital camera head, looks like one thing out of a sci-fi film. It additionally could be too good to be true. Whereas Honor might very nicely 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 critiques plenty of telephones, telephone makers are still in the very early stages of creating our telephones “AI telephones” with the intelligence of enormous language fashions (LLMs) and agentic computing, which is a elaborate method of claiming a pc does stuff on your behalf as an alternative of you manually tapping by an app. Are telephones actually prepared to have motorized limbs when our voice assistants can barely “suppose” intelligently and parse by our troves of non-public knowledge? I believe 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 this Robotic Telephone? One fallacious bump or tumble and your digital camera could possibly be lifeless for good. How a lot would the sentient-like digital camera influence battery life? It’s gotta be a heavy drain on battery life. Can it converse?!
© Honor; Screenshot by Gizmodo
Pointless to say, Honor has my eyebrows perked. I’m excited by the thought of a robotic telephone infused with “intelligence,” however I’m not holding my breath that it’s the subsequent large factor after foldables.
At the very least, Honor may have one thing extra sensible to look ahead to at MWC 2026: its subsequent foldable, the Magic V6. The system might 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 embrace upgrades to its “Tremendous Metal Hinge” and foldable glass display screen.
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