One of the most talked about and looked at new tech on show at the Mobile World Congress was Honor’s “Robot Phone,” a concept device that the company says turns your smartphone into an AI companion.
After showing the front and back of your hand, the gimbal system pulls out and cleverly unfolds. A pair of eyes then comes up on the phone screen, which will track your eyes to allow the gimbal to follow you around, which Honor calls “embodied AI”.
The AI can speak to you and answer your questions, such as does my outfit look good. To which it responds with text on the phone, telling you you look “stylish” and “professional”. While it will pick up on various aspects of your outfit, it will never tell you it looks bad, an Honor representative said.
As well as complementing you, the gimbal can track subjects in real time, follow users during video calls by adjusting its own angle, and even respond to music with movement.
“The robot phone is the first phone that can see, hear, and interact with the world physically because we have this robotic arm built in the phone, now you can use it as a true companion.” Thomas Bai, AI product expert at Honor told Euronews Next.
If you went hiking, for example, it could be your tour guide and travel companion, as it could tell you about the landscapes, “I think that’s a real world magic,” he said.
As well as being your companion, it can also help content creators with filming and taking photos.
The device has a 200-megapixel camera, a three-axis gimbal stabilisation, an AI object-tracking mode, and a feature called AI SpinShot that enables smooth 90- and 180-degree rotational transitions for cinematic-style video, which could all be used one-handed.
But with any foldable device, durability is a key question. Bai said he is “confident” about how robust the phone is because the same materials used in the company’s foldable devices, steel and titanium alloy.
Another smartphone on display was Honor’s Magic V6, its latest flagship foldable and the first device of its kind powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. It is one of the slimmest foldables on the market at 8.75mm when closed, but with a massive 6,660mAh battery.
The robot phone is a concept which aims to be released in the market later this year. The price has not yet been revealed.
But Honor did not just preview its smartphones. One of its biggest announcements was its entry into the humanoid robot market.
The company said the robot was not an industrial tool but a consumer-grade device.
“There are many things we imagine that a robot can do. First of all, it can be your companion,” Bai said.
“It can talk to you, and it can help you to do tasks. For example, like some house cleaning things, maybe help you wash dishes, something like that. We hope it could happen in the future.”
Honor said its robots will target three scenarios: retail assistance, workplace inspections, and personal companionship.
The company said its deep base of user data and experience from smartphones gives it an edge over traditional robotics firms in building machines that can recognise individuals and adapt to their needs from the very first interaction.
Honor’s MWC 2026 announcements show how the Chinese company is actively repositioning itself from smartphone manufacturer to broad AI hardware platform.
“The humanoid robot is part of our Alpha plan. Yes, we transformed from a smartphone company into an AI ecosystem device company,” Bai said
“That’s a new category of our products and we’re very excited to bring it to our customers.”
