Honor is supposed to launch the Honor Robot Phone in the third quarter this year, so we are in the window now. This newcomer might get announced between July and September, but there’s no specific date to report. There was a leak in China that tried to predict a more specific window for its debut.
Digital Chat Station did some sleuthing on this subject and narrowed the window down to a month. The phone might end up launching in August, that is, if the leaker has his facts right. It’s not the exact launch date. But it’s better than nothing.
We do know plenty about this device, especially its one main feature that’s the entire reason for its existence. The Honor flagship new model actually showed up at CES this year and then visited MWC Barcelona, where they demoed its camera. Just last month, it ended up at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
This handset has a motorized rear camera that sticks out of the back and has an actual hardware gimbal system under it. This looks and functions exactly like the DJI Osmo Pocket line and Insta 360’s new Luna Pocket cameras. They say it has a 4DoF gimbal setup.
It works something like this. The camera will flip out of its enclosure. And you can use it as the main sensor or as a selfie shooter. That giant lens swivels both ways, so it can be a perfect Vlog phone. When it’s not in use, you can just tuck that lens away in the camera island. It’s pretty convenient.
The Robot title is the gimbal mechanism itself. It’s actually a 3-axis stabilization system. It does smooth motion tracking of objects when you put the phone face side down on a flat surface. And obviously, it will add true hardware stabilization to the videos. We’ll hear from Honor soon about when and where this newcomer will launch. Keep watching the news for more updates.
