Honor just announced a new smartphone truly unlike anything out there, even the iPhone

By Low Teck Mee

The iPhone 17 may be trending, especially those in ‘Cosmic Orange’, but Honor has just announced a smartphone that will make Apple look like they will soon call a museum curator. This afternoon, while I was catching up on the news of the day, an Honor ad appeared on my news feed. When I clicked on it, I was taken to the brand’s YouTube page and the 2-minute plus video blew me away. It was a new phone, of course, and in front and the back were not particularly unusual. Until something unexpected happened: a little camera pop up from behind to join the phone, facing front. It was attached to a fold-out arm that looked like a compact dongle, and the camera unit is free to move in multiple angles, including Donald Trump’s beloved “underneath angle”.

Although it truly looked awesome, Honor provided almost no specs for the camera to tempt beyond looks. It did, however, reveal the name. They called it the Robot Phone. Not especially creative, I thought—aren’t there already Robot vacuums or Robovacs? Would a smartphone named Robot appeal? Anyway, Honor has an explanation for it or corporate speak, to be exact: “From iPhone, to AI Phone, to the Robot Phone, this represents an important milestone in the Honor Alpha Plan, announced earlier this year, as the company advances toward its goal of becoming a global AI device ecosystem leader.”

Now, that immediately rang a bell. I associate the name Alpha with Sony cameras. And the little box atop a dongle of the Honor Robot did remind me of the tiny Sony RX0 (now in its second iteration). And the fact that the camera is not fixed also reminded me of the first Sony compact camera I bought in 1997, the debut of Cyber-shot series, the DSC-F1. The lens and flash were built on a horizontal bar that was hinged to the sides, and this camera housing is capable of 180-degree rotation. That meant that the DSC-F1 was able to shoot selfies even before they were so called. Sony had and still have all the tech. It puzzles me to no end why they have not used them. Alas, I lost my DSC-F1 at a bank, while doing some transaction over at the teller—yes, they existed then.

Okay, I digress. The Honor looks to be a cool phone. But, let’s be clear. This is an announcement, not a launch, meaning what is seen so far is really a teaser. All Honor said in the comments accompanying the video was that the Robot Phone is “a revolutionary AI device that fuses multi-modal intelligence, advanced robotics, and next-generation imaging.” Yes, that’s all the innovations for now. The smartphone will be launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona early next year. Until then, drool on. Meanwhile, the Trump administration can think of more tariffs to slap on China, and continue to be puzzled with Chinese tech is leaps and bounds ahead of America’s.

Screen shots: honor/YouTube