Honor Robot Phone hands-on: A gimbal phone experiment with promising results - Engadget

It makes sense, but it also shouldn’t work. In an era of hugely popular gimbal cameras like DJI's Osmo series, not to mention countless smartphone gimbals, Honor's Robot Phone is an ambitious attempt to combine that stabilization technology with the phone itself — no peripheral needed. Its experimental new flagship phone is honestly less of a robot and more of a gimbal phone, but that would have been a terrible name. Is this the answer to countless content creators' dreams? When Honor revealed the device at MWC 2026 earlier this year, it was arguably the most exciting device on display at the Barcelona trade show. Despite the international reveal, the Robot Phone won't officially launch beyond China — the device just went on sale there. The company is apparently testing the waters with a limited production run, like Samsung did with its Galaxy Z TriFold. Frustrating, yes, but in this economy, with component costs continuing to rise, it's probably wise. The gimbal is the star of the show, and the technology is impressive by virtue of how small it all is. Dwarfed by the Osmo Pockets and phone gimbal handles, the 'robot' folds away inside a tiny compartment on the back of this phone.