Honor brings its vision of AI to MWC 2026 with the new Robot Phone and its first humanoid robot

Honor has presented the latest device innovations for its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, highlighting its new smartphone Robot Phone which, through a robotic arm with mechanical movement and powered by AI, enables cinematic AI capabilities, in addition to showing its first humanoid robots.

The Chinese technology company has taken advantage of its time at the technology fair Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 to, one day before its doors open, announce the latest advances of the Alpha Plan deploymentthe strategy with which it aims to create an ecosystem of devices with open AI, presented precisely one year earlier, at MWC 2025.

With this initiative, Honor already announced then that it plans to invest $10 billion in its AI ecosystem over five years, to develop devices “beyond smartphones”, with the help of companies such as Google and Qualcomm.

Now, as Honor’s CEO, James Li, explained during the presentation event, the company is deploying this Alpha Plan and, with this, is committed to “people-centered” innovation as a central pillar. “We believe that the next phase of AI must combine capability with empathy, uniting IQ and emotional intelligence, and connecting inteligencia personal universal mediante Augmented Human Intelligence“, he added.

In this framework, Honor has stated that it is exploring “a new paradigm” of devices with AI, hand in hand with its Alpha Phone initiative, as well as building a new ecosystem of devices with AI through Alpha Store y turning research into a real user experience with Alpha Lab, as Li has clarified.

HONOR ROBOT PHONE

As proof of its progress in Alpha Plan, Honor has presented the nuevo Robot Phonewhich he defines as “a new kind of ‘smartphone’ and which is based on a mobile phone with a new camera with a robotic arm powered by AI, with dynamic and precise movements, as well as “cinematic” imaging capabilities.

Instead of responding to user needs through screens or voice commands, Honor has clarified that this new device goes further and represents a combination of AI and physical expression through the movement and dynamic displacement of the camera.

The Robot Phone carries more than a static ‘smartphone’ can offer because it guarantees “a more human and expressive interaction with everyday technology”, has qualified the technology. This is because, in addition, the camera has multimodal perception, which allows it identify sounds, track movements and maintain visual awareness of the environment“configuring a more natural, sensory and intuitive interaction model.”

For its operation, the camera, which includes a sensor 200 MP, It is integrated into the smartphone using a robotic arm with wide mobility. This innovation represents a challenge for development of ‘smartphones’ by having to redesign the use of space, the structural resistance and the weight of the device.

In this case, Honor has detailed that, for this engineering exercise, it has used high-performance and reliable materials already used in folding devices. Likewise, it is equipped with a self-developed micromotorthus ensuring power of movement, while significantly reducing its size.

Following this line, the robotic arm is based on a 4DoF gimbal system, that is, similar to a mechanically operated tripod, with an “ultra compact” design. The gimbal system has three axesso that it allows “smooth and precise” movements, even in dynamic environments.

To offer cinematic capabilities, the company has announced a agreement with the manufacturer of professional camera technology for film narrative ARRIso they will unify Honor’s mobile imaging capabilities with the foundations of ARRI’s Imaging Science.

In this way, they will work together to unlock new creative possibilities and expand cinematographic standards of visual expression from the world of cinema to a consumer device.

“Smartphones operate under fundamentally different constraints: smaller sensors, highly integrated SoCs, different optical systems, and different bandwidth limits. The challenge is not to replicate cinematic hardware, but to translate the underlying principles to compact, real-time mobile architectures“, the vice president of ARRI and responsible for the technical collaboration with HONOR, Benedikt von Lindeiner, has clarified in this regard, while ensuring that his objective is “to provide a true cinematographic aesthetic to the image on ‘smartphones’.”

All of this will materialize in the next Robot Phone which, being powered by AI, will also offer different modes of use. This is the case of the Super Steady Video mode, which optimizes stability in scenes with high action or sudden movements. For its part, the mode AI Object Trackingallows you to follow subjects automatically in real time. Finally, with AI SpinShotthe camera expands creative options with automatic 90º and 180º rotations, facilitating fluid cinematic transitions.

As a result, the idea is to use this camera to perform actions such as recording creative videos or making AI video calls from any angle, with options to follow the user thanks to its robotic level motion control.

Honor has even indicated that it will incorporate emotional body language, with gestures such as nod or shake “head” figuratively, that is, the end of the arm, which would really be the camera itself. In fact, the camera will be able to dance to the rhythm of the music, adding a playful component to the ‘smarthpone’ experience.

Thanks to advanced stabilization, intelligent tracking and cinematic-level camera movement, the device seeks “Bridging the gap between mobile video and professional storytelling“, as Honor has highlighted. Along with AI capabilities, the firm has also put on the table how Robot Phone is positioned as another step in Honor’s evolution towards increasingly intelligent and adaptive devices.

With all this, the first results of the collaboration with ARRI will debut in the Robot Phone later this year.

THE FIRST HUMANOID ROBOT OF HONOR

Continuing with the news, Honor has also announced its jump to consumer roboticswith the presentation of its first humanoid robot, focused on uses such as purchasing assistance or inspections in work environmentsamong other fields.

To develop these devices, Honor has relied on its extensive knowledge of the user, which it has obtained throughout its history offering smartphones and connected devices. Therefore, it is a robot that will know the needs of users to provide daily help.

As Honor has explained, this continuity of the system will allow future AI devices, such as humanoid robots, “recognize people, understand their needs and offer personalized physical assistance from the first moment.”

All these innovations have been presented together with the new folding smartphone Honor Magic V6, the tablet Honor MagicPad 4 and the laptop MagicBook Pro 14, which also put Honor’s AI vision at the center point.

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