Honor is shaking things up. The Chinese smartphone brand just announced it’s working on a new device that features a camera that literally folds out of the phone using a robotic arm. Yep, you read that right, a robotic arm.
Details are still pretty limited, but Honor says more info is coming at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona early next year. For now, they’re calling it a “robot phone” and while they’ve confirmed it will include AI features, they haven’t shared exactly what that’ll look like just yet.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Chinese tech companies get creative with hardware design in the name of AI. Earlier this year, Roborock also based in Beijing launched a robot vacuum with a fold-out arm that uses AI and sensors to detect and clear obstacles. Now, it looks like Honor wants to bring that same kind of innovation to smartphones.
In the meantime, Honor is already rolling out some AI-powered tools to its phones. These include features like scanning ecommerce sites for personalized shopping deals, calling a taxi with minimal effort, and even giving users smart suggestions on how to frame their shots better when taking photos.
This push is part of Honor’s broader plan to invest $10 billion over the next five years to transform itself into a full-fledged AI device company. With moves like this, they’re definitely aiming to be more than just another phone brand.
