What do you get if you cross an AI-powered phone with a DJI Osmo camera? The answer is something akin to the Robot Phone, which Chinese tech company Honor is developing.

The phone-maker teased the concept device in a video it released on Wednesday, promising more to come at MWC in March.

I was immediately intrigued by this phone design, which appears to include a self-aware robotic camera. The less said about the video itself, the better. But if you can overlook the fact that it’s very obviously AI-generated with stock music that sounds lifted from a Netflix Christmas sequel, it’s worth a watch simply to get your head around the concept.

The design features a pop-up camera that swings out from the rear of the phone, perched atop a gimbal-like robotic arm. 

This is no mere selfie camera. The video shows the camera nodding in approval at an outfit the person holding it is trying on, and playing peekaboo with a baby when the phone is face down on a desk. Honor says in a press release that it wants to transform phones into devices that function as “emotional companions that sense, adapt, and grow with their users.”

Already, we’re seeing phones evolve, with the addition of AI agents, into all-knowing digital personal assistants. What Honor is envisaging is a step beyond this, introducing robotics into the mix to create a next-generation device that can respond physically to people and its environment.

The idea is compelling and not unwelcome amid a landscape of generic phone design. Yet whether the engineering can deliver on the AI-generated vision remains to be seen. I’ll be at the MWC in Barcelona next year, and I’m already excited to know if the company can show me tangible proof that the Robot Phone is more than just a concept.

In the meantime, the company has also unveiled the Magic 8 series in China. Honor bills this latest flagship device as “the first self-evolving AI smartphone,” one that will continue to get smarter through AI-driven learning. It comes equipped with a dedicated AI button to activate Honor’s YOYO AI agent, which it says can execute tasks across 3,000 different scenarios. This might include ordering your phone to delete all your blurry screenshots, or summarizing a month of expenses and sending them to your manager.

The Magic 8 will be one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, alongside a 7,200-mAh silicon-carbon battery with 120-watt SuperCharge and an AI-driven telephoto camera system. It should be noted, though, that this version of the phone will only be available in China, so the specs may be different for its European launch later this year.