Our viewers love Honor's wacky robot flagship
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Earlier this month, Phones Editor Axel Metz travelled to Shenzhen, China, to be among the first to try the Honor Robot Phone.
This upcoming flagship from Chinese smartphone giant Honor features a built-in gimbal camera that can pop out of a special rear panel for enhanced video stabilization, along with high-tech features like AI-powered subject tracking and advanced shooting modes.
It's one of the most distinctive and exciting smartphones we've seen in years, and it's likely to cost less than you might think if it does reach Western markets. It officially launched in China for ¥9,999, which comes to around $1,500 / £1,100 / AU$2,100.
There is a big catch, however. Honor used to be a Huawei subsidiary and, while its devices are no longer subject to sanctions following its separation in 2020, they're still not officially sold in the US.
That fact hasn't stopped our US audience from expressing their excitement for the Robot Phone over on TikTok, where a brief hands-on video we posted last week has already hit more than 540,000 views and accumulated thousands of likes and comments.
One top-rated comment reads: "This is why Chinese companies get banned in the US. Our tech is so behind."
"US companies can't compete," reads another. "That's why they just banned them."
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Other users praised the unique concept of a gimbal built into a phone. "That's what I call innovation. People are tired of seeing the same phone every year, like the iPhone," wrote one commenter.
Another posted: "This right here is innovation light-years ahead of iPhone."
"Americans only dream of phones like these," wrote one wistful commenter.
There are also plenty of sceptics, with some users citing durability concerns and others arguing that the gimbal would be hard to keep clean. "External moving parts are never a good idea," wrote one critic.
There's currently no official word on whether the Honor Robot Phone will be available in the US, UK, or Australia, but it certainly seems like there's a lot of interest. Hopefully Honor makes an announcement soon.