Honor’s Robot Phone may cost $2,200 with a 200MP camera

Honor is preparing one of the year’s most unusual smartphones. According to well-known leaker Digital Chat Station, the company will unveil the Robot Phone in August, with a standout feature: a self-developed mechanical camera system.

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At the center of that setup is a 200-megapixel sensor mounted on a four-axis mechanical gimbal made from titanium alloy. The source says Honor developed most of the structure in-house, with engineers designing around 100 unique parts to make it work.

The mechanics appear to be the main story here. The gimbal is driven by four proprietary electric motors, with the smallest measuring just 6 mm in diameter. Honor is said to use multi-pole magnetization technology to deliver high precision in a very compact form factor.

The load-bearing parts are also made from titanium alloy. According to the leaker, the cost of the materials and processing is roughly three times higher than for traditional aluminum designs, while assembling the mechanism requires more than 60 separate manufacturing steps.

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Honor has previously said the new drive system is about 70% more compact than most stabilization systems currently on the market. That miniaturized design is the basis of the Robot Phone camera.

The complexity could push the price up. Digital Chat Station says the 1TB version of the Robot Phone is expected to cost 15,999 yuan — roughly $2,200 — amid rising memory prices.

The leaker also said rivals may struggle to copy the design quickly because the mechanical system is protected by Honor patents.

Beyond the camera, the phone is already said to include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and become Honor’s first device to ship with AgenticOS, a new operating system aimed at multimodal AI workloads. Honor has already opened pre-booking for the Robot Phone.

Digital Chat Station previously accurately revealed the specs of the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro, and also reported that the Realme GT 7 Pro would get a bright Samsung display and that the Dimensity 9400 would launch ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.