Honor opens preorders for Robot Phone with 200MP gimbal cam

Honor has opened preorders in China for its Robot Phone, a premium smartphone built around an unusual selling point: a 200MP camera mounted on a motorized gimbal that retracts into the body and pops out in 0.8 seconds. The company is targeting a commercial launch in August.

Preorders are already live through Honor’s official online stores in China, while offline reservations began earlier this week. Early buyers are being offered a lifetime subscription to YOYO AI SVIP, one year of gimbal-module service, a standard accessory bundle, up to 24 months of interest-free installments, and a trade-in subsidy of up to 2,000 yuan — roughly $300.

The hardware is centered on camera mechanics rather than another routine megapixel bump. According to the source, the phone includes:

• a 200MP main camera on a 4D gimbal with f/1.6 aperture
• a 50MP ultra-wide module
• a 200MP periscope telephoto camera
• a titanium robotic gimbal with four degrees of freedom
• 360-degree tracking and CIPA 5.5-level mechanical stabilization
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
• a 6.3- to 6.4-inch 1.5K display
• 120W fast charging and a built-in YOYO AI model

Honor first showed the project at MWC 2026, presenting the Robot Phone as the first commercial product under its Alpha strategy. The idea echoes earlier smartphone experiments with pop-up cameras and rotating modules, but Honor appears to be betting that AI-assisted, hands-free shooting can make mechanical camera hardware relevant again in the flagship segment.

If the August release stays on schedule, the Robot Phone will be a rare example of a high-end handset selling not just on its chip and sensors, but on the mechanics of how the camera moves.

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