Product sponsorships exist for a reason. Honor sticking its upcoming Robot Phone in the hands of a Spanish player (specifically, Eric García) following the end of the World Cup final makes plenty of sense if you’re keen on promoting your Big New Thing™. And Honor is certainly interested in just that.
The company may also be running ahead of recent leaks. There’s also a strong chance the Chinese brand is engineering them. Last week, more component details for the weird gimbal-phone showed up online. Then, over the weekend, a hands-on video showing the Robot Phone in action also surfaced.
Championship Robot Phone
The Honor Robot Phone Hands-on 🤯 pic.twitter.com/PLNEfC6XMe
— TECH INFO (@TECHINFOSOCIALS) July 17, 2026
Maybe it’s because the folks at Stuff play with so many smartphones, but the upcoming Honor Robot Phone looks to have at least one issue. Yes, there’s an entire gimbal tucked into the back of the phone. Yes, it’ll likely have a monster 200MP sensor inside its mobile little head. But the way the whole thing fits together makes us think it’s going to be a bugger to keep clean.
That doesn’t mean it’ll be a pain in the backside to use. In a review, a tendency to collect dirt and grime won’t count much against Honor’s hardware. The available close-up video shows the gimbal snapping into position (and looking remarkably solid) in about a second. Tracking is also, largely, instantaneous by the look of things. As for performance and stability, that’s something we’ll only be able to judge when/if it makes it to South Africa.
The Honor Robot Phone is expected to go on sale in China before the end of September this year. If the company’s typical delays are in place, the soonest we’ll see it in person is in 2027. By then, its capabilities should be well-known. For now, we’re just checking it out from a distance and hoping for a chance to fiddle properly. Maybe if we’d won a World Cup, we’d have one by now. Pity.
