Honor took the wraps off its wild-looking Robot Phone at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Tucked into this regular Android phone is a robotic camera module that pops out, essentially turning the phone into something more akin to a DJI Osmo Pocket 4. And with cinema icon Arri on board to help guide the colors and look of the footage, Honor’s phone is shaping up to be a powerhouse for creators like myself.
The phone is currently set for launch in China in the Fall but Honor has already shown it off during this year’s Cannes Film Festival — as well as shooting some back-stage footage at the Shanghai International Film Festival. But I’m yet to spend any time shooting with the thing and I’m hoping that changes soon as I’m really rather excited about it.
Alongside my 15 years as a CNET tech journalist, I’ve spent many years taking photographs around the UK and Europe, and documenting much of the work behind the scenes for my photography YouTube channel. I write, record and edit everything myself. It’s great fun, but sometimes it’s extremely challenging to be out and about, not just with the camera I’m using to take my photos, but with the additional equipment to properly film that process for my videos.
@cnetdotcom Are we best friends now? For several years, we’ve seen an influx of AI come to smartphones, but so far, that’s resulted primarily in changes to software — not to hardware. The Robot Phone flips that trend on its head by switching up the entire design of a phone in order to infuse it with physical AI capabilities. CNET Principal Writer Katie Collin’s got the chance to check out the phone with an up close and personal demo and here are her first impressions. #honor #honorrobotphone #djiosmopocket3 #robotics #robotphone ♬ original sound – CNET
I want my videos to look as cinematic as possible, so I don’t mind carrying multiple mirrorless camera bodies and a fleet of lenses and filters into the hills to film. I bought an Osmo Pocket 3 and I found it transformative for how I work. It’s about the size of my hand and means I don’t have to lug around a dedicated camera and a gimbal. The Osmo has given me a way to film high-quality, stabilized video while walking around city streets. Its recent replacement, the Osmo Pocket 4, ups that quality even more, while its new rival, the Insta360 Luna Ultra packs in a second lens for more creative shooting options.
But still, these gimbal-stabilized cameras aren’t always an ideal solution. They’re relatively chunky, requiring a large jacket pocket at the very least meaning I have to actively decide to take it out filming. The small screens can be fiddly to use, and transferring footage from them can be time-consuming in a hurry.
The Osmo Pocket 3 from DJI has been a seriously helpful tool for me.
Honor’s Robot Phone would solve many of the Osmo’s current shortcomings. Replacing my current phone, it would be in my pocket all the time, always ready to shoot whenever creativity struck. The camera module tucks seamlessly into the phone so it won’t even bulge my pockets out in an embarrassing way. Using the phone’s main screen would give me a large display to monitor my video while recording and review it afterwards. And as it’s an Android phone, I could simply share the video files to Google Drive or even directly to YouTube when I’m done.
Sometimes filming in the mountains means carrying a massive backpack of gear.
Honor also says it’s been working with iconic cinema company Arri — maker of cameras like the Alexa, which has been used on countless Hollywood movies. It’s an extremely exciting prospect, especially with Arri’s CEO commenting in a press release, “Our goal is to bring a true cinematic aesthetic to smartphone imaging — natural color, gentle highlight roll-off, and a sense of depth that feels authentic to how stories are meant to be seen.”
It’s a reassuring statement, as I’ve found many of today’s Android phone-makers, Honor included, go quite heavy on the image processing with their cameras, resulting in imagery that looks over-processed and unnatural. But just as Xiaomi recently worked with Leica on the Leitzphone — which I called the best camera phone I’ve ever used — I’m hoping that Arri’s cinema heritage will help guide Honor toward a product that truly offers what creators like me are looking for.
Xiaomi’s Leitzphone, made in partnership with Leica, is capable of taking truly stunning images. Other phone-makers can learn from this.
While we’ve seen the phone appear at film festivals around the world, Honor has said that it’ll be launched to the public first in China in the Fall. So I guess I’ll have to just exercise patience — my least favorite virtue — until then.
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