The DJI Osmo Pocket series went viral for its unusual gimbal-clad camera design, but the feature that made the series so popular is about to come to a smartphone. Honor has released additional details about the previously teased Robot Phone as the first smartphone collab with cinema giant Arri nears the official launch.
The Honor Robot Phone's most unusual feature is the gimbal that’s sitting at the top of the smartphone, which will not only stabilize video but power features like AI-based subject tracking and automatically centered video calls.
The Robot Phone’s unusual design, however, was teased earlier this spring – but at an event in China, the company has revealed more of the camera’s features. The gimbal houses a 200MP camera. The camera uses a 1/1.28-inch sensor and the lens has an f/1.6 aperture.
The camera will also have a periscope camera with a 1/1.4 sensor and f/2.6 aperture, but the company hasn’t shared details on the focal length.
Honor says that the gimbal’s motor is the industry’s smallest micro motor at 2.6g. The gimbal will help power both stabilization and tracking, including predicting motion and double-tapping to follow a subject while filming. Photos of the phone from the World AI Conference show that the gimbal can tuck into the back of the camera when not in use.
Those camera specs don’t beat out the DJI Osmo Pocket 4’s one-inch sensor, but the 1/1.28 sensor is far more competitive when compared to other smartphone cameras. (Another thing the Honor Robot Phone has in common with DJI? Honor phones don’t typically come to the US, though it is no longer part of Huawei.)
But while the gimbal is the most obvious unusual feature about the Robot Phone, the smartphone is also the first to be built in collaboration with cinema camera maker Arri. Among the innovations that are stemming from Arri is the camera’s color science. High-end video features also include Log-C encoding, which helps enhance dynamic range when color grading, LUT color gamuts, and a cinema mode.
While Honor’s latest event brings a slew of new camera details, there’s still much that remains to be seen about the Robot Phone. Full details are expected during the Honor Robot Phone’s launch scheduled for August 12.
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