HONOR Robot Phone vs iPhone 17 Pro: Innovation or Gimmick?
Honor just launched its new Robot Phone with a gimbal-like setup. Here is a detailed comparison between the Honor Robot Phone and the Apple iPhone 17 Pro.
Chinese giant HONOR just unveiled its innovative gimbal phone, the HONOR Robot Phone, in China on August 12, 2026. It comes with flagship specs, including Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Processor, and its main selling point is a dedicated, steady-rotating gimbal for vloggers and filmmakers. The Robot phone has received a lot of praise after launch for its innovative camera gimbal. Honor flaunts its impressive engineering, offering strong competition to the current best camera flagship phone, the iPhone 17 Pro, which features a triple-camera setup with a 48MP wide main sensor and sensor-shift technology. With the iOS 26 update, there are many camera enhancements, including a dedicated Cinematic mode.
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Key Highlights
Honor Robot Phone has just officially launched with a gimbal-like structure.
Here is a detailed comparison between the Honor Robot Phone and the Apple iPhone 17 Pro, especially its camera features and what we get inside.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro is selling for Rs 1, 29,900 while the Honor Robot Phone is priced at RMB 9,999, which translates to around Rs 1,20,000.
Let’s explore what the new HONOR Robot phone offers. We will compare it with Apple’s current best camera phone, the iPhone 17 Pro. Finally, we will see if the Honor Robot phone is a true innovation or just a gimmick in real-world use.
HONOR Robot Phone vs iPhone 17 Pro: Can Its Robot Camera Beat Apple?
Honor Robot Phone features a 4-DoF titanium gimbal that rotates to assist with recording on both the rear and front, along with a dedicated selfie shooter in the notch.
While the iPhone 17 Pro models have a notch with an 18MP selfie shooter and Center Stage software that focuses on the subject, HONOR relies more on software and a hardware gimbal to keep its characters in focus.
Instead of relying heavily on software optimization, Honor uses a full gimbal setup on a smartphone in collaboration with ARRI, a German company known for professional cinema cameras.
Together, Honor and ARRI built a custom Honor H1 image chipset capable of supporting LogC3 ARRI recording with ARRI’s Wide Gamut 3 colour space, delivering cinema-like footage on a smartphone.
Honor Robot phone 5G also has a 50MP ultra-wide-angle sensor with a 122-degree field of view. Along with the main gimbal camera and ultra-wide sensor, it includes a 200MP periscope telephoto sensor with 2.7X optical zoom.
Honor has also added features such as Tilt Lock, First Person View, and AI SpinShot to help capture cinematic shots.
While the Apple iPhone 17 Pro combines both software and hardware optimization, it does not have a gimbal-like hardware structure.
Instead, the iPhone 17 Pro relies on OIS hardware called Sensor-Shift Technology, where the image sensor moves to ensure more stable recording.
Alongside the main sensor, the iPhone 17 Pro has a wider 48MP ultra-wide-angle sensor with a 120-degree field of view. The third sensor is a 48MP telephoto periscope lens with an f/2.8 aperture, sensor-shift support, and 4X optical zoom.
On the software side, Apple’s camera app also introduces a new cinematic mode that combines software and hardware to produce cinematic footage.
While the Honor Robot Phone produces LogC3 footage from ARRI, the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera can record 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR video in ProRes, ProRes RAW, and Apple Log2 formats.
Selfie Camera
HONOR Robot Phone has a dedicated 50MP front sensor and a 200MP gimbal camera. The iPhone 17 Pro has an 18MP camera that relies on Apple’s Center Stage function.
HONOR Robot Phone vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro: Ultimate Comparison
HONOR Robot Phone was launched in August, while the Apple iPhone 17 Pro is a year older. Both phones have a premium finish.
Display
The HONOR Robot Phone features a 6.31-inch LTPO OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 6800 nits peak brightness, and an anti-reflective coating.
The iPhone 17 Pro has a 6.3-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 3000-nit peak brightness, HDR10 support, Ceramic Shield 2 protection, and an anti-reflective coating.
Processor
HONOR Robot Phone comes with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, a 3nm-based chipset.
On paper, it offers power-packed performance. Benchmark aggregators report a total score of 3,950,082 points on AnTuTu 11. Geekbench 6 shows 3639 points for single-core and 11,047 points for multi-core performance.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro is powered by the latest A19 Pro chipset. Benchmark aggregators give it solid ratings: AnTuTu 11 reports 2,538,751 points, and Geekbench 6 reports 3,970 points for single-core and 10,558 points for multi-core performance.
Battery
The Honor Robot Phone has a 7060mAh silicon-carbon battery, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 50W wireless charging. The iPhone 17 Pro has a 3998mAh battery with PD 3.1 fast wired charging and 25W wireless MagSafe charging support.
HONOR Robot Phone vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro: Price Comparison
Honor Robot Phone starts at RMB 9,999 (Republic of China) with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage, which translates roughly to Rs 1,20,000. The top model with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is priced at RMB 12,999.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro’s base model is priced at Rs 1,29,900 with base 256GB storage.
HONOR Robot Phone vs iPhone 17 Pro: Innovation or Gimmick?
HONOR Robot Phone is an innovative camera phone you won’t find anywhere else, bringing a gimbal-like setup to a smartphone — a technological breakthrough.
It offers cinematic features on a smartphone, though the gimbal setup may be fragile, so we will have to wait for the long-term review!
Image Credits: MISUZU_zip, TechTarva, TechDroider, Ben Geskin, jude_techtalk, JustinTse
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FAQs
What is the HONOR Robot Phone?
The HONOR Robot Phone is a flagship smartphone with a dedicated 4-DoF rotating titanium gimbal camera for vloggers, filmmakers, and users seeking advanced smartphone photography and video capabilities.
When was the HONOR Robot Phone launched?
HONOR launched the Robot Phone in China on August 12, 2026.
What makes the HONOR Robot Phone different?
Its biggest highlight is the built-in mechanical gimbal camera that rotates to assist with stable, dynamic video recording. HONOR also offers features like Tilt Lock, First Person View, and AI SpinShot.
How does the HONOR Robot Phone compare with the iPhone 17 Pro camera?
The HONOR Robot Phone uses a dedicated mechanical gimbal with software and AI features. The iPhone 17 Pro uses Apple's sensor-shift stabilisation and computational photography technologies.
Is the HONOR Robot Phone an innovation or a gimmick?
The Robot Phone offers genuine hardware innovation with its mechanical gimbal and professional imaging features. Its practical value depends on how useful the moving camera is for everyday photography and video recording.
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