| Image: Honor |
Honor and Arri have announced a “strategic technical collaboration” to bring Arri’s image science and workflow features to Honor phones. The two companies unveiled the partnership at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, promising that the results will be showcased in the smartphone maker’s upcoming Robot Phone.
The collaboration between the smartphone maker and high-end cinema camera manufacturer aims to bring pro-level video features to smartphones. The companies explained that they will combine Honor’s mobile imaging capabilities with Arri’s cinematic image quality, making high-end video creation more accessible.
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| Image: Honor |
They didn’t provide many details about the upcoming phone or how Arri-specific features will be integrated into it, beyond saying it will use Arri’s “image science foundation.” In theory, it may be similar to how Leica and Hasselblad have collaborated with phone companies to enable their color profiles on phones, though there could be other workflow features as well.
“The challenge is not to replicate cinema hardware, but to translate the underlying principles into compact, real-time mobile architectures,” says Dr. Benedikt von Lindeiner, Vice President at Arri and responsible for the technical collaboration with Honor. “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.”
Honor first showed off the Robot Phone in October of last year with a CGI teaser. The video showed a concept smartphone with a gimbal-mounted camera that extends above the phone, resembling a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 with a phone in place of the handgrip. At the time, the company said it would share more at MWC. This collaboration announcement mentions the Robot Phone again, but doesn’t include any new details. Honor did say, however, that the phone will be coming later this year, so it may be closer to reality than we originally thought.
Press release:
HONOR and ARRI announce strategic technical collaboration to bring ARRI Image Science into next-generation consumer devices
- ARRI and HONOR extend cinematic image science and production workflows into consumer devices
- A bridge from the world of high‑end filmmaking to the next generation of creators
- ARRI technology will debut in HONOR’s upcoming ROBOT PHONE
[Barcelona, Spain – March 01, 2026] Leading AI device ecosystem company HONOR has entered into a strategic technical collaboration with ARRI, the world-renowned designer and manufacturer of professional camera technology for cinematic storytelling. This landmark partnership marks a significant step in extending established cinematic standards into the rapidly evolving world of mobile imaging.
By uniting HONOR’s advanced mobile imaging capabilities with ARRI’s centurylong heritage in defining cinematic image quality, the collaboration reflects a shared ambition to unlock new creative possibilities and extend cinematic standards for visual expression from the world of high-end filmmaking to the next generation of content creators.
“HONOR is pioneering a new era of mobile imaging, where technology exists to inspire creativity and storytelling,” says James Li, CEO of HONOR. “ARRI has defined the visual language of cinema for generations. Through this collaboration, we are bringing those cinematic standards and professional workflows into mobile imaging, enabling creators to craft stories with greater authenticity and emotional depth.”
A Century of Cinematic Excellence as Foundation for Mobile Content Creators
For more than a century, ARRI has helped shape how cinematic stories are told — from the early days of film to today’s most advanced digital camera systems. A commitment that’s been recognized with 20 Scientific and Technical Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“Today, consumer smartphones have already become a serious tool in professional filmmaking, being used on blockbusters across the globe. That’s why we believe it is time to bring these worlds even closer together. For the first time ever, core elements of ARRI Image Science are being integrated directly into a consumer device,” says David Bermbach, Managing Director at ARRI.
Translating ARRI Image Science into Mobile Technology
In cinema, image science is not a filter or an effect — it is the foundation of how an image is created. It determines how colors feel natural, how highlights and shadows are rendered, and how images consistently behave from capture to final screen. Drawing on ARRI’s Image Science foundation, the collaboration applies core cinematic imaging principles to HONOR’s mobile imaging architecture.
“Smartphones operate under fundamentally different constraints: smaller sensors, highly integrated SoCs, different optical stacks, and different bandwidth limits. The challenge is not to replicate cinema hardware, but to translate the underlying principles into compact, real-time mobile architectures,” says Dr. Benedikt von Lindeiner, Vice President at ARRI and responsible for the technical collaboration with HONOR. “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. Creators should be able to move seamlessly from mobile capture into professional post-production workflows.”
The first results of this collaboration will debut in the upcoming HONOR ROBOT PHONE later this year.