After a day of traversing the Mobile World Congress show floor, I felt more than a little confused. I was about to film a video, and worried that I didn’t do my best, but Honor’s Robot Phone did not agree.

“What do you think of my hair?” I asked this. The pop-up camera located on top of the device rotated on its axis, looking at me up and down.

“Your long flowing blonde hair looks soft and shiny,” she told me. “It pairs really well with your black dress, giving you a warm and vibrant feeling, which is great for this tech event!”

I’m still not sure I believe it, but it’s definitely the confidence boost I need right now.

I will hold my hands up and admit that Honor said it first build a robot phoneI never thought it would see the light of day. But all credit to the Chinese tech company – it actually delivers.

At CES in January, I saw an early, unusable version of the phone, and this week at MWCI finally got to see it in action. Inside the back of the phone, hidden by a sliding cover, is a robot arm with a gimbal and a camera. To pull the camera out of its shell, you raise your palm over the front camera, turn the same hand, and it pops out.

The camera has AI object tracking and can lock onto you while you’re filming or interacting with it, following you even if you turn the phone. It was the way it was able to look me up and down and tell me that my hair and clothes were working well for me.

Over the years, we have seen the influx of AI coming smartphonesbut currently, that results in software changes — not hardware. The Robot Phone flips that trend on its head by changing the entire design of a phone to imbue it with physical AI capabilities.

AI is changing fast, Honor’s Robot Phone Product Expert Thomas Bai told me as he demoed the device at the company’s booth. Now, he added, it’s time for the phone’s body to catch up with its brain.

Read more: First Steps? Honor’s Humanoid Robot Makes Its Debut With Moonwalk and Backflip

How do you put a robot inside a phone?

I’m not the only one who thinks Honor might be trying to achieve the impossible by putting a robot inside a phone. The company also isn’t sure it will work. It went to a micro motor company, which told Honor it couldn’t help, Bai said.

However, Honor must be alone. It realized that the motor must meet two standards, said Bai. “One is very light, and the second is very strong.” That rang a bell, he added, “because it was the same challenge we faced when we built the foldable hinges.”

In that sense, Honor’s foldable phones are like brand new Magic V6walking so that the Robot Phone can run (or at least spin on a three-axis gimbal). The same material used by Honor for its folding hinges — super steel and titanium alloy — is now inside the micro motor, which is 70% smaller than anything currently available on the market.

This isn’t the hardest part of building the Robot Phone. “Space is the ultimate challenge, because inside a flagship smartphone, every millimeter counts,” Bai said. Despite this, Honor does not need to make any compromises, he added.

“Everyone says, if you want to put a gimbal on a phone, you have to sacrifice battery life,” Bai said. Once again, the skill Honor has got in making the ultra-thin, ultra-hungry foldables is at play here. It’s the same tech silicon-carbon battery that the power of the V6 is inside the Robot Phone.

The target market for the Robot Phone, which Honor wants to start selling in the second half of this year, is clearly content creators; the type of people who currently use a DJI Osmo Pocket. It certainly gets their attention — nobody wants to carry two devices when one does — but people who own Osmos tend to have high standards for image quality.

Will Robot Phone be able to pair with Osmo? “Sure,” said Bai. “We are very confident about our video quality.” He pointed to the newly announced partnership with Honor Arri, a camera company loved by cinematographers for its pro-level shooting, as well as the current capabilities of the company’s phone camera. “It will all be implemented inside the Robot Phone,” he said.

The 200-megapixel sensor, combined with stabilization and what Honor calls AI Spinshot (intelligent 90- and 180-degree rotational movement for fluid, cinematic transitions) is excellent, but we have to put it to the test ourselves to be sure.

In my short demo time with the phone, I can say that it was definitely able to swivel fast enough to follow me as I moved, and I definitely appreciated the compliments it gave me not only on my hair, but on my outfit, which it said was ideal for a slightly cold and cloudy day in Barcelona.

At the end of my demo, while the Robot Phone and I were dancing next to the Believers by Imagine DragonsI almost felt like we were friends. It certainly wouldn’t have been my first choice of song, but that’s the part of true friendship – you sometimes have to accept each other’s bad taste in music in order to bond.

Check it out: Honor Unveils First Humanoid Robot at MWC

01:26