Honor’s Robot Phone faces dust vulnerability after durability tests reveal moving camera weakness

While Honor’s Robot Phone shows strong structural integrity, its innovative moving camera mechanism proves sensitive to dust and grit, raising concerns for real-world use in dusty environments.

HONOR’s Robot Phone has emerged from durability testing with its structural reputation largely intact, but its unusual moving camera has exposed a practical weakness: dust and grit can interfere with the mechanism. In tests carried out by JerryRigEverything, the handset behaved like a well-built premium device in most standard abuse checks, yet the gimbal-style camera assembly proved far more vulnerable than the rest of the phone.

The screen scratched at around level 6 on the Mohs scale, with deeper marks appearing at level 7, which is broadly in line with current flagship phones. The display also withstood direct flame for 26 seconds without visible damage. HONOR appears to have used titanium in the deployable camera mechanism, with aluminium in the frame and metal elements across much of the rear panel, helping explain the device’s strong result in the bend test. The chassis showed very little flex and kept its form under pressure.

The weakness came when the camera mechanism was exposed to a heavy build-up of dirt and fine particles. The robotic arm jammed, and although it could be moved again after cleaning, it would not fully retract as intended. Notebookcheck reported that compressed air did not restore the gimbal’s function after contamination, underlining how sensitive the system is to debris.

That matters because the Robot Phone carries only an IP54 rating, which offers limited protection against dust and splashes compared with the IP68 standard common in many high-end smartphones. The test results suggest that while HONOR has built a sturdy handset, owners will need to avoid beaches, dusty paths and other environments where fine particles could compromise the camera’s mechanical parts. Other reports on the same test reached a similar conclusion, noting that the phone’s engineering is impressive but that its moving camera remains a clear point of failure in dirty conditions.