Smartphone fans pay attention to annual tech conference MWC for its glut of new releases. This year we saw foldables from Motorola, camera phones from Xiaomi and hybrid e-readers from TCL.
But it’s also a proving ground for new concept devices, and MWC 2026 was no different. These aren’t phones that’ll go on sale, but ones designed to show off a new kind of tech that could come to future mobiles.
Case in point: Before foldable phones became relatively common, they started life as a constellation of concepts from various companies.
MWC 2026 had a few concept devices, including sliding phones from Samsung Display and folding gaming tablets from Lenovo, but two big ones stole headlines. You’ve probably heard of both, if you read tech news.
At the conference, I got up close and personal with both. One showed the promising future for tech I’m already excited about, and another was just a reflection of the sorry state of gadgetery we’re currently in.
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No fawner over the Honor
You’re a wizard, ARRI
I’m going to start with the device which I was less sold on: the Honor Robot Phone. Much of the tech-press world loves this much-teased device, although some find it unsettling.
This is your average smartphone… except it has a GoPro-like action cam attached on a gimbal-like stalk, which can follow you with its gaze (and rotate to do so). This camera is technically its rear camera, and it springs from the back when you need it.
The camera was created in collaboration with movie camera company ARRI, for a reason that I couldn’t quite get my head around. But photography wasn’t the focus of the Honor’s showcase, and the robot camera wasn’t primarily for getting snaps. Sorry, ARRI.
At MWC, Honor had a few phones like these held up on beams, far from the reach of grabbing journalists (hence why I didn’t get hands-on with the thing).
The demonstration was of the camera-enabled AI assistant; basically like ChatGPT or Gemini except with a giant eyeball on a stalk following you around.
It could do little dances, respond to hand gestures and follow you around, but in general it seemed to be like your average chatbot — complete with stutters, crashes and long confused pauses before the phone gave up on trying to answer a prompt.
In its defense, there were a legion of onlookers all vying for its attention, but that proviso doesn’t make it any more impressive.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t bowled over by what I saw. This crane-like structure doesn’t seem to add anything new to the smartphone experience, and just exacerbates one of the irritating parts of modern tech: borderline-useless AI chatbots.
Apparently a phone bearing this tech will be released at some point in 2026. Honor’s going to have its work cut out for it justifying why we need this.
All aglow over the Tecno
In a good mood for Moda
Much more interesting to me was an unnamed modular phone from Tecno. I tested the Moda model, an incredibly thin 4.9mm device which hides greatness that grows from its back (an Atom model was also shown at the show, but I missed it).
The Tecno counter had plenty of accessories, which you can magnetically snap to the back of the phone to slowly build it into something bigger (Moda and Atom have different add-ons, so I’m about to describe ones for the former).
There were lanyards, power packs, clips… and, most importantly of all (and interesting to booth attendees) camera lenses.
Two of these were available to play around with at the booth, both zoom lenses. One was the kind of periscope zoom you’d find built into a premium phone, which could snap over the base phone’s single camera.
The other was a massive module with a giant lens (I think 100x), grip and shutter button. It didn’t actually sit over the phone’s camera at all, so I presume it has its own sensor.
Unlike the Honor, I did get to play with the Tecno. I appreciated how firm the magnetic lock was on the modules, and how multiple could be used at once, though I had problems getting the periscope lens to line up properly.
The modules use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mmWave, with pogo pins connecting them to the phone.
Past modular phones I’ve tested have been plagued by the issues of adding or removing modules. It can be time-consuming and complicated. Not so with the Moda, and I was plonking on and removing add-ons like I was dropping magnets onto my refrigerator.
A module in modular
Old is new again
Modular phones are nothing new; brands like LG, Motorola and HMD have all contributed to the long history of modular smartphones. Compared to Robot phones, at least, they’re old hat.
But my time with the Tecno reminded me of something: tech improves over time.
We’re living in an age where wireless tools like Qi2.2 and Nearby Share can convey loads of power or data in a short time, and where components have shrunk to the point that gadgets can be quite small. These additions work much better than in the Moto Mod days of yore.
It’s modular phones’ time to shine. Tech has caught up to the concept, so now a modular phone offers genuinely helpful use cases that could work very well.
I’ve seen enough MagSafe wireless power banks that are used as permanent extensions of a phone; one could argue that iPhones are already modular.
The caveat is that Apple has scale: its modular tech works because third-party manufacturers want to make snap-on extras for iPhones, and it makes sense financially.
I’m not sure Tecno is in the same boat. It’s a brand I know exclusively from popping by its booth at various MWCs.
Why I hope Tecno is the future
Forward-thinking tech
Despite (or because of) writing about tech for a living, I don’t use chatbots. Beyond the various environmental, cognitive, and ethical issues with these AI tools, it’s always quicker to do a task oneself, than to ask a confused computer to do it.
I just don’t get chatbots, and I hate how the addition of one is usually counted as a selling point in gadgets, in lieu of anything useful.
All we saw of the Honor Robot Phone at MWC was chatbot: the phone; the gimbal, and moving camera. Ad ARRI tech is all for the purpose of some smart assistant that seems anything but.
I know AI is the name of the game in modern tech, with companies preferring to add the AI name to more things rather than actually think up new and useful features, but the Robot Phone just acted as a reminder of the sorry state of consumer tech right now.
No, it’s modular mobiles that I hope the future holds. It’s not so unlikely either, as Tecno isn’t alone, given that Infinix also recently showed off magnetic accessories for its colorful Android phones.
