The Qualcomm chipset offers very good performance for still image processing, but for video, its not good enough: Honor explains why it created a dedicated imaging chipset for its gimbal-equipped Robot Phone

Date:
Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Description:
In an interview with TechRadar, Honor explained why it developed a custom imaging chip to sit alongside the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Robot Phone.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Writing about chipsets can be a bit like watching paint dry. These tiny mobile brains get more powerful every year, but 99% of smartphone users dont get anywhere close to using their full potential. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, for instance, came out in 2023, but most people would be hard-pressed to notice a performance difference between that chipset and Qualcomms latest, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which powers most of todays best Android phones .

Its a classic case of diminishing returns semiconductor manufacturers can keep raising the chipset performance ceiling, but if phones cant make use of all that extra power (and for several years, they havent been able to), the tangible gains are small at best, and non-existent at worst. You can imagine my surprise, then, when Honor described the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset in its new Robot Phone as not good enough for pro-grade video capture. Did we just skyrocket through that seemingly impenetrable performance ceiling?
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Well, its a bit more nuanced than that. As Honors President of Hardware Engineering, Yang Liu, explained to me in a group interview at the Robot Phones China launch: The core CPU [in the Robot Phone] is the Snapdragon [8 Elite Gen 5], but Honor has developed a dedicated Image Signal Processor
(ISP) the Honor Imaging Chip H1. The processing [demands] are very high, so we must use a dedicated chipset for that, not just the Qualcomm chipset. The Qualcomm chipset offers very good performance for still image processing, but for video, its not good enough for now. @techradar

Venus and Flower - Austin Farwell All phones have an ISP (or multiple ISPs) built into their main chipsets indeed, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 was the first mobile chipset to feature triple 20-bit ISPs, which, in laymans terms, means its a very capable chipset for photo capture. But the best camera
phones think the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Vivo X300 Pro feature custom ISPs alongside those in their respective chipsets to further enhance camera performance. You may like The Honor Robot Phone is ridiculous, remarkable,
and made me feel like a kid again The Honor 600 Pro has some absolutely crazy AI video features Honor 600 review: I was blown away by this phones blazing display, epic battery life, and occasionally uncanny AI

Thats what Honor has done with Robot Phone, except its not framing its new H1 Imaging Chip as a complement to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but as a necessary addition to allow the gimbal-equipped Robot Phone to fulfil its potential as a market-leading video capture device.

Built in partnership with German film camera manufacturer ARRI, the H1
enables real-time on-device image processing thats things like white balance adjustment, tone mapping, and exposure control and supports 10-bit ARRI
LogC3 recording and ARRI Wide Gamut 3. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The Honor H1 is a custom-made imaging chip
for the Robot Phone (Image credit: Honor) Its a formidable piece of micro-engineering, and my impression is that ARRI a 109-year-old company
with exceptionally high quality standards was only willing to partner with a burgeoning Chinese tech company on the Robot Phone because Honor could
provide it with the level of processing power necessary to uphold those high standards.

Pixels are very precious to us, David Bermbach, ARRIs Chief Product Officer, told me in the same interview. [Working on the Robot Phone] was a challenge, but also an opportunity, because mass-produced devices have much more functionality on a smaller scale than special devices for one industry, where we sell a few thousand [units].

So the task for us was to basically analyse all the different little Lego pieces on the different modules that exist in the phone and [figure out] how to connect them, how to utilize them, to basically rebuild as much of our pipeline as possible. And luckily, the processing power of the Robot Phone is extremely high. What to read next Honor Magic V6 review: the battery life and durability king Leica says generative AI makes perfect sense for smartphones, but admits it's unlikely to come to Leica M cameras I tested the 7 top flagship phones of 2026 here's which models I recommend As well as its 200MP main camera, the Robot Phone features a 200MP telephoto and 50MP ultra-wide (Image credit: Future) Also, theres not just one camera [in the phone], Bermbach continued, there are several cameras. And we had to [figure out] how to get the best out of them, how to use the tools at hand, and optimize them towards [producing] a technically good picture, from our perspective, but
also an artistically good picture [from a smartphone users perspective].

As I wrote in my hands-on impressions of the Robot Phone , its 200MP, 1/1.28-inch gimbal camera produces dynamic, professional-grade footage or at least footage comparable to what you can achieve with larger, dedicated gimbals like the DJI Osmo Pocket. The key difference here, of course, is that youre getting the benefits of a gimbal and a phone in a single device, as
well as ARRIs cinema-standard processing, as Liu puts it.

Evidently, then, Honors H1 Imaging Chip is an impressive innovation, and
while the Robot Phone has its problems it gets noticeably hot after
prolonged filming sessions, for instance, and isnt anywhere near as durable
as other flagship phones Im excited to see how far creators can push its unique video capabilities.

This [device] is so revolutionary that we dont even know all the use cases [yet], Bermbach told me in our interview hes clearly excited too. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/honor-phones/the-qualcomm-chipset-offers-very -good-performance-for-still-image-processing-but-for-video-its-not-good-enough -honor-explains-why-it-created-a-dedicated-imaging-chipset-for-its-gimbal-equi pped-robot-phone


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