China is rebuilding the smartphone around AI agents. ZTE’s NaviX sold out in hours.

TL;DR

ZTE showed the NaviX Ultra at WAIC, calling it the first agentic AI smartphone. It runs ByteDance’s Doubao agent. StepFun and Honor showed similar devices.

ZTE showcased the NaviX Ultra at the World AI Conference in Shanghai this week, calling it the world’s first agentic AI smartphone. The device, built under ZTE’s Nubia brand, runs ByteDance’s Doubao AI agent and can be activated by voice or a dedicated button. It comes in four colours and was prototyped in December at 3,499 yuan ($516). The initial 30,000 units sold out quickly and doubled in price on the used market.

ZTE was not alone. StepFun unveiled a device running a proprietary operating system with a built-in agent called Amoo. Honor, the smartphone maker spun off from Huawei, is showcasing an AI agent co-developed with Alibaba that will ship on new devices later this year. The idea is the same across all...

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