--- title: "WAIC Agent Smartphone Surge Survey: What Cards Do Honor, StepFun, and ZTE Hold?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/293108667.md" description: "Who will emerge as the ultimate winner remains highly uncertain" datetime: "2026-07-19T01:23:12.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/293108667.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293108667.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/293108667.md) --- # WAIC Agent Smartphone Surge Survey: What Cards Do Honor, StepFun, and ZTE Hold? Author | Huang Yu Over the past two years, although smartphone manufacturers have launched so-called "AI phones," they have not truly revolutionized human-computer interaction. Now, with the rise of Agents, the industry has found a new breakthrough point. At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which opened on July 17, Honor, ZTE, and StepFun simultaneously showcased their AI smartphones. Honor's RobotPhone is positioned as the "world's first robot phone," while StepFun's STEPX Neo and ZTE's Nubia Navi X Ultra both aim to claim the title of the "world's first AI agent smartphone." RobotPhone In terms of product form factor, the AI phones from ZTE and StepFun retain the traditional slate smartphone design, whereas Honor has made a breakthrough by integrating a professional gimbal camera into the body, capable of extending and rotating. Nubia Navi X Ultra All three AI phones retain traditional app interfaces, but their ability to "get things done" has significantly improved compared to previous AI phones. STEPX Neo The main approach for all is to add a layer of agent entry points on top of the existing mobile internet ecosystem, capable of understanding user intent, scheduling applications, and executing tasks. As a large model manufacturer, StepFun faces competition not only from traditional smartphone makers but also from the tech giants backing them. In addition to ZTE's partnership with ByteDance, Honor has also partnered with Alibaba for this launch. Wall Street Insight learned at the WAIC site that Honor defines its RobotPhone as an AI-concept smartphone, integrating AI phone features, embodied intelligence, and camera modules. This marks the first time Honor has demonstrated the RobotPhone's ability to perform tasks automatically, revealing that it is built based on Alibaba's Qwen large language model. Staff on-site highlighted the RobotPhone's ability to execute complex tasks simultaneously, noting that task execution is completed through a combination of methods including tool invocation, MCP, A2A, and GUI Agents. Wall Street Insight also experienced this firsthand by issuing a command to Honor's AI assistant YOYO: "Help me buy a sun umbrella on Xiaohongshu." YOYO quickly began executing the task automatically using GUI mode, allowing observers to see the entire process of the phone simulating user operations. However, the system paused before the final payment, requiring user confirmation for the transaction. This detail indicates that Honor currently retains a manual confirmation mechanism for high-risk operations involving funds and payments. The so-called GUI (Graphical User Interface) involves AI recognizing screen content and simulating human actions such as clicking, swiping, and typing to complete tasks, without requiring application authorization for access. The Doubao phone assistant previously adopted this approach. On-site staff told Wall Street Insight that the demo units currently on display are primarily showcasing the boundary capabilities of YOYO. "Theoretically, YOYO has the capability to attempt to call any app. However, which applications can actually be invoked when consumers receive the phone will depend on the final cooperation agreements reached between the company and the application vendors." Huang Fei, Honor's Chief AI Scientist, also released Honor's Agentic OS technical framework on July 18, detailing the connotations of the next-generation terminal operating system's four major characteristics: intent-driven, natural interaction, proactive intelligence, and innate cross-device capability. He proposed that the essence of Agentic OS is not "adding an AI assistant to the system," but rather reconstructing a new type of operating system centered on "intent" and "tasks." StepFun, which had announced its intention to enter the smartphone market personally before WAIC, showcased its physical device at the conference for the first time. However, the exterior design of the STEPX Neo was not fully revealed, with the focus instead on demonstrating its agent capabilities. Users can access their personal agent, StepFun Amoo, through the "Agent Space" displayed on the phone's home screen. Amoo features two distinctive modules: the "Aquatic Market" and the "Repair Shop." According to introductions, the "Aquatic Market" includes agent products introduced through external partnerships; the "Repair Shop" contains three core settings: Soul Configuration—used to configure what kind of assistant the Agent is; User Identity—used to tell the Agent who the user is; and AI Agent Security—managing agent permissions and operational safety. Thanks to settings like the "Repair Shop," Amoo can better understand the user, enabling more accurate task execution. During the on-site demonstration of how Amoo executes tasks, it reads user chat logs, calendar information, and other data, but the phone interface does not jump to other applications. It only jumps to third-party applications when confirming the final task result. Yin Qi, Chairman of StepFun, previously revealed in media interviews that Amoo requires authorization before accessing third-party applications and does not adopt the GUI mode. Therefore, the prerequisite for Amoo to successfully execute tasks is that all third-party applications involved in the task must have reached authorization cooperation agreements with StepFun. Although ZTE brought the second-generation Doubao phone, the Nubia Navi X Ultra, to the WAIC site, it was placed in a display case and not available for hands-on experience, nor were there staff members performing operational demonstrations. Wall Street Insight learned from insiders at ZTE that the mass-production-ready Nubia Navi X Ultra may also have to make compromises. According to a report by LatePost, the new generation of Doubao phones has adjusted its cooperation methods with super apps such as Alibaba and Tencent. It will not read screens or simulate clicks to operate apps like a human (the so-called GUI technology) after user authorization. Only if these applications provide MCP services themselves, open up partial data, and allow control, can the Doubao phone invoke them. This outcome is not surprising, after all, for mass-produced phones, the first issue companies must consider is legal compliance and risk, and GUI technology easily triggers resistance. At the end of 2025, the "Doubao Phone"—nubia M153, jointly launched by ByteDance and ZTE, successfully allowed more people to see the capabilities of AI Agents operating across apps in the form of an "engineering prototype." Now, it can be said that mass-produced AI agent smartphones are imminent. In the future, what truly determines the industry landscape may not be who shouts "world's first" the loudest. As the battle for AI agent smartphones truly heats up, who will emerge as the ultimate winner remains highly uncertain. After all, the ability to execute tasks is no longer the most difficult part; the challenge lies in which company can build a richer ecosystem of services. Meanwhile, consumer demands for basic performance metrics such as imaging, battery life, and system smoothness will cause some players with insufficient capabilities to fall behind. For Honor, its advantage lies in its mature terminal capabilities; for StepFun, the greatest potential for imagination comes from its native Agent operating system and model capabilities; and ZTE hopes to leverage deeper system integration with Doubao to seize early recognition for the new category of AI agent smartphones. However, the challenges faced by all three are highly consistent: how to encourage more super apps to open up their capabilities, how to establish unified standards for agent invocation, and how to find a balance between security, privacy, and automation. More importantly, the competitors they truly need to face may not be each other. Leading smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, Huawei, and Samsung have also created system-level Agents. Once AI agent smartphones are proven to have mature commercial value, these giants also possess the ability to quickly follow suit and achieve scaled implementation. ### Related Stocks - [00763.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00763.HK.md) - [000063.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/000063.CN.md) - [ZTCOY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ZTCOY.US.md) - [BABA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BABA.US.md) - [09988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09988.HK.md) - [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [SSNGY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SSNGY.US.md) - [89988.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89988.HK.md) - [HBBD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HBBD.SG.md) - [SMSN.UK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMSN.UK.md) ## Related News & Research - [Vertu wants executives to pay $6,880 for an AI agent — here’s how it actually performs](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293079473.md) - [ZTE, Chinese Society of Engineers to jointly open tech training center in Vietnam](https://longbridge.com/en/news/292712033.md) - [WAIC Observation: Crowded Consensus, Huge Bubble](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293227888.md) - [Honor confirms August global launch of its first Robot Phone at WAIC 2026](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293152701.md) - [WAIC Observation: Over Seventy Events and a Future Arriving Ahead of Schedule](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293269568.md)