ZTE Unveils AI Assistant-Powered 'NaviX Ultra,' Signaling a Seismic Shift in Chinese Smartphones

Chinese telecommunications equipment giant ZTE has thrown its hat into the ring for reshaping the smartphone market by unveiling the 'NaviX Ultra,' a device that puts an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant front and center. Amid a global contraction in smartphone demand, the company is making a high-stakes bet on an 'agentic AI phone' that autonomously performs tasks at the operating system (OS) level, rather than merely adding superficial AI features.

According to Bloomberg News on the 18th (local time), ZTE debuted the AI agent smartphone 'NaviX Ultra' at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Available in four colors—black, pink, white, and blue—the device's standout feature is the ability to instantly summon ByteDance's popular AI agent 'Doubao' with a voice command or a single press of a dedicated button.

Ni Fei, President of ZTE's Terminal Business Unit and CEO of Nubia, personally demonstrated the NaviX Ultra for attendees on the WAIC exhibition floor. He showcased various functions ranging from real-time photo editing to map generation and travel itinerary planning, though he remained tight-lipped about the new product's specific hardware specifications. ZTE plans to disclose detailed specs later this year.

ZTE is not the first to join the race to integrate AI agents into smartphones in China. The same week, Chinese AI model company StepFun also unveiled a smartphone equipped with its own OS and the AI assistant 'Amoo.' Honor, which was spun off from Huawei, is also developing an agent smartphone based on an AI model co-developed with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA), targeting a launch by the end of this year.

This trend emerges as the global smartphone market is expected to record its steepest decline in history this year. Chinese manufacturers, which have particularly focused on mid-to-low-range budget devices, are bearing the brunt of the market contraction due to low margins and weak pricing power.

Arthur Guo, Research Manager at IDC China, explained that the core concept behind these AI agent smartphones involves designing an 'Agentic Layer' within the OS, enabling the AI to autonomously execute user commands across multiple apps. This agent utilizes both an on-device AI model and a cloud-based AI model. The structure is designed so that frequent tasks requiring minimal latency are handled by the on-device model, while heavy tasks requiring complex computation are processed by the cloud model.

President Ni Fei emphasized, "For AI phones to become mainstream, developers must first shift their mindset," adding, "We need to move away from simply adding features and toward creating agents that focus on 'getting things done.'" He pointed out that many AI phones currently on the market are merely AI features layered on top of existing systems, which actually makes the user experience more cumbersome.

ZTE's foray into AI phones was foreshadowed late last year. In December of last year, ZTE released a prototype device under the Nubia brand for 3,499 yuan (approximately $517), and the initial batch of 30,000 units sold out quickly. According to local media outlet Jiemian, prices on the secondary market even doubled the original cost.

The emergence of new agentic phones is expected to further intensify the battle for consumers in the Chinese market. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has shown a strong rebound in China since late last year and recently secured approval from Beijing authorities to launch 'Apple Intelligence' in the country through partnerships with Alibaba and Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU). IDC forecasts that AI smartphones will account for more than half of China's smartphone market in 2026.