Nubia teases Navi X Ultra as 'first AI smartphone'

Just hours before its formal debut, ZTE has revealed the Nubia Navi X Ultra and is boldly calling it the “world’s first smartphone with artificial intelligence.” The phone is set to make its official appearance at WAIC 2026 in Shanghai, running from July 17 to 20.

According to the company’s early promo materials, the Nubia Navi X Ultra will come in four finishes: black, light pink, silver, and blue. The Nubia logo sits in the center of the rear panel, while a horizontal camera module houses three lenses.

Nubia president Ni Fei also apologized for the delay in releasing the phone. He said the device will use ByteDance’s Doubao mobile assistant, which is meant to deliver what he described as a true agent-based experience.

In Nubia’s telling, the software goes beyond answering questions or generating text. It is supposed to understand natural language and independently handle multi-step tasks across different apps. The pitch is for a kind of system-level intelligence that can take real actions on the device, rather than offering the more limited features commonly shown so far.

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ZTE is positioning the Nubia Navi X Ultra as a full-scale flagship for mass production, not a concept device.

The claim lands just days after Chinese company StepFun — an AI startup founded by former Microsoft employees in 2023 — introduced the StepX Neo, which it also described as the world’s first mass-market smartphone with a built-in AI agent capable of completing multi-step tasks from start to finish.