Gadgets
Nubia Launches NaviX Ultra, Its Doubao-Powered AI Agent Phone
Nubia launched the NaviX Ultra in China on Sept. 16 around ByteDance's consumer Doubao Mobile Assistant, with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a 7,100mAh battery, and an orange side key that wakes the agent.
SHENZHEN, China · Kenji Watanabe, Gadgets · Sep 16 2026
SHENZHEN, China - Nubia, the ZTE-owned handset brand, on Sept. 16 launched the NaviX Ultra in China, pitching the phone as a mass-market AI agent device built around ByteDance’s consumer Doubao Mobile Assistant rather than a conventional voice assistant bolted onto apps.
The company calls the software stack Doubao Phone 2.0 territory: a spoken, cross-app agent that can hand off multi-step tasks, read what is on screen or in a video feed, keep a personal memory bank, and run some work in the background. Chinese coverage of the afternoon launch described it as the consumer version of Doubao Mobile Assistant after an earlier technical preview, with Nubia claiming end-to-end task success above 80 percent in its own tests.
Hardware is built to advertise that agent pitch. The NaviX Ultra puts an orange-accented side key that doubles as a fingerprint sensor for one-press wake of the assistant, a design Nubia says is an industry first. The phone runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, measures about 7.62 millimeters thick, and carries a 7,100mAh battery with 90W wired and 50W wireless charging. The display is a 6.78-inch LTPO panel with a 1-144Hz adaptive refresh rate and peak brightness listed at up to about 4,500 nits.
Photo: Nubia
Photo: Nubia
Launch-day reporting from Gizmochina and Chinese outlets including Sina Digital puts the camera trio at a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto. Earlier pre-launch write-ups had floated a different primary-camera figure, so Techtember is following the more specific launch-day specs. People’s Financial News and related Chinese coverage also noted LPDDR5X memory from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) alongside Samsung and other suppliers.
List prices open at 5,999 yuan for 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, with 16GB/512GB at 6,499 yuan and 16GB/1TB at 7,499 yuan. State subsidy programs in China can bring the entry configuration down to about 5,499 yuan, according to the same domestic reporting. Sales channels named at launch include ZTE’s online store plus JD.com, Tmall, Douyin, and Pinduoduo. There is no confirmed Western launch window yet. The NaviX Ultra remains a China-first product for now, aimed at buyers who want an agent phone rather than another Snapdragon flagship with a chatbot sticker.
