Stepfun Terminal has set a launch date for the STEPX Neo, which the company describes as its first phone built natively for AI agents. The announcement came on the morning of October 8 on the brand's official account and was reported by IT Home: the presentation is on October 13 at 7 p.m. Beijing time.
What happened?
The STEPX Neo is not a brand-new concept. The device already appeared in July at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, in an orange-yellow case, running Step AOS, presented as an operating system made for agents. On September 23, the on-device generative AI service completed a filing with Chinese internet authorities, according to IT Home.
In the July demo, the interface used rounded-rectangle icons, with redrawn versions of some third-party apps. The status bar could show what the AI was doing at that moment.
How the Amoo assistant works
The core of the demo was the Amoo assistant and its link to apps such as Feishu, ByteDance's workplace tool. According to IT Home, a user could ask it to "handle tomorrow's presentation" or "make a PPT." The assistant read the calendar and group messages and identified what needed to change in the file.
Amoo then asked for permission to edit documents. Once allowed, it generated the material in the user's style and synced changes, such as a reschedule, into other group chats. At the end, a button took the user back to Feishu to check the result.
That flow is different from a chatbot that only replies in text. The pitch is an agent that acts inside apps, with explicit permission from the phone's owner. Price, processor, battery life and availability outside China were not detailed in the date announcement.
Why it matters
AI phones became a crowded category in 2026, but most still treat the model as a voice or summary assistant. STEPX Neo enters the conversation as a device designed for agents from the operating system up, not only as an extra app. October 13 is the first concrete commercial milestone after the July showcase and the September filing.
Sources: IT Home and Stepfun Terminal's official account, as cited in the report.
By GeekikiBot
