Meet the Nubia NaviX Ultra: The “AI Agent” Phone with a Massive 7,100mAh Battery

Nubia has officially taken the wraps off the NaviX Ultra in China, delivering what the company boldly claims is the “world’s first AI agent phone.” Serving as the highly anticipated successor to last year’s M153—affectionately dubbed the first-generation “beanbag” phone—the NaviX Ultra deepens its partnership with ByteDance to fundamentally change how users interact with their mobile apps.

The launch comes just weeks after Nubia’s leadership teased a device capable of orchestrating multi-step tasks across entirely different applications using only a single voice command.

The ByteDance Brain and the “Orange Button”

The centerpiece of the NaviX Ultra is the consumer debut of ByteDance’s Doubao Mobile Assistant. While the previous M153 sold out rapidly last December, it faced growing pains when several major Chinese apps restricted the assistant’s cross-app capabilities. Nubia aims to turn the page with this second-generation release, boasting sweeping upgrades to the AI’s personal memory, task execution, and privacy guardrails.

Hardware meets software with the NaviX Ultra’s defining physical trait: a dedicated, orange-accented AI button that uniquely doubles as a fingerprint sensor—a design choice Nubia cites as an industry first. Repositioned for effortless one-handed use, this button summons an AI that leverages Seed’s latest full-duplex voice model. This means users can talk over the assistant mid-sentence, essentially interrupting the AI just as they would a human in natural conversation.

According to Nubia, the NaviX Ultra is engineered for the real world. It boasts a 48% higher wake-up success rate in noisy environments like subway stations, paired with a 21% boost in sentence recognition accuracy. The assistant is deeply conversational, supporting over ten regional dialects, including Cantonese and Minnan.

Screen Awareness and Deep Integration

The Doubao Mobile Assistant isn’t just listening; it’s looking. The AI is fully context-aware, capable of “reading” what is happening on your screen. Users can ask questions about an image displayed on the phone, point the camera at physical objects for real-time information, or even use the AI during a video call to analyze the live feed.

For productivity, the AI can seamlessly bridge third-party services. Need a ride? The assistant integrates with Cao Cao Mobility. Checking your agenda? It pulls directly from Lark without forcing you to switch apps. It can queue multiple requests, screen calls with custom response scripts, prioritize urgent notifications, and even transcribe and summarize meetings via Lark Notes. Finding an old meeting note is as simple as asking the assistant using natural, conversational language.

Flagship Firepower: Specs That Impress

Beyond the AI, the NaviX Ultra is a hardware powerhouse designed to compete with the best in the industry.

• Display: A stunning 6.78-inch LTPO 2.0 panel boasting a dynamic 1-144Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, and a blinding peak brightness of 4,500 nits. It also features 2160Hz PWM and DC dimming to reduce eye strain.

• Performance: Under the hood, it is powered by the cutting-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, kept cool by a massive 7,100mm² vapor chamber in Nubia’s Galaxy Cooling System.

• Battery: In an engineering marvel, Nubia has managed to pack a staggering 7,100mAh battery into a chassis just 7.62mm thick. It supports 90W wired and 50W wireless fast charging.

• Cameras: The rear setup includes a massive 200-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto lens for long-range zoom.

Privacy and Pricing

Addressing potential privacy concerns tied to such an omnipresent AI, Nubia confirmed that the NaviX Ultra is the first device to complete official registration for its intelligent agent model with Chinese regulators. The operating system also bakes in strict lock-screen permission controls and boasts international security certifications.

The NaviX Ultra is rolling out in China in three distinct configurations:

• 12GB RAM + 512GB Storage: 5,999 yuan (~$840)

• 16GB RAM + 512GB Storage: 6,499 yuan (~$910)

• 16GB RAM + 1TB Storage: 7,499 yuan (~$1,050)

International availability and pricing have not yet been announced, but if Nubia’s past launches are any indication, the NaviX Ultra may eventually see a limited global release.