StepFun’s device unit launches the STEPX Neo ‘LLM-native agent phone’ at 3,999 yuan, bundled with 10 billion tokens a month for a year
Partly confirmed
The takeaway
On Oct 13, 2026 in Shanghai, StepFun’s device unit (阶跃终端) launched the STEPX Neo “early edition” (先行版), which it calls the first large-model-native agent phone.
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 13 October 2026
Your AI and this story
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- Grok 4.7135 days after its cutoff
None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 105 days before it.
Key facts
- Event: ‘Ready Builder One’, Shanghai, Oct 13, 2026 (Yesky via Sina Tech). Product name: STEPX Neo 先行版 (early edition); colors carbon black and silicon silver (MyDrivers)
- Price: 3,999 yuan for the only version, 16GB RAM + 256GB storage, described as a ‘full-stack price’ (全栈价) for the ‘软硬模’ bundle: Step models, Step AOS, Step Studio and the phone (MyDrivers; IT Home via 17173)
- Dates: pre-sale Oct 13 at 21:00; open sale Oct 16 at 10:13 (Beijing time)
- STEPX Token Plan: buyers get a quota of 10 billion tokens (百亿 Token) a month for 12 consecutive months. Which models the quota covers and what happens after 12 months were not stated in the reports read
- Chipset: reports say ‘Snapdragon 8 series’ without naming the model (IT Home). A Weibo tech blogger (WHYLAB) wrote Snapdragon 8 Gen 5; this is unconfirmed. A 6.36-inch screen appears in user hands-on posts, not in an official spec sheet we read
- Step AOS 1.0: an agent-native operating system with long-term memory, task scheduling and safety mechanisms at the system layer; ‘dual-domain memory’ (a user domain for personal information and preferences, an agent domain for knowledge and methods); principles stated as trusted, visible, controllable, reversible (可信、可见、可控、可逆)
- Device vs cloud: quick tasks such as alarms and system settings run on the device, some offline; for information queries and single-app or multi-app tasks a cloud model plans and splits the task and the device executes it. The launch reports do not name the on-device model; StepFun’s July announcement called it StepEdge. IT Home names Step 5 Preview as a Step model (in connection with Tencent’s WorkBuddy)
- Amoo (阶跃Amoo) agent: can call system-level functions, use Alipay life services with the user’s authorization, work across apps, and show its status on the rear MiniLED dot-matrix sub-screen; users can manage its permissions and memory and see task progress
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- Partners: ‘nearly 100 companies or products’, including Alipay, Tencent, Ctrip, Didi, Jianying (CapCut), Amap and Meituan. Alipay: system-level agent cooperation and customised AI payment; STEPX is described as the first device maker to join Alipay Vibe Pay. Tencent: WorkBuddy, WeCom and WeRead at launch. Jianying connects through the A2A protocol
- Developers: Step Studio, an ‘AI-native IDE’ that builds apps, games, agents and Skills from natural-language descriptions; the system exposes sensors, camera and the rear screen and supports MCP and A2A
- Hardware extras: six-microphone array, a low-power audio-sensing chip and a pickup algorithm called Whisper 1.0 (name as reported; not OpenAI’s Whisper as far as the reports say); transparent, ‘retro-future’ design
- Amoo Growth Plan: the first 10,000 users who meet task targets get a ‘Star Ticket’ (星辰船票) to swap the Neo for any new STEPX device within five years at no cost
- Background: StepFun announced the STEPX brand, StepAOS, Amoo, the on-device model StepEdge and the Neo on July 13, 2026 in Shanghai, where chairman Yin Qi presented the phone (Xinhua, July 14; the Xinhua page is marked as promotional content). No price or date was given then
- Not verified: sales numbers; the national-standard ‘L3’ AI-terminal grading mentioned in pre-launch reports does not appear in the launch reports read; no executive quotes from the Oct 13 event were found
What happened
StepFun (阶跃星辰), a Shanghai model lab, set up a device unit and in July 2026 announced a hardware brand, STEPX, with an operating system built around agents instead of apps. On Oct 13 the first product went on sale: the STEPX Neo early edition. The company prices it as one package of phone, operating system, developer tool and model access, at 3,999 yuan, and adds a year of model usage (10 billion tokens a month).
The phone’s agent, Amoo, is part of the system. Simple commands run locally. For larger requests a cloud model plans the steps and the phone carries them out across apps, with partners such as Alipay, Tencent’s WorkBuddy and WeCom, Ctrip, Didi, Meituan, Amap and Jianying exposing their services to the agent through protocols such as MCP and A2A. A small rear screen shows what the agent is doing.
Why it matters
Most “AI phones” add an assistant to Android. This is a model lab selling its own handset where the agent is the main interface and the token allowance is part of the price, which tests whether model companies can reach users through hardware. It arrives in the same week as Ant’s LingGuang and Alibaba’s Qwen Go personal-agent betas.
Limits of this entry: it is written from Chinese tech-press reports of the launch event; StepFun’s own launch page was not found. The exact chipset, the name of the on-device model in the shipping phone, and the terms of the token plan are not confirmed.
Sources
6 sources from 6 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
6 sources: 5 press, 1 reaction
Press
- Sina Tech / Yesky (Oct 13, 2026): 阶跃终端正式发布STEPX Neo：主打跨应用执行任务 售价3999起finance.sina.com.cn, press
- MyDrivers (Oct 13, 2026): 首款大模型原生智能体手机！阶跃STEPX Neo先行版发布：3999元news.mydrivers.com, press
- IT Home via 17173 (Oct 13, 2026): STEPX Neo 先行版发布：骁龙 8 系芯片，全栈价 3999 元起news.17173.com, press
- Xinhua (July 14, 2026): 阶跃星辰推出 STEPX 终端品牌 首款大模型原生智能体手机同期亮相news.cn, press
- Sina Tech / IT Home (Oct 8, 2026): launch set for Oct 13 at 19:00finance.sina.cn, press
Reactions
- Weibo via Sina (WHYLAB, Oct 13, 2026): launch post with chipset claimsina.cn, discussion
Changes
- Filed (outcome of the upcoming item StepFun’s STEPX Neo, an ‘LLM-native agent phone’, launches Oct 13)