An AI phone that runs errands: Nubia NaviX Ultra raises questions
Nubia's NaviX Ultra, a production phone promoted as the second-generation "Doubao phone," went on sale last month starting at 5,999 yuan (5,499 yuan after China's national subsidy), with Nubia saying first-sale revenue "broke 100 million in one second." Its assistant can open apps such as WeChat, JD.com and Meituan but cannot yet complete in-app actions: ByteDance's Doubao introduced SAEP, a screen-automation declaration protocol giving third-party apps a 30-day notice period to say whether they accept GUI agent operations, and the commentary warns the device could become a "ByteDance-only phone" if mainstream apps refuse. The piece questions whether the efficiency pitch matches real usage, citing 201 minutes of daily online audiovisual use per user, a meta-analysis of 71 studies with 98,299 participants finding a moderate negative correlation (r = -0.34) between short-video use and cognitive function, and a study of 26,811 students that reported short-term homework gains but declines in later exam scores.
It highlights that AI phone agents depend on third-party app cooperation and user trust, not on model capability alone.