On October 14, Step Terminal officially released its first "Agent phone" STEPX Neo, with a starting price of 3999 yuan. The biggest difference of this phone is that the large model is no longer just a voice assistant, but is directly embedded at the system's base layer, becoming an intelligent agent capable of autonomously executing tasks.
The core highlight of STEPX Neo is "AI doing the work for you." Users only need to give instructions in natural language, and the agent can complete operations across apps without manually tapping through them one by one. The phone's rear screen also displays the agent's background execution progress in real time, keeping users aware of the AI's behavior.
In addition to serving ordinary users, STEPX Neo also opens development tools to makers. Developers can integrate capabilities such as ride-hailing and payments into the agent with just a small amount of code, and can even build an English assistant that automatically arranges study plans. Step Terminal said that purchasing the phone comes with one year of computing power service included.
On the security front, Step Terminal has imposed strict restrictions: for sensitive operations such as payments or deleting files, the system will force a pop-up requiring user confirmation; cloud data is desensitized, and mistakenly deleted content can be restored with one click. Plugins listed in the community also require real-name authentication to prevent malicious programs from slipping in.
Analysts believe the release of STEPX Neo marks a substantive step in the phone industry's transition from "hardware + apps" to "AI-native systems." However, issues such as the boundaries of agent permissions and user privacy protection will remain the focus of market attention.