Skip to main content

STEPX Neo: The AI Phone That Wants to Be Your Friend, Starting at 3999 Yuan

STEPX Neo: The AI Phone That Wants to Be Your Friend, Starting at 3999 Yuan

What if your phone wasn't just smart, but actually intelligent? That's the question STEPX (Step Terminal) posed at its Shanghai launch event, where it unveiled the STEPX Neo—the first phone built natively around a large language model. Priced at 3,999 yuan, it's not just another gadget; it's a statement that AI should be woven into every layer of the device.

A Phone That Looks Like It's from the Future (But Also the Past)

The Neo's design is what STEPX calls "retro-futuristic aesthetic." Think transparent mechanical elements on the back, plus five Easter eggs that nod to AI history. But the real magic is in the sensors: a six-microphone array, a low-power audio perception chip, and the Whisper1.0 sound pickup algorithm give the phone a kind of auditory system. And then there's the back screen—a MiniLED dot-matrix display that acts as the AI's expressive face. It's not just a gimmick; it's a way for the agent to communicate with you beyond text.

Image

The Brain: Step AOS 1.0 and the Step Model Matrix

Under the hood, the Neo runs Step AOS 1.0, the first operating system designed for intelligent agents. It integrates long-term memory, task scheduling, and a security architecture that's "trustable, visible, controllable, and reversible." The system splits into a "user domain" and an "agent domain," keeping your data separate from the AI's. For heavy lifting, the phone relies on a terminal-cloud collaboration: local models handle simple commands and offline tasks, while the cloud tackles complex planning and cross-app decomposition.

A Growing Ecosystem and Tools for Developers

STEPX isn't building this alone. The company introduced Step Studio, a natural language development tool that lets creators tap into the phone's sensors, back screen, and protocols. At the event, Bilibili creators showed off projects like a flight skateboard assistance system and a brain-computer interface that turns thoughts into speech. Meanwhile, the Step Amoo agent has partnered with nearly 100 services—Alipay, WeChat Work, Xiaohongshu, Ctrip, Didi, Gaode, Meituan—enabling AI payments and cross-agent collaborative editing. In other words, the Neo is designed to be useful from day one.

Pricing and Availability: The "Soft and Hard" Model

The Neo comes in carbon black and silicon silver, priced at 3,999 yuan. That includes 12 months of 10 billion tokens per month—a huge amount for AI tasks. And for the first 10,000 users who meet certain criteria, STEPX is offering "Starship Tickets," which let you exchange your current model for a new STEPX terminal at zero cost within five years. Pre-sales started on the evening of October 13th, with official sales beginning October 16th.

Key Points

  • Price: 3,999 yuan for the STEPX Neo, including 12 months of 10 billion tokens monthly.
  • Design: Retro-futuristic look with a transparent mechanical back and five AI-history Easter eggs.
  • Hardware: Six-microphone array, low-power audio chip, Whisper1.0 algorithm, and a MiniLED dot-matrix back screen.
  • OS: Step AOS 1.0 with dual-domain memory (user and agent) and terminal-cloud collaboration.
  • Ecosystem: Partnerships with nearly 100 services, plus Step Studio for developers.
  • Promotion: First 10,000 qualifying users get a free upgrade within five years.

So, is the STEPX Neo the phone of the future? It's certainly a bold attempt to make AI feel less like a tool and more like a companion. And at 3,999 yuan, it's priced to compete with flagship phones—but with a lot more personality.