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STEPX Neo: The First Large-Model Native Phone Lands at 3999 Yuan

STEPX (Step Terminal) took the wraps off its first large-model-native agent phone, the STEPX Neo, at a Shanghai event this week. The device is priced at 3,999 yuan and represents what the company calls a full-stack integration of hardware, operating system, and large models.

The Neo doesn't look like your average slab. STEPX describes its design language as "retro-futuristic," with a transparent mechanical back panel and five Easter eggs that nod to milestones in AI history. But the real story is under the hood.

On the hardware side, STEPX built what it calls sensory and expressive organs. A six-microphone array, a low-power audio perception chip, and the Whisper1.0 sound pickup algorithm work together as an auditory system. The body also carries a dual-screen setup: a main display and an independent MiniLED dot-matrix back screen that acts as a dynamic expression space for the AI agent.

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The software is where things get interesting. The Neo runs Step AOS 1.0, which STEPX bills as the first agent-native operating system. It integrates long-term memory, task scheduling, and a security architecture the company describes as "trustable, visible, controllable, and reversible." Memory is split into two domains: one for the user, one for the agent.

At the brain level, the phone relies on the Step large-model matrix through a terminal-cloud collaboration mechanism. The on-device model handles simple local commands and offline operations, while the cloud model takes on complex planning and cross-application task decomposition.

STEPX is also courting developers. The company introduced Step Studio, a natural-language AI terminal-native development tool, and opened up underlying sensor, back screen, and protocol capabilities. At the event, Bilibili creators showed off projects built with the tool—including a flight skateboard assistance system and a brain-computer interface that turns thoughts into speech.

On the ecosystem front, the Step Amoo agent has already integrated with nearly 100 partners. The list includes Alipay, Tencent (WeChat Work, WeChat Reading), Xiaohongshu, Ctrip, Didi, Gaode, and Meituan. The integrations support AI payments, A2A cross-agent collaborative editing, and other end-to-end service fulfillment.

Pricing and availability

The preliminary version of the STEPX Neo adopts what the company calls a "soft and hard model" full-stack pricing strategy. It costs 3,999 yuan and comes in carbon black and silicon silver. Buyers get 12 months of 10 billion tokens per month. The first 10,000 users who meet certain task criteria will receive "Starship Tickets," which grant the right to exchange the current model for a new STEPX terminal at zero cost within the next five years.

Pre-sales began on the evening of October 13, and the device goes on sale October 16.

Key Points

  • STEPX Neo is the first large-model-native agent phone, priced at 3,999 yuan.
  • Hardware includes a six-microphone auditory system and a MiniLED dot-matrix back screen.
  • Step AOS 1.0 separates user and agent memory domains for security and control.
  • Terminal-cloud collaboration splits simple on-device tasks from complex cloud-based planning.
  • Step Studio opens development to natural-language tools and underlying hardware capabilities.
  • Ecosystem partners include Alipay, Tencent, Xiaohongshu, Ctrip, Didi, Gaode, and Meituan.
  • Pre-sales started October 13; public sale begins October 16.