Nubia’s NaviX Ultra promises an AI assistant that can act across apps, but a growing blacklist and concerns over security are limiting its most ambitious features.
Nubia’s NaviX Ultra was launched on 16 September as what the company calls the world’s first mass-produced AI smart assistant phone, with a starting price of 5,999 yuan, or 5,499 yuan after subsidy. The device is built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5, a 7,100mAh battery, a 6.78-inch 1.5K LTPO display and a base configuration of 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Nubia also says the phone is the first to use domestic Changxin LPDDR5X memory rated at 10,667Mbps. The company’s pitch is simple: this is not just a handset with AI features, but a phone designed around them.
That ambition is concentrated in a separate orange button on the right side of the frame. Nubia describes it as an AI key, and it is meant to summon Doubao, trigger video interaction on a double press, or launch voice commands when held down. Because the key also carries fingerprint recognition, the system is supposed to distinguish between the owner and everyone else; if it does not recognise the user, the AI can chat, but it is not meant to take action on the handset itself. In practical use, the company says the phone can carry out cross-app tasks, search information, generate mind maps and organise meeting notes through Feishu.
The main problem is that the software layer has collided with app makers’ reluctance to allow outside automation. According to Doubao’s official ban list, the number of applications blocked from AI-assisted operation rose from 151 to 166 by 21 October, with 22 new additions including Didi, China Eastern Airlines and Keep. Earlier, the public consultation period for the Screen Automation Operation Declaration Agreement ended on 14 October, and the resulting list covered more than 150 apps. Tencent-related services accounted for about 66 entries, followed by 23 Alibaba apps, 14 from Kuaishou and 11 from Meituan. Financial apps were also placed under stricter limits, with AI operation disabled by default for banking, payment and lending services.
For users, that means the phone still works as an ordinary Android handset, but the promise of an AI agent acting across services is sharply constrained. The restrictions do not stop people from installing or using the apps manually; they prevent the assistant from reading the screen and pressing buttons on the user’s behalf. In other words, the issue is not access to the apps themselves, but access to the actions inside them. That limitation has become the central test of whether AI phones can move beyond demonstrations and into everyday utility.
The tension became more visible in late September, when some users reported being kicked out of Honor of Kings with an “device environment exception” message while using the NaviX Ultra. Doubao later apologised on its official community page and said it had not carried out any operations in the game. The episode sharpened a broader debate about whether a phone with broad system permissions is genuinely convenient or simply too intrusive for some users to trust. That question matters because the device is being sold not merely as a handset, but as a platform that can act on the user’s behalf.
For now, the most sensible buyers are those who want to outsource routine tasks such as research, note-taking and price comparisons, particularly in apps that are not part of the blocked list. Nubia has also been offering new and existing users six months of Doubao Standard membership valued at 408 yuan from 15 October, which lowers the entry cost somewhat. But people who rely heavily on WeChat, Alipay, Didi or Meituan, or who are wary of giving system-level permissions to an assistant, may find the device frustrating rather than useful. According to the latest market data cited by Sina Technology, ZTE’s smartphone share in the third quarter of 2026 was only 0.3%, a reminder that one flagship model cannot fix wider channel and after-sales weaknesses on its own. The NaviX Ultra may be an early ticket to the AI-phone era, but it is not yet a fully settled product.
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