Honor Magic 9 Series and STEPX Neo Among Four AI Agent Phones Cleared in China

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has approved four more AI agent smartphones for network access, according to the regulator’s website.

Three of the devices are from Honor’s Magic 9 series, while the fourth is the STEPX Neo, described as the first AI agent smartphone built natively around a large language model. STEPX is a subsidiary of LLM developer StepFun.

The approvals follow the Nubia NaviX Ultra, which became the first AI agent phone to receive network access approval in late August. The latest batch signals that AI agent handsets, previously showcased mainly at product launches and tech demonstrations, are now entering the market for real-world testing.

Unlike conventional smartphones with added AI features such as Q&A and image generation, AI agent phones aim to change how users interact with devices. Once a user assigns a task, the agent can interpret the request, access system functions and third-party apps, and complete a series of actions autonomously.

The three companies take different approaches. Honor has integrated a system-level Agent Harness framework into its MagicOS to support agent orchestration. STEPX built an LLM-native AI agent phone. Doubao, meanwhile, uses a phone-assistant model to let AI directly operate third-party apps at the application level.

With smartphone replacement cycles lengthening and market pressure persisting, handset makers are seeking new selling points. Whether AI agents can drive consumer upgrades remains to be seen. China’s smartphone shipments fell 4.2 percent year on year to about 134 million units in the first half of 2026, per IDC data.