Jumpspace released the STEPX Neo smartphone, with an AI intelligent entity built into the operating system

StepFun, an AI startup invested by Tencent, has released the STEPX Neo phone, which features an AI intelligent agent directly built into the operating system rather than as an external application. The phone began pre-sales on the evening of October 13, priced at 3999 yuan (approximately 560 USD), with its official sale starting on October 16. Pre-sale channels include JD.com, Tmall, and Douyin. Users do not need to open a ride-hailing app to input addresses and select vehicles; they simply need to inform the destination, and the intelligent agent can autonomously complete the subsequent steps. StepFun stated at the launch event that in the era of intelligent agents, AI is no longer an additional feature of smartphones but is the product itself.

The device runs on the Step AOS 1 system, which the company claims is designed from the ground up for intelligent agents, featuring long-term memory, task scheduling, and security control capabilities, composed of a mix of Android, Linux, and real-time operating system components. The system uses the MCP protocol to break down functions such as messages, applications, files, and settings into small modules that can be directly called by the intelligent agent, giving users two entry points: a traditional application grid and an intelligent agent space. The intelligent agent is named Amoo, which saves two types of memory: user factual preferences and task execution experiences. Simple commands are processed by a small model on the device, some of which can run offline, while complex cross-application requests are handled by a large model in the cloud. A second MiniLED screen on the back of the device can display Amoo's execution status.

Nearly 100 companies and products, including Alipay, Tencent, Trip.com, Didi, and Meituan, have integrated with Amoo. Payments, travel bookings, and content creation are still completed by their respective platforms. This is an alternative path for StepFun in response to the major application blockages faced by ByteDance's Doubao, which previously used screen reading and simulated clicking solutions. StepFun was founded in 2023 by former Microsoft Vice President Jiang Daxin. Its self-developed flagship large model, Step 5 Preview, was launched in September, with a parameter scale of 600 billion and a single activation of 27 billion, supporting a context of 1 million tokens; the earlier released Step 3.5 Flash was open-sourced under the Apache 2 license. The price of 3999 yuan includes a 12-month STEPX Token plan, providing 100 billion tokens per month, while the AI costs after the first year have not yet been announced.