The engineering prototype of ZTE's Nubia M153, featuring Doubao's mobile AI assistant technology preview, has begun sales. Priced at 3,499 yuan, the device is currently sold out on ZTE's official website. Meanwhile, second-hand units on platforms like Xianyu are trading at 4,200–4,999 yuan, reflecting premiums of 700–1,500 yuan over retail.

Doubao Assistant, developed through an OS-level collaboration between ByteDance and smartphone makers, enables complex tasks across shopping, travel, and business scenarios. Users can activate it via voice commands, a dedicated AI button, or connected earphones.

The device is powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform, launched in October 2023, which supports on-device multimodal generative AI—including voice, contextual, and image processing. Qualcomm's fifth-gen iteration, released this September, further enhances edge-AI capabilities for running agent-based assistants locally.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon noted the industry shift from smartphone-centric to AI-agent-centric experiences, emphasizing that smartphones will evolve as hubs for AI-driven interactions across devices.