Nubia teases its first AI agent phone ahead of WAIC 2026

Nubia released a partial look at its first AI agent phone on Wednesday, with the full unveiling expected at WAIC 2026 in Shanghai.

The teaser shows a pink back panel with the Nubia branding centered on the rear. The bottom edge houses speaker grills, a USB-C port, and a SIM tray. The camera module was cropped from the image — only its rounded, horizontal silhouette is visible.

One Weibo user posted an AI-generated rendering of what the hidden design might look like, drawing attention in the comments.

Earlier this week, Ni Fei, president of ZTE’s terminal division and Nubia Technology, confirmed that Nubia had completed the government filing process for its own AI agent large model. The upcoming phone will be the first device to ship with that model, and it will also come with ByteDance’s Doubao assistant pre-installed.

“Users can feel more confident handing tasks over to it,” Ni Fei said.

Chinese smartphone makers are racing to ship on-device AI agents as the next differentiator in a crowded market. Nubia joins Huawei, Xiaomi, and others betting that AI agents — not just generative AI features — will drive the next upgrade cycle.

The phone is expected to make its public debut at WAIC 2026, where attendees can judge whether the hardware lives up to the pitch.