The first "Doubao AI Assistant" smartphone, developed jointly by ZTE (hardware) and ByteDance (AI software), was listed as "Sold Out" on the ZTE Mall on December 2nd.

The limited initial release has driven prices on the secondhand market platform to 4,200 yuan to 4,999 yuan, significantly exceeding the official retail price of 3,499 yuan (16GB+512GB configuration). ZTE's subsidiary, Nubia, confirmed the limited stock, stating the Nubia M153 engineering sample was a "small number" release.

The Nubia M153 launched on Dec 1, featuring ByteDance's Doubao AI Assistant, an intelligent conversation tool that offers text generation, multilingual translation, and code assistance.

ByteDance was reportedly to have no self-developed phone plans and being in talks with smartphone makers to embed AI assistant.