Hands-on with StepFun's $550 AI phone: agents fail constantly, A2A route called a dead end
葬AI · wechat · 2026-10-22
A Chinese review of StepFun's 3,999 RMB AI phone found constant bugs during setup and a 90% failure rate on real agent tasks: food delivery only routed through Meituan errands with extra fees (and still failed), flight booking listed options but couldn't complete orders, bouncing users back to Ctrip. The "integrations" with Taobao/Alipay/Meituan turned out to be mostly PR framing.
The author argues the mediocrity stems from StepFun's A2A (agent-to-agent) route — relying on partner apps' mercy and their agents' competence — while ByteDance's Doubao phone takes the GUI route, which risks getting banned. Underlying conflict: apps like Meituan monetize merchant ads and Taobao profits from confusing coupons, so user-optimal agents clash with platform interests. The piece also mocks agent lead Shi Kaiwen's funding saga and notes resale platform Zhuanzhuan doesn't even list the phone for recycling.
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