The ongoing Consumer Electronics Fair at Las Vegas has witnessed the birth of a new smartphone as Asus has launched its new Asus Zenfone AR. The new ZenFone AR, part of the popular ZenFone family, will feature 8GB of RAM and will boast of supporting Google’s Tango augmented reality (AR) programme and DayDream virtual reality (VR). At the same event, Asus also launched the ZenFone 3 Zoom ‘camera smartphone’ with a mammoth 5000mAh battery powering it.
The new Asus ZenFone AR smartphone will hence compete with the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro that also supports both AR as well as VR functionalities. Both these phones boast of a similar architecture with a camera and a sensor setup which provide motion tracking, depth perception and area learning, the last feature having been announced at the launch of the Google Tango project which gives the device the ability to see and remember the key visual features of a physical space to come back to it later and not miss any details.
Asus Zenfone AR Specs
Processor and Memory
The Asus Zenfone AR is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, which is a quad-core CPU that maxes out at 2.35 GHz. The SoC boasts of 2×2.35 GHz Kryo CPU and 2×1.6 GHz Kryo CPUs, culminating in excellent processing abilities. The SD 821 SoC has been customised to support the Tango project. The GPU is the Adreno 530 which is pretty standard fare for the phone. The phone is available in two variants with a 4GB and an 8GB RAM and has native storage capacity of 32 through 256 GB. The microSD slot on the phone makes for expandable memory.
Display and Operating System
The Asus Zenfone AR boasts of a 73% screen to body ratio and has a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display 16M colours on a 5.7-inch display. The screen resolution is 1440 x 2560 pixels with 515 ppi pixel density. The phone supports multitouch of up to ten fingers at one go and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The phone runs on the latest Android OS, v7.0 (Nougat) and is also overlayed by the ASUS ZenUI 3.0.
Camera
A 23-megapixel rear Sony IMX318 module with TriTech+ autofocus system, dual-PDAF (Phase Detection AutoFocus), second-gen Laser Focus with continuous focus is the primary camera. This rear camera supports 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilisation) as well as 3-axis EIS (electronic image stabilisation) for video recording alongside support for 4K video recording. A 8 MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture and an 85-degree wide angle lens completes the package. The rear camera can capture 2K video at 30fps.
Asus Zenfone AR Features, Launch dates and Price
Since the new Asus ZenFone AR launched at the CES 2017, we can confirm that similar to the other predecessors in the ZenFone family, the new phone will have excellent features. A 3300mAh non-removable Li-ion battery, a USB 2.0 Type-C port, as well as Bluetooth v4.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity, complete the package. The phone weighs a mere 160 grams. The new smartphone will support Google Drive, offering up to 100 GB of cloud storage and Quick Charge 3.0. Other features include a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, an accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor and a compass. The Asus Zenfone AR is said to launch in the second quarter of this year. The price remains unknown at this moment.
