Asus ZenFone AR Launched with dedicated AR and VR Capabilities
The Asus ZenFone AR features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and QHD resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 821 chipset, which is accompanied with 8 GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
The smartphone’s hardware is compatible with Google‘s ARCore technology.
In terms of camera, the ZenFone AR sports a 23 MP sensor, which has a high-res PixelMaster 3.0 lens. The camera also features motion tracking and depth sensing to enable Augmented Reality Experience. Up front, the smartphone sports an 8 MP sensor.
The ZenFone AR runs Android Nougat out-of-the-box. Fueling the device is a 3,300mAh battery, which comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support.
The Asus Zenfone AR is priced at TWD 9,999, which translates to about Rs 23,000.
It sports a TriCam system designed in collaboration with Google for augmented reality applications.
It runs on a snappier Snapdragon processor. It also supports Google’s Daydream software, which is supposed to offer an optimized VR experience. Snap the ZenFone AR into a sweatshirt-soft Daydream headset, and you’re in VR.
The result is a good Android phone that you’ll be happy with — most of the time. It has all of the aforementioned features, plus a pretty, 5.7-inch display and an impressive camera. But when you compare it to other Android phones in the $600-and-up price range, others edge past it. The ZenFone AR’s battery life isn’t great, it’s not water resistant, and its AR and VR capabilities are still not fully baked. This means that aspect of the Asus ZenFone AR becomes little more than a marketing ploy — Tango! Daydream! — when in reality you’re just going to want to have a phone that works really well as a phone.
The ZenFone AR is also in serious danger of being overshadowed by the AR capabilities that are coming to “regular” phones in a more meaningful way this fall, with the rollout of Apple’s ARKit, which will enable AR apps on most recent iPhones. In general, I wouldn’t be surprised if these kinds of AR capabilities come to all newer smartphones in the near future. If that does happen, the hardware-dependent Tango as we know it now would soon become a thing of the past.