Asus has today launched the Asus Zenfone AR smartphone for the Indian market. The smartphone is priced at Rs 49,999 and it will be exclusively available on Flipkart from today at 4 PM. Flipkart is also offering Rs 2,500 off on Google daydream VR headset along with purchase of Zenfone AR smartphone.
To recall, the phone was introduced during Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017. The smartphone is a first to come loaded with both Google Tango and Daydream VR technologies. Asus Zenfone AR is the second smartphone, after Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which comes equipped with Google aspirational project, Tango.
For those who are not aware, Tango is a technology platform developed and authored by Google that uses computer vision to enable mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to detect their position relative to the world around them without using GPS, while Daydream is Google’s take on the high-quality mobile VR experience. Though Phab 2 Pro was the first device to come equipped with Tango it was let down with some mediocre specs, but the Zenfone AR is a true flagship device which comes with some insane specifications.
Talking about some key specifications, the device comes with a 5.7-inch WQHD Super AMOLED Display with a screen Resolution of 2560×1440 pixels, which makes it an ideal device to run augmented reality apps. Under the hood, the Zenfone AR packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, which the company has optimised for Tango with a whopping 8GB of RAM
Though Qualcomm unveiled its state-of-the-art Snapdragon 835 processor, Asus says that ZenFone AR was developed in close cooperation with Google to deliver the best Tango and Daydream experiences. There is 128GB of internal storage in the phone apart from which it has an expandable storage slot that can hold a micro SD card of up to 2TB capacity.
The smartphone comes with a 23-megapixel Sony IMX318 rear camera, with usual Tango Sensors for motion tracking and depth sensing. The main camera also supports TriTech+ Autofocus system, dual-PDAF, second-gen Laser Focus, and continuous focus. The 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. The device comes with an 8-megapixel front camera and is backed by a 3,300mAh battery with Quickcharge 3.0 for fast cahrging. The smartphone runs on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat and supports Hi-Res Audio, DTS virtual surround sound, and a 5-magnet speaker.