Soon after launching the Zenfone 4 Max in Russia, Taiwanese smartphone maker Asus is all set to introduce its first 8GB RAM-powered smartphone, called the “Asus Zenfone AR” in India on Thursday, July 13. The company has already started sending out the media invites for its upcoming premium smartphone launch event next week, where the Asus Zenfone AR price in India and availability details will be revealed. Last month, through a teaser video on its official Twitter page, Asus India also confirmed that the Asus Zenfone AR is coming soon. The media invite shows a side-edge image of the device, company logo, scheduled launch date and a bold line that reads, “PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF YOUR IMAGINATION” followed by hashtag “#DareToDream”, indicating that the Asus Zenfone AR is compatible with both Google Tango Augmented Reality (AR) platform and Google’s Daydream Virtual Reality (VR) platform. To recall, the Asus Zenfone AR was first announced at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas.
Asus ZenFone AR is the world’s second smartphone to support both the Google’s Tango technology and Daydream VR software. The major highlights of the smartphone are its Super AMOLED display, 23-megapixel rear camera, and DTS virtual surround sound system.
Google’s Tango technology – a set of software and specially calibrated group of embedded sensors developed by Google that detects and maps immediate surroundings to enable a host of smartphone AR (Augmented reality) experiences possible. Asus ZenFone AR is the second smartphone (after Lenovo Phab-2 Pro) to come with depth perception and 3D mapping (the device analyse the shape of the world around it by detecting surfaces and obstacles), motion tracking (Asus Zenfone AR sees its own location in 3D) and area learning (tells the smartphone its location) technologies. All this is meant for AR applications like indoor navigation, search, and gaming which help the device understand the world around you.
With the augmented reality enabled #ZenfoneAR, you choose where you want your screen to be, and let Tango work its magic. #DareToDream pic.twitter.com/hJfAtXbkf6
— ASUS India (@ASUSIndia) July 4, 2017
Technically speaking, Asus Zenfone AR comes equipped with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED QHD display with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels and a scratch resistance Corning Gorilla Glass 4 coating on top. The device is powered by a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor coupled with an Adreno 530 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the Asus Zenfone AR is backed up by a 6GB/8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB/128GB/256GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card. Talking about its software fronts, the device runs company’s proprietary Zen 3.0 custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.
For photography, the Asus Zenfone AR sports a 23-megapixel Sony IMX318 rear camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture, 4-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS), 6P Largan lens, PDAF, LED flash, Depth & Motion-tracking sensors, 3-axis EIS (electronic image stabilisation), and 4K video recording support. On the front, there is an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter with an 85-degree wide angle lens and an f/2.0 aperture for capturing selfies and making video calls.
In terms of connectivity, the Asus ZenFone AR supports Hybrid dual-SIM configuration (Micro SIM + Nano SIM / microSD card), that means you can either use this as a dual-SIM phone without memory card option or single-SIM phone with memory card option. Apart from this, the smartphone also offers various connectivity options including 4G voLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, FM radio, USB OTG, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB Type-C port for superfast charging and data transfer. On the battery front, Asus Zenfone AR packs a non-removable 3,300mAh battery with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 support for fast charging. Sensors on the smartphone include an Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, E-Compass and a front-mounted Fingerprint sensor. The Asus ZenFone AR also features ASUS SonicMaster 3.0 technology and five-magnet speaker that builds for High-Res Audio and DTS virtual 7.1 surround sound. Dimensionally, the handset measures 158.7 x 77.7 x 9mm and weighs 170 grams.
