After launching the Zenfone 4 Max in Russia, Taiwanese smartphone maker Asus on Thursday officially launched its first 8GB RAM-powered smartphone, called the “Asus Zenfone AR” in the Indian tech market. Priced at Rs. 49,999, the new Asus Zenfone AR smartphone will be made available for purchase starting from today at 4:00 pm IST exclusively via e-commerce website Flipkart.com in Black colour option. Asus ZenFone AR is the world’s second smartphone to support both the Google Tango Augmented Reality (AR) technology and Google’s Daydream Virtual Reality (VR) software. The major highlights of the smartphone are its Super AMOLED display, 23-megapixel rear camera, and DTS virtual surround sound system. To recall, the Asus Zenfone AR was first announced at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas.
The e-commerce website Flipkart has also announced a best buying offer for the Asus ZenFone AR. As a part of an introductory offer, those consumers, who purchase a Asus ZenFone AR smartphone they will get a Google Daydream View VR headset (worth Rs. 6,499) at a discounted price of Rs. 2,500. Additionally, the Reliance Jio users who subscribe to Jio Prime membership will also get up to 100GB of additional 4G mobile data on the purchase of newly launched Asus ZenFone AR. All the eligible customers will get up to 10GB additional 4G data voucher per month with every recharge of Rs. 309 or above. There is an upper limit of up to 10 recharges, and the offer is valid until March 31, 2018.
If you don’t remember, Google’s Tango technology is 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.
Asus Zenfone AR Specifications and Features:
As far as specifications are concerned, Asus Zenfone AR comes equipped with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED QHD display with a screen resolution of 2560×1440 pixels and a scratch resistance Corning Gorilla Glass 4 coating on top. The device is powered by a 2.34GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor (optimised for Google Tango and Daydream VR performance) coupled with an Adreno 530 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the Asus Zenfone AR is backed up by an 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 2TB 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, RGB sensor for colour correction, LED flash, Depth & Motion-tracking sensors, 3-axis EIS (electronic image stabilisation), and 4K video recording support. The main camera also supports TriTech autofocus system that includes dual-PDAF, laser autofocus, and continuous focus. On the front, the smartphone houses 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.
