Thursday, July 13, 2017

Asus Zenfone AR with 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, Project Tango, Daydream support launched in India, priced at Rs 49,999: Specifications and features

After an uninspiring attempt by Lenovo at wooing consumers with its Google Project Tango-enabled PHAB2 Pro, another manufacturer is now aiming to get people thinking about the new found interest in Augmented Reality (AR). The Asus Zenfone AR was first announced at CES 2017, and today marks its debut in the Indian market. Asus’ smartphone is priced at Rs 49,999 and is exclusive to Flipkart. It will start selling starting 4PM today and will be available in black color.

Augmented Reality, best understood as an amalgamation of the real and virtual worlds, reached epic heights of popularity with the mobile game called Pokémon GO. The game used real surroundings with the help of a phone’s camera, and showed virtual characters on the screen. Manufacturers like Lenovo and now Asus have attempted to bring the same experience using Google’s Project Tango. The USP of the Asus Zenfone AR is that it houses 8GB of RAM, and it is also compatible with Google’s Daydream View VR headset. This enables a user to put the Asus Zenfone AR into the virtual reality headset, and experience immersive content.

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Asus Zenfone AR specifications, features

The Asus Zenfone AR features a distinct leather-finish rear panel which gives it a very premium appeal. It houses a horizontal camera module. It is also equipped with a fingerprint sensor which is embedded into the home button. Talking about the specifications, it packs a 5.7-inch wide quad HD Super AMOLED (2560×1440p pixels) display. Disappointingly though, the smartphone is powered by a dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded via microSD card up to 2TB. However, the SoC has been optimized for Tango AR and Daydream VR.

As for the AR-capabilities, the smartphone comes with a TriCam system featuring a 23-megapixel camera along with motion-tracking and depth sensing technology. There is a dual tone LED flash at the back. The camera is capable of recording 4K ultra HD videos @30fps, and also supports RAW files. Up front, there is an 8-megapixel camera supported with screen flash.

On the software front, it runs on Android 7.0 Nougat wrapped under ASUS ZenUI 3.0. It is fuelled by a 3,300mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and BoostMaster Fast Charging, which is claimed to take the power up to 60 percent in 39 minutes of charge. Connectivity options include dual-SIM support, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2 and USB-C.