Asus has launched its much awaited ZenFone AR smartphone in India today. The highlight of the ZenFone AR is that it is the world’s first Tango enabled smartphone and is also compatible with Google’s Daydream VR platform. The smartphone was first sighted back in January at CES in Vegas. Since then, the smartphone was in company’s bag until last month when its was launched in Taiwan. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 49,999 and is exclusively available via Flipkart starting 4 pm today itself.
The smartphone also comes with exciting launch offers under which, all those who purchase the smartphone will get a flat Rs. 2,500/- discount on the Google Daydream VR headset. Along with this, the company has also partnered with Reliance Jio to offer 100 GB of extra data along with Jio Prime membership. The company is providing No-Cost EMI on the purchase of ZenFone AR for up to 9 months.
As mentioned earlier, the highlight of the smartphone is its compatibility with Google’s augmented reality (AR) platform Tango and its Virtual Reality (VR) platform Daydream. Apart from this the Asus ZenFone AR also comes with a massive 8 GB RAM and holds a tri-camera setup at rear with a 23 MP main camera, a motion tracking camera and depth sensing camera which support Tango’s AR capabilities. The camera is also equipped with 0.03-second Asus TriTech System that uses PDAF, laser auto focus and subject-tracking autofocus for quick focus.
Coming towards the specifications, the smartphone sports a 5.7-inch Quad HD (2560 × 1440 pixels) Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection on top. It is powered by a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 processor along with Adreno 530 GPU. The variant that arrives in India holds 8 GB RAM, omitting the 6 GB one. The smartphone comes with 128 GB of UFS 2.0 internal storage which can be further expanded up to 2TB via microSD card.
As mentioned above, the Asus ZenFone AR comes with a 23 MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, Sony IMX318 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 6P Largan lens, 4-axis OIS, 3-axis EIS and Laser Autofocus. There is also an 8 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and 85-degree wide-viewing angle on the front.
The smartphone packs a 3300 mAh battery which supports Quick Charge 3.0 and is bundled with an 18W charger which is said to charge the smartphone to 60% in just 18 minutes. Another highlight of the smartphone is its new “immersive” five-magnet speaker and NXP amplifier that supports High-Res Audio and DTS virtual surround sound. The smartphone comes bundled with the ZenEar S which supports DTS Headphone: X for virtual 7.1 surround sound Hi-Res Audio.
Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (dual band), Bluetooth v4.2, USB Type-C 2.0, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The ZenFone AR also has a fingerprint sensor on the home button, which as per the company can unlock the smartphone even with wet fingers. Other on-board sensors include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, digital compass, gyroscope, infrared sensor, and proximity sensor.