Asus ZenFone AR preview: A solid introduction to mixed reality

The first phone to support both Google Tango and Google Daydream is here.

While at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Asus unveiled the ZenFone AR, which is technically the second Google Tango-enabled phone, but what makes it interesting is that it also comes with Daydream, meaning it can deliver not only augmented reality but also virtual reality experiences. And compared to the chunky Lebovo Phab 2 Pro, the first Tango handset, the 5.7-inch ZenFone AR seems much more more mobile.

The phone weighs 170g, which is 18g less than the iPhone 7 Plus, and it features a sleek, LG G4-like pleather back. The camera system, which ASUS has called the TriCam, is positioned at the top of the phone so that your fingers won’t get in the way of the motion-tracking sensor that has a fisheye lens. The phone’s main sensor is a 23-megapixel camera with a 0.03 second autofocus. There’s also a depth-sensing camera included.

With this trio, the phone can do augmented reality, shoot in RAW, and save up to 92-megapixel high-resolution photos by combining four 23-megapixel ones. It also offers 4K video recording and comes with four-axis OIS. We couldn’t fully test the phone’s camera abilities nor see if it can shoot in a variety of situations, as the show floor itself was well lit. We also couldn’t try out any AR, because the demo units ran an older version of Android that doesn’t support Tango. But it did have Daydream enabled inside, so of course we watched a few videos in virtual reality.

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First Impressions

The phone has a Super AMOLED WQHD 2K display, which looked crisp and great, and thanks to the Snapdragon 821 processor and 8GB of RAM tucked underneath, the YouTube VR app we tested ran fast and smoothly. ZenFone AR also has a 3,300mAh battery — decent, considering AR and VR are known for being battery hogs. It also has up to 256GB of built-in storage, plus a MicroSD slot for adding up to 2TB more.

You also get USB-C charging, a standard headphone socket, a physical home button with an integrated fingerprint sensor. So, even without Tango and Daydream, the ZenFone AR is definitely a noteworthy flagship phone. It packs powerful tech, an excellent screen, and impressive cameras into a slim form factor – and we’re looking forward to really giving it a whirl when it releases in the second quarter of 2017.