Asus annnounced two new devices in CES 2017,the smartphones Zenfone AR and Zenfone 3 Zoom were earlier seen in few leaks. In the beginning of December 2016 Zenfone 3 Zoom was listed in TENAA and information about Zenfone AR was seen in a blog post by Qualcomm.
Zenfone AR
Zenfone AR is the first smartphone to support for both Google Tango (AR) and Google Daydream (VR).Zenfone AR is a powerful performer with Snapdragon 821 chipset and whooping 8 GB of RAM. There is also a 6GB RAM version of the phone,both the variant comes with UFS 2.0 storage unit differing from 32 GB to all the way up to 256 GB.The storage expansion slot in the phone accepts microSD cards till 2TB of storage.
Zenfone AR comes with 23 MegaPixel Sony IMX 318 camera sensor along with fish-eye motion tracking and depth sensing cameras which makes the device support Google’s project Tango. The camera in the device supports 4K Video Recording,Optical and Electrical Image Stabilisation. The front facing camera is a 8 MP shooter
The smartphone is also compatible with Google Daydream Virtual Reality Headsets. The smartphone has 5.7-inch, high resolution Quad HD display with 79% screen-to-body ratio.The smartphone has dedicated “vapor cooling system” to control the heat produced while running high performance VR and AR Games and Applications. SonicMaster 3.0 technology with five-magnet speaker brings truly immersive sound to AR and VR apps.
The smartphone is powered by 3300 mAh battery,with BoostMaster Fast Charging the phone can charge to 60% battery capacity in 39 minutes claims ASUS. The smartphone runs on ZenUI based on Andoid Nougat 7.0 out of the box.The smartphone will reach the consumer market in second quarter of this year.There is no official word about the pricing of the device.
Zenfone 3 Zoom
The Zenfone 3 zoom as the name suggests is a smartphone photography centric phone. The main highlight of the phone is the dual-lens optics,5000mAh battery and Qualcomm® Snapdragon S625 processor.
The Zenfone 3 Zoom has two 12 MegaPixel sensors,the secondary camera to the back comes with 2.3x optical zoom.Asus claims that the SuperPixel Technology makes the phone 2.5 times more sensitive to light than the Iphone 7 Plus and allows magnification upto 12 times. The dual camera setup is capable of recording UHD 4K videos and producing DSLR like bokeh effect . The phones comes in two versions, one with 3 GB of RAM and other has 4GB of RAM.The inbuilt storage varies from 32 GB to 128 GB,the memory can be expanded upto 2TB through microSD.
The phone has 5.5 inch FHD Super Amoled display.Even with 5000 mAh battery the smartphone weighs only 170 grams.The finger print scanner appears to the rear of the device.The phone has premium metal build and comes in Rose Gold,Glacier Silver and Sapphire Black colour options.
Both Zenfones released in the CES are Dual SIM smartphones and use USB Type-C port for charging and Data Transfer.
