Whether it ’s theGoogle Pixelor theSamsung Galaxy S7 — companies are reckon that the future of virtual reality will be show in by your peregrine twist . Now , you’re able to add Asus to that inclination . The company just announced a new smartphone at CES that takes an adventurous and pretty experimental leap into the world of mixed and practical reality — and it actually look pretty useful .

The Asus ZenFone AR is a new breed of smartphone that ’s pickle - packed with practical reality ( VR ) and augment world ( AR ) technology . It leans heavily on Google’sTangoandDaydreamsoftware to carry out its rattling ambitions , and it also happens to use a sinewy unexampled processor ( Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 ) that is specifically optimized for this case of thing . There is a pot to take out in this particular phone , so let ’s come out with the basics .

The 5.7 - inch ZenFone AR is only the second twist ever to includeGoogle Tango(formerly have it off as Project Tango ) that is basically a 3D - mapping engineering . Tango necessitate a readiness of three different tv camera — all included in ZenFone AR — that enable motion tracking , depth , and board mathematical function . The software set aside the phone observe how far by it is from a wall , the distance between two points , or where it ’s situate inside a edifice .

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So why the heck would you want three-D - mapping technology on your phone ? There are a duad of obvious answers like measuring distance in a unexampled flat or create a 3D poser of a room before revive it — but there are also a bunch of other reasons you might not immediately think of .

The Tango program let developer overlay digital image onto the real public , and that enables things like viewing a piece of piece of furniture in your household before make a big purchase or playing interactive games that compound the substantial and digital creation . Think of these game as something likePokemon Go , but more sophisticated . you could basically overlay digital trope over anything you want .

The ZenFone AR also ships quick for Google Daydream , make it easy to convince the equipment into a VR machine , assuming you have theGoogle Daydream View headset . This is evidently less - groundbreaking than the inclusion of Google Tango , but it ’s a nice bonus that makes this phone a great twist for all form of VR and AR .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

There are also some stranger details about this phone related to the cameras necessitate by Google Tango . Asus claims it has the highest solution wandering camera sensor ( Sony IMX318 ) on the rear of the telephone set and utilise this sensing element to compound four native 23 - megapixel photos to make a single image — something the company is call a 92 - megapixel “ super closure ” photo . Asus claims these eccentric of phots have four time the clarity and less noise than a received HD photo . It sounds totally batty , but the layering process is not much dissimilar than what ’s already being done by theGoogle Pixel ’s camera .

The ZenFone AR also use similar layering processes to shoot down better photos in broken - luminousness preferences . It also has the capacity to record 4 K video , has a 1440 x 2560 resoluteness display , and runs on Android Marshmallow .

If all of this bleeding - edge hardware and software sound like something you ’d be willing to shell out cash for , unluckily , you ’ll have to hold off . The ZenFone AR does n’t have a set cost right now and is scheduled for dismissal in Q2 2017 . Regardless , we call up it ’s dependable to say that this is one of the more exciting mobile machine announcements come out of CES this twelvemonth .

William Duplessie

AsusAugmented realityCES 2017CES2017Mixed realityVirtual world

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