A new image of the unannounced ASUS ZenFone AR has now surfaced online which provides a clear look at both the front and the back of the device. This new image comes courtesy of Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) and seems to have come on the back of what appeared to be an earlier than expected announcement of the ZenFone AR by Qualcomm.
The Qualcomm announcement came by way of a press release which is dated for Jan. 4 and therefore does seemed to have been published ahead of time. While the Qualcomm announcement did not provide too much in the way of details on the ZenFone AR, it did provide two clear points worth noting. Firstly, that ASUS will be announcing the ZenFone AR at CES 2017. Likewise, this latest image also does come showing the phone with a Jan. 4 date and a Las Vegas location. Which does further seem to confirm that the ASUS ZenFone AR will indeed be debuted at CES 2017. The second point worth noting from the earlier announcement is that the ASUS ZenFone AR is a smartphone which is both Tango-enabled and Daydream-ready.
Of course, this is not the first time that the Tango-compatibility had been confirmed for the ASUS ZenFone AR, as the ASUS CEO did confirm as much back in November of 2016. However, it has now been confirmed that this will be a smartphone that is also compatible with Google’s VR platform, Daydream. In fact, as this is a smartphone that Qualcomm has confirmed comes powered by the Snapdragon 821, it is the World’s first Tango-enabled Snapdragon 821 smartphone. While the Lenovo PHAB 2 Pro was the first Tango-enabled smartphone, it was a smartphone which came powered by the Snapdragon 652. Which meant that while the PHAB 2 Pro was Tango-enabled, it was not Daydream-ready. The ASUS ZenFone AR is very much both, which makes it an interesting and viable choice for anyone interested in either augmented reality (AR), or virtual reality (VR), or both. In terms of the image, it is worth noting that the ZenFone AR does adopt a very similar design to the previous ZenFone offerings, although the big difference being the inclusion of the additional cameras needed to make use of the Tango functionality.