Asus AR set to be the first Tango-, Daydream-enabled smartphone

The smartphone will feature 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED display, 8GB RAM, and Snapdragon 821 chipset

Taiwanese smartphone major Asus on Thursday announced Asus AR, the world’s ‘first’ smartphone with Google's Tango and Daydream platforms enabled. And, that is not the only first for this smartphone; it is also the first device that is equipped with an 8GB RAM. So far, it is the only device that can render augmented reality (AR) through Tango apps in Tango mode and virtual reality (VR) through a Daydream VR headset.

The company made the annoucement at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in the US' Las Vegas, Nevada.

Last year, Lenovo had launched the world's first ever Tango (AR)-enabled smartphone, the Lenovo Phab2 Pro. Asus, taking a step further, has created a single device that integrates the goodness of AR into a device without compromising on the benefits of VR.

The phone has a number of flagship specifications. It features 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED display, 8GB RAM, and Snapdragon 821 chipset. Asus would have hit a ‘first ever’ trio, only if the phone had used Snapdragon 835 processor, which it unveiled in CES 2017 itself.

Fulfilling Google’s Project Tango requirements, the smartphone features a trio of cameras at the back. The main camera is of 23 megapixel (MP) that uses Sony’s IMX318 sensor, coupled with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS). Then, there also is a motion-tracking camera and a fisheye depth-sensing camera.

The smartphone will boot Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box and is claimed by the company to be the thinnest Tango-enabled smartphone in the world. Also, the device boasts an external five-magnet speaker that supports Hi-Resolution audio and DTS surround sound, which definitely add value to the VR and AR experience.