A couple of leaks indicate that the Asus ZenFone AR will be the second smartphone enabled with Tango. This is the Augmented Reality based platform developed by Google. The first smartphone featuring the Tango platform is the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which was launched last year with a 6.4-inch screen carrying a 1440 x 2560 resolution.
As we said, the ZenFone AR is the subject of a pair of leaks. One leak is a press release dated two days from now, January 4th. Accidentally made public today by Asus, the release notes that the ZenFone AR (which stands for Augmented Reality) will be the first Tango-enabled phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 821 chipset. The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro employs a Snapdragon 652 SoC. The Asus ZenFone AR will also be the first handset enabled with Tango for AR capabilities, and Daydream for VR.
The second leak comes from Evan Blass, who disseminated a tweet that features renders of the front and back of the Asus ZenFone AR. If you have sharp eyes, you’ll note that the date on the phone is January 4th, which is the date of the leaked press release. It also shows the location of the phone to be in Las Vegas, which is where CES will be taking place later this week.
So if all of the leaks fall into place, among the new phones unveiled by Asus on Wednesday at CES will be the Snapdragon 821 SoC powered Asus ZenFone AR. This handset will be a higher powered challenger to the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. Specs, pricing and availability should all be released in a couple of days. Stay tuned!
1. Evan Blass disseminates a tweet showing renders (both front and back) of the Asus ZenFone AR
2. Asus accidentally releases a press release about the ZenFone AR two days before it is to be introduced
source: @evleaks, @FGayes
