Asus officially unveils ZenFone AR smartphone with Daydream and Tango compatibility

After quite a few leaks ruined the surprise, Asus took to the stage at CES to announce the reveal of ZenFone AR, the first smartphone to boast support for both Google’s Daydream and Tango VR/AR platforms.

The device is rocking Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 processor as well as 6GB (!!!) of RAM to keep the virtual/augmented experiences running at full capacity. The ZenFone AR also sports a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 2560×1440 resolution.

The company’s TriCam system boasts a 23MP camera with motion-sensing and depth-tracking capabilities. The camera layout is quite a bit more low-key than that available on the Lenovo Phab2 Pro.

Google Daydream brings virtual reality to mobile with low-latency head-tracking and a unified interface. Tango brings depth-sensing capabilities to smartphones to deliver smartphone-based augmented reality tech.

There are some areas where Tango and Daydream seemingly intersect; both can deliver VR experiences with Tango allowing inside-out positional tracking though not in headset mode. Google emphasized that the presence of both features on this phone does not mean that Tango-features like positional tracking will be available on Daydream experiences.