ASUS ZenFone AR first impressions: when different realities meet

"The ZenFone AR marks many firsts to its name"
While Taiwanese giant ASUS didn't have a formal presence at the Mobile World Congress held last week, its latest flagship, the ZenFone AR was so special that the chipset major Qualcomm showcased it in its booth. Unveiled at CES, the ASUS ZenFone AR, the smartphone marks several firsts, so we believe that it certainly requires special treatment. While we couldn't test out all its capabilities, here's a quick look at what the phablet brings to the table.
At first glance, the ASUS ZenFone AR seems to be a plus variant of the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe ( review ).
Both smartphones fall in the phablet category with their large 5.7-inch displays. In terms of the design philosophy as well, you get minimal elements at the front. The display panel takes up the major portion, with the earpiece, secondary snapper and a couple of sensors above and a row of navigation buttons below. However, the fingerprint scanner has now moved to the front hidden beneath the physical home button.
The positioning of the volume buttons and power key, as well as the 3.5mm audio socket and the USB port is also the same. However, one key difference is the texture at the back. Unlike the matte finish available on the ZenFone 3 Deluxe, you get a premium leather-like texture on the rear of the ASUS ZenFone AR.
ASUS ZenFone AR design gallery

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The calling card of the ZenFone AR is its capability of handling Augmented Reality as well as Virtual Reality, making it the world's first smartphone to do so. Even in terms of AR capabilities, it's the second phone after the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro to boast them. To help it with AR processing, the device has depth and motion tracking sensors at the back. That's why the camera module protrudes substantially. While we couldn't check it out on the demo unit, the possibilities with Augmented Reality - thanks to Project Tango - are endless. Right from mapping the room around you to gaming, the technology augments your surroundings. For VR, the device comes with support for Google Daydream, which means you can immerse yourself in content and games using a compatible headset.
To give you a realistic feel in Virtual Reality, the smartphone screen offers a rich resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. The Super AMOLED display provides vibrant colours and good brightness levels. Acting as a protective layer against scratches and minor knocks is fourth-gen Corning Gorilla Glass.
The second highlight of the ASUS ZenFone AR is the fact that it's world's first phone with 8 gigs of RAM. While 8GB RAM might seem overkill, it certainly seems to be essential for a phone that needs to do both AR and VR. The smartphone is also available with 6GB RAM. For application processing, the phablet is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 quad-core chipset. Depending upon the RAM variant, you will get up to 256GB storage on board.
While the phablet does come with the latest version of Android, i.e. 7.0 Nougat, you'd be hard-pressed to make that out just by taking a look at the interface. That's because the ASUS ZenFone 3 gets ZenUI 3.0 treatment which is completely custom, right from the homescreen and lock screen to the app drawer, icons and even apps. In our experience, ZenUI is the most bloatware-laded UIs of recent times.

The primary camera on the ASUS ZenFone AR is rated at 23-megapixels, which is capable of recording 4K videos. For selfies, the device sports an 8MP shooter at the front. Thanks to ASUS' TriTech mechanism, the phone can focus on subjects instantly with the use of laser and phase detection autofocus technologies. The phablet also features four-axis OIS for stable pictures and videos.
With such power-intensive features, the 3,300mAh battery seems to be barely adequate to power the ASUS ZenFone AR. Though of course, we'll test that out as part of our review when we get the chance to try it out.
The ASUS ZenFone AR surely seems to be more than the sum of its parts. Apart from its many firsts, it's quite loaded in all other departments as well. We are very keen to check the smartphone as soon as it launches commercially, so stay tuned.

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