Asus Zenfone AR
The Asus Zenfone AR is a study in contrasts. On one hand, it has last year’s Snapdragon 821 processor... but it also packs up to 8GB of RAM. It has three rear cameras... but only one is used for taking photos. And while the Zenfone AR is on the bleeding edge of Google’s Tango AR and Daydream VRambitions, it doesn’t have common premium features such as wireless charging and water resistance.
That said, there’s really only one reason anyone would buy this phone, and it’s not specs. It’s Project Tango. The Zenfone AR is only the second phone to support Google’s nascent augmented reality platform, and it’s the first offering that’s actually phone sized. Compared to the more-tablet-than-phablet 6.4-inch Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the Zenfone AR is positively petite.
So, what you have here is the first AR and VR device that can comfortably fit in your pocket. That’s a pretty good selling point, but with a price tag of $650, Tango and Daydream alone might not be enough to entice anyone beyond developers and hard-core AR enthusiasts. And I’m not sure the rest of the Zenfone AR will convince anyone else.
The Asus Zenfone AR nails the high-end look while using different materials to the glass-and-metal mashup featured on the majority of 2017 flagships. Don’t get us wrong – there’s still glass and metal, but much of the rear of the smartphone is covered in a soft touch leather.
While some may be confused by the inclusion of leather on a smartphone, it’s a smart move by Asus – along with providing a softer feel and a touch of old-school class, the leather is extremely grippy and makes it easy to comfortably hold the smartphone with one hand. Ideal if you’re planning on utilising the AR capabilities of the smartphone or if you’re simply a little clumsy.
That soft leather back is combined with a sandblasted aluminium alloy frame with all the usual bells and whistles, from high-end chamfers that run along the edges of the display to the slight curvature of the edges of the body to make it more ergonomically friendly.
While the Zenfone AR doesn’t sport the bezel-less design popular with other 2017 flagships, it’s still a gorgeous smartphone packing a 5.7in display in a surprisingly thin form factor. It measures in at 158.7 x 77.7 x 9mm due to the slightly curved rear and protruding camera setup – although there’s good reason for the extra camera bulk, which we’ll come to below.
It’s also surprisingly lightweight considering the amount of technology packed inside. In fact, it’s lighter than Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus (188g), weighing in at 170g, despite having a larger display and battery.
The Home button features a built-in fingerprint scanner for extra security, making it easier to access your smartphone. It’s a standard mechanical button that clicks as you push it down, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, most 2017 flagships feature a solid-state Home button that vibrates when touched to simulate click feedback.
The solid-state nature provides more of a premium experience, something that we don’t feel when using the standard Home button on the Zenfone AR. It’s a minor detail when the phone can do so much, but it’s still worth considering as it’s a feature of the phone you’ll be using frequently.
Potential buyers will also be happy to find out that the Zenfone AR sports a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom of the device, alongside a USB-C port.
If you’re not a fan of the black look of the smartphone, you’re sadly out of luck – unlike many other smartphones on the market, the Asus Zenfone AR is available in a single colour option.
The ZenFone's 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED display offers vibrant, stunning colors bursting from every pixel. The touch screen can reproduce an incredible 219 percent of the sRGB color gamut, demolishing the 149 percent smartphone average. The GS8 and G6 were pale comparisons at best, with scores of 183 and 134 percent, respectively.
But vividness doesn't equate to brightness. The ZenFone averaged 314 nits when we measured the display, falling short of the 443-nit average. The GS8 produced 437 nits, while the G6 delivered an absolutely brilliant 557 nits. The ZenFone's dimness made it difficult to see the screen outdoors, especially in direct sunlight.
It scores 4402 points in Geekbench 4, thousands of points below its similarly priced rivals.
The Asus Zenfone AR still plays normal games such as Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3 extremely well. However, I did see a few frame-rate glitches when playing VR games, which make any rate drops super-obvious.
Is this because the Adreno 530 GPU is less powerful than the Galaxy S8’s Adreno 540? I’m not sure. But we do know the Snapdragon 835’s Adreno 540 GPU is up to 25% more powerful. A Snapdragon 835 would have been nice, and better in terms of future-proofing the device.
Despite the heavy UI layer, the phone is free of bloatware. Aside from Tango, Daydream, the two AR apps, and Asus tools like File Manager, you won't find any other preloaded software. Out of 128GB of internal storage, that leaves you with an ample 109GB for apps, photos, and video. It's plenty of space, and if you need more you can always use an SD card.
The ZenFone is the first phone to feature Google Project Tango and Daydream VR. That means that this smartphone can offer both augmented and virtual reality at the touch of a button. Using Daydream VR is pretty straightforward: You just place and secure the ZenFone in Google’s Daydream VR headset, sit through the 5-minute tutorial, and you're ready to go. To date, there are more than 150 games and apps available for Google Daydream. Many of them are free, but some range in price between 99 cents and $14.99.
With its 5.7-inch display, the ZenFone is one of largest Daydream-compatible phones on the market. That extra real estate makes for some sharp detail, which I really appreciated as I played Evil Robot Traffic Jam. The cartoony explosions were a bit sharper on the ZenFone compared to my Samsung Galaxy S8+. When I switched to gunning down enemy aircraft in Bandit Six, the ZenFone also had less motion blur as I quickly changed my view to lock onto the next bogie.
In addition to the rear-mounted 23MP camera, Asus' TriCam system has a motion-tracking sensor that keeps tabs on the phone's location as it moves through space. There's also the depth-sensing camera that employs an infrared sensor to map the room. Together, the cameras help AR software create seamless overlays onto the real world.
Project Tango has approximately 30 apps available, which is a drop in the bucket compared with the Daydream library. And while it's fun using the Holo app to watch Spider-Man slink around my living room, Google has its work cut out for it convincing consumers that Tango is more than a fancy gimmick. Home-decorating apps such as Home AR Designer, Lowe's Vision and Magic Plan are a good start, but the platform is missing a must-have app like Pokemon Go, which would justify getting this mixed-reality phone over other top handsets.
Indoor and lower-light shots are decent. The laser autofocus allows the ZenFone AR to focus fairly reliably indoors, without the blurred, out-of-focus shots that lesser phones' cameras sometimes deliver. Unfortunately, while they were in focus, most shots I took in Auto mode were too dark to use. Enabling the Night or Low Light modes didn't help much, since the former just adjusts the white balance so colors appeared warmer, and the latter lowers capture resolution and winds up delivering muddy shots. You're better off using manual controls to make your own adjustments.
The camera can record video at up to 4K resolution at 30fps. The footage looks good and is fairly jitter-free, thanks to optical stabilization to reduce the effects of camera shake.
The 8-megapixel front camera delivers good selfies. Pictures are clear, though facial features appear a bit soft with default settings enabled. A variety of sliders are available to adjust skin tone and add special effects.
When I listened to Bruno Mars' "That's What I Like," the synths and percussion were pretty clear, although the bass was a bit weak. I wish Asus would have fit two speakers along the bottom, as that lone mono speaker can't deliver the rich stereo quality I prefer. However, I do appreciate that Asus included an outside mode that kills off the bass (which will be lost in open air anyway) and focuses on the mids so the sound travels better.
The ZenFone's audio really starts to shine when you pop in a pair of headphones. Using DTS' Headphone: X 7.1 Virtual Surround software, the phone simulates a 7.1-surround-sound home theater. The smartphone also supports Hi-Res audio, so you can stream Tidal or play some FLAC files.
The Asus Zenfone AR features a whopping 3300mAh non-removable Lithium-ion battery capable of providing all day usage with no real worry about topping up the smartphone. Of course, this will vary somewhat on what you’ll be doing with the phone as the battery will run down significantly faster when being used for Tango- and Daydream-related tasks, but we’ve found the smartphone would last pretty much all day with average use.
Even if it does require a quick top-up throughout the day, the Zenfone AR sports Quick Charge 3.0 and can provide around half the total battery capacity in only half an hour.
However, Asus has gotten in on the ground floor with Tango, and anyone who wants to try out Google’s AR platform has precious few options. The Phab2 Pro is practically obsolete now (Lenovo just announced it won’t be giving it a Nougat upgrade), so the Zenfone stands as the best, if not the only option for true AR. And it handles Daydream VR too, which is a plus.
So, if you’re dying to try out AR on an Android phone, then by all means buy a Zenfone AR. There are enough Tango apps in the Play Store to get your money’s worth, and the platform will only get stronger and more robust. But if you’re looking for a new phone and only have a casual interest in AR, I’d pass. The reality is that it’s just not good enough for the price.
Augmented and Virtual Reality on Smartphones
The Asus Zenfone AR is a study in contrasts. On one hand, it has last year’s Snapdragon 821 processor... but it also packs up to 8GB of RAM. It has three rear cameras... but only one is used for taking photos. And while the Zenfone AR is on the bleeding edge of Google’s Tango AR and Daydream VRambitions, it doesn’t have common premium features such as wireless charging and water resistance.
So, what you have here is the first AR and VR device that can comfortably fit in your pocket. That’s a pretty good selling point, but with a price tag of $650, Tango and Daydream alone might not be enough to entice anyone beyond developers and hard-core AR enthusiasts. And I’m not sure the rest of the Zenfone AR will convince anyone else.
Asus Zenfone AR Design
While some may be confused by the inclusion of leather on a smartphone, it’s a smart move by Asus – along with providing a softer feel and a touch of old-school class, the leather is extremely grippy and makes it easy to comfortably hold the smartphone with one hand. Ideal if you’re planning on utilising the AR capabilities of the smartphone or if you’re simply a little clumsy.
That soft leather back is combined with a sandblasted aluminium alloy frame with all the usual bells and whistles, from high-end chamfers that run along the edges of the display to the slight curvature of the edges of the body to make it more ergonomically friendly.
While the Zenfone AR doesn’t sport the bezel-less design popular with other 2017 flagships, it’s still a gorgeous smartphone packing a 5.7in display in a surprisingly thin form factor. It measures in at 158.7 x 77.7 x 9mm due to the slightly curved rear and protruding camera setup – although there’s good reason for the extra camera bulk, which we’ll come to below.
It’s also surprisingly lightweight considering the amount of technology packed inside. In fact, it’s lighter than Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus (188g), weighing in at 170g, despite having a larger display and battery.
The solid-state nature provides more of a premium experience, something that we don’t feel when using the standard Home button on the Zenfone AR. It’s a minor detail when the phone can do so much, but it’s still worth considering as it’s a feature of the phone you’ll be using frequently.
Potential buyers will also be happy to find out that the Zenfone AR sports a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom of the device, alongside a USB-C port.
If you’re not a fan of the black look of the smartphone, you’re sadly out of luck – unlike many other smartphones on the market, the Asus Zenfone AR is available in a single colour option.
Asus Zenfone AR Display
The colors popped off the screen during the Thor RagnaRok trailer. Details were so sharp that I could make out just about every detail of the shots.
But vividness doesn't equate to brightness. The ZenFone averaged 314 nits when we measured the display, falling short of the 443-nit average. The GS8 produced 437 nits, while the G6 delivered an absolutely brilliant 557 nits. The ZenFone's dimness made it difficult to see the screen outdoors, especially in direct sunlight.
Asus Zenfone AR Performance
The Asus Zenfone AR’s CPU is a slightly more serious issue. It has the Snapdragon 821 processor rather than the more powerful Snapdragon 835, used in the US Samsung Galaxy S8, HTC U11 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium.
Where the 835 has eight cores, the Snapdragon 821 only has four: that’s two Kryo cores at 2.35GHz and two at 1.6GHz. The LG G6 has the same CPU.
If the Asus Zenfone AR were a little cheaper, this wouldn’t be a major issue since it still has the power to make the phone run very well day-to-day. However, this is one of the most expensive non-luxury phones in the world, making the CPU choice an eyebrow-raiser.
Where the 835 has eight cores, the Snapdragon 821 only has four: that’s two Kryo cores at 2.35GHz and two at 1.6GHz. The LG G6 has the same CPU.
If the Asus Zenfone AR were a little cheaper, this wouldn’t be a major issue since it still has the power to make the phone run very well day-to-day. However, this is one of the most expensive non-luxury phones in the world, making the CPU choice an eyebrow-raiser.
The Asus Zenfone AR still plays normal games such as Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3 extremely well. However, I did see a few frame-rate glitches when playing VR games, which make any rate drops super-obvious.
Asus Zenfone AR Software
The ZenFone AR runs Android 7.0 Nougat with Zen UI 3.0, a heavy software layer that makes a number of visual changes to the notification shade, menus, app icons, and animations. It also supports a variety of customizable features that let you change the appearance of your home screen and load custom themes. On top of that, the ZenFone AR is packed with loads of other special features, settings, and toggles including a Bluelight filter, Easy mode, Kids mode, and Optiflex (a tool that lets you pick 10 apps to prioritize and boost the performance of). All of them have varying degrees of usefulness, but they make for an overwhelming experience if you're used to stock Android.
Asus Zenfone Tango(AR) and Google Daydream (Vr)
With its 5.7-inch display, the ZenFone is one of largest Daydream-compatible phones on the market. That extra real estate makes for some sharp detail, which I really appreciated as I played Evil Robot Traffic Jam. The cartoony explosions were a bit sharper on the ZenFone compared to my Samsung Galaxy S8+. When I switched to gunning down enemy aircraft in Bandit Six, the ZenFone also had less motion blur as I quickly changed my view to lock onto the next bogie.
While it's definitely nice having a phone that can do virtual reality, it's quickly becoming a ubiquitous feature as more premium phones support Daydream. The ZenFone's real claim to fame is its ability to support Google Project Tango. Similar to the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the ZenFone AR uses a series of cameras to create augmented-reality magic.
Asus Zenfone AR Camera
When it's not being used in the tri-sensor system for Tango-powered AR, the ZenFone AR's 23-megapixel rear camera serves as a capable shooter. In good lighting, it captures clear images with solid color reproduction, though fine details can look a bit soft; the Galaxy S8 does a better job in that regard. The really intriguing potential of the ZenFone AR comes from its interesting camera modes that can improve overall picture quality, such as Super Resolution mode, which uses resampling to capture photos with four times the standard resolution (92 megapixels total). The common-but-useful Manual mode lets you make your own adjustments to ISO, shutter speed, and other elements.
The camera can record video at up to 4K resolution at 30fps. The footage looks good and is fairly jitter-free, thanks to optical stabilization to reduce the effects of camera shake.
The 8-megapixel front camera delivers good selfies. Pictures are clear, though facial features appear a bit soft with default settings enabled. A variety of sliders are available to adjust skin tone and add special effects.
Asus Zenfone AR Speakers
With a single bottom-firing speaker, the ZenFone gets pretty loud for a smartphone. That's thanks to the phone's 5-magnet speaker and smart amplifier. Created specifically for mobile devices, the amp allows the new speaker to play audio at higher volumes without any distortion.
When I listened to Bruno Mars' "That's What I Like," the synths and percussion were pretty clear, although the bass was a bit weak. I wish Asus would have fit two speakers along the bottom, as that lone mono speaker can't deliver the rich stereo quality I prefer. However, I do appreciate that Asus included an outside mode that kills off the bass (which will be lost in open air anyway) and focuses on the mids so the sound travels better.
The ZenFone's audio really starts to shine when you pop in a pair of headphones. Using DTS' Headphone: X 7.1 Virtual Surround software, the phone simulates a 7.1-surround-sound home theater. The smartphone also supports Hi-Res audio, so you can stream Tidal or play some FLAC files.
Asus Zenfone AR Battery
Even if it does require a quick top-up throughout the day, the Zenfone AR sports Quick Charge 3.0 and can provide around half the total battery capacity in only half an hour.
Conclusion
If it wasn’t for Tango, it would be hard to recommend the the Zenfone AR at all. At $650 through Verizon ($600 and $700 unlocked through Amazon), it’s priced in line with the LG G6 and HTC U11, and significantly higher than OnePlus 5, all of which offer better designs, features, and overall experiences.
So, if you’re dying to try out AR on an Android phone, then by all means buy a Zenfone AR. There are enough Tango apps in the Play Store to get your money’s worth, and the platform will only get stronger and more robust. But if you’re looking for a new phone and only have a casual interest in AR, I’d pass. The reality is that it’s just not good enough for the price.
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