Last week, Taiwanese tech giant ASUS launched its first gaming smartphone called ASUS ROG Phone. And now, the company has launched a new smartphone with a focus on AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality). It’s called the ASUS ZenFone Ares.
The ZenFone Ares isn’t the first smartphone from ASUS that comes with support for both AR and VR. Last year, ASUS had launched the ZenFone AR that too came with support for AR as well as VR. In fact, the ZenFone Ares that’s been launched by ASUS looks very much the same like the ZenFone AR. Moreover, the hardware it comes packed with is also identical to the ZenFone AR.
The ASUS ZenFone Ares is powered by Snapdragon 821 SoC which was launched back in 2016. The smartphone also has 8 GB of RAM and runs Android Nougat out-of-the-box which is a bummer. That said, the ZenFone Ares is also compatible with Google’s ARCore technology.
The ASUS ZenFone Ares sports a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, however, it doesn’t come with the fancy 18:9 or 19:9 aspect ratios that we have seen on smartphones launched this year. The display has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels though, and, keeping it on is a 3300 mAh battery which comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support.
For photography, the ASUS ZenFone Ares comes with a 23 MP PixelMaster 3.0 camera at the back which is accompanied by a Motion Tracking and a Depth Sensing camera. That said, for selfies and video calls, you get an 8 MP snapper on the front.
ASUS ZenFone Ares Specifications
- CPU: Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor
- RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4
- GPU: Adreno 530
- Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
- Display: 5.7-inch QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Tru2life display with fingerprint and oil-repellent coating
- Rear Camera: 23 MP PixelMaster 3.0 with dual-LED flash
- Front Camera: 8 MP
- Internal Storage: 128 GB UFS 2.0
- External Storage: Expandable via microSD card
- SIM: Dual Hybrid (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM / Nano-SIM + microSD card)
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type-C
- Other: Fingerprint Scanner, IR Sensor, Google ARCore, 5-magnet speaker, DTS Headphone:X ™ virtual 7.1 surround sound, Sonic Master 3.0, Hi-Res Audio 384 KHz Audio Decoder, Dual internal mic with ASUS Noise Reduction Technology
- Battery: 3300 mAh with Quick Charge 3.0
ASUS ZenFone Ares Price and Availability
- Price: NT$9999 (around $331/₹22,710)
- Availability: Available for purchase in Taiwan. No word on availability in other markets
