Asus has unveiled the all-new Zenfone Ares in Taiwan. The phone features advanced augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) capabilities and has specifications akin to Asus ZenFone AR, which was launched last year.
The phone has been launched in the Taiwanese market at a price of TWD 9,990 (approximately INR 22,550), which is significantly cheaper compared to Asus Zenfone AR, which is priced at about Rs 49,000 in India.
Asus has stuck with a conventional bezelled display on the device. However, the phone compensates with a superlative specs-sheet and features at its price point. It has cutting-edge features such as DTS support on headphones with 7.1 audio channels and SonicMaster 3.0 which can decode audios of upto 384 kHz for a superior audio experience.
Specifications
Zenfone Ares comes with a 5.7 inch QHD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440*2560p. The device has an aspect ratio of 16:9, which may sound ancient and out-of-fashion given that displays these days come with a ratio of 18:9 or even 19:9. The display comes with an advanced Tru2life technology which allows users to experience VR on the phone. The touchscreen supports upto 10 fingerprints simultaneously and also supports gloves mode.
The device is powered by a Snapdragon 821 SoC, which is assisted by 6GB and 8GB RAM variants. It comes with four in-built storage capacity variants of 32GB/64GB/128GB/256GB and supports memory expansion of up to 2TB using a microSD card. The smartphone runs on Android Nougat with a customised ZenUI 3.0 loaded on top.
On the optics side, Zenfone Ares features a 23-megapixel rear camera with an aperture rate of f/2.0. The AR-enabled camera comes with a 6P Largan lens with 3x optical zoom capability. Along with motion tracking and depth sensing capabilities, the device has other features such as laser auto focus, OIS, Phase Detection for better photography experience. At the front, the device comes with an 8MP camera with and aperture rate of f/2.0.
Additionally, the cameras comes with Pixel Master 3.0 camera mode which has a wide range of features such as HDR mode, Low Light Mode, Super Resolution Mode which enables capturing photos with up to 4X resolution, depth of field mode, GIF Animation Mode, Panorama Selfie Mode, Miniature Mode, Time Rewind Mode, Smart Remove Mode, All Smiles Mode, Slow Motion Mode, Time Lapse Mode, Panorama Mode among others.
The dual-SIM phone supports 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, USB Type-C 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, NFC among connectivity features. The device features 3,300 mAh battery which supports Quick Charge 3.0. According to the company, the battery can be powered up to 60 percent in just 39 minutes using its BoostMaster Fast Charging technology.