Google Tango is an impressive technology, but to date, it’s been impractical for the majority of users. The first Tango device was a very overpriced tablet, and the second was a ridiculously large phone. At CES, ASUS unveiled the first Tango phone worth your hard-earned dollar, the ASUS ZenFone AR. Now, we finally know when it will be available for purchase.
In an interview with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, Engadget learned that the ASUS ZenFone AR will make its debut next month in June, at least in the company’s home country of Taiwan. That debut will occur in the middle of the month, with the US debut taking place as soon as late June or early July.
As shown at CES, the ZenFone AR is the second phone with Google Tango and, thanks to a stronger processing package, it should be the best experience to date. The phone runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 with 6GB of RAM as well as offering Android Nougat and plenty of storage for those AR apps at 128GB.
According to Shen, the ZenFone AR currently runs about 50 of the available Tango apps stably, with more expected to work better once they are updated for Nougat (Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro, by contrast, ran on top of Android Marshmallow). Early impressions from Engadget also provide a good indication that the ZenFone AR will be a much more polished experience compared to the Phab.
Google and ASUS previously revealed that the ZenFone AR will be making its debut as a Verizon Wireless exclusive here in the States, but it’s still unknown if the company will offer an unlocked model.
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