Asus ZenFone Ares has been launched in Taiwan. The new model has specifications similar to last year's ZenFone AR. It also has a bunch of features specific to deliver augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences. The handset additionally includes SonicMaster 3.0 Hi-Res Audio 384 kHz audio decoder and supports DTS Headphone with 7.1 channel support. Asus is selling the handset in the Taiwanese market with a price tag of TWD 9,990 (approximately Rs. 22,700). This is significantly cheaper than the price of the ZenFone AR that was launched in India back in July last year at Rs. 49,999.
Taiwanese retailer PCHome is taking pre-orders for the Asus ZenFone Ares. The online listing features the handset along with its price of TWD 9,990. Furthermore, the handset will be available for purchase through local retailers in the country. The Taiwan launch was first reported by DealnTech.
The dual-SIM (Nano) Asus ZenFone Ares runs Android Nougat with ZenUI on top and features a 5.7-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. The display panel has a Tru2life technology to enable VR experiences and comes with an oil-repellent coating. Under the hood, there is a dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, coupled with 8GB of RAM. The smartphone has a 23-megapixel camera sensor on the back with Asus' high-res PixelMaster 3.0 technology on top and an f/2.0 aperture. The camera is also capable of capturing motion tracking and depth sensing to enable AR effects out of the box. On the front, there is an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.
For storing content, the Asus ZenFone Ares has 128GB of onboard UFS 2.0 storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). The smartphone has 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is also a fingerprint sensor embedded under the home button. Besides, the smartphone packs a 3300mAh battery that supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0.
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