Asus reveals iPhone 7 Plus with Android, first phone with 8GB RAM

The CES news keeps coming this week, as Taiwanese tech brand Asus revealed several groundbreaking handsets in Las Vegas.

The company revealed its first Project Tango handset and a dual-camera smartphone that takes an iPhone 7 Plus approach.

First up is the Asus ZenFone AR, which features numerous sensors on the rear for Google’s Project Tango augmented reality features. For the uninitiated, Project Tango is a deeper, more accurate take on augmented reality, allowing users to accurately measure real-world objects with AR tools, get accurate indoor directions and more.

As a result, Asus has packed a 23MP main camera onto the ZenFone AR, along with a motion-tracking camera and a depth-sensing shooter. Otherwise, the phone has a 5.7-inch 2560×1440 AMOLED screen, Android Nougat and a Snapdragon 821 processor to drive the action.

But the ZenFone AR is also the first handset to feature a gargantuan 8GB of RAM — and you thought OnePlus was crazy with only 6GB of RAM… Expect the RAM to be used for Project Tango-related features, such as mapping.

The second notable handset revealed by Asus is the ZenFone 3 Zoom, offering a dual-camera design.

The dual-camera setup takes the form of two 12MP cameras, with one being f/1.7 aperture and the other being a telephoto shooter with 2.3x zoom (no aperture has been specified). In other words, it’s nigh-on identical to the iPhone 7 Plus setup, albeit with a slightly wider aperture on the main camera. In fact, Asus is claiming 2.5 times better light sensitivity on their phone compared to the iPhone 7 Plus.

And yes, Asus is also copying Huawei and Apple with a depth-of-field effect, taking advantage of the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s dual-camera arrangement. Hell, much like Apple, Asus is promising that the effect (called Portrait Mode as well) will be available in a future update… Sigh…

The inspirations from other firms don’t stop there, as Asus has also looked to the G4, introducing a colour correction sensor on the ZenFone 3 Zoom to capture accurate hues.

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom copies the iPhone 7 Plus in the camera department but will last much longer than Apple’s best

Where the new handset definitely stands out is in the endurance department though, featuring a massive 5000mAh battery coupled with a power-sipping, budget-minded Snapdragon 625 chipset.

The firm is claiming up to 48 hours of talk time, up to 25 hours of WiFi browsing and 6.4 hours of 4K recording as a result. By comparison, Apple’s plus-sized handset touts up to 21 hours of talk time and up to 15 hours of WiFi browsing (it doesn’t have a metric for 4K recording).

Other notable features include a 13MP selfie shooter, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, USB Type-C, 32GB/64GB/128GB storage models and rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. Oh yeah, it has a 3.5mm earphone jack too.

Asus hasn’t revealed a launch date or price for the two handsets yet, while a local Asus representative said there has been no confirmation regarding the ZenFone range coming to SA.