Asus unveiled a pair of new ZenFones at its CES 2017 press conference, launching the ZenFone 3 Zoom with dual cameras, and the ZenFone AR that comes equipped with augmented reality technology.
Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom
The Zoom focuses on camera quality, featuring a pair of rear-mounted cameras in a very similar vein to the iPhone 7 Plus. You get a 12MP “SuperPixel” (Sony IMX362) sensor with a wide f/1.7 aperture lens and a second 12MP sensor behind a lens that has an equivalent 59mm focal length, or 2.3x zoom.
Asus will let you go to 12x zoom, but that’s plain old digital zoom that won’t look particularly great. 
Both cameras work together for better portraits and clearer zoomed images. It’s all very iPhone 7 Plus. On the front you get a 13MP (Sony IMX214) sensor behind a f/2.0 aperture lens for quality selfies. 
Above: 2.3x zoom versus 1x zoom
Other specification highlights include a huge 5,000mAh battery, 5.5-inch Full HD screen and mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. We don’t have a price yet, but it’ll launch next month. Like all ZenFones, we’ve no idea if it’s coming to the UK
Asus ZenFone 3 AR
The ZenFone 3 AR is a high-end phone that comes equipped with Google Project Tango cameras for augmented reality experiences. The cameras and sensors use spacial recognition to overlay virtual objects onto a live feed of what the camera is seeing in real-time.
Examples of useful AR include previewing how furniture will look in your house and how clothes will look on a mock-up of your mody type. Fashion brand GAP demonstrated a new shopping app that lets you enter your measurements and try on clothes on a virtual version of yourself, applying a physics engine to see how the clothes will fit and fall on your body.
The phone will come equipped with a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, a ridiculous 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a 5.7-inch WQHD Super AMOLED display. Thre’s a 3,300mAh battery inside.
No price or release date here either, but Asus says it’ll appear some time in the second quarter of this year.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
