Lenovo launches PHAB2 Pro; world’s first consumer Tango smartphone

The PHAB2 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, which brings efficient hardware integration and processing.

“There are already lots of great apps exploring these new capabilities, and as Tango finds its way into more devices, there will be more to come”.

Lenovo and Google are also figuring out how the Project Tango phone can be used for home remodeling.

While we wait for confirmation either way, might we recommend watching the video below to see how you Tango works on a smartphone, we also dare you to keep your jaw up, because we struggled to. The Dominos game enables players to set up virtual dominos in an AR environment and, of course, knock them down.

The PHAB2 Pro, meanwhile, is a bit of an innovator. Imagine playing a shooter game with the world around you as the background. Also, users could preview new room designs by overlaying images of furniture on a room in view. The Phab2 Pro previews what the new kitchen would look like. The company also took time to highlight Lowe’s Vision, Lowe’s new home improvement feature that’s created to utilize Tango technology. The more you use it, the more aware it becomes.

Jeff Meredith, VP of Android, demonstrated the device. It will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS and be offered in champagne gold and gunmetal grey color options globally starting September.

Project Tango depth-sensing technology.

Project Tango has been in the prototype phase since February 2014 and allows smartphones to map their surroundings in real time and create 3D maps from the data. Lenovo says there will be roughly 25 AR apps available at launch with plans to grow that to around 100 by the end of the year. If history is any guide, the early apps may be more demonstrative than practical.

The size is a bit big, sure, but you can see how it stacks up against the developer version of the Project Tango tablet in the images above. Home improvement company Lowe’s is one of the first partners to develop a Tango-enabled application, Lowe’s Vision. “It has a 6.4” QHD (1440 x 2560) which can adapt to various levels of lighting conditions. The handset weighs 259 grams and measures 10.7-millimeters at its thickest point. The handset has a 4050 milliamp-hour battery that can provide 18 hours of talk time and 13 days of standby time. The CPU gets a bump up to a quad-core MediaTek 8783 and the same 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage also expandable via microSD. It weighs 218 grams and is 9.6 millimeters thick. It comes equipped with 16MP rear and 8MP front cameras.

Lenovo has announced the latest addition to its smartphone lineup. It will ship in September.