Asustek Computer has announced ZenFone AR, a smartphone that represents an advance in mobile virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. The vendor said it is the first smartphone that will be Tango-enabled and Daydream-ready. ZenFone AR features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor that is optimized for Tango, and 8GB of RAM. The smartphone is also equipped with a 5.7-inch WQHD Super AMOLED display and a new five-magnet speaker and is pre-installed with Android 7.0.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 features a 5.7-inch Quad HD dual edge Super AMOLED display protected by Corning's latest Gorilla Glass 5 cover glass. The smartphone is highly water resistant (IP68), and comes with an enhanced S Pen whichgives users the ability to create and share GIF animations with Smart Select. The new Air Command functions, including Magnify and Translate, enable users to zoom in on the screen or convert languages with a hover of the S Pen, according to the vendor. The new Samsung flagship smartphone features biometric authentication, including fingerprint scanner and iris scanning technology, which is new to the Note series. By pairing the Galaxy Note 7 with the new Gear VR powered by Oculus, users can experience virtual reality, the vendor said.

Samsung Electronics has unveiled removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard for use in high-resolution mobile shooting devices such as DSLRs, 3D VR cameras, action cams and drones. Samsung's UFS cards come in storage capacities of 256, 128, 64 and 32 GB. The new 256GB UFS removable memory card provides more than five times faster sequential read performance compared to that of a typical microSD card, reading sequentially at 530MB/s which is similar to the sequential read speed of the most widely used SATA SSDs. With this UFS card, consumers have the ability to read a 5GB, Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds, compared to a typical UHS-1 microSD card, which would take over 50 seconds with 95MB/s of sequential reading speed. Also, at a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, the 256GB card delivers more than 20 times higher random read performance compared to a typical microSD, which offers approximately 1,800 IOPS. When it comes to writing, the new 256GB UFS card processes 35,000 random IOPS, which is 350 times higher than the 100 IOPs of a typical microSD card, and attains a 170MB/s sequential write speed, almost doubling the top-end microSD card speed. To shoot 24 large/extra fine JPEG photographs (1,120MB-equivalent) continuously with a high-end DSLR camera, the 256GB UFS card takes less than seven seconds, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which typically takes about 32 seconds, at 35MB/s.