Hs-on with novo’s ab 2 o: The world’s first Tango phone is big, bulky, super neat

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Published 10 Jun 2016

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There are numerous technologies that you always hear about, but don’t have access to. For me, ‘s oject Tango its augmented reality tricks have always been those elusive technology teases. I’ve seen how oject Tango is used on the International Space Station, I’ve watched from the wings while others have used a development kit. But I never really processed that oject Tango would become legitimate, shipping consumer technology. Until now.

novo’s ab 2 o, the first consumer-ready oject Tango smartphone, is coming this September for $499. It’s a ginormous, 6.4-inch device that’s too big to fit into your pocket, but that may not matter, because what it’s capable of doing may make some forgive all its challenges.

measureit app

The augmented-reality MeaureIt app gives you detailed data on the dimensions of objects in your environment.

The ab 2 o can run many of the same apps that were demoed at I/O last month. This includes MeasureIt, which lets you put augmented-reality measuring sticks on top of anything you can point the phone at, the wes app, which helps you visualize how an appliance or light fixture might look in your home.

At novo’s Tech rld event, I used the ab 2 o to play with an app that plopped augmented-reality dinosaurs onto the demo room floor—at scale! It was pretty remarkable. At one point I had an Archaeopteryx hanging from the ceiling, a Tyrannosaurus Rex taking up half the room. Each virtual creature acted as its own entity, I could tap on them individually for more information. That’s what a Tango phone like the ab 2 o can do, it makes up for some of the phone’s awkwardness.

phab2pro 1581

The ab 2 o has four cameras: a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, an infrared depth sensor, a fish-eye motion sensor. There’s also an 8-megapixel front-facing camera for selfie shots.

In terms of raw components, the ab 2 o packs a lot more than your average phablet. For starters, a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera is coupled with an infrared depth-sensor as well as a motion-tracking sensor to aid with augmented reality. The phone also has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a 4050 mAh battery, a Snapdragon 652 processor. The processor is supposedly the energy-efficient equivalent of last year’s Snapdragon 810, but it left me feeling a bit pessimistic about the device’s performance.

The ab 2 o suffered from a few slow downs, I had to force-close relaunch one AR-enabled app to get it to run smoothly. I later learned that the software featured on the demo devices was not yet final, which would also explain why I had such a hard time taking a decent picture with the ab 2 o’s rear-facing camera.

But at least there’s no bloatware on the ab 2 o, the interface is as clean as stock Android on a Nexus device.

phab2pro 1578

This isn’t novo’s next flagship, but it is one of the most impressive phones I’ve held in a while. 

The ab 2 o isn’t a flagship for novo. It’s a niche phone—a proof-of-concept that’s sneaking into retail, will probably only appeal to hardcore enthusiasts. That said, I have to give it kudos for being more interactive than virtual reality alternatives. A virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive might be nice if you want to escape from your everyday doldrums, but what if you could simply make those doldrums better with either helpful or fantastical overlays? Tango does just that, because the ab 2 o remains a portable smartphone, you can share your experiences with someone else.