Intel showed off a prototype of its Project Tango phone late last year at the Intel Developer Forum, and now the phone and its embedded RealSense 3D camera is available for purchase. Intel launched a pre-order campaign for the Android-powered phone on its webstore for $399 (£273, AU$570).
While consumers can get into the action, the phone is geared more towards developers, businesses and those who may need to capture 3D scans in a more portable form factor. For consumers, the phone can also be used for augmented and virtual reality gaming. In a demo last year, Intel showed that the phone can be paired with a Nerf gun, where players can fire real Nerf ammunition at virtual targets.
Intel's Project Tango phone comes with a rear-facing RealSense 3D ZR300 camera. Additionally, the phone features a two-megapixel front-facing camera and rear-facing eight-megapixel shooter.
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Intel's 3D camera will open the phone up to new experiences, including indoor 3D mapping, VR gaming and 3D scanning, Intel said. Intel provided a few demos of how the phone can be used at IDF 2015. The RealSense camera is capable of capturing 10 million points per second.
Even though the phone runs Google's Android operating system, it will not come with the standard ARM architecture processors. Instead, the brain behind Intel's Project Tango phone is the Intel Atom x7-Z8700 Atom-based processor.
In addition to the high-end Atom chip, the phone will ship with 64GB of storage and 2GB of memory. To match other flagship phones on the market today, Intel is also equipping the phone with a spacious 6-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution display. The large screen will be useful for viewing 3D scans.
Intel still has not provided an exact ship date for the phone, and pre-orders are limited to one device per customer.
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