After Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, Project Tango coming to more powerful phones

The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is a powerful smartphone that maps and understands the world around you thanks to its four cameras. Like a window into an alternate dimension, its screen can fi ll your room with virtual objects by augmenting reality (AR).

Yet, it isn’t equipped with the best Qualcomm processor. A Snapdragon 652 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) is okay for the first Project Tango phone — it’s able to pull off Google’s depthcalculating, augmented reality vision on a supersized Quad HD handset.

But when will the Tango tools step up to the flagship-level Snapdragon 820? Seshu Madhavapeddy, Qualcomm’s vice-president of Mobile Computing says Qualcomm is opening up the Snapdragon 820 and future 800 series chips to Tango. It has not been announced yet, but Qualcomm has opened up its superior chipset to all Tango phone manufacturers.

However, he called the Snapdragon 652 “more than adequate to support Tango” running through the specs behind Lenovo’s phone: It supports that massive 6.4-inch Quad HD display and doesn’t need the Snapdragon 820.

Tango phones being used in virtual reality headsets and maybe one with AR capabilities, Madhavapeddy said, “I think there’s a fairly good chance that it’s likely to happen.” Though he did not comment about the Daydream capabilities of Project Tango phones, Madhavapeddy said, “Certainly there will be other products. Stay tuned.” That sounds like a promising combination.