While the Samsung Gear VR is great as an affordable way to enjoy virtual reality using your Samsung smartphone, it’s not in the same league as HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. And now there’s Google’s Daydream View, too…
So now Samsung has added a controller with a touch pad to enable easier and better interactions with apps (like dragging and dropping as well as the ability to point).
As well as a wrist strap, there are also home, volume and back keys for convenience. It takes some cues from the Daydream View pointer. Samsung says the use of the controller will minimise head movements as well.
The Gear VR with Controller offers 42mm lenses with 101-degree FOV (Field of View) and advanced distortion correction technology to minimise motion sickness – this is welcome as we felt queasy after using Gear VR for the first time.
The Gear VR now has a strap on the headset to store the controller.
The news follows on from the rumour in December that Samsung was working on a new VR headset that would face and eye track – spotted in a patent filing.
Current HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets, which are powered by full-on computers, are complemented by sensors that detect their location in relation to the room. In the case of the Vive, a wearer can walk around the room in reality and be moving about a virtual room within the headset. Currently, the Samsung Gear VR experience is limited to stationary actions with only head based movements from that single position.
The latest edition of the Samsung Gear VR is compatible with the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, Note5, S6 Edge+, S6 and S6 Edge.
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