14 DAY TRIAL // A major undercurrent that will most likely grow in size in the near future is the upcoming accessibility of cheap VR headsets built for smartphones. Smelling a major opportunity in this virgin market, Samsung decided to prepare a cheap VR headset for its smartphones.
Although not attempting to enter the big boy's arena and face Sony, Oculus and Valve, Samsung keeps a keen eye on the smartphone markets and since cheap VR headsets will probably arrive from the leading smartphone manufacturers to complement their smartphone bundles, the Korean company plans to be among the first to bite a chunk of this growing market segment. And it won't do it anyway, it will do it with charging $100 price a piece this fall.
Samsung seems to have decided to improve on its existing Gear VR Innovator edition that sells for $200 a piece, by making it more comfy, lighter, with much wider smartphone compatibility, and most importantly, cheaper, as in 50% cheaper.
If GearVR is a success, it could leave all the major VR players behind
Apparently, the new device will change the way it sees comfort in experiencing smartphone VR. The new Gear VR is lighter since it has changed some of the plastic parts for webbing or mesh while the materials that touch your face when putting them on aren't just foam, but different layers of soft padding like microfleece that remains steady on your face and less likely to slide down on your nose. The touchpad on the temple now has little grooves that will help users guide their fingers in four directions while the entire design is much improved to simply be more ergonomic.
What's important to the new design is that more Samsung phones are engineered to fit inside the new Gear VR, so no one will complain anymore about not being able to fit their specific phone inside the headset. Among the compatible phones that will work with it are the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, S6 and S6 edge.
Each of these devices comes with a pretty good 2560×1440 display so image clarity won't be a problem. No exact dates are available, but Samsung says that it will be available in Frost White for $99 (€89).