My backordered Samsung Gear VR arrived a few days ago for my Galaxy Note 5 (32GB). With my family in town this weekend I figured this would be a good opportunity to see what my more “mainstream” relations thought about the Gear VR and VR in general.
A few quick notes:
- Everyone got a quick overview of the controls (how to adjust the visual depth, select items, the back button & volume).
- I used a pair of $15 knockoff Beats headphones I got from China as they don’t sound too bad, and I didn’t want to use earbuds or rely on the single speaker of the Note 5.
- The phone never overheated, but I did eventually (around 2-3 hours in) have to pull out my external battery pack and plug it in to keep the system powered.
Sister 1
- Tried the “Ocean Rift” demo
- Quickly got overwhelmed in conjunction with morning sickness.
Brother-in-law 1
- Tried the “Ocean Rift” demo with the Great White Shark
- Really enjoyed it, came back to this demo multiple times
- Tried some of the Oculus 360 videos, but was more interested in the Ocean Rift demo as he could move around
Mom
- Didn’t want to try the “Ocean Rift” demo. Wanted to see 360 videos instead.
- Was very impressed with the feeling of “being” in the videos she watched
Dad
- Tried “Ocean Rift” demo. Didn’t have as much of a visceral response to what was going on as my other family members.
- Was far more interested in the Blue Angels 360 video and the Netflix theater experience
Sister 2
- Tried “Ocean Rift” demo. Very much bought into the experience (screamed a few times at the shark getting a bit close). Spent the most time in this app.
- Watched a lot of other 360 videos.
Brother-in-law 2
- Also tried “Ocean Rift” demo. Had a lot of fun with the experience. Also spent a lot of time watching other 360 videos.
Overall impressions:
- One of the interesting things about the whole thing for me was that everyone (sans sister 1) that tried it really didn’t want to stop.
- Anyone who spent more than 30 minutes in mentioned that they had to spend some time adjusting again to being out of the Gear VR.
- Both brothers-in-law and sister 2 mentioned that they would very much consider switching from their iPhones to a Samsung phone to get the Gear VR or at the very least get one off contract.
- Nobody who tried the Gear VR was interested in the idea of doing this for a PC or PS4. They all said that being able to physically move around was a big plus and that being “wired” wouldn’t be of interest to them especially at the cost of a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
- Interestingly (to me) nobody mentioned anything about the “screen door” effect that I for sure notice a lot on some of the things I’ve seen (mostly streaming video at lower resolutions)
- I did notice that the first few seconds in my family moved their heads around rather slowly, but then everyone who stayed in immediately started whipping their heads around as if to check if the VR would break (it didn’t). Nobody after exiting the VR could remember doing that though.
- One thing that also stood out to me was that before trying it everyone (and I do mean everyone even if they were interested) thought I was a silly idea. The experience of being “there” however sold everyone (again sans sister 1) immediately. It seems that we are at that inflection point where Virtual Reality is “good enough” that even this implementation just “works”.
- Nobody complained of the lenses fogging up. I’ve yet to have that happen either.
- Yes everyone (sans sister 1) did the "Will Smith" moment of having their mouth agape.
- The consumer Gear VR does not have an SD card slot. So having a 32GB phone is fine for what I'm doing now, but I could see that being more of an issue should I decide to get a lot of apps and videos for this.
- I'm not putting this on my 3yr old. But given how well he uses an iPad I can only imagine how quick he'd take to it when he gets older.
- My spouse has used it a few times as well, but mostly just for Netflix. She likes to multitask on just about everything, so the VR isn't very interesting for her, but she does frequently use it for Netflix.
Log in to comment