Gear VR is awesome - are you going to pick one up?

The Consumer Edition Gear VR

Background

So the Samsung/Oculus Gear VR consumer edition is finally relatively widely available. Here in AUS you can get it direct from Samsung's website for $158 w/ free express shipping - in the US it retails for $99. It's been out for a while but has been sold out everywhere until recently, at least that I have noticed.

For those unaware, the Gear VR is the low price entry into VR co-developed by Oculus and Samsung - it works by plugging in your Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ or Note 5. To me, it is particularly interesting in that the Gear project is the element of Oculus that John Carmack has essentially taken under his wing as his baby, and where he does most of his playing around.

I ordered my Gear VR for use with my Galaxy S6 earlier this week and am honestly blown away by it. I will note that this is my first VR experience, however, I held off until now not because of lack of opportunity, but rather I wanted to only try VR when a company decided it was finally consumer ready, like the Gear VR is now.

What can this thing do?

I write this section after having played with the Gear VR for the last couple of days and the resulting enthusiastic youtube exploration of all things Oculus over the past 2 years. I hope I can give some indication of what kind of product you're actually getting with the Gear VR.

Firstly, my phone (the S6) has a 2560x1440 "quad HD" display which, on face value, compares favourably with the actual CV1 edition of the Rift (which sports a 2160x1200 - one screen at 1080x1200 for each eye). This is the starting point for Gear VR since other phones have higher pixel densities - however, this is certainly not the whole story on this point, but more on that in a tad. The headset also comes with a touch interface, back button and volume rocker on its right hand side for input and a suite of oculus-developed sensors (gyros etc) to provide accurate rotational tracking for the unit. Oh, and obviously it has physical focus adjustment as well (on top).

So in terms of the "Full VR Experience", the unit in similar to Oculus CV1 in a couple of important ways. It has the genesis of what will become the Oculus Home interface already running on it. It has many of the same content partnerships and they're available right now too (Netflix, Twitch, etc). It has most of the same capability as the CV1 when it comes to non-gaming media - the Cinema, 360 Photos and 360 Videos work, and work well. It can also play a couple of games - though I haven't tried pairing a gamepad to it yet, so I can't speak to too many of these. It is important to note that since the headset is running off your phone, the games you'll have access to are those on the Oculus store which have been adapted to the Gear VR, not whatever you may find online and want to try out.

On that point - what can't it do (or what does it just plain do worse than CV1)? Well, let's talk about that screen again. The Gear VR's high resolution / pixel density sounds great, but because the unit has been made to work with so many different phones and be cheap to boot, a major step of visual optimisation is missing from this headset - customised optics. The CV1 has some very customised optics which not only move in conjunction with the screens when setting your focus, but also "blur" the image a bit more than the Gear VR, almost eliminating the dreaded "screen door effect". So in short, the CV1 will straight up look better than Gear will. Oh, and Gear runs at 60hz instead of the CV1's 90hz (a threshold which significantly helps low persistence and is another point in favour of CV1 when it comes to pure visual fidelity).

Beyond visuals, the CV1 also has a big element of VR you may really want - positional tracking. The Gear system only supports rotational tracking, which means you can look around, but can't actually change your point of view by bending your neck or body. The CV1 also has built in (though removable) audio, way higher build quality and a new, more solid strap solution making it more comfortable.

So with so many limitations, is there anything redeeming about the Gear VR? Well, yes. Beyond the price and the impressions (below), Gear VR does all the basics of VR and has one massive advantage. It's wireless. This is a big factor that allows you to throw it in your backpack and show family and friends, engage with 360 degree experiences and not worry about wires and - if you're anything like me - watch movies on a simulated 40' screen from the comfort of your bed.

Wireless is a big deal, and aside from the quality of the VR this does for the price, it's a massive factor as to why I'm impressed and I think you would be too.

Impressions

The moment I put on the Gear VR for the first time, the moment I'd been waiting for, so excited to finally experience modern VR tech, one thought crossed my mind. "Oh lord, 1440p just isnt high enough". Yup, that's right - at 1440p with non customised optics, the "diamond" shaped pentile pixels of the S6's OLED are highly visible when using the Gear VR - or at least, they are when you first put it on.

The second thought which crossed my mind was "Oh wow, the tracking on my head movement is really good"... and thus started my foray into VR.

What I came to realise is that, though not as great when still as you would want it to be, the visuals which can be produced by the Gear VR are far more impressive in full motion. I'm talking loading a 360 Video of an F22 riding alongside a subsonic small aircraft and actually looking around. The pixels kindof... disappear as you get absorbed in the scene being portrayed, and honestly, that's the moment when I realised that VR is the coolest thing since HD visuals.

Perhaps the most impressive thing you can look at are 360 Photos, as expressed by John Carmack during this year's Oculus Connect 2 conference. The photos, unlike videos, are captured after the "moment of distortion" (or so I believe is the term), and as such are crystal clear renditions of an environment, visual artefacts at camera borders excused.

One of the most impressive things I've heard in a while was when my sister tried on the Gear VR and immediately loaded up 360 pictures of places she had gone to during her Europe trip earlier this year. Her words were "wow, this is exactly how it looked." That's pretty much the highest praise I could imagine. Needless to say, I've since done quick jaunts across Tokyo, London, Toronto, Paris and a couple of other places.

How are the games? Really cool. I mean, you have likely seen what they kindof look like yourself if you've seen any of the Tested.com VR hands-on videos, and you don't need me to describe them here. They work, and they look solid. The tracking is good and they are hella compelling, especially when they convey a sense of scale. If I ever end up pairing a controller to my phone I may give more detailed impressions on how VR keeps up with input, but in general, it's as you think it'd be.

However, the elephant in the room here is overheating. Gear VR runs off your phone and your phone isn't built to run complex 3D calculations for hours on end - it overheats and puffs out after a variable amount of time depending what you're doing with it. Sometimes, if I'm playing something intensive, it'll overheat after only 20 minutes. If I'm watching a movie in Oculus Cinema? Well, I watched all of San Andreas (that movie where The Rock punches and earthquake or whatever?) with no issues.

Upshot

Overall, passive media is, I think, the largest strength of the Gear. It doesn't overheat the phone anywhere near as fast as games do and it capitalises on the Gear's strength (being a cheap, wireless entry way into fully immersive content). That said, light gaming on it, for short durations, really does work and is impressive. Especially stuff like Land's End (from the makers of Monument Valley), which are made to be controller free.

I really like this thing. I like showing it to other people and seeing their reactions like all VR enthusiasts do (of which I guess I'm one now?) - but more importantly, especially with how easy it is to load on Youtube 360 videos, I'm hooked.

I just watched the Mythbusters swimming with sharks. So cool.

Anyway - how about you? Do you have one? Are you getting one? What are your thoughts?

I couldn't be less interested in Gear VR, and that is coming from someone who is going to buy an Oculus Rift the instant they are available. Gear just seems like a cheap gimmick to me, something that I would use for a week or so and then never touch again.

@mike said:

I'd have to agree to disagree on this one. That's not to say the Gear is the be-all-and-end-all, I'll definitely use it less when I get my hands on a real VR headset like Oculus.

Overall though, I agree with Carmack - wireless VR is compelling as long as there's stuff you want to do with it. If passive 360 degree content or a personalised cinema for flights and other long solo stints without a PC isn't something you'd find interesting, then yeah - it may just not be for you.

I might if I already had the phone for it, but I'm pretty much invested in the rift proper. (I upgraded my Pc for the minimum specs this past year) I think it's a great entry point for people interested in the idea, but can't afford to invest on high end hardware though.

Also, that Vr cinema looks rad as hell!

Yep already picked one up. Been getting a lot of use out of it.

The absence of positional tracking is a deal-breaker for me. But the idea of a wireless VR headset is very compelling. As soon as they implement positional tracking, I'd be down to get one.

Cool write-up and comparison with the Rift. I actually had no idea this was being co-developed by Oculus. I guess I just assumed Samsung was doing their own thing, although admittedly I haven't been keeping up to date on VR happenings. I've kind of taken the "wait for the dust to settle" type of approach to VR, and I feel like at the price point they're going to launch at I don't see them being great consumer products until 2017 at the earliest, but more likely 2018. That all said, if I had a compatible phone I would probably get one of these because $99 is so inexpensive, it wouldn't take a lot for me to feel I got my money's worth.

Sounds like a bit of a half-step to be honest. I don't doubt it'd still be impressive, but I think I'll wait for the others.

Good write-up!

If I had a compatible phone already, I'd probably pick one up, but at this point, I'm just waiting to see what the initial roll out of Vive and Oculus looks like.

I strongly encourage anyone who is curious about VR (and has the means) to get the Gear VR. It's an absolutely fantastic experience. I expected little more than Cardboard, and I am completely blown away by what I've seen so far. Even more excited for the "real" headsets coming out, but honestly, I'm just thrilled with the Gear. I am positive my friends are annoyed by me not shutting up about it. "OMG, AND THERE'S THIS ONE GAME WHERE YOU HAVE A JETPACK AND NOW I FEEL LIKE I HAVE A JETPACK" (Omega Agent)

Oh, and get a controller while you're at it. I had a blast without it, but it's even better with it - not to mention some of the coolest games require it. But yeah, this is my first experience (not counting minimal cardboard experience), and I'm beyond psyched. The hype is real for me.

Oh oh and and and...they are broadcasting some pretty good boxing matches (I'm a big boxing fan) this weekend. Very excited to see how that plays out.

No. I tried it at PAX and it's a sub-par experience. For 100 bucks (plus the phone) it's alright, but if I'm already committing to the tech I'm going to go all the way.

Was considering it recently, actually. I already have a compatible phone, so it's a MUCH more reasonable price of entry than the Rift--even as someone with a Rift-ready PC. I'm sure they aren't even remotely comparable to the "real" VR headsets, but as someone who's never tried any of them, I expect I would find it quite impressive and fun to mess around with. When I have some spare money, I'll probably pick one up--even if I don't get much use out of it, it would be worth poking at.

It sounds like a cool if you already have one of the phones, but at this point I would rather just save that VR money and put it into one of the fully fledged headsets or into a PC upgrade.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that I won't invest in the first generation VR headsets. However I might buy a Gear VR type solution just to be able to fuck around with this technology and be sort of apart of the zeitgeist surrounding it.

I think its neat, but as someone who doesn't really watch much of anything these days this would only really be for the novelty factor. I'm not going to watch movies on it because I rarely watch movies at all. The 360 videos are fun, but I tend to find myself watching them for a minute or so then tuning out - at least with what's currently on offer. I'm glad someone is offering VR at a more entry-level price, but if I do end up pitching in then I doubt it'll be for this. Just doesn't suit my personal needs.