Samsung’s virtual reality headset which uses your smartphone as a display will be available this fall for $99.

If you’ve been keeping track of these things, you’ll know that you can already buy a Samsung Gear VR, but the version that’s already on the market is an “Innovator Edition” model which had a higher price tag and non-final hardware.

But the consumer version of Samsung Gear VR will provide a rather affordable way to turn your smartphone into a VR headset… assuming you have a recent Samsung phone.

samsung gear vr

The Gear VR will work with the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, and Galaxy Note 5.

Samsung says the new Gear VR is 22 percent lighter than the Innovator Edition and includes new foam cushions to make it more comfortable when the device is strapped to your head.

Theoretically you could save around $95 and build your own headset using a Google Cardboard design. But Gear VR was developed in partnership with Oculus and has a more polished design, includes a series of sensors including acceleration and gyroscopic sensors and a proximity sensor that can tell when the headset is mounted or unmounted. There’s also a microUSB port for connecting the headset to supported phones.

Samsung says the Gear VR has a 96 degree field of view and 54 to 70mm fixed lenses. The headset weighs about 11 ounces.

Wondering what you can do with virtual reality headsets? A number of content providers including Netflix, Hulu, and Twitch have announced that they’re releasing apps for the Gear VR store. Vimeo and TiVo apps are also on the way.

Those apps will also most likely be available for the upcoming Oculus Rift headset. There’s no word on whether they’ll work with other devices including Google Cardboard or the HTV Vive.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,544 other subscribers

3 replies on “Samsung Gear VR headset coming in November for $99”

  1. So the new cheaper version doesn’t support all the Samsung phones the ‘Innovator Edition’ supported…

    i.e, it only supports the crappy new phones that lack MicroSD card slots and a bunch of other things…

Comments are closed.