Samsung Gear VR (2016) Review - Review 2022

Samsung has rolled out another iteration of its Gear VR virtual reality headset. Like the previous Gear VR ($fourteen.95 at Amazon) , this is a Google Cardboard-like plastic shell in which you place a uniform Samsung Galaxy smartphone to feel VR through the Oculus-powered Gear VR app shop. Its biggest upgrade is that information technology supports the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (849.99 For the latest plan and device pricing: 844-235-3939 at T-Mobile) thank you to a modular connector with USB-C and micro USB adapters. Otherwise, it doesn't make any major changes to the Gear VR formula. It still costs $99.99, it still offers a comfortable fit and useful interaction features similar a touchpad for controlling apps, and information technology still stands equally a good way to feel VR without investing in a PC-based, tethered headset like the much more expensive HTC Vive ($149.96 at Amazon) or Oculus Rift ($427.81 at Amazon) .

Design

The new Gear VR ($55.99 at Amazon) eschews the white of Samsung's previous headsets for a near-black midnight blue cease. Besides the colour modify and the expected iterative adjustments to work with the latest Milky way phones, however, the latest Gear VR looks and feels very similar to previous models.

The right side of the headset holds a touchpad that's larger and flatter than the previous i (which has textured bumps to bespeak the cardinal directions, which isn't really necessary), along with physical Back, Home, and Volume buttons. The top of the headset holds a mechanical focus cycle, while the underside has a pass-through charging port for your connected phone. The port is now USB-C rather than micro USB. No cable is included, though you lot do get a micro USB-to-USB-C adapter then you can use your older charging cables. A USB-C cablevision that terminates in a standard USB port would have been more user-friendly, since the adapter is very modest and tin get easily lost, but it's helpful if you don't already accept a USB-C cable.

Ii sturdy cloth bands attach to the Gear VR with hook-and-loop fasteners to keep the headset connected securely to your face. The horizontal headband is fairly wide, and pulls through loops on either side of the headset. The thinner vertical headband has a plastic hook that clicks into identify on top. One time adjusted, the Gear VR felt comfy on my head, staying pressed snugly against my confront without any irritating rubbing of plastic on skin or bad-mannered distribution of weight against the straps.

Smartphone Integration

The Gear VR's USB-C adoption is necessary for the Galaxy Note seven and presumably Samsung's future Galaxy devices. The headset is also compatible with the Galaxy Note v, S6, S6 Border, S6 Edge+, S7 ($199.99 at Samsung) , and S7 Edge ($792.00 at Verizon Wireless) , all of which use a micro USB port. Samsung has a very functional workaround, and it'due south more than a simple adapter: The entire docking connector on the Gear VR is modular. A locking switch lets you slide the pre-installed USB-C docking connector off of a small mount and replace it with an included micro USB connector. The connector attaches securely when the switch is locked, making it experience similar it's an integrated part of the headset. It's a much better solution than an adapter that can be lost (like the included charging port adapter, which really should be replaced past a USB-to-USB-C charging cable).

Installing a phone in the Gear VR is simple. Once the correct docking connector is fastened, gear up its position between A or B using a small button located nether it (A is for Milky way Notes, B is for Galaxy S smartphones). Plug the phone into the connector and push button information technology down, locking it in place using the latch opposite the docking connector. If the software isn't already installed, the phone volition prompt you lot to remove it from the connector and install the Gear VR and Oculus apps before returning it to the headset. After everything is installed, you're gear up to employ VR.

Technical Capabilities

In terms of sheer resolution, the Gear VR technically has the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift beat, since it uses Galaxy smartphones with 2,560-by-1,440 screens compared with the Rift and Vive'southward 2,100-by-ane,200 panels. That doesn't tell the whole story, though. The Gear VR has to adjust to work with multiple Milky way smartphones, and those phones aren't built with VR as the primary use case. The Rift and Vive's displays are dedicated to VR, with 90Hz refresh rates that can offer smoother, more immersive move compared with the 60Hz Android tops out at.

The Rift and Vive also take much more processing power behind them thank you to the gaming PCs required to run them, and they feature far more authentic move tracking thank you to external sensors the Gear VR lacks. The Gear VR's graphics are compelling and look very smooth, and the internal motion sensors on the installed smartphones are mostly accurate. Just the Rift and Vive merely offer much smoother, more advanced visuals and far greater movement-tracking precision than the Gear VR because of the complicated, bulky, and expensive hardware they require.

VR Functioning

I tested the Gear VR with a Milky way S7 using the micro USB connector and a Galaxy Note vii using the USB-C connector. It worked perfectly in both cases, functioning identically to the previous Gear VR and earlier Galaxy devices. Both phones stayed in place securely, and the connectors functioned as they should. Each device automatically went into VR style and opened the Oculus app when installed in the Gear VR, and each slept when I removed the headset thanks to a proximity sensor in the face mask.

Samsung worked with Oculus to produce the Gear VR, and the software store is available entirely through the Oculus app. There aren't whatever must-try VR apps bachelor, but between video consumption and casual gaming in that location's enough to keep y'all occupied. For video, I tried the Netflix and Rio Olympics apps. Netflix puts you in a comfortable home theater, sitting in front end of a big-screen tv set that has the standard Netflix interface. It lets you lot sentinel anything on Netflix equally if you were in front of your Tv set, no matter where you are. I enjoyed this when I concluding tested the Gear VR, and it still holds upwardly.

The Rio Olympics app is new and offers views of certain Olympic events filmed with a 360-degree camera. I watched highlights of battle with ringside seats. It'southward an interesting effect, and certainly more immersive than watching information technology on a standard screen, but fifty-fifty with headphones it didn't quite feel similar I was really sitting there, watching the fight. And very fast activeness like sports brings out movement and resolution problems in an attached phone'due south display that more than cinematic video and completely estimator-generated games keep to a minimum.

Gaming

For games, I played Darknet, Shooting Showdown 2, and a Suicide Squad tie-in VR title. The latter ii are shooting gallery games that employ the touchpad every bit a trigger, and both performed adequately well. Gunslinging in VR is fun, using your caput to aim much more quickly than yous could with thumbsticks. They're both pretty shallow as far every bit gameplay goes, however.

Darknet is a surprisingly fun puzzle game most hacking, using viruses to reach the center of different boards while avoiding antivirus programs. The VR aspect puts you in the middle of each server, which is represented past a glowing web of nodes. You look at unlike nodes to inject viruses, and then spotter them spread. The perspective lets servers vary wildly in size and complexity, forcing you to wait effectually as the webs spread around yous. Information technology's elementary, but deceptively engaging.

Web Browser

I also used Samsung's Internet for Gear VR, a virtual reality Web browser. It doesn't plow Web pages into VR experiences or anything wildly aggressive like that. It's just a Web browser that you tin utilize with the Gear VR, projecting the page you're viewing as a screen floating in front of y'all. It's like in execution to the Virtual Desktop software for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, just non quite every bit powerful or all-encompassing; it only shows Web pages, not whatever would otherwise exist on your device'south screen. Information technology's a useful app to have on manus, though, since it lets you browse the Web without taking the headset off.

Conclusions
The new Samsung Gear VR is a functional, accessible, and affordable way to play with VR if you have a compatible Galaxy phone, and anyone with fifty-fifty a passing interest in VR should seriously consider giving information technology a shot. Outside of the USB-C connector and back up for the Galaxy Note vii, however, the latest headset doesn't bring annihilation new to the tabular array. If yous already have a Gear VR and a Galaxy phone that works with it, there'southward no reason to get the latest iteration. If y'all just picked up a Note 7, though, accept a look at the Gear VR. You'll find a compelling experience virtual reality without spending the much higher prices and heavy PC hardware requirements of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-ratings-comparisons/8954/samsung-gear-vr-2016-review

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