Friday, May 23, 2014

Samsung preparing a VR gaming headset to be announced later this year

A man walks out of Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Seoul


Here’s your crazy rumor for the week: Samsung is preparing a virtual reality headset, and they’re planning on launching it later this year to try and beat the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus to market. Apparently, the prototype devices are far enough along in development that Samsung has already sent out some headsets to developers to use with their current flagship Samsung devices. Whether or not you think Samsung getting into the VR space is good, bad, or just plain crazy, there’s some pretty substantial evidence that it’s going to happen. It’s also a completely separate project from Samsung’s rumored Gear Blink device, at least at this point.


The headset is rumored to sport a pretty nice OLED screen and look pretty much like what other VR headsets look like right now. It’s not clear how the device will connect to your phone (or tablet?) but as Engadget points out, it’ll probably have to be wired to cut down on any lag, or the VR experience will be pretty awful. The headset will also likely only be compatible with next-generation Galaxy smartphones, so don’t expect it to work with your shiny new Galaxy S 5.


Perhaps the most important aspect of a device like this is the pricing, and Samsung is said to be trying to hit a low price point to undercut Oculus and Sony. It’s obviously still a complete virtual reality headset, so it’s still not going to be cheap, but if Samsung can make something relatively affordable when all of the competition prices itself like Google Glass, they might stand a chance at dominating the market despite having no experience in making games or virtual reality. That’d be ironic, right?


However this plays out, if Samsung is serious about launching this device by the end of 2014, we’ve only got about six months left in the year. Shouldn’t be too much longer until we hear more about Samsung’s stab at a brand new market.


source: Engadget



Come comment on this article: Samsung preparing a VR gaming headset to be announced later this year



Samsung preparing a VR gaming headset to be announced later this year

No comments: