Samsung Unveils its Oculus-Powered Gear VR

Powered by Rift-maker Oculus is Samsung‘s entry into the world of virtual reality: the Gear VR headset. The culmination of 12 months of collaboration, the new virtual reality headset is designed as an add-on to the brand new Galaxy Note 4, using the smartphone’s GPU/CPU to power the device and a quad HD low-persistence 5.7-inch 1440p AMOLED screen as the display. Powering the untethered rig is Oculus’s brand new Oculus Mobile SDK, while Oculus Tracker and firmware built into the headset make for extremely accurate, ultra low-latency 3DOF tracking. Seen here in “Innovator Edition” form — an early-access, beta-version of the device for developers and enthusiasts — the Gear VR also makes use of four new experiences from Oculus: Oculus Home, Oculus Cinema, Oculus 360 Videos and Oculus 360 Photos. While Home allows users to connect to the Oculus Store to discover, download and launch VR content, Photos and Videos allows for 360-degree playback of panoramic content. Finally, Cinema acts as a virtual movie theater that showcases 2D and 3D movies in a variety of theater environments.

Available in “Frost White,” the unique headset will be available sometime later this year.