It’s been just six months since we got our first taste of the Gear VR. The company’s VR collaboration with Oculus was announced at IFA in Berlin last September, but in the time since it’s become clear that Samsung is serious about VR. The company made the Note 4-compatible headset available for U.S. virtual reality fans before the end of last year and launched Milk VR in time for CES. At the show, the company had demos aplenty, including games and a wickedly impressive video of an aerial show produced in partnership with Cirque du Soleil.
Though much of Samsung’s MWC press conference focused on Samsung Pay and the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung saved a little love for its fledgling VR platform. Sunday brought news of a brand new Gear VR, this one optimized for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
Dubbed the Gear VR Innovator Edition, the headset is 15% smaller with redesigned straps that supposedly contribute to increased comfort due to better weight distribution of the headset. There’s also a new mechanical ventilation system and a USB port.
Other than these changes to the headset itself, any other differences in performances are going to come from the upgraded hardware in the Galaxy S6 because, lest we forget, that’s where all the image processing happens for the Gear VR.
No word on pricing or release date but we imagine it will be available in the U.S. around the same time as the phones (April 10th) and will be priced similar to the $200 Samsung charges for the original Note 4 version. No mention of international availability, Canadian or otherwise.
[source]Samsung[/source]
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