At the launch of its Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones today, Samsung has also announced that its new Gear VR with Controller will be able to support both smartphones. As you might be able to recall, the new headset which was co-developed with Oculus was announced back at MWC 2017.
If you missed the original announcement back in February, the key focus was not so much on the headset since it is still pretty much the same headset that Samsung launched alongside Galaxy Note 7. Instead, it is mainly more about the new Gear VR Controller.
The new controller is apparently designed to add another level of immersion by providing Gear VR users an intuitive way to further interact in virtual environment. Through Gear VR Controller, multiple form of motion-based interactions can now be achieved in supported Gear VR titles including the ability to point, drag and drop, tilt, shoot and more.
At the same time, it is also designed to provide a simpler one-hand control for Gear VR since the controller also features Home, Volume, and Back keys. Interestingly, users don’t have to buy the new Gear VR with Controller if they already have an existing Gear VR since the Gear VR Controller is able to support older Gear VR headsets and can be purchased separately.
According to Oculus, the new Samsung Gear VR with Controller as well as the stand-alone Gear VR Controller will be made available starting from 21 April onwards. We don’t have the Malaysian release date and pricing for it at the moment but as an early sign, these devices are priced at USD 129 (about RM 570) and USD 39 (about RM 173) respectively.
(Release date and pricing information source: Oculus)
