It looks like Samsung’s Galaxy might soon be going virtual. According to a new report, the company is set to announce a virtual reality headset sometime this year. The launch would place the consumer electronics giant in direct competition with Sony’s Project Morpheus and Facebook’s Oculus Rift — not that Samsung isn’t used to competition.
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Samsung’s VR headset, as reported by Engadget, will be powered by next-generation phones and tablets. The early version of the device can apparently work with the Galaxy S5, but the site says that even beefier hardware may be required to power the final shipping product.
The headset will apparently feature an OLED display in order to compete with Oculus Rift. Samsung’s likely goal: to make games and videos much more immersive, as well as add to its array of accessories that now includes smartwatches like the Gear 2.
It’s unclear how the headset will connect to mobile devices or how it wlll handle tracking head movements. Another unknown is what kinds of games the company plans to roll out with the headset. Most of the VR gaming demos on the market rely on PC titles like “Eve Valkerie” and “War Thunder.”
If Samsung is successful, the VR headset could help the company court more developers and make its ecosystem more sticky like Apple’s.
— Sherri L. Smith, LAPTOP
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