I get a little excited when a new VR product is announced. The last few months have been a mixed bag of reveals and speculation. Nobody is quite sure what VR is going to look like in the next decade but there are developments coming from all fronts. Collaborations across various vendors such as the Next Gen GP VR headset might be a cool bump in Mixed Reality (MR) technology but for now it’s all quiet on the MR front. Fresh news coming from major tech giant Qualcomm reveals a new line of plugin headsets and there are a whole load of partnerships going on in the background.
Qualcomm are looking to leverage the capabilities of phones and 5G for a new mobile VR experience. I have tested a number of phone based VR setups. Most recently Huawei’s mobile VR was okay but nothing special and it really doesn’t come close to something like the quest which features a snapdragon 835 along an appealing OLED HMD unit. Qualcomm have seen an opportunity to leverage the evolving baseline of mobile performance and connectivity and is moving ahead with XR Viewers, a system that will be mobile connected and driven by sufficient chips. My Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra features a SD 865 and might be an opportunity for me to give this setup a go. Although, I did not see Samsung on the list and this seems to be mostly Smartphone OEM brands such as Oppo, Viva, Asus etc. If software, comfort and controls are going to rival standalone units such as the Oculus Quest, I’m definitely interested.
Pricing is the biggest pull, Qualcomm’s decision to further evolve plug-in viewers is a move to provide VR capability to the masses. It’s proposed that the viewers will be cheaper, lighter and feature hand sensing controls not seen before. These are all big pluses that are now possible with a new wave of mobile performance and connectivity. I will be keeping my eyes peeled to see how this new VR ecosystem develops, there are a number of telecommunications operators that have partnered to offer the viewers as part of phone bundles. Perhaps as an effort to offer such accessories as standard, in a time where many are needing immersive technology at home, it’s a logical step that may pay off in the long run. It remains to be seen just how far the software library comes too, if nobody is contributing to or using the available applications, this next stint in the world of everything virtual may be short winded but I am sure these companies have a strategy in place to rival even the biggest VR stores.
