HTC Vive vs New Gear Review VR Part 2

Essentially, the Gear VR is a device that most people would use when sat down but the HTC Vive is something you’d use if you wanted a complete virtual reality experience, interacting with the virtual environment around you. The device is powered by PC instead of a smartphone and uses a gyro sensor, accelerometer and a laser position sensor that allows the device to track head movements as precisely as one tenth of a degree. That, coupled with the Steam VR base station will allow you to walk around a 15x15 foot room and interact with the virtual space instead of using a controller, a la Oculus Rift. HTC has also claimed to have fi xed the issue with virtual reality and controllers – the Vive will come with a pair of “wireless controllers” that are simple and intuitive, HTC claims.

Apart from that, it gave no detail as to what these controllers will look like – could they be gloves? We’ll have to wait and see. Content Samsung’s VR off ering isn’t that great at the moment. Even though the original Gear VR has been out since December, most of the content available seems to be mainly demos and ‘experiences’. The good news is that Samsung will support the Oculus Store once it launches and that will give consumers much more choice, but the issue is that no one knows when that will be. Oculus is keeping tight-lipped on that one. HTC has partnered with Valve, creator of Steam, to bring out the HTC Vive. Working directly with Valve means that a selection of compatible VR games available on Steam would be available for the Vive, but this has not yet been confi rmed.

While on the subject of Steam, the HTC Vive is the SteamVR device that Valve teased on the Steam Store last week. Google, HBO and Lionsgate are already working on content for the machine, which sounds a lot more promising than what Samsung is currently off ering. Price and availability There isn’t yet any word on a release date or pricing for the Gear VR Innovators Edition, but history suggests that it’ll be around the same $200 price as its predecessor. As it’s going to be compatible with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, which are both due for release in April, it’s fairly safe to say that the Gear VR will launch around that time too. HTC hasn’t yet given us a specifi c release date for the consumer edition of the Vive, apart from the fact that it’ll be out by the end of this year. It has however confi rmed that a developer kit will go on sale shortly. The virtual reality headset race has begun and with only prototypes of the Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus and Microsoft HoloLens available, the Vive and Gear VR are kicking off the party early.