Remember the Samsung Gear VR? With the expected arrival of a real AR/VR device from Samsung, it's worth remembering that the world has already tried and failed miserably. Now it will have a chance to fix it, but it's a shame that it was forced to do so by... Apple.
Samsung entered the era of virtual reality with the Gear VR headset, which was developed in collaboration with Oculus (now Meta Quest). These were glasses that inserted a compatible smartphone from the company, which also served as a screen and processor for the VR experience.
Samsung debuts Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition at IFA in Berlin in September 2014, together with the phone Galaxy Note 4. This early version was intended primarily for developers and tech enthusiasts to start creating content for the platform. A year later, Samsung launched the first consumer version of the Gear VR (SM-R322), which was compatible with then-flagship devices such as Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
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Samsung released three more models over the next three years.which were compatible with new smartphones up to Galaxy S9 and S9+ But with the advent of more powerful standalone VR headsets (like the Oculus Quest, which Samsung no longer participated in) and as phones become more Galaxy As devices became larger and more difficult to integrate into a headset, interest in mobile VR in general began to decline.
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Samsung's newer flagships (starting with the series Galaxy Note 10 in the year 2019) no longer supported Gear VR. In May of 2020 Samsung announced that it was ending support for its XR apps, including those for the Gear VR. This meant the end of updates and, gradually, access to some services. In September of the same year, all services and support for the Gear VR platform were officially ended.
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Why didn't it work out?
- Limited performance and quality: The mobile VR experience was limited by the power of the smartphone. Graphics were often grainy, latency was nauseating, and overall it didn't provide as immersive an experience as more expensive PC VR systems.
- Uncomfortable design: Inserting the phone into the glasses was difficult and often uncomfortable for extended use.
- Lack of content: The library of apps and games for Gear VR wasn't as rich as for other platforms.
- The advent of standalone VR headsets: With the advent of more powerful and standalone VR headsets (like Oculus Quest), mobile VR with phones has lost its meaning.
Apple Vision Pro
Samsung pulled out of virtual reality for years. As speculation grew about Apple Vision Pro, information leaked that Samsung is also working on its own headset. But Apple showed a revolutionary device and Samsung had to completely overhaul its concept. We already know more or less what it will look like, what it will be capable of, but we will have to wait a while longer – probably until September this year.
