
Google has a list of viewers that are officially supported, and they start at around $20.It's important to understand exactly what you're getting when you buy a VR device, and what else you need to own or purchase separately to get the best experience.
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Even Googe Cardboard, our first entry and the least expensive way to experience VR, requires an iOS or Android phone of some kind. So when you buy the Gear VR headset, you still need a phone for the screen and computing power. It's also worth pointing out that nearly all virtual reality devices require external hardware. For the purposed of this guide, the terms "virtual reality" and "VR" will be used interchangeably, and AR devices like Microsoft's HoloLens will be left for another day. The act of laying information or virtual aspects over actual reality is usually referred to as "augmented" reality, or AR. This is usually accomplished by some combination of optics, headphones and head tracking, so you can look around the virtual environment and, in some cases, move within it in some way. It seeks to replace reality with something else, rather than enhance it.

So what is virtual reality? In simple terms, it's the act of using a combination of computing power and optics to simulate a visual and auditory experience that seeks to fool the user into believing they're someplace else. The Gear VR section has been updated to include compatibility information for Samsung's upcoming phones.
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Update (February 2016): Our section on the HTC Vive has been updated to include the final retail price, links to our coverage of games coming this year and a few more details about the retail version of the hardware. This is, on the whole, rather expensive technology, however. This guide will get you started, and if you'd like to take your first tiny looks into this brave new world, we'll present some low-cost options. There are plenty of people who would love to get going in virtual reality, or would at least love to understand a bit more about the products coming this year. Or it's possible the retail hardware is released, no one buys it and we're about to see one of the worst bubbles in technology since puppets tried to sell us pet supplies during the Super Bowl.īut for now, let's be a bit more optimistic! 2016 is widely expected to be the year of VR by people who believe that virtual reality has a pretty decent chance of becoming a thing.
