Samsung To Release Gear VR Innovator Edition At $200 By Early December

Samsung has announced that the Gear VR Innovator Edition headset will be available in December with a price tag of USD 200. Samsung had showcased the Gear VR headset earlier this year and had promised that it will be released by the end of the year, a promise it has managed to live up to.

What's interesting about the Gear VR headset in comparison with other headsets like Occulus Rift is that it does not feature its own display and CPU, states PC Mag. Users will have to rely on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4's quad HD display and Snapdragon 805 SoC in using the Gear VR headset. The display of the phablet will act like a VR projector that will support 360-degree visuals and 4K videos.

The Gear VR headset comes with a slot for Galaxy Note 4 to allowe users to enjoy an immersive viewing experience. According to Time, the headset that costs USD 200 will cost USD 249 when purchased along with a Bluetooth gamepad. Users who wish to purchase the Gear VR headset must also own a Galaxy Note 4 handset. Hence, buyers will also need to invest on Galaxy Note 4.

The Gear VR Innovator Edition is not aimed toward general users but rather toward developers so that they can build compatible apps for the end user. The consumer edition of Gear VR headset will be released later, so as of now there is no confirmation on the exact release date.

The Gear VR headset is a result of a partnership between Samsung and Facebook. The latter had purchased the Oculus VR, a virtual reality firm in summer through a USD 2 billion deal. The Oculus VR company is currently working on Oculus Rift, which is a computer-tethered headset.

According to BBC, during the annual Developer Conference that was held on Nov. 12 at San Francisco, Samsung announced the "Project Beyond." It is a 360 degree camera that is exclusively built for streaming live video to a virtual reality headset from Samsung. Also, Oculus has made the Oculus Mobile SDK available for download. The SDK can be used by developers for building apps and games for Samsung Gear VR.