Samsung Gear VR Review

The Gear VR is an awesome mobile VR headset, with the only major drawback being the limited number of compatible phones. This product only works with a handful of the latest and greatest Samsung phones, so you are out of luck if you have anything else. However, this model is the clear choice if you are searching for a mobile VR platform and have one of the compatible smartphones.

To rank and score these products, we bought the top models available and tested them head-to-head to evaluate their performance. We grouped these tests into five weighted metrics, with our findings detailed below.

Interactiveness

The Gear VR compared poorly with the other headsets in our testing; however, it is one of the highest out of all the mobile options. Going wire-free automatically means you will experience some glitching.

Tethered models track your motion throughout the room, not just where you are looking, giving them a distinct edge over the mobile headsets in this set of tests. Despite this inherent flaw, the Gear VR is decently easy to interact with the headset, with a few buttons and a directional trackpad built right into the side of the headset.

There is also a handheld controller with a touchpad that can be used as an alternative interface method.

The Gear VR does a solid job at tracking where you are looking, though it does not track when you move throughout the room. The motion tracking of the remote is also decently accurate — on par with the Google Daydream — but it will occasionally drift, requiring you to reset the center position to the center of where you are facing by holding down a button on the controller.

Visual Immersiveness

The performance of the Gear VR underwent a marked increase from the previous metric, and ended up being one of the best of the entire group.

The Gear VR does an excellent job of blocking out ambient light, by far the best of the bunch. This headset has a form-fitting mask that fits comfortably against your face, preventing any light leaks.

This headset has a decently wide field of view, claimed at 101° and only displaying slightly less of our test image than the Oculus. The resolution of the display depends on the phone used, but we found the image to be crisp and sharp, with overall excellent viewing quality when using a Samsung S8 as a test phone.

Comfort

The Gear VR has a form-fitting soft gasket that makes the headset exceptionally comfortable, in addition to blocking out ambient light.

The Gear VR is also exceptionally roomy, leaving plenty of room for glasses. However, it was only about average in terms of ventilation, which could cause your face to get sweaty if worn for long periods of time.

User Friendliness

The Gear VR didn't have outstanding performance here, but it is easy enough to use that we didn't let it deter us from enjoying it.

It is quite easy to add sound to your experience when using the Gear VR, either by playing audio through your phone's speakers or by adding a set of headphones to improve it even more. The headphone port is easily accessible when using this headset, so it's no trouble at all to connect a pair.

It is a little more work to get the phone setup in the headset, as it actually plugs into the charging port at the bottom of the phone and has a pair of clamps that securely hold the phone in place. This also means that you usually have to take the phone out the case to place it in the headset, but it makes it almost impossible to accidentally hit any buttons on your phone.

Ease of Setup

The Gear VR rounds out testing with a relatively easy setup process that we didn't have any troubles with.

There is minimal hardware setup to get this headset ready to go, only taking a few minutes to attach the straps to the headset and remote, install the batteries in the remote, and adjust and focus the lenses to your own particular interpupillary distance.

We had to install a few apps on the phone to get the software side of things ready to go, taking a bit longer than the other mobile headsets. We encountered no difficulties, it just took slightly longer. This model did lose a few points by having a limited set of phones that are compatible, fewer than some of its competitors.

Value

The Gear VR is a little on the pricey side for a mobile headset, but does deliver a premium VR experience.

Conclusion

If you want a top product when it comes to mobile VR media or gaming experiences and have a Samsung smartphone, then look no further than the Gear VR. It's comfortable and visually immersive, offering an awesome experience at a fraction of the price of a tethered system.