Samsung has been very silent after the release of the company's VR headset back in 2014. After three years, the company has finally revealed its first major update for the Samsung Gear VR Headset which was first announced during the Mobile World Congress yesterday February 27th.
Samsung Gear is now presented with its new handheld controller, packed with an accelerometer, a gyroscope and the newly added magnetic sensors. With this addition, players will allow to interact with the VR equipment without worrying to mishandle the rest of the headset controls, according to Ars Technica.
The Next Web reported that Samsung has collaborated with the Oculus company to make the project successful. The new Samsung Gear VR hand controller has a circular touchpad similar to a laptop's trackpad. The controller also has a trigger and a home button with a locked-in wrist strap.
The company announced that the Samsung Gear VR controller is not rechargable, this means that users need to replace the tow triple-A batteries occasionally. The controller was confirmed to run a branded battery for at least 40 days with 2 hours of use each day.
As of today, there are limited games out in the market that supports the controller. However, a confirmed report from the EnGadget shows that there are around 70 titles currently in development for the new Samsung Gear VR.
The new Samsung Gear VR controller is reportedly not as complex as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it just simply injects the critical role of the controller when it comes to VR gaming. This also obviously exhibit that Samsung company is aligning to the VR gaming trend, as the upcoming Google Daydream VR headset will also release with a controller.
Moreover, the Samsung Gear VR had some improvements as well, aside from the new controller. The field view is now extended up to 101 degrees using the 42mm lenses along with the improved distort-correction technology that will be basically cure the motion sickness.
The updated Samsung Gear VR will remain to work with selected phones. The Samsung S7 series S6 variants along with the Note 5 series are some of the best phones that support the Gear VR.