Frank He goes hands-on with Huawei’s first Google Daydream compatible headset at CES 2017, one which takes cues from both the Oculus engineered Gear VR and its closest stable mate, the Daydream View.
Huawei’s Daydream compatible VR headset, into which slots a Huawei Mate 9 Pro or Porsche Design Mate 9 smartphone, was shown off to the public at CES, and I’ve had the pleasure of trying it myself.
The headset looks a lot like the Gear VR with similar features, but runs on Google’s new VR platform Daydream instead of Oculus and Samsung’s. Despite the exterior, the headset still has a lot of similarities with Google’s headset in terms of the visual experience. I’ll compare Huawei’s VR headset to Google’s and Samsung’s, with an emphasis on Google’s Daydream View as the software is the same, making it much more comparable. What I can say immediately is that it took some of the good things about the Gear VR and applied them to Google’s Daydream platform.
Build
The headset feels very much like the Gear VR. It’s made out of plastic, has a focus dial, has detachable facial foam, a proximity sensor, a touchpad, and has a direct connection to the phone. On these fronts, it eschews some of the characteristics found on the Daydream View. The View however does feel a lot lighter and a bit more portable, but it also lacks the aforementioned focus dial, or to turn on and off when you’re using the device or not. As Huawei’s VR headset is Daydream compatible, it does use a motion controller, but it seems you also have the ability to use the integrated touchpad as an alternative. That said, the model Huawei demonstrated at CES did not include a functional touchpad or proximity sensor.
Visuals
The FOV seemed perhaps a very tiny bit larger on Huawei’s VR headset when compared with Google’s View, but it seems to exhibit more warping and distortion around the far edges of the lens. Other than that, the visuals were mostly the same. Chromatic aberration, resolution, head rotation tracking, and brightness all seemed the same to my eyes. So with that said, if you know the difference between the Daydream View and the Gear VR, Huawei’s new device will be largely comparable.
Comfort
While the Daydream View is lighter, it is built with some relatively hard feeling foam. The foam used in Huawei’s VR headset on the other hand had a very soft feeling to it, but at the same time was quite heavy. It might even be heavier than the Gear VR, but not by much. If the Daydream View had softer foam, it would be the preferable option for comfort, but as they are, it may depend on the person whether they like something heavier on the head or something harder on the face.
Light leakage has been a noted negative on the Daydream View, but I found that it’s not a problem on Huawei’s VR headset, with perhaps a very little bit of light reflecting off of the lenses from the outside.
As for battery life, heat, and other aspects related to usage with time, I can’t judge much from my short demo, but it does seem like it would perform better at least in terms of heat, because Huawei’s VR headset uses a direct attachment like the Gear VR without any lids keeping the heat inside, whereas you have to close a lid on the phone with the Daydream View.
With those differences in mind, and especially with the ability to tune the focus, Huawei’s VR headset comes across as a very competent alternative to Google’s Daydream View, working on the same software platform. Price and availability remains unknown at the moment, but if done right, the headset has the potential to introduce VR to even more people as one of the first Daydream compatible headsets from a 3rd party.
The post Hands-on: Huawei VR is a Cross Between Daydream View and Gear VR appeared first on Road to VR.
Source: Hands-on: Huawei VR is a Cross Between Daydream View and Gear VR
