LG just announced that people who buy a new G3 smartphone will get a free VR headset to match. That’s an idea we can get behind.
This new, cheap VR for G3 hardware is closer to Google Cardboard than Samsung Gear VR, but fits somewhere between the two. The headset is based on the Google Cardboard platform — though presumably tweaked to fit the G3 specifically — and will work with the existing Google Cardboard app. Drop your phone into the front and you can hold the viewer up to your head and use it to peer into a virtual world displayed on your phone’s screen. The promotion rolls out this month in “select markets.”
Australia will be one of the select markets to take advantage of the promotion, a representative of LG Australia confirmed to Good Gear Guide.
But we’re enamoured with the idea that every smartphone could ship with an inexpensive version of Google Cardboard. It’s almost a waste to have a large, ridiculously pixel-dense phone like the LG G3 if you aren’t ever looking at it so close to make that PPI matter.
Even if it’s still half-baked tech, getting more eyes to see virtual reality could help move it forward, not to mention helping users get a little extra value out of their pricey smartphones. It doesn’t take much to show off the potential of the technology, even if it’s not the full-blown experience.
You don’t even need to go as far as LG is with its custom unit; I’d settle for a phone that just came with a cardboard deal-y. We already pack-in headphones. Why shouldn’t headsets be next? [LG via Engadget]
