Stepping into the world of virtual reality (VR) has become easier with time. While the best experiences revolve around headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, mobile VR came first, and can still offer highly immersive and entertaining content. Depending on your smartphone (and discarding all the cheap Google Cardboard imitations), mobile VR falls between to platforms, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream. Gear VR has proven to be the more popular of the two thanks to an earlier launch and heavy promotion. That doesn’t mean Google isn’t averse to the odd discount, today dropping the cost of Daydream View by half.
This limited time promotion is available through the Google Store from today until 17th June, 2018 at 11:59 pm GMT. Customers can grab the Daydream View for £49 GBP rather than £99, in its three colours: Fog, Charcoal and Coral.
Of course you’ll need a compatible phone. Unlike Gear VR which is restricted to Samsung only devices, Daydream View accepts a much wider selection of phones: Google Pixel, Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+/S8/S8+, Galaxy Note 8, ZenFone AR, Axon 7, Mate 9 Pro and Moto Z/Z2.
Supplied with a 3DoF controller, you don’t need anything else to get started in VR, just download some videogames or apps, and start playing. Currently there are around 350 apps on the Daydream platform, with exclusives like YouTube and Google Street View.
While the recent Google I/O conference was lacking in VR updates (or anything to do with Daydream), the company is still pushing ahead with VR and augmented reality (AR) development. On the VR side, Google Tour Creator was announced, expanding upon the Expeditions idea to allow students and teachers to create their own local 360-degree tours.
As for AR, Google has been updating ARCore adding further features to expand its scope a usability, which also saw Expeditions compatibility this month. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Google Daydream View, reporting back with the latest updates.