Samsung’s Gear VR will be released next month

Samsung’s Oculus-made virtual reality headset, designed to let people use their Galaxy Note 4s to view and interact with virtual content, finally has a more specific release period. It’s coming next month, and over in the US it’s going to cost $200 — just like the rumours predicted.

That’s the Innovator Edition, which is basically a fancy word for the Day One model that early adopters will be clamouring to get their hands on. The device was announced at IFA back in September, and in the time since we haven’t really heard any concrete plans from Samsung itself. Fortunately Samsung has made some revelations and we have a better idea of what’s going on.

There still isn’t much new information to go on, but we do know about a few of the apps that will be made available on the Galaxy Note 4 for anyone who owns a Gear VR, including:

• Oculus Home – Your VR home screen and content discovery centre, which includes a Samsung section
• Oculus Store – An application that lets you browse and download new content from the Oculus platform
• Oculus Cinema – A VR movie theatre and cinema where you can watch your favourite movies in an immersive virtual environment
• Oculus 360 Videos and Photos – Be immersed in 360° videos and panoramas like never before from within Gear VR

We don’t have any UK specific pricing, nor do we have a definite day of release, but the converted price is £127. That’s not going to be the price over here, but it still means that the Gear VR on its own is quite a bit cheaper than buying an Oculus Rift. No doubt that’s because you have to buy an expensive flagship handset for it to work.

Once we have a definite release date, and if any more information is revealed, we’ll let you all know.