Virtual reality is becoming increasingly more popular, but typically at ridiculously high prices. Although it’s cool, several hundred dollars is a lot to spend on just one thing that’s essentially a glorified toy. However, Speck, the phone case brand, has now released a virtual reality headset for your smartphone at a fraction of the cost. No, it’s not as high-tech as the virtual reality sets that make you convinced you’re on the set of Avatar, but they are pretty great for what you pay.
Costing around $70, this headset is called a pocket virtual reality set, essentially combined together with a military-grade phone case, and then can collapse flatly—hence the portability of it.
You might wonder what your options are to actually view through this headset, and the truth is there are more options than you can count. It is compatible with a number of apps and games that are already available on the App Store and the Play Store for Androids, both paid and for free.
How does the headset actually work? Essentially, it folds out and has two lenses, which are your window in the virtual reality world and a whole day of endless fun. These lenses are crafted with precision, so unlike those terrible 3D glasses you get at the movie theater, they won’t give you a headache or be unpleasant to use in any way. Of course, the down side is unlike an actual virtual reality headset, this you need to hold in front of your face with your own two hands during the use, but that’s only a small downside.
The lenses are scratch and dust-free, which is great because those are the two drawbacks a lot of cheaper and lower-end virtual reality sets struggle with.
Currently the portable virtual reality set is only available for the iPhone 6 and 6s, as well as Samsung’s Galaxy S6. However, if it does well it’s possible they’ll increase the number of compatible phones to the line, so if you have something else you may be able to use this soon.
An additional benefit to this is the fact that the lenses utilize the entire screen. As far as virtual reality screens go, a smartphone is pretty small, so it would be unfortunate if they cut corners and you couldn’t view the entire thing through the lenses, but that isn’t the case. Using the entire screen, you’re getting as much out of this small little device as possible.
At $70, it’s a bit pricey for what you’re getting, but it’s a high-quality portable virtual reality set so it’s not surprising. And if it helps, think of the price of a military-grade cell phone case, which alone will set you back $40 or so, what’s another $30 to have the option of virtual reality?
