It seems like forever ago when Google released their VR unit Cardboard and got the ball rolling on bringing VR to anyone, and everyone. Since then we've seen announcements and models of several different VR units. Trying to decide which one is the right system for you can boggle the mind, especially when you consider the hardware you may need to purchase in order to be "VR Ready" on these sytems. And now with the official announcement of the Playstation VR, Sony has jumped into the ring to compete with the likes of the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift.
So take a look and figured out which VR platform is in your future!
| Category | Samsung Gear VR | HTC Vive | Oculus Rift | Sony PlayStation VR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 2560x1440 1280 x 1440 per eye Super AMOLED |
2560x1200 1080 x 1200 per eye OLED |
2160 x 1200 1080 x 1200 per eye OLED |
1920 x 1080 960x1080 per eye OLED |
| Refresh rate | 60 Hz | 90 Hz | 90 Hz | 120 Hz, 90 Hz |
| Sensors | Accelerator, gyrometer, geomagnetic, proximity |
Accelerometer, gyroscope, laser position sensor, front-facing camera |
Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, 360-degree positional tracking |
360 degree tracking, 9 LEDs |
| Field of View | 96 degrees | 110 degrees | 110 degrees | 100 degrees |
| Controller | Bluetooth controller | Vive Controllers, SteamVR controller, any PC-compatible gamepad | Oculus Touch, Xbox One controller | Sony DUALSHOCK 4 controller or PlayStation Move |
| Tracking area | Fixed position | 15 x 15 feet | 5 x 11 feet | 10 x 10 feet |
| Minimum hardware requirements | Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 series, or Galaxy S7 series | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU, Intel Core i5-4590 CPU, 4GB RAM, HDMI 1.3, USB 2.0 |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU, Intel Core i5-4590 CPU, 8GB RAM, HDMI 1.3, 2x USB 3.0, Windows 7 SP1 |
Sony Playstation 4 |
| Price | $99 | $799 | $599 | $399 |
| Consumer release date | November 27, 2015 | April 15, 2016 | March 28, 2016 | October 2016 |
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