Google Daydream View (2017) is well built and offers a decent VR experience piped in from your phone. Google Daydream View (2017) is well built and offers a decent VR experience piped in from your phone.
With price cuts making high-end virtual reality (VR) headsets more affordable than ever, and new standalone devices that don’t require a PC or smartphone to run already on the market, the question of where smartphone-powered headsets fit into the larger VR landscape is thrown into sharp relief.
Mobile headsets stood as pocket-friendly, proletarian alternatives to the PC-tethered Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in terms of both specs and price, long before standalone VR ever came on the scene. We haven’t tested the HTC Vive Focus out yet, but have now fully reviewed the Lenovo Mirage Solo and Oculus Go. And because smartphones are the lifeblood of Daydream View, your experience is dependent on the resolution, processing power and battery life of your phone. The answer could go either way, depending on how important experiencing VR is to you, and whether you’re willing to throw your cash into a PC-tethered headset for a superior experience (at a much higher price), or opt for a standalone headset that doesn’t offer quite as good an experience, but is still superior to mobile VR. The new fabric feels more durable than the older stuff, yet it still maintains some style due to the patterned stitchwork and new color options.
Now, the third strap allows the headset to slip over your dome, like a baseball cap, though you can remove it to go back to the two-strap style.
After a lot of fiddling to get the right fit, we eventually found that we had to cinch the headset fairly snug to keep it secure and in the optimal position for proper focus, but the result was that once we took the Daydream View off, it felt like we’d been wearing a hat or visor that was two sizes too small, and the sensation lingered for a few minutes afterward. Meanwhile, the light coming through the bottom, around the nose wasn’t as distracting when we were in a VR experience, so Daydream View has improved here. One final design change to note is that the controller is now stored in the back portion of the headset and not behind the front flap.
Google Daydream View review: The easiest-to-use VR headset yet is affordable but imperfect
The phone automatically pairs with the headset and adjusts the screen to the correct position, like magic. Once you’re inside, the included motion controller makes navigating menus a breeze. The curved straps are supposed to rest on top of your head (like a crown) but it’s tempting to cinch them down like a pair of ski goggles — which isn’t terribly comfortable.
And though the Daydream View is almost entirely made of soft, cushiony fabric instead of hard plastics, that didn’t stop my wife and colleagues from complaining how front-heavy it was with a large Pixel XL phone inside.
Even if it weighs less than a pound (roughly 0.85 lbs with the phone) there’s still potential for neck strain over time. And I often found I had to recalibrate the headset and controller in the middle of a session (it’s easy — just hold down the home button).
I even found a bug that makes VR totally unusable until I reboot the phone — though I understand a software fix for that is coming soon. Here’s the rub: unless you have a Google Pixel or other Daydream-certified phone, the Daydream View won’t work at all.
That’s by design: Google’s pitch is that Daydream can keep you from getting sick in VR by ensuring both phones and apps meet a certain quality standard. This handy bundled motion controller makes a big difference, and tucks into the headset when not in use. But that means a murky future for Daydream, because we honestly don’t know how many phone manufacturers and app developers will wholeheartedly support Google’s new platform — or if the results will be as good as these preliminary ones. While Google is promising 50 apps by the end of the year — including Netflix, a Harry Potter experience, a Need for Speed racing title and a viewer for live NBA games — reviewers like me only got to try 10 apps ahead of launch:
Even as I marveled at how I could look around the hellish environment of Hunter’s Gate or Wonderglade’s cartoony amusement park just by turning my head, their unimpressive graphics and slow, repetitive gameplay bored me after just a few minutes. The Wall Street Journal app is a fascinating way to visualize how the economy is doing — you use the touchpad to rotate a holographic table which turns each majorly traded company’s share price into a 3D bar graph, and consume a small selection of articles and videos — but I’m not sure even regular traders would care for such a small, generic slice of info instead of something tailored to their specific portfolios. Google Arts and Culture is a great idea — visit art galleries in VR — but the screen resolution of even the Pixel XL wasn’t enough to appreciate the fine detail in paintings like the famous “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” I’m in India, staring up at the Taj Mahal — white marble columns glistening in the sun. Sure, you can’t smell the smells or hear the sounds — you’re visiting a frozen moment in time — or go anywhere Google’s cameras haven’t gone, but at least you can explore the streets and landmarks of far-away places without leaving your room. I captured that moment in San Jose all by myself using Google’s Cardboard Camera app — just by slowly spinning my phone around — and a minute later, Google’s servers turned it into a 3D, 360-degree complete with the ambient audio of the cars zooming down the freeway. If you already own a Google Pixel and love the idea of exploring the world, it already feels like a solid purchase. I’d love to get one for my grandma so I could capture some of my favorite places with the Cardboard Camera app and share them with her. While the bundled motion controller is handy, Daydream doesn’t really push the immersion level much past Samsung’s Gear VR, and you still can’t walk around or grab things due to hardware limitations.
Google Daydream View review: Google’s Pixel-perfect Gear VR rival
The viewing angles are marginally wider, which means you won’t be turning so much, but they aren’t quite so crisp as last year’s effort. Following on from its cheap and cheerful Cardboard initiative, Daydream View has been built to work hand-in-hand with Android 7.0 Nougat and Google’s new Pixel phones. At £69, it’s a touch cheaper than the Samsung Gear VR, but you still need one of those aforementioned Pixel phones in order to use it, as the headset itself doesn’t contain any kind of display or electronics. The grey “slate” model I was sent for review looks way more comfy and homely than the stark white plastic of Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
If there’s one pair of VR goggles that isn’t going to look out of place lying on your sofa, it’s Google’s Daydream View. In practice, I think Google’s design is perhaps a little too simplistic, as the actual act of putting it on and getting the screen in focus is surprisingly fiddly.
Just unlatch the front of the headset, place your phone inside and it will automatically switch to VR mode (provided it’s turned on and unlocked, of course). It doesn’t look hugely elegant once the phone’s inside it, though, as the Pixel XL is really a bit too tall to be completely contained within.
Again, this is a huge step forward from Cardboard and it’s also an improvement over the Samsung Gear VR’s side control panel, which quickly became tiring to use.
You needn’t worry about losing the Daydream View remote, either, as you’ll find a small recess and elastic band in the main flap of the headset in which to store it.
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Google Daydream View review: mobile VR done mostly right
Nearly a year ago, I wrote about a then-new product called the Samsung Gear VR — a mobile phone-powered headset that promised cheap, mainstream virtual reality, but it delivered something I wasn’t quite sure what to do with. It’s a molded shell that accommodates a mobile phone, with a one-handed control scheme — in this case, a small bundled remote with limited motion tracking capabilities.
Despite their limited capabilities, existing mobile headsets — primarily Cardboard and the Gear VR — have attracted a striking number of game developers. Its squishy foam-and-fabric body is significantly smaller, lighter, and more portable than the Gear VR, and its design keeps the lenses relatively protected during travel.
Like PlayStation VR, the View rests more weight on your forehead than your cheeks, an option I’ve found more comfortable — I can wear it easily for hours at a time, compared to about the five minutes I can hold a Google Cardboard to my face before my arms get stiff. The View, by contrast, uses a flat tray that clamps almost any reasonably sized phone to the front of the headset, held shut by a small elastic loop at the top. If that phone is Daydream-compatible, has the Daydream app installed, and is placed with the volume and power buttons facing upward, an NFC chip on the tray will tell it to launch into VR. If you have to do something outside VR — like granting app permissions, which you’ll need to do occasionally — it’s easy to open the tray and take a peek without totally removing the phone.
It doesn’t have an overhead strap like most VR headsets, so people tend to pull its headband too tight to compensate, causing a headache and tilting the body in a way that lets light in. But compared to the 5.5-inch XL, the 5-inch Pixel distinctly narrows your field of view by a few degrees, leaving slim vertical bars around the edge of your vision. Even with these caveats, though, the View offers a great core experience without a major investment of time, money, or effort — a truly casual kind of virtual reality. The list included a couple of puzzle and action games, Google’s photo and video viewers, The Wall Street Journal’s VR news app, and educational offerings like an interactive star chart.
Most of the work I’ve spent time with so far, though, doesn’t show the intense ambition that Oculus has encouraged, nor the quirky high-concept experimentation that Vive (and some Gear VR) developers have embraced. At last month’s Connect conference, Oculus revealed that Gear VR users spent roughly equal amounts of time in active games and more passive experiences like videos. Software tweaks can let it mirror limited natural arm motion, and a menu option optimizes its orientation for either your left or right hand. The strongest game I’ve played on Daydream, a Diablo-like dungeon-crawler called Hunter’s Gate, has players move by treating the trackpad like a joystick and shoot by pointing the controller at enemies.
Daydream is supposed to be a quick, breezy platform, and if I’m picking the View up for a day trip, I should be able to gauge whether I’ve got enough battery life to make it worth bringing, even if I forgot to charge it the night before. Daydream is supposed to be tightly integrated with Android, and it can leverage people’s existing Google accounts to make things like buying apps from its Play Store seamless. Google Assistant, a major selling point of the Pixel, could effectively give Daydream a hands-free user interface for everything from browsing the web to sending text messages. Apps are still thin on the ground, but I’d be happy just to see most of the Gear VR catalog show up on Daydream — which, after the highly curated launch period, is a fairly realistic expectation.
But even if this happens, that still cuts out a huge portion of smartphone users, and Google has told me repeatedly that its tight integration with Android makes an iOS release unlikely. But the View is a much-needed daily driver, a cheap and comfortable venue for the VR mobile apps and videos people point me toward every week.
WIRED Review: Google Daydream View VR Headset
Google knows for Daydream to take off, the VR platform has to be as simple as as the assemble-it-yourself cheapo phone holster that’s brought so many people into immersive virtual worlds for the first time—just better. When you slip it over your head, a single wide fabric strap keeps everything secure, and a padded liner lets the headset rest snugly on your face without leaving pressure marks. Flip down the faceplate, place your Pixel on the four contact points, and the View should recognize it immediately via NFC and prompt you to close the lid. Yet, it’s an improvement on all of those, as well as handily eclipsing the touchpad-on-the-side-of-the-headset input scheme of the Samsung Gear VR, the View’s nearest competitor.
Its buttons bring up in-game options or kick you back to an app-selection screen; a round area near the top for your thumb can function as a joystick, a rotary selector, or a swipe-able touchpad.
Google Daydream View (2017) review: New looks and lenses, but n
Then, there’s the first Daydream View (£99) that works with Daydream-ready Android phones, including the new Pixels. We described it in our review last year as the easiest to put on and most comfortable VR experience we’ve used, bar none.
And we’ve been playing with it for the past week to find out what’s changed from last year’s model, why it costs more this time around, and whether it’s the best virtual reality headset, in terms of mobile VR, anyway. There’s a better seal, too, so there’s less light leaking around the nose, and there’s an optional, detachable top strap that adds more stability.
Google also added a magnesium heatsink to the lid, which allows your Daydream-ready phone to run VR longer without overheating or dialing back on performance. Google ditched the smooth jersey in favour of a more textured fabric that you can get in three new colours: Charcoal, Fog, and Coral. Also, in the original Daydream View, all the plastic bits of the headset were beige or gray – no matter what colour fabric you chose. To tighten and adjust the headset, grab both clips on the head strap and slide them apart. To adjust the top strap, slide the clip forward and backward until it fits firmly. Now, Google recommended using Daydream View while you’re seated, on a swivel chair, for a full 360 experience. When you enter Daydream Home, you can use the controller, which charges via USB C, to browse through featured content and find your recent apps. If there are any problems with calibration during use, then the controller’s Home button (“O”) can be pressed and held to reposition the centre view.
Lastly, to stow the new controller away, clip it to the fabric loop on the rear strap, rather than tuck it inside the front panel, like you had to on the old Daydream View. For instance, when you open it, without slotting it into the Daydream View, you’ll see featured apps and recommendations.
Including the ones we mentioned earlier, we also really like Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts, which allows you to step foot in a wizarding world. We’ve also played Hunter’s Gate, which is a third-person shoot-em-up, and the cutesy 3D puzzler Mekorama VR. The software experience hasn’t really changed, though, thanks to the heat sink, you should get a more consistent performance. Because, honestly, that price increase gets you new material and colours, an extra top strap, custom fresnel lenses, 10-degree wider field of view, revised controller, and a lid that doubles as a heatsink.
Also, with wireless, fully tracked headsets on the way from Oculus and others, mobile VR is feeling cheaper than ever (and not in good way). Yes, it’s accessible and easy to use, but admittedly, you may become bored with it after a few weeks and ultimately wonder what kind of tricks the higher-end headsets offer.
Google Daydream View (2017) Review: Small Changes Make a Big Impact
When it debuted in 2016, the Google Daydream View turned heads with its unique design, innovative controller and affordable price. Available in charcoal, fog and coral, the new color scheme falls in line with that of the new Google Home Minis and helps achieve a cohesive design language between the company’s products. But the band that held the controller in the previous version is gone; instead, it’s repositioned along the back of the rear-mounted gray head strap. Outside of the lenses and interior framework, the entirety of the View’s insides are made of that plush foam wrapped in soft, breathable fabric, which should help wick off the moisture for those of us who break into a sweat at the faintest hint of heat.
In lieu of relying on your smartphone’s speakers (especially those with front-mounted components), the Daydream View requires you to pull out a pair of cans or buds in order to hear the action. The large, circular depression at the top of the controller is a quick and responsive touchpad, with the Apps and Home buttons directly below it. The main home screen is set in a lush, green valley complete with a majestic waterfall with subsequent pages of tiles sporting different nature-themed scenes. One thing I’m missing from the interface is the voice command featured on the Gear VR and Microsoft’s new mixed-reality headsets, such as the Acer Windows Mixed Reality AH101.
With Google adding its Assistant to headphones like the Bose QuietComfort 35 II, I’m surprised that it didn’t make the functionality available for the Daydream platform. I played the multiplayer magic-dueling title Wands on both the Daydream View and the Gear VR and couldn’t point out any real visual difference. And when I was matched up against another wizard, my triple fireball attack connected, covering them in a bright blanket of red, yellow and orange flames. When I switched over to Bandit Six: Salvo and started placing turrets, I was treated to thick billows of smoke from planes foolish enough to fly into range.
I played the magic-dueling title Wands on both the Daydream View and the Gear VR and couldn’t point out any real visual difference. I’m also a big fan of the first-person shooter The Arcslinger, which pits you and your trusty revolver Angelheart against hordes of bad guys in a futuristic Western setting.
In an effort to get more people on the Daydream bandwagon, Google has worked with other smartphone manufacturers to make their handsets Daydream-compatible. Daydream View’s second act has shown that Google is ready to stop playing catchup and start taking the lead in the mobile VR space.
Oculus is a content juggernaut, pushing out new games, apps and experiences every month, and the Gear VR’s voice-command functionality is innovative, future-forward and accessible. Overall, though, the Daydream View is an excellent choice for people who want to experience high-quality VR at an affordable price and don’t want to be locked into Samsung/Oculus’ ecosystem.
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