The VR headset market is just getting hotter as Chinese telecommunication brand Huawei has just thrown its hat in the ring. The company last week expanded its product lineup by launching its own virtual reality headset the Huawei VR, at an event in Shanghai, China.
Huawei already has smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and fitness bands under its.long list of products and the announcement of the VR headset does not come as a surprise as the market is going to really favour the new form of entertainment. The availability and price details of the VR headset have not been declared yet.
Just like its South Korean counterpart Samsung Gear VR, the Huawei VR, works only with Huawei smartphones and that too three from its lineup, namely the P9, the P9 Plus, and the bigger Mate 8. With the field of view of 95 degrees, Huawei claims that its VR headset offers for the first time 360 degree sound field. It also has a touch panel, a back button, and volume keys on the right. The users cannot wear glasses when wearing Huawei VR as the lenses can be adjusted for the users with myopia up to -7.00.
Along with the 95 degree field of view, you get the usual 20ms low latency and an added benefit of an anti-blue light filter to protect your eyes.
The said phones having a mere 1080p screen resolution so don’t expect a very crisp video quality through those goggles, but Huawei has announced ton of content planned along with the launch.
Huawei VR is planning to offer over 4,000 free movies (probably only certain number of these will be pure VR videos) along with 40 free games, and over 350 panoramic images and over 150 panoramic tours.
It is still early days for VR and Huawei jumping into fray soon will help capture the market early before a lot of crowd introduces its own VR systems. The mobile slice of the VR sector is forecasted to generate nearly $895 million in revenues by the end of 2016 according to Strategy Analytics’ preliminary study into the nascent headset market. Huawei is currently number three when it comes to smartphone sales and this will move will move more smartphones and elevate a few per cent of revenue numbers