The world of virtual reality has been abuzz the past few years. With Oculus’ standalone Go headset, HTC’s Vive Focus, and PlayStation VR, plenty of companies are taking their own stab at making a mass market headset.
Shadow Creator, a Chinese company, is throwing their hat in the ring next week with its own Shadow VR headset. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor and offer a resolution of 2560 x 1440.
When people think of VR, the Shadow Creator brand is likely not one that comes to mind. The company hopes to aid this by embracing Vive Wave, a platform from HTC aimed at businesses, with its new Shadow VR headset.
“Partnering with Vive and Wave benefits us two-fold,” said Jinxin Hu, COO of Shadow Creator. “It allows us to achieve more profit models through the open platform and also helps us connect with more global users, thus enhancing our company’s international reputation and brand influence.”
While going this route may garner brand recognition, making its new headset readily available to consumers at a lower price point than HTC’s upcoming Vive Focus headset is another solid move.
As mentioned earlier, Shadow VR will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. Considering that this processor is what was used in smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Note 8, the level of power is comparable to Android smartphones that have already been out a year.
Offering a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440, Shadow Creator’s new VR headset does not quite match what is seen in HTC’s $800 VIVE Pro. Instead, it is in line with what is offered in Oculus’ $200 Go headset.
The new headset’s display will offer a 110-degree field of view powered by Fresnel optics. This is on par with what is offered in headsets like Oculus Rift and a step up from low-cost options like Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard which offer around fields of view of 90-100 degrees.
If you are wondering about controllers, you are not the only one. While we know that the new headset it will come with Shadow Creator’s self-developed 6DoF controllers, details are not readily available at this time.
Shadow VR will be available starting November 11th at $399. That cost seems to be set adequately, although it is uncertain if consumers will see enough value to spend twice as much as an Oculus’ Go. While we do not know which retailers will offer the Shadow VR headset, it is supposed to launch globally, meaning that it may show up on Amazon in the near future.
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