Samsung yesterday announced the latest version of their Gear VR mobile headset alongside the new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. Both the headset and phone are available for pre-order starting today with a release date of August 19th.

Like the Gear VR that came before it, the latest Gear VR for Note 7 is priced at $99. It’s now available for pre-order directly from Samsung. The headset supports the new USB-C connection of the Note 7, but an included micro-USB adapter ensures backwards compatibility with all the phones that worked with the prior version of the headset (details on Gear VR versions and compatible phones here). Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Samsung will bundle the new Gear VR with pre-orders of the Note 7 like that had for the S7 launch a few months back.

gear vr note 7 smr323 (2)
See Also: Hands-on – Samsung’s New Gear VR for Galaxy Note 7

The new Gear VR has a slightly improved field of view (from 96 degrees to 101), but from our time with the unit it’s not enough to make a terribly noticeable difference unless you actually had the older version on hand to compare side by side. The addition of a new Home button (next to the Back button above the trackpad) is a welcome addition, but all in all, if you’ve already got a Gear VR headset, there’s not much to justify an upgrade. For those who don’t already own one, Gear VR is still easily the best mobile VR headset available (though we’ll have to see what Google’s Daydream has to say about that when it launches this Fall).

We’ve got 17 photos of the new headset here for your perusal, including a good look at the adapters and how they’ll attach to the headset.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • Pre-orders are only for the USA!
    When it comes to Europe ?

  • DiGiCT Ltd

    Daydream will be better.
    The control pad on the side is anoying, they should have added a controller instead of this side pad.
    Never liked that part on the previous gearVR.

    Samsung will also come with a daydream, maybe not a phone but the standalone HMD instead I think, as it is hard to suddenly sell 2 same model lines, 1 for daydream and 1 for oculus.
    Most logical is this would be a total different model.

    I agree this is the best mobile VR at this moment for consumers, but better ones are coming within a few month.
    For me I just wait it out a little bit as all mobile does not perform as a rift or vive anyhow.

    • Renato Wisocki Jr

      it will, soon HTC will release a daydream phone and headset!

      • DiGiCT Ltd

        I sure hope so, already got their Vive which is awesome.
        Where did you get the news from HTC new Daydream Phone ?

    • Sebastien Mathieu

      totally agree for the sidepad…