Google Daydream View (2017) Review: Small Changes Make a Big Impact
Our Verdict
The updated Google Fantasize View headset offers revamped manner, comfort and a growing catalog of VR content at an aggressive price.
For
- Aggressively priced
- Extremely comfortable blueprint
- Growing content library with original content
- Accurate, intuitive controllers
Against
- Lacks integrated audio
- No voice control
Tom'south Guide Verdict
The updated Google Daydream View headset offers revamped manner, comfort and a growing itemize of VR content at an aggressive price.
Pros
- +
Aggressively priced
- +
Extremely comfortable design
- +
Growing content library with original content
- +
Accurate, intuitive controllers
Cons
- -
Lacks integrated audio
- -
No voice command
When it debuted in 2016, the Google Daydream View turned heads with its unique pattern, innovative controller and affordable price. Google is keeping the tendency going with a revamped version of its virtual-reality headset. Priced at an affordable $99, the headset has gotten a subtle makeover to brand information technology more comfy and stylish as well equally more immersive. For the cost, it's one of the best VR headsets available on the market.
Pattern
The new Google Fantasize View sports nicer material and a chip more than weight than its predecessor. Bachelor in charcoal, fog and coral, the new color scheme falls in line with that of the new Google Abode Minis and helps achieve a cohesive design language between the company'south products. I was really excited about the idea of a pretty pink VR headset, and I was more than a little disappointed when Google sent the "fog" iteration. Don't get me wrong; the grayness material is very handsome, only it'south such a safe color.
The headset has many of the aforementioned adornments as the previous Daydream, including the little safe "G" positioned on the left. The forepart flap where you secure your Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 Forty (or any Google Daydream-enabled smartphone) is withal held in identify by a braided rubberband band held fast by a gray plastic notch at the top of the headset.
The flap'southward interior is fabricated of a light-grey soft-touch fabric. Only the ring that held the controller in the previous version is gone; instead, it'southward repositioned along the back of the rear-mounted gray caput strap. Speaking of head straps, the new Daydream View has a top band to ensure the headset stays in place. Simply if the top band isn't for you, you can hands remove it past sliding it off the fasteners holding information technology in place.
The new View (6.vi x four.6 x 3.9 inches) is but slightly bigger than the previous model (half dozen.6 x 4.two x iii.8 inches). It is, even so, noticeably heavier, at 9.2 ounces compared with vii.8 ounces.
Comfort
Although the new Daydream View is slightly heavier than its predecessor, it still manages to be more than comfortable. The headset'south interior is lined with a thicker layer of cream than any headset I've used thus far, including premium devices like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Exterior of the lenses and interior framework, the entirety of the View'due south insides are fabricated of that plush cream wrapped in soft, breathable cloth, which should help wick off the wet for those of us who break into a sweat at the faintest hint of heat.
I wore the headset for 2 hours and xv minutes with no bug. The upper portion of my confront was enveloped in a soft, squishy hug. And while the original View is comfortable, information technology's not as padded and soft equally the new one. Every bit far as the actress weight, the pinnacle-mounted strap distributes the weight evenly, so information technology never feels front end-heavy.
Field of View
The biggest change on the Fantasize isn't immediately noticeable, but it makes a globe of deviation. Google has expanded the field of view (FOV) from 90 degrees to 100 degrees. That puts the View on a par with the latest model of the Samsung Gear VR, which boasts a 101-degree FOV.
The seemingly pocket-size change affects how immersive the scene in forepart of you appears. A wider FOV ways sharper detail, which comes in specially handy for reading text. Yes, you'll still have some blurring effectually the outer edges, but that sharpens upwardly pretty quickly once yous await in that management.
Sound
Alas, my dreams of an integrated sound system with the Daydream View go on to evade me. 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. I'd be interested in seeing how the Razer Telephone'due south Dolby 3D Audio sound would hold up, but unfortunately, it isn't Fantasize-compatible.
Controller
Although the headset has gotten a makeover, aught has changed about the View'southward arranged controller. The plastic gray peripheral is still rounded along the meridian, bottom and sides to stay comfortable in your mitt. The large, circular depression at the top of the controller is a quick and responsive touchpad, with the Apps and Domicile buttons directly beneath it. A quick printing of the Dwelling house button returns you to the main screen, while a longer press recenters both the controller and the headset orientation.
A pair of volume buttons sit down along the correct of the peripheral, toward the top right, and there's a USB Blazon-C port at the bottom to recharge.
Interface
The Daydream interface hasn't inverse from when I first reviewed it. That means you even so have the floating-tile interface fix in the forest. The primary dwelling house screen is prepare in a lush, dark-green valley complete with a majestic waterfall with subsequent pages of tiles sporting different nature-themed scenes.
The Library menu displays all your purchased apps on a v x iii filigree. Selecting the Settings menu reveals a pair of clocks with the date, along with Wi-Fi and bombardment indicators. Beneath that sit icons to disable the Wi-Fi, recenter the headset and controller, mute the audio and alter the controller orientation from right to left.
1 thing I'thou missing from the interface is the voice control featured on the Gear VR and Microsoft'due south new mixed-reality headsets, such equally 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. The controller is nice, but it would be really great to navigate the virtual setting with a few uncomplicated phrases.
I'thou likewise anxiously awaiting the arrival of Daydream 2.0 Euphrates, the Android viii.0 (Oreo)-powered update to the Daydream platform. Google announced the update during this year's Google I/O conference and said Euphrates would brand content easier to find by introducing curated lists onto the primary dwelling house screen. The update would too bring Google Bandage support so y'all tin can share your VR content to a nearby television, along with a new VR window managing director that would allow people to collaborate with your smartphone'south notifications in VR. That ways you can answer that phone phone call without ever having to accept off the headset.
Apps, Games and Experiences
The Fantasize View library has had some fourth dimension to grow from 30 pieces of content to over 200 apps, games and experiences. Even so, it still has a long style to go to catch upwardly to the Gear VR, which has well over 600 titles in its stable.r. Like to the Gear VR, Daydream has a good mix of free and paid content. Paid content ranges from 99 cents (Zombie Rush Coaster) to $14.99 (Need for Speed: No Limits VR).
I played the multiplayer magic-dueling championship Wands on both the Daydream View and the Gear VR and couldn't point out whatever real visual difference. I could hands read the text describing my available spells. And when I was matched upward confronting another wizard, my triple fireball assail connected, covering them in a vivid blanket of scarlet, xanthous and orange flames. When I switched over to Brigand Six: Salvo and started placing turrets, I was treated to thick billows of smoke from planes foolish enough to wing 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.
While at that place are some apps, games and experiences that appear on Daydream that are too featured on the Gear VR and other VR platforms, Google is doing a skillful job of securing exclusives. For instance, you have the engaging Eclipse: Edge of Low-cal, which has you lot explore an alien planet via jetpack.. I'one thousand also a big fan of the first-person shooter The Arcslinger, which pits you lot and your trusty revolver Angelheart against hordes of bad guys in a futuristic Western setting.
Operation and Heat
Running virtual reality is taxing on a full-blown PC, so imagine how your smartphone's CPU and GPU hold up. I spent fifteen minutes flinging fireballs and homing spells in Wands.Later, I measured the Pixel two XL'south rear panel with a heat gun, as I could experience the heat emanating from the phone through the foam face baby-sit. I saw a reading of 114 degrees Fahrenheit, which is warm to the affect merely non uncomfortably and so. I went on to play several titles over the course of an hr and didn't notice any slowdown from the smartphone'southward Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.
Battery Life
We tested the Daydream with a Google Pixel 2 Xl, which is a pretty long-lasting phone. It endured 12 hours and nine minutes on our battery test, which consists of continuous web surfing over a 4G LTE network during stand-alone battery testing.
After strapping the Pixel two XL into our Fantasize, I spent 2hours watching Netflix and playing games in VR. The smartphone's battery life dropped from 100 percentage to 71 percent. I ran the same test on the Gear VR with a Galaxy S8, and the phone had 77 percent battery life left at the end of the ii-hour examination.
The bigger, plushier foam plate cements the Daydream View equally the nearly comfortable VR headset on the market.
Compatibility
In an effort to go more people on the Fantasize bandwagon, Google has worked with other smartphone manufacturers to make their handsets Daydream-compatible. So, in addition to the original Pixel and Pixel 40, the VR headset works with the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Samsung Milky way S8, S8+, Note eight, Huawei Mate 9, ZTE Axon 7, LG V30, Motorola Moto Z, Z2 and Asus ZenFone AR.
Lesser Line
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. The new headset's expanded field of view makes for a more than immersive feel, and the aesthetic design changes — such as the bigger, plushier foam plate — cement the Daydream View as the most comfortable VR headset on the market. Google has also done delivered a slew of content, including original apps and games, instead of relying on ports. In addition, the View is $99, making it cheaper than the $129 Samsung Gear VR, and it works with a variety of not-Google smartphones..
But as far as the Daydream View has come in a twelvemonth, it'southward still chasing the Oculus-powered Gear VR. Oculus is a content juggernaut, pushing out new games, apps and experiences every calendar month, and the Gear VR's vocalization-command functionality is innovative, futurity-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.
Credit: Tom's Guide
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/google-daydream-view,review-4960.html
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