As opposed to the common trend with VR headsets that require a smartphone to fully operate, some headsets are stand-alone units which require nothing else apart from a power source and a connected system. With HTC recently stepping into the arena again with a renewed, albeit intriguing interest in VR with their new offering other manufacturers are also stepping up and are looking to make VR their next platform for entertainment. Enter, the Asus AIO VR.
A different kind of headset this time around compared to the regular affair, the Asus AIO aims to offer an all in one solution. It will be a radical difference from the last attempt that Asus had made at making a headset last year. It should be a self-sufficient device, not requiring any smartphone required to attach to it. Interestingly, the company has chosen to go with a fabric type of exterior found on the Daydream VR, but that alone is not reason enough to believe that it will be compatible with the Daydream platform. But the chances are that it likely is.
There have not been any details outed by the company yet on the specification of the headset or anything else, but Asus is bringing its experience of working on the Zenfone AR handset which uses the Snapdragon 821 and performs both in AR and VR. Our guess is that Asus surely knows what they’re doing.
While there already exist a number of companies right now who are taking the lead in independent VR, like the Oculus Headset, Samsung, PlayStation’s gaming oriented offering and Alcatel as well, the market is turning out to be quite saturated; but considering the adoption rate for this new technology is gaining some momentum, we could use a bit more variety. At the end of the day it all depends on what’s running under the hood and whether the price isn’t too high.
Asus has only released a teaser image of how the headset will look on a person when worn, and nothing else. All that can be made is the fact that it will probably have a comfortable feel to the skin since the cloth fabric seems to be all over the place. Functionally, there aren’t any clues to discern from the image. We’ll just have to wait and see for the launch of the product to make a proper assessment.