Daydream View: Initial Impressions
The popularity of Virtual Reality cannot be avoided anymore. What was once a commodity for developers, is now easily accessible in any home. Its no surprise that Google is now venturing into Virtual Reality.
The Daydream View comes in three different colors, for the price of $79 (at the time of this review, the actual price has gone down) In comparison to many other Virtual Reality Headsets out there, its a steal. This is a basic, entry level Virtual Reality headset that allows users to get a taste of it, powered by similar services that you would expect Google to have. The only offside to it, is that its very limited to the Google Pixel phones.
The look and feel of the Daydream View is great. Its covered in a nice fabric, so it feels nice, and the headset alone is comfortable to be worn for a long period of time. In comparison to other headsets, (Gear VR, Playstation VR), it doesn’t feel like a heavy piece of plastic and it covers your peripherals so it feels as if you are truly immersed in what you are seeing.
Set up is rather simple and doesn’t take too long to get it running. You need to have Bluetooth enabled to power the VR. During the software setup, you’ll learn how to use the remote. While at first glance the remote may seem to be detrimental to the whole immersive experience, it becomes more clear as the tutorial progresses, why the remote is so important. There are no button options on the Daydream View; everything is done manually on the remote. For example, the buttons help align your center, and can also be used to head to the Home screen.
The difference of the layout and idea of Daydream, feels like something out of a kids movie. With very cel-shaded graphics and pixelated art, its easy to be awed by what you are looking at.
If you are part of the Android/Google Ecosystem, you’re going to love it. The option of playing purchased movies from Google Movies on the VR is a beautiful experience. The quality is great. You also have various other apps that allow for a movie like experience in Virutal Reality.
A few issues with the Daydream View is that while there is plenty of content, the majority of it is just for viewing purposes and not much else. The quality of content that is presented was a bit lackluster. I opened up a Youtube VR video of Star Wars, but it didn’t feel immersive, particularly because the graphics were not high quality. The other issue is the mono-speaker that detriments the true immersion. Don’t expect to run the Daydream View VR for a long time. Within 30min of playing around with Virtual Reality, I saw a significant decrease in battery life on it. (35% decrease)
Until then, I’ll still play around more and give more of a concrete review of the Daydream View.
