HUAWEI VR headset officially unveiled in China

For a fledgling industry, there are already quite a lot of company’s involved in virtual reality headset development. Even smartphone manufacturers Samsung and LG have their own hardware, and Huawei is now entering the fray too. The company has just unveiled its HUAWEI VR headset at its Chinese launch event for its new P9 smartphones.

Much like Samsung’s Gear VR, HUAWEI VR also works in conjunction with a smartphone, which provides the display and also contains the sensors used for movement detection. HUAWEI’s headset is compatible with the company’s newly announced P9 and P9 Plus, which means that this headset is the first to work with USB Type-C.

The hardware shares very similar features to products that are already on the market, as it can be used to view 360 degree movies and can play VR games. Much like the Gear VR, there’s a touchpad on the right side of the headset that can be used to control software elements, which is accompanied by a back button just above it. There’s also a focus ring on the top of the headset. One of the big trade-offs with HUAWEI’s hardware though is that the two P9 models only have 1080p displays, which is a notably lower resolution at this close range that the QHD displays offered by Samsung’s phones.

HUAWEI has not announced a price for the headset just yet, nor a release date or launch regions. But the company says it will definitely hit markets in 2016 and quite likely in “this season.”