Daydream is Google’s premium mobile VR headset. It was announced in May and was officially launched on October 4. Surprisingly, it turned out that Daydream uses a passive headset, without any built-in sensors, unlike its competitor the Samsung Gear VR. Moreover, the smaller Daydream-ready phone, the Pixel, had only a 1080p resolution, significantly lower than the 1440p resolution of all Gear VR compatible smartphones thus far. Those specs made me wonder if Daydream’s performance would be as good as that of the Gear VR.
However, Mike found that Daydream was actually better than the Gear VR. “I think it kicks Gear VR’s ass… Beats Gear VR easily,” he tweeted yesterday. Those are astounding statements, given that Mike was a fan of the Gear VR. Among other things, Mike noted that Daydream had no screendoor effect and was so sharp that he could read text even without his glasses. Mike also found that the tracking worked very well.
Check out Mike Cane’s hands-on impressions of Daydream here. The only thing I would say is that whereas Mike found that the 2016 Gear VR had distortion (an issue also raised by some 2016 Gear VR users), I didn’t find the slightest distortion on mine. (I think it’s because the 2016 Gear VR has a different lens, and it’s possible that some phones weren’t updated to use the software for the 2016 edition, and may still be using the software for the older Consumer Edition or Innovator Edition.)
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