Back during Mobile World Congress in February, Samsung unveiled an all-new accessory called the Gear 360, a small round camera that records 360-degree videos and connects to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones that were recently launched this year. While excitement for the device was likely high and although Samsung has already launched the two new handsets that are compatible with it, they hadn’t made any announcements in regards to the pricing or availability of the Gear 360. Samsung has held its annual developer conference today and during the talks, they have officially confirmed that they will begin sales of the Gear 360 starting this month in just two days, on April 29th, with pre-orders for the Gear 360 having already started in South Korea as of April 21st.
Samsung has stated that this will not be a global rollout of the launch for the device, but rather a staggered launch that begins with sales of the Gear 360 in select regions which includes Korea for now. While that may seem like bad news for potentially interested consumers who live in regions which were not listed, Samsung has mentioned that they plan to open up the launch of the Gear 360 to more countries in the months ahead, although, they have unfortunately been quiet on which countries will see the launch of the new camera following the initial launch.
A confirmed price for the U.S. was not mentioned at the developer conference today, but the cost for the device in Korea is said to be at 399,000 won, and it’s rumored that the cost of the device in the U.S. will be set at $399 which puts it at about half the cost of the brand-new Galaxy S7. It’s worth mentioning that it could end up costing less than the rumored $399 price tag as a previous listing had the Gear 360 rumored at $350, but whatever the cost may be it will be confirmed at a later date when Samsung announces pricing and availability details for the U.S. Beyond shooting 360-degre video, the Gear 360 is equipped with an f2.0 aperture and a 30MP sensor, and it’s capable of 4K video recording at a frame rate of 30fps. It also comes with its own little built-in tripod so you can basically prop it up anywhere and you’re nearly ready to go.