Earlier today, Samsung officially announced the new Galaxy Note 7, and while we all had a pretty good idea of what to expect, it’s still a great launch nonetheless. With a waterproof S Pen and some fetching new colors, the Galaxy Note 7 looks like the best Galaxy Note they’ve ever shipped. To make it a little more up-to-date on both the inside and the out, they’ve included an update to the microUSB port, doing away with it entirely in fact, and putting a Type-C connector in the new Galaxy Note. This means that the existing Gear VR headset, designed solely for devices with microUSB ports will no longer work here, Samsung has designed a new one.
The new Gear VR comes in a blue-black sort of look, which is a change from the white look of the previous model, which not only looks a little nicer, but also prevents some reflections off of the white plastic. Designed to be more comfortable, this model is just 345g, or 312g without the front cover. The padding on the front is now both thicker and a little softer, and they’ve even made some changes to the provided strap here, too. Now it’s a little longer for those with larger heads, and it just looks a little more professional. Refinement all around seems to be the big aim of the game with this update, and the touchpad gets a refinement as well, thanks to the removal of the D-Pad design which did confuse some newer users. On top of this, a home button has been added to the side of the back button, but the biggest change is the adjustment to the Field of View, which is now increased from 96-degrees to 101-degrees. This might not seem like much, but it’s creeping closer to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive’s 110-degree FOV.
The big point of contention here, will be whether or not this is going to work with existing devices, and thankfully Samsung has thought of this. Included in the box is an adapter that will allow the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge to work with the new Gear VR as well as the new Galaxy Note 7 and presumably future flagships as well.
