With Google’s first “Made by Google” smartphones being available beginning today at Verizon stores and pre-orders having hit doorsteps from the Google Store. It’s now time for other hardware that was announced at their big event earlier this month to become available for pre-ordering. And the next products are the Daydream View, their VR headset and the Chromecast Ultra. Both are available on the Google Store right now to purchase, but they won’t ship for about 2-3 weeks. So that’s still a November release. Verizon also has the Daydream View available for pre-order, and will soon have it available in store.
The Daydream View is the first virtual reality headset on their new Daydream VR platform that was announced at Google I/O, with the Daydream View being announced on October 4th at their big event. It’s the next step up from Cardboard, but still not on par with what you would get out of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, and that is mostly due to the fact that those are not running on your smartphone, and the Daydream View is. The Daydream View does still use your smartphone to give you the immersive virtual reality experience, but it is a lighter-weight VR headset, when compared to the Gear VR. It also has a remote, and there’s even a spot to store the remote in the headset, which is a genius idea.
On the other hand, the Chromecast Ultra isn’t really a new product. It’s basically last year’s Chromecast dongle, but with 4K capability built in. This means that if you have a 4K TV, and an internet connection that can handle 4K content, you’ll now be able stream 4K content from the likes of Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other providers, from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop over to your TV. Now because this does stream 4K, it needs more power and is slightly larger. But also has a larger price tag.
The Chromecast Ultra can be had for $69 right now, and the Daydream View is going to cost you $79. The Daydream View is at Verizon as well, no word on what other retailers the Chromecast Ultra will be at.