Xiaomi on Thursday announced a wide variety of new offerings, and while the stars of its latest product event were the Mi 8 Android flagship and the Mi Band 3 wearable, the company also launched the Mi VR Standalone, a virtual reality headset developed in partnership with Facebook’s Oculus. The existence of the gadget has already been confirmed in January but the timing of its release was unclear until today. Xiaomi now said the Mi VR Standalone is available for purchase in China as of today, having reiterated the device is meant to be exclusive to the Far Eastern country and there are currently no plans for it to be commercialized in any other market.
Much like its name implies, the product is an untethered, entirely standalone headset that’s only meant to use a cable while charging and doesn’t require a smartphone or any other extra piece of hardware in order to operate. The headgear features a LCD panel with a resolution of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels and is powered by the Snapdragon 821, Qualcomm’s high-end system-on-chip originally debuted in 2016, having been commercialized inside the likes of the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, HTC U Ultra, OnePlus 3T, and Xiaomi’s own Mi Note 2 in the meantime. The gadget is offered in two variants, with the base model offering 32GB of flash memory at the equivalent of $235. The more premium model ships with twice that storage space, being priced at approximately $281. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also part of the package, with Xiaomi confirming the Mi VR Standalone is compatible with virtually every third-party audio accessory on the market.
Xiaomi is expected to continue pursuing VR solutions going forward, especially as the company’s diversification efforts become more aggressive, prompted by its incoming initial public offering. One of the world’s most valuable startups is set to go public in the first half of July, targeting a valuation of up to $80 billion as it seeks some $10 billion in cash, according to recent reports and regulatory filings.