[gutt3]

thoughts? i think its more approachable than hololens

[krisguy]

It's MSFT's attempt to get to the low end to compete with Cardboard. When I tell people about Cardboard or other viewers like this, I set expectations very clearly. Cardboard/MSFT VR kit is fantastic to view 360 photos and videos on YouTube, and to play basic games. Since the cost is low and it came out 3 years ago, Google couldn't reach a high level of graphics quality and still maintain compatibility, so they went for the lowest common denominator.

Okay, finally watched all of the keynote. The tethered unit at 299 might not be a bad option. I would have to try it first to see how the experience makes me feel.

[Hugh Mongus]

They are finally bringing the inside out tracking technology to consumers, this'll probably reduce nausea a lot and just make it really smooth and realistic (also opens up the possibility to walk around the room in vr like HTC Vive). The screen could be pretty good as well and they could use their patented idea of putting color changing leds where your field of view gets blurry to create the illusion of a bigger viewing range. The thing I'm most excited about though, is just plugging the headset into your computer and having windows open in vr mode (like it does on HoloLens, only the background won't be see-through. Assuming 3D for everyone also applies to their vr vision, meaning you don't need a high end gaming PC, the potential user base is huge and generally computers have a lot more power than phones, raising the bar for vr media.
This is either gonna be good or amazing. Probably something in between.