Samsung's Gear VR brings virtual reality to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge (hands-on)

Samsung's latest version of its Gear VR headset only works with the company's Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones. Like the original Samsung Gear VR, this headset is dubbed the "Innovator Edition," and is a $200 device (about £115 or AU$230) aimed at developers who are interested in taking the plunge into smartphone-based virtual reality.

That's quite a few caveats. And this remains a developer-focused device, though Oculus, which makes the headset's virtual-reality software, told us we could expect something for consumers later this fall. But right now, the combination of premium smartphone and clever software makes for an engrossing virtual reality experience you can take anywhere.

Virtual reality comes to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge with new Gear VR (pictures)

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The dos and don'ts of mobile VR

Setup is important. Your first step is to make sure you have a general idea of how much space you have around your chair. And make it a swivel chair, as you'll appreciate the range of motion. That spatial awareness is going to be key, as the soft foam padding that keeps the Gear VR snug across your face blocks out all light, heightening the experience but sequestering you inside of a deep, dark virtual cavern.

The new headset is about 15 percent lighter than the last model, and the straps have been tweaked so it's easier to adjust. You'll use it in exactly the same way: tuck a Galaxy S6 or an S6 Edge into notches on the front, and the phone will snap into place. If you own an Android-compatible Bluetooth gamepad, you can use that to control the Gear VR experience.

Otherwise, you'll find the headset's only controls on the right side: a recessed touchpad helps you get around, a back button takes you back to the previous menu or page, and the volume controls, well, control the volume -- I recommend headphones, to take advantage of the Oculus software's surround sound audio.

And then the games begin. Or the movies, or photos. The Gear VR is powered by software built by Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR company that makes the Oculus Rift. You can purchase apps and games from an Oculus store and there are a fair few, though most of the things I sampled aren't especially stellar. Many fall into the category of glorified tech demo, including one themed after Marvel's latest "Avengers" movie that mostly serves as a sort of slow-motion trailer. Just remember to look behind you.

Actually, remembering to look behind you is another important point. One of my favorite virtual reality experiences thus far has been Omega Agent, a cheeky little spy-themed first-person shooter. Your swivel chair becomes the seat of your jetpack, and -- once you've set the game to swivel-chair mode -- controls the direction you're facing. Look above, below and behind you to aim and fire the thrusters and guns with a Bluetooth controller.

In this game you're tasked with hunting drones while flying around a city, traversing its sewers, racing through checkpoints and blasting at targets for a high score. It's all very elemental arcade-style gameplay, but it's one of the few virtual reality experiences I've tried that gets your entire body and the space around you in on the action, instead of behaving like a traditional 3D game, grafted onto a headset and seeing you stuck in your chair.

But you're still stuck in a chair. And you'll be trapped in what I've always found is an awkward, isolating experience. But the high-resolution imagery being beamed at your face just might make up for it. The 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 Edge I'm testing has the same 2,560x1,440 pixel resolution as the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4, though the smaller display does net a higher pixel density. My colleague Scott Stein was impressed with the original Gear VR for the Note 4, and while I've admittedly never tried that model myself, the experience here doesn't fail to impress.

Virtual comfort

I spent a good 30 or so minutes adjusting and re-adjusting the goggles, trying to find the sweet spot where the Gear VR headset felt comfortable. Once I found it, all of the action was smooth and crisp, in line with mobile games but also as immersive as the 3D console games I've been accustomed to on larger displays.

I don't wear glasses, but you also can't wear glasses while wearing the Gear VR. A focus wheel up top lets you adjust the focus to suit your liking: I was told it should work for folks who are near-sighted, with a focal range up to about -9 diopter. There's also a fan built into the headset, though you can't see it and I couldn't hear it: it keeps the phone from overheating and the headset's lenses from fogging up.

You'll want to keep track of your phone's battery life, as virtual reality is not kind to your phone's staying power. Playing for about 4 or 5 hours just about brought the Galaxy S6 Edge to its knees. There's a micro-USB port built into the Galaxy VR headset, but I was told it won't actually charge the phone: it'll just keep the battery from draining, so you can keep playing for as long as you're willing to be tethered to a wall.

You should also keep track of your drinks. I spent most of the last few mornings scrubbing sticky residue off of my desk.

My favorite experience is called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. I played the demo with a few CNET colleagues: one person wore the headset and had to defuse the bomb in front of them. The bomb consisted of a series of modules, and each module contained a puzzle that needed solving. Our bomb-defuser would describe what they were looking at -- a series of horizontal lines, or a table of cryptic glyphs, for example -- and we'd have to thumb through the sheets of a leafy manual (it'll also be available on phones), figure out exactly what they were looking at, and prod them into being more descriptive as a timer ticked down.

It's a randomized, comical experience: as the bomb-defuser is describing what's in front of them and we're frantically trying to tease out a solution, their lights would flicker out, or an alarm clock would start blaring, and they'd stop helping us to find and deal with the nuisance. Of course the only purpose those distractions serve is to slow us down. And they worked -- we died.

This was by far the most fun I've had with virtual reality, including the time I spent with Valve's perfectly curated HTC Vive demo -- Scott Stein also checked it out at Mobile World Congress this year. And I wasn't even wearing the headset. When my turn came I refused, as I was far more interested in helping my team escape with our lives -- or at the very least, not being blamed for our eventual demise.

Outlook

Virtual reality will live or die based on the content that's available. And I'll admit that I still feel awkward and isolated when I strap on one of these headsets. But the move to mobile makes virtual reality accessible in a way it never has been before, and I can't wait until consumer devices are in the wild, available for all of us to try.

A final note: be wary if you have cats. For all my gazing and twirling in a chair I still had an empty lap, and few have known the terror of claws in the dark while they're lost in a virtual world.