May this year, I was in a room where Google's Clay Bavor was talking to journalists about the company's virtual reality (VR) push. As vice president of the virtual reality, Bavor heads all things virtual, including the Daydream VR headset, inside Google. He made a very interesting comment. He said that VR technology was yet to reach the iPhone moment. In other words, it was still waiting for a breakthrough that would be as transformative as the iPhone was for smartphone and computer industry.
After using the Daydream VR, a virtual reality headset that Google launched in India several weeks ago at a price of Rs 6,990, I can better understand why Bavor said what he said. VR is still not ready for the prime time, it still hasn't reached that breakthrough moment where it becomes a mass market product. But I also feel that he was overly cautious in comparing the current state of VR with the computers as they were 30 years ago. The VR may not be everyone's cup of tea right now, and few actually need it the way, but it is still pretty great all things considered.
Let me elaborate.
What is Daydream VR
Before taking a closer look at the Daydream VR, it is prudent for me to put it in some context. You must have heard, or even used, something like Google Cardboard. This VR headset, which was made of cardboard and a couple of lenses, sparked a revolution in the VR world. Before it came out -- announced by Google as a hobby product -- the most well-known VR headset was from Oculus. This VR headset was expensive and required a beefy computer to work. The Google Cardboard was inexpensive and very cheap. And it worked with smartphones.
Many companies followed Google Cardboard with their own take on it. Samsung kind of mixed it with the Oculus features and made a high-end VR headset with Galaxy VR. Lenovo got inspired enough to create ANT VR and then bundled that with K Note series phones.
Last year, Google decided that it too needed to evolve the Cardboard into a different direction. The company then announced the Daydream VR platform and came out with the Daydream VR headset.
Compared to the Cardboard, this thing is space-age technology. Not only it is built using better material -- lots of good quality plastic layered with cushion and very soft fabric -- it also has a few sensors, better lenses and a fancy strap. Needless to say, the whole feel and the build quality of the Daydream VR is top notch. In fact, it is the best looking and best built VR headset you can buy. It doesn't look as beefy as Samsung's VR headset, and that is in a good way. Neither it looks as cheap as the Lenovo headset that was sold for around Rs 1,000.
Compared to the Google Cardboard, this thing is space-age technology. Not only it is built using better material it also has a few sensors, better lenses and a fancy strap
The Daydream VR also comes with a controller, which has a touch-sensitive round trackpad, couple of buttons for volume, power button and a select button. The Daydream VR controller has a small battery inside that you will have to recharge every few days depending on how much you use the Daydream VR.
Just like the cardboard, and many other VR headsets, the Daydream VR too requires a phone to work with it. Currently, not many phones are supported. The Daydream VR can be used with Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL. Asus Zenfone VR, which was launched a few days ago, is supported too. Support for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 has been added recently.
But that is all, and it limits the overall reach of the Daydream VR. The functionality of the VR headset and the Daydream platform is such that it requires a fairly powerful smartphone to work properly.
What you can do with Daydream VR
Before I tackle this question, let me talk about the setup. As noted earlier, you need a compatible smartphone to use the Daydream VR (I used it with Google Pixel). When you have this phone, you need to download the Daydream app, which is available in the Android Play store.
Once the app is installed, it is quite easy to get the Daydream VR working. Just open the app and pair the bundled controller with the phone and Daydream using Bluetooth. That happens when you hold the power button on the controller for a few seconds. Once paired, put the phone inside the Daydream VR and strap it around your head.
The strap mechanism is not perfect, although it is quite good once you get a hang of it. The Daydream VR is light enough to be not bothersome, at least initially, when you wear it. Ensure that you tighten the strap so that it is not loose. If you wear glasses, you may find the fit a little awkward but you will get used to it. If you don't wear glasses, you will have easier time adjusting the Daydream VR. My only niggle as far as the fit and design of the current Daydream VR is that it lacks the strap to fix its vertical position. So when you are using it, it tends to slip downwards on your nose. You can always push it back but it is still annoying.
First look: OnePlus Cardboard is affordable and crazy fun
So, the VR headset is around your head. Your phone is inside it. And that sleek controller is in your hand. Now, what can you do with it? To start with you will be asked to run the set-up simulation inside the Daydream. This helps you calibrate the controller and learn the basics of navigating in the VR world. The exercises start with "put spotlight on wild animals in a jungle" and then moves on to play fetch with the arctic fox. Once you are done with the set-up simulation, you can explore other stuff.
Sadly, when it comes to other stuff there is not much to do, especially if you are not into gaming. When you install any app on your phone that has Daydream compatible content, you can see it inside the Daydream VR. An example is YouTube. Or Google StreetView. But as noted earlier, the content that these apps have for Daydream is fairly limited right now. It was on the usability part where Bavor was most right. It is improving but it's not there yet. You can watch couple of videos in VR or you can even watch a movie in VR. I tried watching the Ice Age, which was there in my Play Store library, but the experience wasn't good. But then I am also quite old-fashioned when it comes to movies. For example, 2D is better than 3D on any day so every little flaw in the virtual rendering of the Ice Age made me cringe.
What else you can do? You can explore places in the Google Street View, for example portions of Amazon forests. Or a small Italian town. You can also read news in VR-ready apps from the Economist and the New York Times. Or you can play games. There are a number of VR games that are supported on the Daydream.
Of these all, the most fun is -- you guessed it right -- gaming in the VR. However, even that is not perfect. The controls and navigation in the VR world are not always precise. But then this is something you learn to live with. What really breaks the magic, whether you are watching a move, or exploring the Amazon forest, or playing games is the resolution of the display in front of you. You can easily make out the pixels. You can see the jagged edges. Nothing is sharp enough. Even the VR games seem like they have come straight out of the 90s.
All of this is understandable, actually. VR is new technology and Daydream is just the beginning. Games already look so much better than the 16-bit Doom or Wolfenstein 3D. But they still feel jarring because we are used to the world of Crysis and Battlefield 1.
The Daydream VR is very interesting. But it's interesting for hobbyists. It is interesting for developers who want to create Daydream content. It is interesting for people who always have to try the newest and latest.
Another issue with the Daydream VR right now is what it does to your phone. When the phone is running VR stuff and you are shooting aliens in inside the Daydream headset, it really pushes the phone to the limits. The result is that your phone will heat up. The Pixel that I was using got burning hot after 20 minutes inside the Daydream VR. It was so hot I could have fried an egg on it.
So should you buy it?
The Daydream VR is very interesting. But it's interesting for hobbyists. It is interesting for developers who want to create Daydream content. It is interesting for people who always have to try the newest and latest. The VR is also a technology that is very interesting and has a lot of potential. In the coming years, the resolution issues will be solved, similar to how video games acquired higher fidelity graphics and how screens got more and more pixels. The heating issues too will resolve as phones get more powerful and the design of the VR headsets change.
For now the Daydream VR is not yet ready for the masses. But don't let that put you off. No product built on top of new technology hits it off with the masses immediately. But it always finds early adopters and the Daydream VR too is for early adopters. It is for the kind of people who jumped on the internet when the speed used to be 64kpbs or 128kbps and the modem used to make the weird noises. It is for the kind of people who once waited 2 minutes for an image to open on a web page, bit by bit. It is for the kind of people who bought the first copies of Windows 95, stored their music on floppy disks, bought the very first computers, assembled systems using Pentium III.
These are early days for Daydream and VR. Try it to get a taste of future, to imagine possibilities or to have some old style 16-bit gaming in the VR. But don't expect to be transported to a different virtual world. That is still away in Future.
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