SmartVR: a small, stylish Google Cardboard alternative
SmartVR: a small, stylish Google Cardboard alternative
2016-04-22
hey I'm addy with the verge and today
we're gonna be checking out the DODOcase
smart V our Google cardboard so if
you're familiar with DODOcase at all or
Google cardboard it looks kind of like
this you can do a lot of fun and cheap
virtual reality experiences on it but
it's pretty bulky and you're not really
gonna want to carry it around with you
so now they've got something that can
fix this the smart V are opened for
pre-orders fairly recently and it's
going to be coming out in June and what
it is is a Google cardboard compliant
viewer that can fit into your pocket and
feels a lot nicer and more solid than
your normal you know cardboard cardboard
so what you do with this is very
slightly counterintuitive the back is
actually the top you pull it out of your
pocket you fold out these things I mean
these are actually where your phone's
gonna go you just pop it right in and
adjust it and then you take this thing
and put it over the top and this is
gonna keep light out actually pretty
well and then right here you've got your
eyepieces that you're going to look into
so you'll just turn on your experience
and move your head around
so normally Google cardboard might have
a button that you can use to select
things for this you can actually just
tap right here on the screen it's very
open its feels a little bit
counterintuitive but you're also not
going to be doing much screen touching
for a lot of Google cardboard
experiences so because this is Google
cardboard it works on Android and iOS
and it should work with just about any
phone size obviously my phone here isn't
huge but it also works fine with this
note if you don't want to have this top
on here if you find it a little bit too
high or you just don't like it you can
actually slide it off this is the only
part of the headset that I don't really
like because it feels just a little bit
weird and clumsy like you're going to
break this because what you have to do
is pull this out really hard and then
they've got this little dowel and you
can slide it out it's a really cool idea
but I actually had to watch a video to
figure out that you can do it and I'm
always worried that I won't be able
back in so the smart fear feels a whole
lot more permanent and safer to carry
around than a normal Google cardboard
does it doesn't feel like it's gonna get
stained and when you fold it up like
this it actually feels really solid I
would not feel bad about just sliding
this into my pocket when it's open it
feels just a little bit more fragile
these things feel like they might snap
off a little bit so you probably want to
try to keep it closed it's also just a
little bit expensive compared to old
cardboard this might cost fifteen or
twenty dollars and this actually is
going to cost forty on the other hand
that also is probably gonna last you a
lot longer than something like this and
it looks a lot nicer so again this is a
Google cardboard that's not made of
cardboard
it's a DODOcase smart VR it's a little
bit more permanent and a little bit
cooler it costs $40 and you're going to
be able to get it in your hands and
June's thanks for watching if you want
to check out some more of our VR work
we've got a lot more stuff here and
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