Samsung Gear 360 VR camera will go on sale Friday; U.S. price still unknown

Looking to make some immersive 360-degree content? Well, Samsung’s first camera aimed at creating 360-degree video is going on sale in only two days.

The Gear 360 was unveiled by Samsung at last month’s Mobile World Congress, and while many were impressed with the device, unfortunately we still don’t know how much it will cost in the U.S. We do know that the price will be 350 euros in Europe, which comes out to around $400. If Samsung ends up selling the device for somewhere between $350 and $400, this camera could be a big deal.

While $400 certainly sounds like a high price for something like this, it’s not as bad as it sounds, especially considering the fact that it offers 4K recording and works with Samsung smartphones and the Samsung Gear VR. In fact, because of those things, the Gear 360 could be just what content creators need to start making quality 360-degree video.

Apart from being able to record in 4K, the camera offers two F/2.0 fish-eye lenses, each packing a 15MP sensor. It doesn’t have any storage of its own, but it does offer a microSD card slot capable of handling up to 128GB of storage.

Samsung has been dominating the market when it comes to consumer VR. The company launched the Gear VR headset last year, which has become extremely popular. A decent VR camera was really the only big ingredient missing from Samsung’s VR ecosystem.

Still, the camera’s potential popularity depends on price. There are a slew of 360-degree cameras on the way — most of them are fairly pricey and targeted at professional content creators, but some are more consumer-friendly, such as the one from Samsung. LG has its own 360-degree camera which has a price tag of $200, but Samsung’s device beats LG’s when it comes to specs. If Samsung can offer something not too much more expensive than LG’s, it could really be on to something.

Still on the fence? You can check out our hands-on review of the Samsung Gear 360 here.

Also watch: Samsung HW-K950 Dolby Atmos Sound Bar | First Impressions

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from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/243Vc04
Christian de Looper