Oculus announced that the new Oculus Go will be built by Xiaomi, which could mean that the prices will be affordable. Also, it is to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor. There is also a possibility of a China-exclusive variant of the headset.
Xiaomi Mi VR Standalone, an Oculus Go version for China
Facebook-led Oculus is well known for their high-end virtual reality headsets. Now, at the CES 2018, the company has announced a standalone VR headset which is to be built by Xiaomi. The new Oculus Go is to be powered by the Snapdragon 821 SoC from Qualcomm. While a standalone headset means there is no smartphone needed, the presence of Snapdragon 821 will ensure smooth computing for the device. The technical details of the device are not yet out. However, there are speculations that it will have a WQHD LCD display. There is no word on the storage and RAM of the new Oculus Go, but we expect the device to have at least 3GB RAM for smooth heavy duty gaming and performance. Hugo Barra, VP of VR at Facebook, said, “Xiaomi is our hardware partner for launching Oculus Go globally, Oculus and Xiaomi are jointly announcing a new standalone VR product that is designed specifically for the Chinese market.” Coming to the China-exclusive variant, this tie-up with Xiaomi could prove beneficial for Facebook. Since any service provided by Facebook is banned in China, including Oculus, Xiaomi could be building this new device under their brand to work around this issue. Also, the same VR headset will sell as the Oculus Go internationally and Mi VR Standalone in China. This could help Facebook gain a new entry in China as well as cut the manufacturing costs for the VR headset.
