Gear VR Rocks with S7!

rushmore

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Took advantage of the BB deal to get a dedicated device for Gear VR.

- S7 has the least screen door and looks far better than the Note 4 does. Same great clarity of the Note 7, but looks significantly better IMO due to the reduced screen door. Movies look great and a decent bridge until the 4K S8.

- Since only have Gear VR apps and media on an sd card, battery life is better than expected. Battery life is on par with the Note 7, but was also using that as a phone loaded with apps.

- Does not run too hot. No warnings so far with games, movies or web. Seems about the same as the Note 7 (RIP)

Gear VR design BTW is better than Daydream's current headset. Daydream's Achilles heal is the insulated cover that keeps the heat in and causes the Pixel to overheat, since nowhere for the heat to dissipate on the back of the phone. Nothing is blocking the back of the Gear VR, so the heat can dissipate some rather than not at all. Heat actually builds up with Daydream VR set.

Some might think using a perfectly great phone for just VR is extravagant, but IMO is a good solutionsince does not require sharing Gear VR and phone app storage. Plus I get to use my bigger display (I prefer) Note 4 as main phone and the S7 as a kick a$$ backup.
 
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SpookDroid

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Some might think using a perfectly great phone for just VR is extravagant, but IMO is a good solutionsince does not require sharing Gear VR and phone app storage. Plus I get to use my bigger display (I prefer) Note 4 as main phone and the S7 as a kick a$$ backup.

Well, people are paying thousands for a kick-butt PC to run VR equipment worth hundreds of dollars more... so nope, having a phone just for VR isn't that extravagant :)

I just wish VR apps would download straight to SD card automagically since the S7 tops at 32GB :( That and that you didn't have to download (and sign into) different app versions for phone VS VR. Not terrible, just a hassle.

When Hulu and/or Netflix adds video syncing and audio chat options to watch movies/shows with friends, THEN it will be awesome.

Oh, and I also hate that you can't really use this while lying down. Thankfully both Hulu and Netflix seem to have a semi-fix for that with Void Theater, but still... Home, main menus, most apps, etc. will only allow you to re-orient the screen sideways, but they still need you to have your head leveled; if you're lying down then that's a no-no for you.
 

AxlMyk

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I move whatever VR apps I can to the SD card. I had gotten a data warning before I turned off mobile data.
Google cardboard is pretty good also.
 

SpookDroid

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I move whatever VR apps I can to the SD card. I had gotten a data warning before I turned off mobile data.
Google cardboard is pretty good also.
Yeah, but you have to move them manually (and it's not the entire app, and not all apps can be moved). Plus, when there's an update, the app will be moved back to internal memory. I just wish it did that automatically...use that SD card for something useful.
 

rushmore

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I like my current set-up. The heat from VR is no good for a device, so would rather have a device dedicated to it and my main device for everything else. I prefer the bigger display on the Note 4 for a main device. Were it not for the MM update, reset to stock and a new battery, my perspective with the Note 4 would be different. I like it so much now that got tired of waiting for BB to get the Verizon V20 and decided on the S7 for Gear VR instead.

This combo works fine IMO. That said, would not have done it were it not for the $450 BB credits, of which $200 was used directly for the device. BB took my G1 (first Android device) for the $200, so kind of "hard" to turn down the offer.
 

rushmore

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Well, people are paying thousands for a kick-butt PC to run VR equipment worth hundreds of dollars more... so nope, having a phone just for VR isn't that extravagant :)

I just wish VR apps would download straight to SD card automagically since the S7 tops at 32GB :( That and that you didn't have to download (and sign into) different app versions for phone VS VR. Not terrible, just a hassle.

When Hulu and/or Netflix adds video syncing and audio chat options to watch movies/shows with friends, THEN it will be awesome.

Oh, and I also hate that you can't really use this while lying down. Thankfully both Hulu and Netflix seem to have a semi-fix for that with Void Theater, but still... Home, main menus, most apps, etc. will only allow you to re-orient the screen sideways, but they still need you to have your head leveled; if you're lying down then that's a no-no for you.

I think you can re-orientate now while laying down to use. It is one of the new features in the recent update. The one thing I wish they would have left alone is the void mode in the gallery app. It now has a VR background. Seems a waste of resources and would be better IMO if there was a void mode option for it.