The Dell mixed reality Visor is now available for pre-order, just in time for the holiday season — Halloween is a holiday, technically. But that is beside the point, the point is Dell’s snazzy new mixed reality headset is hitting store shelves sooner, rather than later. Pre-orders began Thursday, September 14, and they start shipping on October 17.
If you are unfamiliar, Dell’s mixed reality Visor made big waves at Computex and IFA, lauded both for its functionality and its unconventional — but sleek — design.
“Engineered with a flip-up visor for convenient transitions from virtual world back to real world, there’s an equal emphasis on comfort: from thick, replaceable head and face cushions, to a thumbwheel band adjustment for personalized fit, to weight balancing that takes pressure off the nose and cheeks,” reads Dell’s description of the device.
It’s built using some of the same technology at work in Microsoft’s HoloLens and it features the highly anticipated inside-out tracking. That means you don’t need to set up lighthouses or external sensors to get it to work. Just plug it in, pop it on your head and you’re good to go — it will automatically scan your surroundings to figure out which way your facing.
“Prepare to escape into amazing new worlds with an immersive, life-like, MR experience with high resolution of 1,440 x 1,440 per eye, a sharp 2.89” LCD panel and blazing refresh rate of 90Hz. The Fresnel lenses deliver a field of view of 110 degrees and a breathtaking 360 panoramic view,” reads the announcement.
All right, but how does it compare to the two flagship VR headsets, the HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift? Well, we won’t know that until we can do some side-by-side testing, but looking at the specs, they are pretty close — and the Dell Visor has the inside-out tracking advantage. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, for instance, both feature a max resolution of 1,080 x 1,200 for each eye, which is a bit lower than the 1,440p you get out of the Dell Visor.
The Dell Visor is currently open for pre-orders and will begin shipping with a retail price of $350, for just the headset and $100 for the controllers. Dell will also be offering a Visor and laptop bundle with the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptop with an Nvidia 1050ti, Dell Visor, and Controllers for $1,250.
