Best Buy is offering the Samsung Gear VR headset for free until Saturday night, for customers who purchase a Galaxy S6 or Note 5 smartphone. The $100 virtual reality headset will be available at no charge for buyers of the Samsung smartphones who purchase them at full price or through a contract.
Samsung phones included in the deal include Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5. The offer is available at physical Best Buy stores and the online store, according to CNET.
Gear VR is a popular gateway device to the virtual reality experience. The $100 price tag also makes it a much more affordable option than Oculus Rift or Microsoft HoloLens.
Customers who buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 or Note 5 phones at BestBuy.com will automatically get a free Gear VR. It will be added to their online shopping cart.
CNET points out that shoppers who want to pay full price for their handset must first add it to their shopping cart. Then they select that option.
All of the phones included in the 1-day deal are at fairly late points in their release cycles, so their price tags have already dropped. For example, Galaxy S6 was originally $685 at AT&T but is now $100 cheaper, according to The Verge.
However, it is important to note that the new phones must be activated on a particular mobile carrier. It is not available for unlocked devices.
The Galaxy 7 will probably be announced during the next few months. Therefore, consumers must decide whether it is more important to get a free VR headset or the latest Samsung phone.
Gear VR was first available for pre-order last November. It is powered by Oculus.
The virtual reality device includes some major improvements from the Innovator Edition. It is almost 20 percent lighter, and includes better ergonomics and upgraded touchpad.
Several new apps and games are now available for Gear VR. It also supports thousands of VR videos and movies.
Oculus Arcade was also launched at the end of last year. It includes several old-school games including Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog in a virtual arcade.