Samsung introduced its Gear 360 camera at February's Mobile World Conference (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The South Korean conglomerate just announced that the 4K 360-degree camera will hit the retail market on April 29, Friday in select countries but did not reveal the United States price tag for the virtual reality device.
However, the VR gadget has a retail price of about $400 in Europe, according to Tech Crunch. In terms of industry standards it is a fairly low price for a 4K 360-degree camera. Gear 360 also pairs well with Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and Gear VR headset, which makes it a good choice for the company's VR ecosystem.
The company will first launch its 360-degree camera in South Korea, according to VentureBeat. It made the announcement at the Samsung Developer conference in San Francisco.
Samsung's 153-gram (5.4-ounce) VR camera includes a pair of F2.0 fisheye lenses that capture 4K resolution-like quality video or 30-mexapixel photos. The internal microSD slot can store up to 128GB of content.
In addition, the 360-degree camera also includes playback features that work well with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge handsets. Users can live-preview footage on Gear 360. The camera's mobile app also allows Wi-Fi-enabled 2D viewing or 360-degree viewing on the Gear VR headset.
Content from the racquetball-sized camera can be shared directly on 360 video-friendly platforms including Facebook and Google's YouTube.
Samsung has focused on marketing Gear VR in the US. Therefore, it is possible the tech giant will drop the price below $400 or even $350 so new owners of Galaxy phones and Gear VR viewers will think about buying another device to make virtual reality content.
Samsung research executive Injong Rhee reports that the company is working to solve major VR problems. They include issues related to image quality, computing power, and input limits.
Rhee pointed out that VR is in its early stages and shared that the Gear 360 camera lets consumers join professionals to make VR content.
In related news, Facebook's London engineers are reportedly building a stand-alone camera app that would include a live-streaming feature. It would work directly with a smartphone like the Snapchat app to allow for immediate capturing and posting of images and videos, according to The Verge.