Oculus has made virtual reality cool again and now everyone wants a slice. LG will soon enter the VR market with its “360 VR” headset. Google has helped design the product.

A compact VR headset
Virtual reality, or VR, has been in the spotlight ever since Oculus VR got acquired by Facebook for $2 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Samsung, Valve, HTC, Sony, Google and a myriad of less prominent manufactures have jumped on the train.


LG is the latest major manufacturer to enter the market. The company plans to launch a compact headset that works by connecting it to the phone via USB cable, unlike that Samsung Gear VR, which requires you to insert your phone. LG has positioned the product as a lightweight headset for casual VR use. It only works with the LG G5 phone.

The Korean company says the field of view is smaller than other high-end VR headset but that the picture corresponds to looking at a “130-inch TV from a 2 meter distance”. It has two OLED displays inside with relatively low 960x720 pixel resolution each.

An interesting detail here is that the headset has been designed in collaboration with Google. The extent of Google’s involvement is not clear but LG confirms that the product will support YouTube 360 videos from the start as well as content from the Google Cardboard app on Android. Google reportedly has much bigger plans for VR than its cardboard headset.

LG will launch "360 VR" in April. The price has not been announced.