Qualcomm Creates Powerful Wireless VR Headset, Competes With Intel’s‘Project Alloy’

The virtual reality market is quickly filling up with all kinds of headset and peripherals from companies like Oculus and HTC to help users achieve that wonderful VR experience. Now, chipmaker Qualcomm is joining the game with its own VR headset, and this one is wireless.

As Digital Trend points out, Qualcomm is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when talking about VR. In fact, the company hardly comes up in conversation at all, despite its products being present in millions of devices. After all, Qualcomm is the premiere provider of processors for smartphones. Now, the company has a new item to add to its list, with the VR headset called the “Snapdragon VR820.”

The “VR820” is a powerful wireless device that sports two front-facing cameras, featuring spatial tracking as well as gesture recognition. The headset can do this without all those cumbersome wires, bulky hardware, and fragile sensors too.

Now, for anyone following the news about the VR industry, it quickly becomes apparent that the features of the “VR820” sound very similar to the “Project Alloy” that Intel is working on. Both devices feature wireless VR and both don’t require powerful hardware to allow for the experience.

When compared, however, Intel’s headset offers more juice than what Qualcomm’s device can provide. However, it would seem that the latter will beat the former in terms of shipping dates since release plans seem to put it in a few months.

In terms of VR products as a whole, Engadget is also of the opinion that the “VR820” is going to help reduce the cost of devices. Qualcomm was also nice enough to provide reference designs related to the technology, which is expected to see an adoption rate similar to what it experienced with smartphones.

In terms of performance, the headset is reportedly fairly excellent and the VR simulations are quite convincing. It’s safe to say that as far as quality goes, Oculus, HTC, and even Intel have some stiff competition to look forward to.