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Samsung confirms Galaxy Note 10 won’t work with its Gear VR headset

Samsung confirms Galaxy Note 10 won’t work with its Gear VR headset

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Phone-based VR is on the decline

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Samsung’s just-announced Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus are “not compatible” with Gear VR, the company’s virtual reality headset that works only with a phone slotted in front of the lenses, Samsung confirms to The Verge following an earlier report by tech analyst Anshel Sag. The decision to shut off support for its headset on its newest flagship phones casts doubt on the future of both the Gear VR and other headsets that use phones as their screen and processor, as standalone devices with built-in displays like the Oculus Quest are on the rise.

”We remain committed to innovating in VR and AR to deliver incredible new experiences to our consumers,” Samsung tells The Verge.

Samsung didn’t mention Gear VR once during its Unpacked event, and it hasn’t updated the headset since 2017. The most recent phones to support it were all four of the Galaxy S10 phone models announced in February, but only via an adapter. (The same was true of last year’s Galaxy Note 9.) The Gear VR still has a product page on Samsung’s store, but it doesn’t seem to be available for purchase there anymore. You can still purchase it on Amazon for $99.99.

Despite Samsung’s decision, Gear VR may still have life ahead of it, as my colleague Adi Robertson has written. The device was bundled with previous Samsung phones, is still compatible with many older models of Samsung phones, and is used as a tool to showcase VR at events like film festivals. Until standalone headsets drop in price, Gear VR remains one of the lowest-cost ways to bring VR into classrooms and events beyond the DIY efforts like Google Cardboard. It’s also still receiving app updates and new releases alongside newer models.

But with Gear VR not being compatible with Samsung’s newest flagship phone, and with Google announcing in May that the Pixel 3A wouldn’t support Android’s built-in Daydream platform, it’s hard not to think that phone-based VR may be on the decline.

Update August 8th, 1:42PM ET: Samsung officially confirmed to us that the Note 10 is not compatible with Gear VR.