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Samsung’s new Gear 360 camera goes on sale May 25th and will cost $229

Samsung’s new Gear 360 camera goes on sale May 25th and will cost $229

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It costs just $49 in a phone bundle

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Samsung just revealed the price of its new 360-degree handheld camera: $229, more than $100 less than the price of last year’s Gear 360 model. The new camera goes on sale online and in stores this Thursday, and will be sold through a wide variety of wireless carriers as well as the usual suspects like Samsung.com, BestBuy, and Amazon.

Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus smartphone buyers get an even better deal: Samsung says that if you buy one of the new phones between May 25th and June 19th, the Gear 360 camera can be bundled for just $49 extra.

Less expensive, but still not as cheap as LG’s 360 camera

Samsung first announced the new Gear 360 camera as part of its Galaxy S8 Unpacked event in March, but didn’t share pricing or a ship date at the time. In addition to a redesigned form factor — the first camera was orb-shaped, while this one is an orb on a stick — the new model captures video in real 4K and is compatible with a wider variety of smartphones, including iPhones.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

At $229, the Gear 360 is now less expensive than the $327 Ricoh Theta S and the $400 Nikon KeyMission 360. Still, even with its new low price, the Gear 360 is more expensive than the $130 LG 360 CAM, which only records 2K video but captures 5.1-channel surround sound.