Headset tracking seemed excellent. It was quick and responsive, but like the Gear VR, the Daydream is not positionally tracked, so walking around doesn’t work. The one oddity was a slight wobble around the side of the image.
The controller has a convenient storage spot inside the headset. Ron Amadeo
Every Daydream headset, whether built by Google or not, requires a three-axis controller to come bundled with the headset. The headset has a small circular trackpad with physical click action, side volume buttons, a single action button, and a home button. It also has a three axis accelerometer that allows it to be used like a laser pointer.
The home button and action button are both round, but the home button sits much deeper into the controller than the action button, allowing you to easily feel which is which. The controller has its own storage point on the headset, which is a simple indent on the inside of the door with a small strap to secure it. The controller has a small 220mAh battery that charges via a USB Type C port. Just below the port are holes for a lanyard.
Every demo I tried used the controller like a laser pointer, which worked great. The majority of actions are performed by pointing the controller at something and pressing down on the trackpad, which brings a satisfying click and performs some kind of action. Navigating menus and clicking on points of interest was a snap. This should also enable Wii remote-style waggle actions, but none of the games on display used them.
Daydream will ship with a “VR Home” Play Store app, which shows a few thumbnails floating in a forest. Besides the usual home screen thumbnails, of interest was an app drawer button, which didn’t work, along with a Play Store button, which also didn’t work.
Daydream has some time to get the software together—it doesn’t launch until November. The hardware is very impressive though. It’s cheap, but within that cheapness are plenty of great ideas.