Xiaomi beefs up its mobile virtual reality push with Mi VR

Xiaomi has added another mobile VR headset to its portfolio: announcing the Mi VR today — which it says is its first virtual reality headset with an inertial motion controller.

The company’s debut VR device, the Mi VR Play, was revealed this summer — an entry level mobile VR headset designed to house a smartphone, a la Samsung’s Gear VR, but with limited availability to beta testers only.

The forthcoming Mi VR is going on more general release in China, priced at RMB 199 (~$30).

As with other such mobile VR headsets, it only works with Xiaomi’s smartphones — and is therefore tied to the company’s mobile market footprint. So don’t expect this to arrive in the US; Xiaomi will need to bring its smartphones to the market for that to be possible.

The Mi VR hardware includes a dedicated motion sensor and system-level optimizations for 16ms ultra-low latency, aimed at minimizing motion sickness (aka VR nausea). The headset also ships with the aforementioned 9-axis motion controller to support a wider range of interactions with content. VR content for the device is downloaded from Xiaomi’s app store.

Design wise the Mi VR steps up from the ‘no-frills’ looking Mi VR Play — but Xiaomi looks to have taken more than a little inspiration from Sony’s PlayStation VR.