Zeiss to release VR One headset to enable PC gamers to play SteamVR games on smartphones

Play SteamVR games on your phone without the cost of buying an HTC Vive headset

HTC and Valve Software currently dominate the nascent virtual reality gaming market with the Vive VR headset and SteamVR games for the PC.

But now Zeiss has launched a VR headset that enables users to tap the power of their PC for gaming, but without the expense and hassle of a full VR set-up.

Zeiss' VR One headset can bring cost down from more than £500 to €129 (which is about the same in pounds sterling, these days), or €199 if you want the bundled 3DoF (Three Degrees of Freedom) dual controllers. And let's face it, if you're interested in SteamVR gaming, you probably will be.

Before now, it has been possible to hack together support for SteamVR using a mobile VR headset through the use of OSVR (Open Source Virtual Reality), but this was an inelegant solution that would never be adopted by the masses.

Having a standalone VR headset that works with SteamVR out of the box, however, makes it a whole lot more appealing. You will still need a sufficiently power PC, however, to stream the games directly to the headset. It's a barrier that Oculus is also reportedly working on overcoming too.

The VR One will support both iOS and Android devices, but they need to be between 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches, so that rules out devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

Zeiss claims that the headset has been specifically designed to deliver low-latency gaming, and that they'll go on sale at the end of this year. However, the exact timing of the release has yet to be announced.