Dive Virtual Reality Headset

It was almost a year ago we first met the Dive, when it was being demonstrated at Droidcon in London.

The concept of smartphone virtual reality headsets, which use your touchscreen device as both the display and the brains of the headset, is a lot more prevalent now, so we thought it was time to look back at the first venture into this fascinating concept.

Because the first question everyone (quite rightly) asks when it comes to smartphone VR is, "Does it actually work?" And that's what we wondered when we saw people rolling their heads around like Stevie Wonder, with a Galaxy S3 balanced on their nose.

The Dive doesn't contain any electronics of its own. This is a head-mounted holder for a smartphone, with the addition of two lenses that allow you to focus on the screen when it's only a few centimeters from your eyeballs.

The front of the device is hinged at the bottom, opening up to accept your existing smartphone. Clip it back into place, and the phone provides the screen, brains and head tracking necessary to deliver a virtual reality experience.

The next most important aspect is focus. The two lenses move independently of one another. This is not only so you can adjust the focus for each eye, but so you can move the two lenses to match the distance between your eyes.

This is fiddly, and it takes no small amount of adjustment to get the on-screen image into sharp contrast. It's a fairly unavoidable broken egg of the virtual reality omelette, but some manner of lock, so we don't have to readjust the lenses every time the headset is take off, would be a welcome addition.

Otherwise, the build quality is great. It's a comfortable fit, with padding in all the right places (including around your smartphone to protect it from the good, solid grip of the front clip), and the adjustable head strap keeps everything in place.

A couple of times the casing interfered with the volume and power buttons of the handset we were using. But once we'd played around with the phone's position on the clip, the Dive kept the Galaxy S4 firmly in place.

Again, a slight problem that's inherent with such broad compatibility, but quite forgivable once the fiddling is done with.

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The virtual reality really stems from the software here, so the quality of the experience is only partially down to the hardware.

Effectively, the Dive is compatible with any side-by-side (SBS) image, whether it's a game, app or video. So the few apps launched alongside Google's novelty Cardboard VR giveaway work just fine in the Dive.

As do 3D videos and, looking as far as we can see toward the VR horizon, so should any software that comes along for the likes of the Gear VR or similar peripherals.

Field of view is a big part of the virtual reality experience, so the bigger the handset, the better the Dive works. It'll accept most anything up to the size of an S4 or S5, so anywhere around 5-inches.

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This might not strike you as being enough to provide real immersion, but in our experience anyone's first time wearing the Dive is an eye opener in every sense of the phrase.

Indeed, it's almost as much fun watching people's initial reactions to the Dive's demo software as it is riding the obligatory virtual roller coaster.

Controls are the real issue, and Durovis has made some effort to deal with the necessity of touch inputs when you can't actually get a finger to the screen.

A lot of the games that are emerging are compatible with various Bluetooth controllers, and there's a Dive launcher app available that detects whether you've got Dive-specific software already installed.

This works with simple head tracking, requiring you to look at what you want to launch, and off it goes.

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It's not going to bankrupt the Oculus Rift. Not by a long shot. But when you consider that you can pick up a Dive for 50 quid, and that it'll run most any smartphone-based VR software that's likely to appear, it's really got the budget virtual reality market cornered.

Anyone looking for a basic introduction to virtual reality, even if you just want to see what all the fuss is about, now has a great option. The Dive is going to last a lot longer than the novelty cardboard options, and is every bit as comfortable as the dedicated high-end devices.

If you're even vaguely curious about smartphone virtual reality, the Dive will be money well spent. It's low risk, and you'll find plenty of entertainment to be had outside of real reality.