New year, new winners & losers! Exactly, also for the first week of 2022, we at NextPit will choose companies, products or personalities that inspire or disappoint us. Sony was able to inspire us during the CES week, while Samsung quite disappointed us.
The first week of the New Year is passing and slowly it is no longer appropriate to wish a “Happy New Year”. Nevertheless, we would like to highlight two companies that disappointed us or were particularly enthusiastic in calendar week 01. Before it comes to the winners and losers, I’ll collect you some important topics of the week on NextPit:
If you have not yet jumped into another article, we now continue with the winners and losers. Let’s start with Sony, who didn’t even have to present a new smartphone for their winning placement.
Winner: Sony shows the future of home VR
As part of CES 2022, Sony surprisingly presented the PlayStation VR 2 (external link). The successor to the exciting PSVR, which appeared in October 2016, will appear in the next few months. In combination with the PlayStation 4, PSVR costs less than 1,000 euros and is therefore significantly more affordable than a PC alternative with a powerful gaming computer. When I tried PSVR a few years ago as part of a review, I was a little disappointed with the frame rate, resolution and field of view.
The first PSVR will be replaced in a few months! / © Shutterstock / Travers Lewis
Now our winner of the week comes into play: Because Sony has presented some really promising specs for the successor model. With an OLED display with a high resolution of 2,000 x 2,400 pixels per eye, HDR compatibility, 110 degrees and the foveated rendering technology, PSVR could become significantly more immersive. In addition, there is the power of the PlayStation 5, which you can connect to the glasses with just one USB-C cable.
Are you up for VR? Cheap VR glasses for your smartphone
So PSVR 2 could look like a reasonably affordable and sufficiently powerful VR setup. And we are closer to a future in which AR and VR are more part of everyday life. The next step that companies like Oppo and Apple are also preparing for. The idea of PSVR 2 makes the latest rumors about the video glasses traded as Apple View or Apple Glass seem more realistic.
You can find out what’s new about Apple Glass on the linked rumors overview page. For me personally, AR / VR glasses are slowly but surely becoming exciting. And so Sony emerged as the winner from my last week. Do you agree with me?
Loser: Samsung and the weird Galaxy S21 FE timing
As an active NextPit reader, you can already imagine my loser of the week. The presentation of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE prompted me to publish a comment in week 1. Because the Galaxy S21 FE comes too late and thunders so shortly before the launch of the S22 series on the market. In my opinion, this is especially unfair for those for whom the cell phone is actually intended:
Samsung fans are now torn. Should you buy the Galaxy S21 on sale? Or the Galaxy S21 FE, which will be on the market for 749 euros? Or should you rather wait for the Galaxy S22, which appears with the new Exynos 2200 including RDNA2 architecture from AMD. Your lifestyle should be an argument in favor of the purchase. But what is “lifestyle” about buying a minimally modified design from a cell phone that is almost a year old?
The fan edition of the Galaxy S21 appears at an inconvenient time. / © Samsung
Only Samsung itself knows the answer – and that leaves us only to speculate about it in the comments. Why did Samsung still release the S21 FE? And should we start converting NextPit to VR? I’m looking forward to a nice Sunday talk with you!