Meet The Dlodlo V One, The World's Most Dubious VR Headset
Seemingly out of nowhere, a company from China is advertising a revolutionary VR headset which looks like a pair of sunglasses, sports a quad core CPU, and has performance characteristics that would challenge an Oculus Rift. Could the Dlodlo V One be a stealthy revolution in VR, or are we looking at a scam?
by Augmentl (@augmentl), December 23rd 2015.
100º Field of View. Weighs only 78g. Styled like a pair of sunglasses. This is the V One, a VR solution being marketed by Dlodlo, a Chinese company of indistinct pedigree that was somehow, inexplicably featured in a recent MAXIM article hailing "The World's Sleekest Virtual Reality Glasses." I just had to take a look for myself.
In broken English, the Dlodlo site promises "The World's first Portable VR Glass," a pair of sleek glasses (sporting "science fiction fashion aesthetic," no less) which connects to a magic box in your pocket sporting a quad-core, Ultra-Octa 6G 64-bit processor with an integrated PowerVR G6230 GPU. The V One also sports a 9-axis gyro, something called a ThinVR display, and the usual array of wireless and HDMI connectivity one would expect of a device dedicated to watching movies on the go.
Nothing too unusual or unfeasible there. A quick Google search of the V One's components suggests the CPU is most likely an Allwinner A80, a relatively low-cost ARM Cortex A15 part used in set top boxes and things like the Cubie single board computer. It runs Android and, by extension, Dlodlo's DLOS VR ROM custom operating system which is based on Android 5.0.
The Allwinner A80's integrated PowerVR G6230 GPU is in fact capable of pushing resolutions of up to 2560x1600 at 60fps, (sadly below the V One's claimed refresh rate of 90Hz), and can handle both OpenGL ES 3.0 as well as DX 9. Not too shabby, but hardly pushing the GearVR's SnapDragon 810 or Exynos mobile processor configurations.
But this is where things get weird. Supposedly the V One operates at a screen resolution of 2560x1024, with a staggering pixel density of 1600PPI, which according to a good old PPI Calculator would suggest the use of 1.7 inch micro displays. This in itself is not unusual, as we've seen these micro displays in use in a good number of "old school" HMD's from the ST-1080 to the ODG R7.
Microdisplays have a problem however. They produce a tiny Field of View by VR standards (normally between 32-40 degrees) which has been the Achilles heel of otherwise interesting products like Microsoft's Hololens. So unless Shenzhen Dlodlo Technologies Co., Ltd. suddenly solved an optics problem that has been plaguing HMD's for generations, their claim of a 100 degree FoV does not bear the list bit of scrutiny.
Between the hastily designed website full of links to nowhere, the unheard of company, and the numerous spurious, out of context claims ("10ms ultra-low latency tracking display solves 'vestibular vertigo'"), the Dlodlo V One is, at best, a shapelier version of the video glasses we've seen in the past. At worst, it's a vaporware product truing to cash in top the VR craze.
Either way, I wouldn't spend my money on it. And if I were Scott Tharhler of MAXIM (@gadgetconcierge), who glowingly reviewed the gadget with the challenging tagline "What now, Oculus?" I'd seriously consider a career that did not involve discussing technology. Also, Scott, I have a bridge to sell you.