Hugo Barra, who now leads the VR efforts at Facebook, has announced at Qualcomm's CES press conference that Oculus' first standalone VR headset will be built by Xiaomi. Xiaomi is also rolling out a standalone VR headset of its own — dubbed the Mi VR Standalone — that will be launching exclusively in China later this year.
The $199 Oculus Go was first announced late last year, but details were light on the hardware powering the device. We now know that the device — as well as Xiaomi's VR headset — feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 Mobile VR Platform.
The Oculus Go is notable because it doesn't need to be hooked up to a phone or PC to function. The Snapdragon 821 should provide plenty of juice for the headset to run visually-demanding titles. Oculus didn't announce availability details just yet, but with the headset making its way to the FCC recently, a launch is imminent.
Meanwhile, the Mi VR Standalone has the same core features as Oculus Go, and both headsets look similar too. Xiaomi's headset also supports Oculus' Mobile SDK, which allows Oculus developers the ability to port their content over to the Mi VR platform. Xiaomi has stated that it is working on bringing popular content from the Oculus store to its users in China.
