Google Cardboard review

The good Google Cardboard is a fun, inexpensive way to turn nearly any Android phone or iPhone into a virtual reality viewer, allowing nearly anyone to get in on the fun.

The bad The extremely simplistic experience means it's only as good as your phone -- don't expect this to measure up to full-fledged VR goggles like Oculus, Gear VR or Vive.

The bottom line Google Cardboard isn't a contender for the VR throne: it's the ambassador that'll make us care about virtual reality in the first place.

Hold Cardboard up to your face and it's hard to escape the notion that Google is, in a word, kidding.

The virtual reality competition is spending big bucks on what's quickly shaping up to be the next frontier in electronic entertainment, and they're expecting us to do the same. Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion, and you can expect to spend about $1,500 for the total Oculus experience; Vive , from HTC and Valve, is a similarly pricey PC-tethered affair. Samsung's Gear VR headsets will set you back $200, and those work only with select Samsung phones.

 

Take a closer look at Google Cardboard (pictures)

(Credit: Nate Ralph/CNET)

The latest version of Google Cardboard, by contrast, is a glorified cardboard phone case that uses a pair of glass lenses and an app to drive your virtual reality experience. It will work with just about any Android or iOS smartphone, and set you back $30 -- or however long it takes you to root through your garage or basement for the right parts.

No, Cardboard isn't a serious entry in the virtual reality arms race. It's something far more important than that: a dirt-cheap, accessible way to bring this oft-promised, largely indiscernible technology to the masses.