Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

For whatever reason, I basically ignored Google Cardboard at I/O last year. I blame the volume and importance of all the company's other announcements—Android L's big visual overhaul, the entire Material Design concept, and the typical plethora of app and service updates—as well as the fact that Cardboard is a weird concept to wrap your head around. What? It's VR? But it's made of cardboard and rubber bands? OK, sure, Google.

This year's announcements were more low-key, at least in terms of things we can play with and examine today, so I actually had the time to unfold the new Cardboard and play around a bit. It's surprisingly fun.

Cardboard is decidedly low-tech, which is kind of the point. It's predominantly, well, cardboard, with lenses, a few patches of padding and velcro, and a rubber band thrown in. The velcro holds the various flaps together, your phone rests on the rubber band to keep it from sliding around, and the lenses obviously magnify the screen. The most expensive part of the whole thing is your phone, though in most people's cases that will be something they own already rather than an extra expenditure.

To turn your phone into a VR machine, download the Cardboard app from Google Play or Apple's App Store, launch it, and scan the QR code on your Cardboard headset. A surprising number of Cardboard variants are available for sale, and the onscreen display will change subtly based on how each one is laid out. Once the app is running, strap your phone into your headset and lift the headset to your face.

To be clear, using Cardboard is not nearly as elegant as using Oculus Rift or even a higher-tech version of the same smartphone-meets-face concept like Samsung's Gear VR. This version of the headset has no strap, so you've got to hold it to your face the whole time you use it (the DIY nature of Cardboard means you could add your own pretty easily, though). The lenses easily get dirty with dust and cardboard detritus, and the cheap magnifying glass used means that the "display" itself looks a bit smeary and blurry no matter what phone you use.

That said, this is still a plausible VR experience even though it's being delivered through literally a block of cardboard. The phone's sensors do a decent job of head tracking, eliciting that small involuntary "whoa this is cool" smile that you can't help but get when you experience VR that's working properly. Zooming around in Google Earth even gave me that vague feeling of queasiness after a few minutes, just like I got the first time I tried out a Rift developer kit (that nausea is something that higher-end VR headsets are working to minimize, though). The relative blurriness of the display also helps reduce the "screen door" effect you'd normally see with lower-resolution (for VR) 300- or 400-PPI screens.

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham

This new Cardboard headset's biggest new feature is support for larger phones. A Nexus 6 worked just fine, as did a Nexus 5, though I don't know how well a smaller, slower phone like a first-gen Moto G or Moto E would do. Google has also refined Cardboard's "button" to work with a wider range of devices. Pressing the padded button on the side of the device gently pushes the smartphone's screen, which the software interprets as a tap. It worked great with both a Nexus 5 and an iPhone 6. The biggest problem with the Cardboard's "hardware" is that the material is quick to soak up whatever natural oils happen to be on your forehead when you press it to your face.

As for software, there's now a Cardboard app for iOS, introducing the budget VR experience to people on Apple's side of the mobile fence. The iOS Cardboard app has fewer demos available than the Android version, and developers haven't yet had time to make iOS apps for Cardboard. So for the foreseeable future, the Android experience will be the better one, but the basic look and feel of the iOS app is comparable to the look and feel of the Android app. The foundation is here, developers just have to take the time to build on top of it.

If you have a phone and a spare $20 rolling around, Cardboard is worth a try, and this is doubly true if you've just never gotten a chance to try a modern VR headset before. The third-party ecosystem seems reasonably vibrant, and there are some interesting and higher-end Cardboard-compatible headsets out there—this retro-cool one from View-Master, coming this fall, is probably my favorite. Cardboard isn't a Rift or Gear VR replacement, but it's a good, cheap way to turn that commodity smartphone in your pocket into a VR gateway.

Listing image by Andrew Cunningham