D-Scope Google Cardboard VR Viewer

The future is cardboard.

Cost At Time of Writing Review: $11.99
Rating: 3/5 Stars

On the go virtual reality is the newest craze. It’s the 80s all over again, except this time our phones are the ones giving us screen-glare headaches. The most stylish and economical way to experience the VR apps on our smartphones is through a Google Cardboard headset, which are provided by hundreds of sellers. This one is by D-Scope.

It comes to you as a large piece of cardboard with various holes and numbers labeled on it, so that you can do it yourself. This is where the problems start. The instructions are written out in pictorial form, giving no more than vague clues on where to start. If you like mystery thrillers, or putting together Ikea furniture, then this headset is for you.

Once you do manage to figure out what goes where and how, the tabs aren’t large enough to be slid through the insert holes, and the glue that holds one of the essential sides together doesn’t stick well enough to hold it tight. You have to either tape or glue it yourself, which, while done easily enough, isn’t great. You shouldn’t have to fix something shortly after buying it.

It comes with a strap, which I believe to be a headstrap. Unless you are in the range of 7-10 years old, I don’t think this strap was meant for human kind. It barely fit around my terrier’s head (no phone inside, I wouldn’t endanger my dog’s vision).

I found it pretty difficult to fit my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S4, inside the device. According to their page, the viewer fits all major phones. If my S4 didn’t fit, my girlfriend’s S6 didn’t have a chance in…you know where. Eventually, though, I was able to get it to rest comfortably in place, so long as I didn’t tip to one side or the other too intensely.

Okay, the positives. It works. It does its job really well. Once you get it put together, and it’s all taped up with your home-brew fixes, and you’ve managed to balance your phone on the precipice of death, it performs quite capably. It was no time at all before I was out of the realm of “gosh darn it with this thing” and straight into a guided tour of the solar system, jettisoning myself between stars in an intergalactic journey.

It’s constructed of heavy duty cardboard, so it’s meant to last, and it comes with replacement viewer glass, in case something should happen to the ones that it comes pre-installed with. Once it’s put together, it works. It’s $12 right now, so it’s one of the cheaper VR headsets on the market, but not the cheapest. It’s an average product at an average price.

I received this product for free for purpose of review.