Samsung Gear 360 will finally be available in the US on August 19th

Despite debuting all the way back at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the Gear 360 is still pretty hard to come by for those in the states. While the Gear 360 officially launched in select regions in April, it was only released in extremely limited quantities in the US during the California-based Vidicon event back in June. Thankfully, we finally have a concrete release date for wider release in the United States.

The Gear 360 will launch to the US market on Aug. 19th, which is in conjunction with Samsung’s new Note 7 flagship smartphone just announced today. Plan to set aside about $349 for the opportunity to take that neat VR-enabling eyeball for a spin.

As a refresher, the Gear 360 packs two opposite-facing fish-eye lenses, each with 15 MP, f/2.0 aperture sensors. Each camera can capture 180-degree photos and videos independently, or stitch them together for the full 360 scene (3840 x 1920 resolution). The unit itself features a small tripod stand that can be collapsed and used as a holder. Water and dust resistant will help keep your investment protected against outdoor abuse, as a tight flap shields the swappable 1,350 mAh battery and microSD slot (with support up to 128GB).

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Bear in mind that you’ll need a current Galaxy device to operate the Gear 360’s software, that is, devices from last year’s Galaxy S6 all the way to the new Note 7. The Gear 360 Manager app is available on the Play Store, but incompatible with other Android smartphones. There is an unofficial way to make it play nicely with other phones, but not without a few sacrifices along the way.

Are you still interested in purchasing the Gear 360? Do you feel like the $349 price tag is reasonable? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!