The ZTE VR doesn't look too different from the Huawei VR headset, but there's a little more to its capabilities thanks to the ZTE Axon 7 and it's 2K display. Here's how it performed.
Design
Testing the ZTE VR halfway around the world in Beijing was a cinch. It looks and works exactly like anyone with a day's worth of modern day virtual reality experience would expect.
The headset doesn't just take cues from the Samsung Gear VR, it reverse engineers the design with an identical layout and size. The gold color is pretty much the only difference.
It measures 185.3 x 85.3 x 76.7mm and, without a ZTE Axon 7 installed, it weighs 255g. It won't weigh down your head like the more sophisticated standalone HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
ZTE VR is made out of lightweight plastic on the outside and a soft spongy material where the headset and aspherical lenses met my face. It was comfortable to wear during my
Adjustable straps went around my noggin in three directions providing a secure fit with a little bit of tightening. The belt is made of artificial leather and diving cloth, according to ZTE.
Specs
There's a big difference between ZTE VR and the Huawei VR headset I tested a month ago: the phone that powers the virtual reality experience.
The ZTE Axon 7 is a more pixel-dense phone with a 2K AMOLED display, and up close, it easily outclasses the 1080p panel found inside the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus.
Quad HD displays like this don't matter as much when you're holding a phone in your hand, and generally I find them to burn through my precious battery life faster.
However, when a screen is sitting about two inches from your eyeballs and you're goal is to be sucked into a surreal, virtual reality experience, that pixel per inch count finally starts to matter.