You can buy a Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition inside Best Buy stores this Friday, March 27th

After Samsung began allowing casuals to test drive the Gear VR at their local Best Buy, the virtual reality headset will officially make its retail debut this Friday, March 27th. That’s when the Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition — powered by Oculus — will hit more than 100 Best Buy retail locations across the US (with additional locations throughout the year), meaning you’ll officially be able to walk in, test it out, and walk out with a Gear VR if you like what you see.

If you’re still on the fence about the virtual reality craze, our own Kevin Krause was probably the biggest skeptic, but later raved about the Gear VR in his full review. The Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition is only compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 as of now (there are workarounds), but an official Galaxy S6 version is also expected sometime down the road. In case you missed it, we got a chance to play with that model during this year’s Mobile World Congress and were basically blow away.

The Gear VR simulates movement using your smartphone’s motion sensors and displays dual-images to each eye for an added 3D effect. While there isn’t too much VR content at the moment, the list is definitely growing. It was last week YouTube added support for 360-degree 3D videos via their Android app and Chrome, while Samsung has their own app for watching immersive 3D videos via the Milk VR app. Oh, and if “adult” entertainment is more your thing (we wont judge), we already got people are already working on that too.

The Gear VR IE is currently available online at BestBuy.com for 0 but if you’re interested in waiting until Friday, you can find a list of Best Buy locations where you can walk in and buy one right here.

Best Buy might have Galaxy S6 pre-sale this Friday, plans to throw in wireless charging pad [RUMOR]

Put this one firmly at the top of the rumor category in bold letters: Best Buy might have Samsung Galaxy S6 demo units in-store as early as this Friday. That much was revealed by a Samsung rep at a Best Buy shop according to this Redditor.

Another user claiming to be familiar with Samsung (his posting history somewhat solidifies that) suggested the user was, in fact, correct, and a horde of other users jumped in to corroborate the information.

What’s more is that they revealed a couple of details about Best Buy’s pre-sales process:

• Pre-sales commence March 27th, the day the demo units are expected to arrive in stores.


• Pre-sales will only be held for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, as usual.


• Launch is expected to be April 10th for all 3 of those carriers as Samsung has previously announced.


• Pre-orderers will get some sort of “free device” with their purchase, though which exact device remains to be seen. The supposed Samsung employee suggested it would be a wireless charging pad worth .


• Mostly all stores with a Samsung Experience booth will have the regular Samsung Galaxy S6, but not every store will have the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Be sure to call and check once the day arrives.


• Some Samsung Experience agents might already be walking around with a Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge as part of their training. If you ask around you might find one nice enough to give you a quick showing!

That was about the extent of the information available. Note that rumors are always to be taken with a heavy grain of salt, especially when the source is an unchecked (but usually honest) community.

So first movement on getting your Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge secured could happen as soon as this Friday. There’s only one question left — have you decided to buy one yet? Let us know!

[via Reddit]