There are a lot of pre-production virtual reality systems here at IFA this year, but Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 VR does something none of the others do: standalone position tracking. After spending about 15 minutes with it, I can say it gave me more of a "wow" than any of its competitors at this show.

The Snapdragon 820 VR reference platform is just that—a reference platform. Qualcomm wants to show it off in hopes that other manufacturers will take its technologies and bring them to market. They have reason to.

Headset Design

The 820 VR is a standalone headset, with the now-familiar Samsung Gear VR-style head strap and side-mounted control panel. It fits over glasses, unlike Acer's StarVR. It's a little snug, and it gets really sweaty in there, but it didn't pinch my nose.

The resolution, at 1,440-by-1,440 per eye, is noticeably better than the Alcatel Vision or the Samsung Gear VR. You can definitely still see the pixels, but there isn't that much squinting at faraway objects. The latency is similar to other standalone mobile VR solutions.

My headset was loaded with two demo experiences, and swiveling my head around, I saw the usual 360-degree view. Then the Qualcomm rep told me to take a step forward.

Orientation and Tracking

The 820 VR uses two front-facing cameras to do position tracking. Facing a virtual octopus, I could walk around it and even squat down to peer under it. It was perfectly fluid, and I wasn't tethered to anything by cables. That said, with no camera pass-through mode—at least in this version—I was very badly in danger of bumping into something in the room.

The headset also does eye tracking, which is more subtle. The octopus kept looking at me, basically. But I can see this being used more effectively in user interfaces and games.

Position tracking vaults the 820 VR way ahead of the Gear VR and Alcatel Vision, and as an untethered headset, it's capable of letting you explore freely in ways that the Acer StarVR isn't. (I'm also holding a grudge against StarVR for not letting me wear my glasses.)

None of the VR headsets shown at IFA are fully-baked experiences. But considering that the Snapdragon 820 is a very popular chip—it's in all of the latest high-end US smartphones except Apple's—it's easy to imagine that this will be commercialized quickly. Qualcomm says products based on this design will appear early next year.