We're very early into 2016, but we've already seen the announcement of two competitors to Ricoh's Theta S spherical camera. The first, announced at CES, was the Nikon KeyMission 360, a ruggedized model with 4K video capabilities. The second is being announced today. The Samsung Gear 360 has a squat design, just like the Nikon, but it's not a fully ruggedized shooting solution.

The Gear 360 is spherical in shape, but with a flat bottom that houses the standard tripod thread. Dual lenses sit at the front and rear, each capturing a 195-degree field of view. The camera stitches images together, resulting in 30-megapixel stills—roughly twice that of the Theta S. Those extra pixels come into play when zooming in on photos to try and eye more detail and when viewing images on a screen or VR headset.

Each lens has a fixed f/2 aperture—I wasn't able to confirm if focus is fixed as well, but that's usually the case with cameras of this type. Video is recorded at 3,840 by 1,920 resolution—that's the same width as 4K footage. It doesn't quite match it in terms of vertical resolution, but there's not a huge difference between 1,920 lines and the 2,160 lines that you get with traditional 16:9 4K footage.

The extra resolution is especially key for video. In my experience, 1080p spherical footage is rather soft—closer in look to standard definition than HD. Moving to 4K should go a long way to alleviate that soft look. It's especially an issue when recording 360-degree video from the air or when capturing vast landscapes.

You'll need to convert video to a format that can be uploaded to YouTube, either via your phone or via desktop software. The process takes a little while on the S7—the video first has to transfer, and then the video must be converted using the phone's processor. You can use a companion app for your phone to preview a scene, and start and stop recording, or take a picture. The device also houses a physical record button, an information display, and a Menu button to change settings.

Samsung made it very clear that the Gear 360, which features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless communication, will work with the S7 and S7 Edge, but it's not clear what other Android phones will support the product, or if it will work at iOS devices. It does have a removable battery and a microSD slot for storage.

The Gear 360 doesn't have a firm release date or price. Samsung expects it to ship sometime in the second quarter of this year.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.