The 'Apple of China' just launched its first VR headset - and it comes in leopard print

Xiaomi has launched its first virtual reality headset, the Mi VR Play.

The Chinese tech firm describes the device as "an entry-level product that seeks to bring the VR experience to a much wider audience." In other words, it's much more Google Cardboard than Oculus Rift, or even Samsung's Oculus-supported Gear VR.

Xiaomi says the Mi VR Play works with smartphones ranging from 4.7 to 5.7 inches. It's composed of a Lycra fabric material, and uses a zip-up compartment to hold your phone in place.

Xiaomi also wants to set the headset apart by selling it in a handful of colors in designs. Those go from basic black, to denim, to more flamboyant floral and leopard prints.

Alongside the hardware is a Mi VR app, an "open platform" that currently has content from Conde Nast and YouKu (which is effectively China's version of YouTube). Think more "video clips" than "full-scale games." Xiaomi also tells us the headset will not be compatible with Google's new Daydream platform.

As is often the case with Xiaomi, the headset is limited to China at the moment, and is available for cheap. It isn't fully available though - currently, Xiaomi's only giving the Mi VR Play to a few thousand beta testers. Those testers can grab it for 1 RMB, which translates to about $0.15.

The headset will likely cost a little more than that when it arrives en masse, but Xiaomi isn't giving specifics for the time being. Likewise, a Xiaomi rep says the company has no information about overseas availability just yet.

Xiaomi, once dubbed the 'Apple of China' by some onlookers, has fallen short of its ambitious expectations in recent months, but has branched out into a number of new markets in that time. After building its name on the back of affordable smartphones, it's gone everywhere from laptops and media streamers to electric bicycles and rice cookers.

Now, it's hoping to bring its usual aggressive pricing to VR. That could be trickier here, given that cheap VR is typically very basic, but there does appear to be interest in the Mi VR Play either way - Xiaomi says its beta program received a million registrants in eight hours earlier this month.