The Samsung Galaxy XR is right here, and it immediately raises the bar for spatial computing in three essential components: value, intelligence, and luxury.
Formerly often called Project Moohan, the XR headset is the product of some deep collaboration between Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm. In some methods, the Galaxy XR represents the most effective of every firm: it is a showcase for Samsung’s design and R&D experience, Google’s powerhouse generative AI efforts, and Qualcomm’s ever-growing cell SoC capabilities.
And those efforts show.
Remarkably, the Galaxy XR headset arrives in the US and Korea priced at just $1,799 (availability and pricing for other regions is TBC, but that price converts to about £1,340 or AU$2,770). I know, that’s not cheap, but it’s a positive bargain compared to the Apple Vision Pro, which continues to be listed for $3,499 / £3,199. It additionally weighs simply 536g, making it comparatively light-weight in comparison with the Vision Pro’s 600g.
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Samsung achieved that weight through the use of a beautiful mixture of aluminum and glass on the entrance and quite a lot of plastics and cloth (the cushions) for the remainder of the product. It’s not only a good look; from the second I picked up the Galaxy XR at a demo session, I used to be astonished on the weight. I believe a part of that has to do with the steadiness. Even although the 13 cameras and many of the expertise are within the entrance. Samsung has one way or the other balanced the load throughout the back and front.
Aside from the prescription inserts I wanted ($99 to begin, and Samsung retail shops may have the gear to test your eyeglass prescription), the one adjustment mandatory was to the tightening knob on the again. It pulled the headgear tight throughout my higher brow, which is the place I felt the vast majority of the load and, after sporting the Galaxy XR for 20 minutes or so, solely the slightest discomfort.
Like the Vision Pro, the Galaxy XR retains its hefty battery pack separate, tethered to the headset by a protracted cable and a proprietary jack. It offers, in line with Samsung, 2.5 hours of video playback or two hours of combined use.
Specs
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Samsung Galaxy XR |
Apple Vision Pro M5 |
Meta Quest 3 |
Meta Quest Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dimensions |
TBD |
Est: 152 x 101 x 101mm / 6 x 4 x 4 inches |
184 x 160 x 98mm / 7.2 x 6.3 x 3.9 inches |
265 x 127 x 196mm / 10.4 x 5 x 7.7 inches |
|
Weight |
545g |
From 1.3lbs / 600g |
1.14lbs / 515g |
1.6lbs / 722g |
|
Display |
micro-OLED |
Dual micro-OLED |
Two LCD displays |
Two LCD displays |
|
Display resolution |
3552 x 3840 dual (29M pixels) |
4K per eye (23 million pixels) |
2064 x 2208 pixels per eye |
1920 x 1080 per eye |
|
FOV |
109-degree |
Est 100-degree |
110-degree horizontal, 96-degree vertical |
120-degree |
|
Refresh rate |
60Hz, 72Hz, 90Hz |
90Hz, 96Hz, 120Hz |
72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz |
90Hz |
|
Chipset |
Qualcomm Snapdragon® XR2+ Gen 2 Platform |
Apple silicon M2, R1 |
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 |
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ |
|
RAM |
16GB |
16GB |
8GB |
12GB |
|
Storage |
256GB |
256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
128GB or 512GB |
256GB |
|
Battery life |
2 hours |
3 hours (rated for video) |
2 hours 12 minutes |
2 hours |
Diving in
As soon as I donned the headset, it started calibrating for my pupillary distance. There are four cameras inside – two per eye – to assist with this process and which will then track your gaze and expressions. It only took a moment, and then I was looking through fairly clear, full-color passthrough video. I noticed that, when I turned my head to look around, the video degraded a bit before quickly snapping into focus.
Generally, though, this is a fast and, it seems, powerful wearable. Running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 with 256GB of storage, there was zero lag in any function.
The system runs you through a brief tutorial that starts with you looking at floating objects and using your fingers to grab, squish, and move them. It’s more fun than the circle of dots Vision Pro has you look at and pinch three times in a row during its set-up process.
Then the system ran me through all the various gaze and gesture control metaphors, 99% of which were familiar to me because they so closely resembled those I’ve encountered on the Vision Pro. I can grab any window and position it in 3D, 360 space. I can resize windows by grabbing and pulling a curved icon along one corner. I often used two hands, pinching and pulling to zoom in and out.
Where I looked, I usually saw a floating icon, which is different than the Vision Pro platform, which confirms your gaze by gently ballooning interface elements.
Occasionally, I had some trouble aligning my gaze and grasp. This may have been a ‘me’ problem, though I feel like this system might be a hair less precise than the Vision Pro’s.
Similarities continue with the home menu, which I accessed by turning my hand towards my face and pinching. The menu is full of Google apps and other familiar faces like Netflix (a nice win for Samsung) and Samsung apps like the company’s own browser, messaging, and Samsung TV Plus (Galaxy AI is not present on this device). To open an app, I looked at it and pinched.
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Photo journey
Launching Google Photos introduced up a comparatively familiar-looking picture library; nevertheless, to the left was a brand new folder possibility for immersive content material. This content material isn’t essentially pictures and movies that have been shot with stereoscopic gear; in truth the pictures I considered have been all initially flat, however the headset can convert them.
We began with an immersive video of a father and son (immersive movies haven’t got borders; they only kind of fade away on the edges, an strategy that is much like the Vision Pro’s) that began as a 70-year-old black-and-white nonetheless picture. Gemini was capable of colorize and add movement to the video. It’s an amazing impact, although I generally discover the thought of making a full second that did not precisely occur a bit of disconcerting.
The system may take unique movies and convert them to spatial movies – one I noticed of a bit of boy assembly his child brother for the primary time was particularly shifting.
We then opened a picture of a household in entrance of a lodge with mountains within the background. The picture was a pleasant showcase for the 2 4K micro-OLED shows. It all appeared so sharp, and the 3D impact added an entire new degree of influence to the pictures.
To see the originals, I simply appeared on the spatial button beneath the picture and pinched to toggle it on or off.
There are a pair of buttons on prime of the Galaxy XR body; one is a quantity rocker, and the opposite I used to allow Gemini (I discovered there are occasions while you need to flip Gemini off in order that it isn’t at all times listening, replying, and doubtlessly getting in the best way).
Looking at that household trip picture, I requested Gemini concerning the lodge behind them. It immediately recognized it. I purposefully interrupted Gemini’s prolonged reply to ask concerning the mountain vary within the background, and Gemini switched gears and instructed me that they have been a mountain vary in Yosemite Valley within the famed California National Park.
When I requested Gemini to take me there, it immediately opened Google Maps, and all of the sudden I used to be looking at a map with a pin for the lodge, and its scores and particulars in a window on the left.
It all felt straightforward and intuitive, and due to the spatial audio system I might hear every thing completely. What’s good is that Gemini’s integration is so deep that you do not even want to say a specific app to get the best motion.
Flying through maps
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Seeing a traditional flat map is nice, but this is an immersive space. I opened the Maps immersive view and walked through a quick tutorial that showed me how to fly around, move, and zoom in on a rendered 3D terrain. I was still over Yosemite, but now it was like I was flying in a drone over a slightly blocky-looking mountain range. Some of the map’s imagery looked great, but I could sometimes back up right into and through a mountain. I’d like Maps to understand where the ground begins and ends.
I then asked Gemini to take me to Bryant Park, which is near my office in New York City. A second later I was atop one of the skyscrapers. Looking around, I could see dozens of bubbles floating over the buildings. These all gave me instant access to ‘Look Inside’. I chose a restaurant, and soon I was perched on a table, looking around a decently rendered and totally empty restaurant.
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A new Youtube
I switched over to YouTube, the place I considered a 180-degree 8K video of Bath within the UK. It appeared clear, although I used to be annoyed that I could not zoom in on particulars. I additionally unintentionally opened a random particular person’s 360 video of a lighthouse that originally loaded to just one eye – that just about made me dizzy.
Another video of an fighter jet was significantly spectacular as a result of it had initially been shot flat, however the system transformed it to a stereoscopic film. It did not fill the display screen as a result of it was initially shot in a 16:9 facet ratio, however I might pinch and zoom to enlarge the video window.
Throughout the demos, I might look down at my palms and fingers, which have been rendered in define. Most of the time I used to be not utilizing my digital palms to straight contact digital objects; as an alternative, I’d have a look at one thing and use my palms, often in my lap, to maneuver a vibrant skinny tether and management one thing within the 3D house.
Full immersion
For the last part of my demo we opened an app called Cosmos, which examines, in part, the creation of black holes. However, for this experience, we added a pair of magnetic light-seal inserts to the Galaxy XR, sealing most of our vision off from real-world distractions and incoming light.
I only got to see a few minutes of the experience, but it featured Stephen Hawking, a galaxy that I could rotate and expand with my hands, and a giant sun that I crumpled like a ball of tinfoil before it generated a black hole.
Cosmos is a wonderful showcase for the Galaxy XR’s visual and spatial audio capabilities. Visuals were excellent and looked real enough to touch, and the sound was loud, clear, and immersive.
Final thoughts
At the end of the demo I pulled off the headset and rubbed my forehead. There was a slight tingling and, perhaps, I thought, I had that knob turned a half step too tight. Even so, the headset is undoubtedly more comfortable to wear than the Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3s.
If there’s a bar for spatial computing and an XR expertise, the Samsung Galaxy XR simply surmounted it. It’s a robust, immersive system with Gemini AI at its core. The means to navigate with Gemini and use it to interrogate your surroundings and apps is the massive leap this wearable class wants.
It’s nonetheless costly, and I believe the 12 months of Gemini Pro (which brings issues like Veo 3 technology) isn’t beneficiant sufficient, but it surely additionally places spatial computing inside vary of individuals with extra restricted budgets, particularly in the event that they select the $149 a month payment-plan possibility.
The visuals and audio are top-notch. The operation seems easy in nearly each occasion, and it is filled with apps you already know and certain use. I’ve solely scratched the floor right here, however I can confidently say I like what I see within the Samsung Galaxy XR, and I am unable to wait to attempt it once more.
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