After 10 long months of rumors, good, and hype, Samsung finally delivered on the project Moohan promises the launch of the Galaxy XR head.
The new VR headset (or AR? Or XR?) is priced at $1,799.99, and the world finally knows the official specs and feature set. And they are impressive: 8K video playback, micro-oled displays, and advanced AI features.
I had the chance to mess with Mashable’s Samsung Galaxy XR Headset recently, and had a lot of fun doing so. If you are considering investing in a new expensive device (half the price of Vision Pro, so “price” is relative), I can share my first experience.
What is the Galaxy XR headset?
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Makashable
Simply put, it’s an advanced VR headset that offers both augmented reality and 8K video and 3D experiences.
Some would argue that VR’s best days are already behind it. Some would argue that it never really caught on in the first place. Samsung thinks that the best is yet to come, and it is a big bet – like Google, apple and meta – that our lives will not be dominated by 2D screens forever.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way right now. Apple introduced the Apple Vision Pro 18 months ago, and after the first light on the pan, it never caught on. Could it be because of the Whenping $3,500 price tag? Yes, duh. But the apple does not give; Indeed, it has just introduced a new type of headset with the M5 Chip.
So, now it’s Samsung’s turn. Today, Samsung launched its own Google XR-powered headset (with help from Gemini). Obviously, Samsung cutting apple’s price in half is a little more of a barrier to entry, which is good. But it’s not as low as the heads from the meta, which is bad (for Samsung).
Going hands-on (and head-on) with the Samsung Galaxy XR
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
I went to New York City to get a hands-on demo of the headset. My Samsung tour guide walked me through a few different scenarios that show what the headset can do. Unfortunately, the experience did not answer one of the most important questions I had – why do I need this?
We’ll get back to that later, but first let’s talk about what this head does well. I can confirm that the Samsung Galaxy XR Headset is a compelling device.
Of the various VR / AR headsets I’ve tested in my years as a gadget restorer, this is by far the most comfortable. Lightweight, with a flexible strap that tightens the back of your head. I sport a ponytail, and that didn’t negatively affect my ability to use the headset properly.
The headset has a touch sensitive strip on the right side of the head, an action button on the right side of the headset, and a volume rocker on the upper left side. Most of that rate is good. The headset feels light at 545 grams, which is heavier than the meta claim of the meta 3, but it is actually svelte compared to the 750-gram apple Vision Pro.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
Samsung has also made a nice phone to charge the battery in a module that is connected by a cable that goes into the pocket. Samsung only promises two hours of battery life (or 2.5 hours of video playback), which is wrong. But the battery can be charged during use, so there’s that.
Inside, there are two small 4k screens, each with a resolution of 3,552 x 3,840. (With their combined power, you can watch 8K HDR video.) I don’t wear the glasses provided, so I don’t need corrective lenses installed inside the head. Some members of the media do, and stay, so it’s safe to assume you’ll have it.
Bright light speed
When you start mocking the head, you get a reverse view of your surroundings (this device is loaded with pass-through cameras, eye-tracking cameras, and various sensors). You can tell that it is digitized, but it is also very high and responsive, so it is not a problem to communicate with people outside. The main way you interact with the headset is through hand gestures, which is intuitive – especially if you’ve used other headsets in the past. You’ll use air-touch pressure to select and hold items, as well as palm-facing action to bring up the main menu.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
From there, you can select any app you want to launch in the space around you. You can move them and position them however you want. You can pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse if you want to work within the environment. Most of the apps they showed me were pretty straightforward. In Google Maps, you can fly around zoom in and out of buildings, or search for places. Personally, I took a tour of Wrigley Field before heading to my house in Chicago.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
Now we come to what Samsung and Google are doing (Samsung developed the headset and the app with Google) Call “ai spatialing.” The two main apps I worked with were Google Photos (not my account) and YouTube, and both play heavily into the power of 3D spatialization (powered by Gemini AI, of course).
In Google Photos, you can edit basically any photo you’ve ever taken. That means the headset converts any 2D image into a 3D category. Your subject moves forward and appears in front of you, while the background moves away. You can see the depth in the picture. Notably, one of the pictures was of children throwing themselves and playing on the beach, and I saw one leg in front of the other, with a splash of wet sand at his feet. It was, for Frank, not surprising.
It’s exactly the kind of “oh, wow” moment you want in a device that costs around $2000.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
Later, I saw an old black and white photo of a man holding a child, taken decades ago. Not only did the gemini edit this image, but also added colors, turning it into a second video. This was pretty cool, but it had an unmistakable vibe that was equal parts cool and chill. Maybe it’s just me.
In addition to YouTube, Samsung has shown us how we can edit our videos, add text and emojis, and upload them, then upload them directly to YouTube. While the editor has a switch that allows you to load in Spatial and 2D. YouTube itself will know what to show a potential viewer, and serve the right type of video.
Now, using the power of AI, YouTube can place videos on the platform – even those uploaded in 2D. One example I looked at involved an air group and jet fighters. The jet went into the background in a very cool way, but when the video was cut to a conversation on a windy runway, the AI ​​had a lot of trouble figuring out how to wind the long hair, and, state warning: it chose the wrong one. It doesn’t look good.
That concluded my short demo. I’m looking forward to spending more time with the device so I can properly test the eye tracking feature and physical keyboard. Alas, we’ll have to wait for a full update.
The Galaxy XR headset has some limitations, however
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
At launch, Samsung says the Galaxy XR will be perfect for fixed positions, such as sitting in bed. You can move the windows around you 360 degrees, but you won’t be able to navigate through the headset on the Internet, like you can with Vision Pro. That means no pointing to apps around your home like the timer above the stove, or the virtual TV in your living room. That also doesn’t mean there isn’t a travel mode, which would make it usable on a plane or in a car.
This is a – big You missed it right out of the gate, and it makes the headset feel incomplete, which is hard to ignore considering the sticker price.
Second, the AI ​​does a lot of heavy lifting here, and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because it will make up for the lack of traditional content with the presentation. The Google Play Store will have apps designated as “Spatialed” or designed for the headset. All other applications will appear as Windows in 2D, which is also acceptable, but less than ideal. Meanwhile, the AI ​​does a great job filling that gap with stuff on the fly. But the Galaxy XR’s lack of native entertainment content is another big problem (one it shares with the Vision Pro).
All of this is more than enough to make me nervous about the galaxy xr.
I still have one unanswered question: why?
Now, we come to the last question, and it’s not one that a 30-minute demo can answer. Why is there a headache?
At one point during my Galaxy XR experience, a colleague asked the quiet part out loud: “What are you going to do with this headset that you can’t do with a computer or phone?” Personally, on my desk at home, I have three monitors that just cover about 135 degrees of my field of vision. Do I really need to cover my entire field of view with pixels, too?
When I’m out and about in town, I’m not going to poke around and ask where the nearest pizza place is – that’s what my phone is for. Even the AR glasses are a compelling use case that most of the cases from Samsung and Google passed us by. In one simulation, it showed a user standing in Brooklyn, looking at a bridge, and asking Gemini, “What can you tell me about this bridge?” I expect that Gemini – expected to say, “First of all, first of all, take this thing out of your face. You’re in a society of crying out loud.”
But this is a very difficult question to answer in any new product category. We are still waiting for the killer app, it must be an app, game, or vr experience that only works in the head. Beat Saber cool, but it wasn’t enough to make the meta want to hit. Speaking of which, if you don’t feel comfortable using the manual anger, there are two remote controls you can use that look a lot like the Meta Questus triggers.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Makashable
These are all very difficult challenges to overcome, and I won’t really know who this is and what this is until I can put this thing in its proper place. Suffice it to say, I came away impressed with my demo, and I’m looking forward to further use cases for this device. But I also suspect that, like all headsets that have come before it, this is a solution looking for a problem.
To be clear, Samsung and Google can still answer these questions and fix these problems. But they would have to be first.
