is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter.She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
Watching the first few minutes of KPop Demon Hunters on Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, I think Apple’s Vision Pro might be cooked.
It’s not because the Galaxy XR — which Samsung formerly teased as Project Moohan — is that much better than the Vision Pro. It’s that the experience is comparable, but you get so much more bang for your buck. Specifically, Galaxy XR costs $1,799 compared to the Vision Pro’s astronomical $3,499. The headset launches in the US and Korea today, and to lure in more customers, Samsung and Google are offering an “explorer pack” with each headset that includes a free year of Google AI Pro, Google Play Pass, and YouTube Premium, YouTube TV for $1 a month for three months, and a free season of NBA League Pass.
Did I mention it’s also significantly lighter and more comfortable than the Vision Pro?
Oh, and it comes with a native Netflix app. Who is going to get a Vision Pro now? Well, probably folks who need Mac power for work and are truly embedded in Apple’s ecosystem. But a lot of other people are probably going to want this instead.
These were the thoughts running through my head while I got my second official demo of Samsung’s headset ahead of today’s announcement. I’d gotten a demo of a Moohan prototype last December, but this was the final iteration of that product. There are a few notable changes. The front piece is more cushioned than I remembered from my last demo, and I finally got to try the removable bottom light seal. But otherwise, not much has changed.
The hardware still looks like a Vision Pro mixed with a Meta Quest 3. There aren’t creepy eyes on the front screen, though there is still a glass panel that houses several cameras to capture your surroundings and hand gestures. There are mini-LEDs inside that support 4K resolution and up to 90Hz refresh rates, which should make scrolling and games look smooth. Samsung promises up to 2.5 hours of battery life, right on a par with the Vision Pro.
It sure looks like a Vision Pro. Image: Owen Grove, The Verge
There’s no removable strap — it’s all a lightweight plastic with a cushioned back piece and a dial that you use to adjust tightness. The materials don’t feel as premium as the Vision Pro. But plastic is easier to clean than fabric, and when I slip it onto my head, it’s significantly lighter, and the weight is distributed more evenly. (The first Vision Pro was extremely front-heavy, but a new strap helps a lot with that.) It took until the end of the 30-minute demo for me to start feeling some tension.
So much of the experience inside the headset is similar to the Vision Pro that I can imagine Apple’s lawyers bristling. There’s a high-resolution passthrough, though I wouldn’t call it crystal clear. The headset tracks what you’re looking at, and you pinch your fingers to select. One difference is that there’s a Quest-like cursor when you point at menus and XR elements, making it a smidge easier to tell if the correct thing is highlighted. Otherwise, the interface is a Google-flavored version of what you’ll find in a Vision Pro.
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