While there are some who view Vision Pro as a solution in search of a problem, there are at least as many of us who are very attracted to the idea but deterred by the price and comfort issues. I’ve said that if Apple could produce a lighter Vision Air model at $2,000 or less, I would likely find it hard to resist.
Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset has just demonstrated that this is a very realistic prospect. The specs are impressively close to those of Vision Pro, but it’s gone on sale at just $1,800 …
Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset
Our sister site 9to5Google got the chance to try a prototype late last year and confirms that the final specs remain impressive. First, it’s substantially lighter than Vision Pro.
Thanks to the primarily plastic build, it weighs 545 grams before factoring the optional light shield that offers a more immersive experience […] For comparison, the aluminum Vision Pro is 750–800 grams.
I suspect comfort over premium material is a trade-off most of us would be happy to make.
We’ll need to see how the processor power compares, but the other specs look remarkably comparable.
Galaxy XR is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7. Battery life via the external pack comes in at 2 hours of general use and 2.5 hours of video watching. The 4K Micro-OLED panels are 3,552 x 3,840 with 27 million pixels and 96% DCI-P3. The default refresh rate is 72Hz with up to 90Hz available, while field of view comes in at 109 degrees horizontal and 100 degrees vertical.
There are eight external cameras and four eye-tracking ones. It can shoot similar 3D photos and videos to Vision Pro. Security support is arguably better with iris recognition to unlock the device and authenticate passwords.
The Galaxy XR also has Google’s Gemini AI chatbot on board as standard.
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