I’m one of the few people who spent $3,500 on the Apple Vision Pro on launch day, and one year later, I have regrets. I’ve always been intrigued by extended- and mixed-reality headsets since I spend long hours working on computers and love watching immersive content. After an impressive in-store demo, I paid the price of a used car for my Vision Pro. The honeymoon phase wore off in the weeks and months that followed, and now, the recent Samsung Galaxy XR launch has me thinking I invested in the wrong XR platform.
The dream of having a do-it-all device that can handle your productivity, entertainment, and gaming needs is still very much alive. I question whether the hardware is mature enough to deliver on that dream, but one thing’s for sure: Samsung’s Galaxy XR comes closer to realizing it than Vision Pro. I’ve lived with the mistakes Apple made in creating the Vision Pro as an early adopter, forcing me to take extreme measures like 3D-printing custom comfort accessories, buying extra straps, and paying for overpriced digital content.
Samsung correctly identified exactly where Apple and Meta went wrong in their XR headsets and built the Galaxy XR to avoid those same pitfalls. As a result, a Galaxy XR is half the price of a Vision Pro and is somehow still the better product.
What would make you buy an Android XR device? 11 votes Better hardware and displays 18 % Robust app and software support 27 % New form factors, like smart glasses 18 % Lower costs 27 % I won't ever buy an Android XR product 9 %
Google and Samsung are nailing apps and content
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Apple made a critical error regarding apps and software on visionOS, the operating system that powers its Vision Pro. It allowed iOS and iPadOS apps to run on it even if they didn’t have a dedicated visionOS equivalent. However, the company put the choice in the hands of developers — they could opt out if they wanted to, and many did. With respect to developers, this was the wrong move, and it’s why critical apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify are completely unavailable on the Vision Pro headset.
The Vision Pro could’ve had an ecosystem of nearly two million apps available on the iOS App Store, but instead, it has about 1.5 million compatible apps. That’s a big number, but when the biggest apps like NFL and Roku opt out, users feel the hit. Google must have watched the visionOS App Store flop, because it ensured almost all Android apps can run on Android XR devices, starting with the Samsung Galaxy XR.
Like iPad apps on the Vision Pro, Android apps on the Galaxy XR run in a small floating window that supports all of the headset’s native input controls. It’s essentially like using a tablet-sized window with hand and eye tracking in virtual reality. Unlike the Vision Pro experience, Android XR takes the situation out of developers’ hands, ignoring some APIs that restrict size and supporting nearly all of the Google Play Store’s over 3.5 million apps. The only Android apps that won’t work on a Galaxy XR, and future Android XR devices, are those that need specific hardware bits, such as GPS or LiDAR.
Apple and Google approached porting smartphone apps to XR platforms differently, and as a consequence, my Vision Pro has fewer essential apps available than the Galaxy XR will. I find the Vision Pro’s killer feature to be content consumption, but a video-watching device without Netflix and Roku is effectively dead-on-arrival.
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