After many months of teasing under the codename “Project Moohan”, Samsung is finally taking off the wraps for its new mixed reality headset, dubbed Galaxy XR. Google also designated this new model as the first Android-powered XR headset, although we’ve seen at least a second one is on its way.
Meet Galaxy XR
The Samsung Galaxy XR is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, coupled with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage onboard. Each eye gets a near-4K micro OLED display at the resolution of 3552 x 3840 pixels, with a 90Hz refresh rate (72Hz default) and 95% of DCI-P3 gamut coverage. Just like Apple Vision Pro, it also separates the battery – good for 2 hours of general use – into a separate module to reduce overall headset weight, which measures 545g (while the battery weighs 302g).
XR devices like the Galaxy XR comes with a wide array of sensors to make them work, and in this case, there’s a pair of high-resolution passthrough cameras, six motion tracking cameras, four eye-tracking cameras, depth sensor, flicker sensor (to handle real-life artificial light sources), five Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), and six microphones onboard. All told, this covers 109 degrees and 100 degrees of horizontal and vertical field-of-view respectively, with a 12-millisecond video passthrough.
For the wearer, the headset features an adjustable interpupillary distance pf 54-70mm, with support for optical inserts for those who wear glasses; there’s also a removable light shield, and the entire frame has been designed to evenly distribute pressure across the head to improve comfort. Inside, it runs Android XR, which supports all existing Android apps out-of-the-box. It supports both mouse and keyboard for controls, or you can opt for physical controllers or just your hand for specific gesture-based controls.
The Samsung Galaxy XR is priced at a slightly friendlier price of US$1799.99, which is roughly half the asking price for Apple Vision Pro (which costs a whopping US$3499). For the full experience though, you’ll probably need to get a travel case and controllers, the latter of which is an additional US$250; but either way, Malaysians won’t be getting one soon as the headset is limited to US and South Korean markets only, at least for now.
Pokdepinion: Much friendlier price – although I maintain that this form factor is still a niche at best.
