Call me a nerd if you must, but I often think about the Apple Vision Pro. The VR/AR headset was a rare misstep from the company, a device that was subject to immediate ridicule upon its release primarily thanks to the fact it looked like a pair of SCUBA goggles, and came with a ludicrous $3,499 price tag.
It's just been updated with a new M5 chip and a bizarre headband, but yep, that's the Vision Pro alright—still looking like an intriguing, but oddly-designed take on how the future of wearable tech should be.
Well, Samsung has just launched its Galaxy XR headset, and if I'm not mistaken, I think I can hear the poor old Vision Pro howling from over here. Samsung looks to have used Apple's product as an example of what not to do, as many of the critiques of the Vision Pro seem fixed—on paper, at least.
XR is a combination of the two, and includes MR, or Mixed Reality, because we live in a complicated world expressed primarily in initialisms now for some reason. In essence, XR headsets can do all three, which Samsung has achieved by covering the Galaxy XR with 12 different cameras, along with five inertial movement sensors and a flicker sensor.
All this data is then pushed through a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip, complete with a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, before the output is sent to two 3552 x 3840 resolution Micro-OLED internal displays and beamed through the lenses within.
Apple's software implementation left a lot to be desired in the OG Vision Pro, whereas Android XR looks to be a whole lot more customisable thanks to its open ecosystem. And as you might have guessed with the addition of the NPU, the Galaxy XR is promising a plentiful array of AI software features, complete with an app that allows you to draw circles around real world objects to search for information about anything in front of you. Which will make you look debonair and dashing, I'm sure.
Finally, just to stick the boot in, it appears that Samsung has fixed one last complaint about the Vision Pro for good measure—the reported feeling of claustrophobia when you wear one.
Verge reviewer Victoria Song has already tried out a pair, and reports that not only is the Galaxy XR much lighter and better fitting than Apple's original set, but there's an option to detach the light shield in order to leave the bottom of the goggles open, so you can get a sense of the outside world in your periphery while you use it.
Which will likely help those who find traditional VR headsets a little nauseating, like myself. It's also worth pointing out that the new M5-chipped Vision Pro is even heavier than the original, which suggests some of the right lessons are still yet to be learned at Apple HQ.
So, will all this convince me to buy a Galaxy XR? I doubt it. For a start, that price tag is still mahoosive, and when I could pick up several outstanding gaming monitors for the same price, I'm happy to leave my virtual experiences on a flat, desk-based plane for the most part, thanks very much.
But, I still think Samsung might have a winner on its hands. It seems like a well-thought-out device overall, and the price is low enough that a few of the more well-heeled among us might be tempted. I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out that we test a lot of VR headsets, and that Jacob and James, our two VR/AR/XR enthusiasts, seem rather impressed by what they've seen so far.
We'll have to try out one for ourselves to be sure, but in the meantime, spare a thought for the Apple Vision Pro. It flew too close to the sun, by my estimations. Or, if the aesthetics are anything to go by, too close to the bottom of the sea. Sorry.
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