Samsung's Galaxy XR Mixed Reality Headset Now Available for $1,800

[Bigbuddy1]

The Vision Pro's introduction from TWO years ago was far more polished than what Samsung just showed us.

Everything that Samsung and Google are bundling in for "the first 12 months" just screams of desperation to get sales. Bribes galore.

Is Apple in trouble with a major competitor undercutting them on price by 50%? Yes, but at the same time, Samsung just validated the Vision Pro market. There's a bright future for both headsets.

No there’s not a bright future for this product because it’s a headset and the human psyche always rejects it in the end.

 

[Kylo83]

Having native YouTube app is key for entertainment. Also Gemini is real ai and it’s much better priced

 

[KurtWilde]

If Vision Pro was that price, I’d buy two. Kidding… but I’d buy one.

 

[vantelimus]

Everyone knows sales of the AVP are a flop.

Best estimates are about 500,000 units through the end of 2024, which is coincidentally what was being reported by suppliers as the number of components they provided to Apple to use in manufacturing the first run. That makes for over $1.75 billion in revenue. That isn't a flop. That's Apple nailing their projections for a first-of-its-kind premium niche spatial-computing device.

This will be the same.

I'm sure Samsung is hoping for the same level of floppage.

 

[ginkobiloba]

No the problem is these are headsets and that they don’t have longevity as a platform no matter how much technology companies push it with fancy tech inside now individuals will point to the 2nd meta headset and say look how many units that sold but the next one’s units are on the floor according to reports.

Just because something doesn't sell as much as the iPhone doesn't mean nobody wants it. The entire Mac computer lineup makes up around 5% of Apple's revenues. Doesn't mean nobody wants Mac computers and Apple should stop making them.
VR headsets will always be a niche compared to other type of devices anyway.

 

[thettareddast]

Seventy… 72Hz? Why?
That camera system sounds awful too

clean integer multiple of 24hz content

 

[Rychiar]

Their "live" event and interaction with the audience was a breath of fresh air. They were clearly taking a jab at Apple by reminding us that their demos are being done live.

Hopefully Apple takes notes and returns to a similar format. I’m tired of the overproduced segments and special effects.

I don’t know this seemed like the most boring Keynote ever

 

[JMalone]

Don’t want ski goggles from the Chaebol either.

 

[Rychiar]

My understanding (looking for confirmation) the Netflix app is just the Android tablet app and Google does not have an opt-out option for developers for Android XR for the Play Store as Apple has had for iPadOS developers for the visionOS store.

Tablet apps are horrible. I would never use an iPad app to watch movies on my Vision Pro. they don’t even output in Atmos.

 

[vantelimus]

If Vision Pro was that price, I’d buy two. Kidding… but I’d buy one.

The Galaxy XR is a Meta Quest–class computing environment with an M2-AVP–class display. That’s why it’s priced the way it is. They cheaped out on computation because, like the Meta Quest, it is a streaming and gaming machine, not a spatial computing system. Early Geekbench performance marks show it as less capable than the Meta Quest 3, which is already one-quarter the speed of the M5. This makes a huge difference in what can be done on-device.

 

[iDento]

The only human-centric thing about this is the more “affordable” price.

 

[Hajj.david]

It actually is original, they've had VR for quite some time now, and the software that it's running is lightyears above what the AVP is able to do. And even with the Apple tax at a cheaper price point.

You say this based entirely on conjecture given this is the first headset that uses android xr. You have no idea what it has or doesn’t have

 

[GlassFingers]

Vision Pro m2 is 23M pixels
the M5 is 25M since they added the 10%
the Samsung is about 27m so they are pretty close but the refresh rate is terrible compared to the Vision Pro M5

Exactly… THIS kind of comparison is what is missing in this article. They should have compared the specs instead of just listing them all out one after another. Would make the article much more meaningful

 

[PBG4 Dude]

"Real AI" 😂

My next-word statistical probability calculator is better than your next-word statistical probability calculator.

 

[JCCL]

Real AI? "Okay, let me work on that." ... for nearly every query.

Apple's upgraded Siri will be leaps and bounds better than what we saw in Samsung's cringeworthy copycat demo. Kudos to Apple for not rushing out a half-baked Vision Pro and Siri.

I wouldn’t bet anything on Apple’s upgraded Siri though. It’s been ridiculously bad for ages and that doesn’t seem that will change any time soon.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Maybe I'll eventually grow to want one, but this product category doesn't excite me at all at the moment, regardless of features or price.

If the price and features and experience ever get there, I'd be into one for usage as a Mac "monitor" and a content consumption device.

But I still want more field of view, resolution, comfort .. just more and more evolution still.

For me these concepts hold interest, but discretely so vs AR, and I now expect Apple to just mostly pivot to that and so we sort of are where we are here for now.

So .. ultimately, like you, just sort of not interested in this stuff as is right now.

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

And unlike Vision Pro the Galaxy can actually be used to play real VR games with a pc tether. It’s a basic feature that any VR/AR headset should have

 

[clg82]

You say this based entirely on conjecture given this is the first headset that uses android xr. You have no idea what it has or doesn’t have

Did you read the article or just the headline?

 

[AusMness]

clean integer multiple of 24hz content

Sure, but that's what 96Hz is for on the VP

 

[mike2q]

Samsung doesn't care to be first. They let their competitors beta test products until they see its finally ready and then when they do it they do it right.

Isn't that always the excuse here when Apple copies Samsung? 🙂

 

[KurtWilde]

The Galaxy XR is a Meta Quest–class computing environment with an M2-AVP–class display. That’s why it’s priced the way it is. They cheaped out on computation because, like the Meta Quest, it is a streaming and gaming machine, not a spatial computing system. Early Geekbench performance marks show it as less capable than the Meta Quest 3, which is already one-quarter the speed of the M5. This makes a huge difference in what can be done on-device.

Yeah I said if Vision Pro was that price. Totally get why it isn’t and when Apple has a device closer to it I’m going in feet first. Right now Vision Pro is too rich for my blood and the use is get from it.

 

[rezwits]

Regardless of what you think of the current success of VR, or what you think its future prospects are, I think claiming that it's a 40 year old industry is stupid, considering that it would be hard to render much beyond a wireframe cube 40 years ago at a performance level that would acceptable for VR.

Exactly, my thing on a secret tip tho is... Currently there are people criticizing two "40 year old industries" AI and VR.
I find something eerily interesting that people have been dying, clamoring, and clawing their way to get HERE!

Some people scoff at AI, and say it's not real, then others laugh at AR/VR/XR (Spatial) and well just laugh.

I think AR/VR/XR is 2-3 years behind AI, in terms of HMM? Whatever you want to call this.
But eventually we will see the two shining thru.

And the naysayers are gonna just get left behind...

That's all...

2¢

 

[smulji]

Dead on arrival.

Just like Vision Pro

 

[justanotherdave]

They didn’t even bring a new processor. How utterly pathetic. The 6 core XR2 Gen 2 is completely outclassed by even the M2, let alone the M5. And that’s before you account for Apple offloading tasks to the R1 coprocessor.

 

[spillled typos]

Can it play Steam VR?