Watching the first minutes of KPop Demon Hunters On Samsung’s Galaxy XR headphones, I think Apple’s Vision Pro might be cooked.
It’s not because the Galaxy XR, which Samsung previously teased as Project Moohan, is that Much better than the Vision Pro. The experience is comparable, but you get much more for your investment. Specifically, the Galaxy YouTube TV for $1 a month for three months and a free season of NBA League Pass.
Did I mention it’s also significantly lighter and more comfortable than the Vision Pro?
Oh, and it comes with a native Netflix app. Who is going to buy a Vision Pro now? Well, probably people who need the power of a Mac to work and who are truly integrated into the Apple ecosystem. But many other people will probably want this.
These were the thoughts that ran through my head as I received my second official demo of Samsung’s headphones ahead of today’s announcement. Last December I got a demo of a Moohan prototype, but this was the final version of that product. There are some notable changes. The front piece is more padded than I remembered from my last demo and I finally got to try out the removable bottom light seal. But otherwise, not much has changed.
The hardware still looks like a Vision Pro mixed with a Meta Quest 3. There are no creepy eyes on the front screen, although there is still a glass panel that houses several cameras to capture your surroundings and hand gestures. There are mini-LEDs inside that support 4K resolution and refresh rates of up to 90Hz, which should make scrolling and gaming look smooth. Samsung promises up to 2.5 hours of battery life, on par with the Vision Pro.
There’s no removable strap: it’s all lightweight plastic with a padded back piece and a dial used to adjust the tension. The materials don’t feel as premium as the Vision Pro. But the plastic is easier to clean than fabric, and when I put it on my head, it’s much lighter and the weight is distributed more evenly. (The first Vision Pro was front-heavy, but a new strap helps a lot with that.) It took me until the end of the 30-minute demo to start to feel some tension.
So much of the experience inside the headphones is similar to the Vision Pro that I can imagine Apple’s lawyers getting angry. There is a high resolution step, although I wouldn’t call it very clear. The headset tracks what you’re looking at and you pinch your fingers to select. One difference is that there’s a Quest-like cursor when you point to menus and XR items, which makes it a little easier to tell if the right thing is highlighted. Otherwise, the interface is a Google-flavored version of what you’ll find on a Vision Pro.
As for features, there’s everything from spatial photography and immersive environments to zooming in on multiple browser windows for maximum productivity. There is also automatic spatialization for existing 2D content. Like when I go to YouTube to watch a recent Vergecast episode, A 3D version by my colleague David Pierce appears from the video.
Google and Samsung would like to point out that these Android XR headphones have Gemini. In fact, in a small press conference for the press, executives from both companies emphasized that this device has “AI at the core.”
That means that if, for some strange reason, you decide to read a physical magazine with this headset on, you can circle around to any interesting products you find and view them in virtual Chrome. By viewing an immersive 3D map in the Google Maps app, you can ask Gemini questions about your surroundings. If you’re viewing a photo or YouTube video, you can start a Gemini Live session, share your screen with the AI and ask it questions. While looking at a photo of a furry quadruped at Machu Picchu, Gemini told me that he was actually looking at a llama and not an alpaca. He then proceeded to tell me facts about the llamas. In the middle of watching a 3D YouTube video of an Icelandic volcano erupting. Gemini misidentified it as a volcano in Hawaii. So, you know, there are limitations.
I’m not convinced the average person would ever want these expensive, high-tech XR headphones. You could argue that the Galaxy But for those who want headphones? On paper, the Galaxy XR headphones are much better value for money. You will get a similar consumer experience. It costs almost half the price. (Heck, it costs less than a Z Fold 7!) It’s much easier to use for a longer period of time.
There is a wide range of content and you have access to Google applications such as YouTube and Maps, among others. If you think AI is a selling point, Gemini is built into this headset much more effectively than Siri is in the Vision Pro. And, compared to devices like phones, tablets, and computers, these headsets are much easier to use as standalone devices. But the most popular use case we’ve seen so far for these headphones is using them as your own personal cinema. The Galaxy
Additionally, if you want to use it for productivity, you can cast a Samsung Galaxy Book laptop screen to the headset (although it’s unclear how this compares to casting a Mac to a Vision Pro), answer calls from it, or share files between the headset and other devices.
I’ll preface all of this with a reminder that demos are not the same as living with a device. When we test a Galaxy But if the Galaxy XR performs as well in real-life tests as it does in demos, then there’s even less reason to buy a Vision Pro.
