I briefly tried Samsung Galaxy XR at its launch occasion in New York final week, and I’ve combined preliminary ideas in regards to the first Android XR headset.
Launched final evening within the US & South Korea, Galaxy XR is priced at $1800, and its non-obligatory controllers are $250 additional, or $175 for those who purchase them with the headset earlier than November 17.
Already, the Galaxy XR headset is backordered to November 4, whereas new orders for the Galaxy XR Controllers will not ship till November 28.
The launch comes nearly three years after Samsung first introduced that it was engaged on a standalone XR headset, with Google dealing with a lot of the software program and Qualcomm offering the chipset, and nearly a 12 months after it formally unveiled it as “Challenge Moohan” as Google revealed Android XR.
At its core, Galaxy XR is a high-end standalone headset with 4K micro-OLED shows, hand monitoring, eye monitoring, face monitoring, an lively depth sensor, and totally automated motorized lens separation adjustment to match your interpupillary distance (IPD). You may learn the detailed options and specs of Galaxy XR right here, and I strongly advocate you accomplish that, however this text is about my transient expertise really utilizing it.
Samsung Galaxy XR With Android XR Out Now For $1800, Controllers $250
Samsung Galaxy XR with Google’s Android XR is accessible now within the US & South Korea for $1800, and its controllers are $250 additional. Learn the total specs and particulars right here.
Samsung invited UploadVR to its embargoed launch occasion in New York final week, and we paid for our personal flights and lodging to attend it. I used to be within the viewers for the on-stage presentation Samsung broadcast final evening, and afterwards my colleague Ian Hamilton and I spoke to Google and Samsung representatives for hours as they used Galaxy XR instantly in entrance of us, casting the headset’s view to a projector within the room filled with journalists and influencers.
We ended the day with a really quick hands-on demo the place I used Galaxy XR myself for round 25 minutes, although it felt like even much less. I will want way more time within the headset earlier than I can convey you a extra definitive evaluation. However learn on for my preliminary impressions primarily based on my quick time with Samsung Galaxy XR.
The Type Issue & Match Matter
Many individuals have prompt that Galaxy XR is basically an Android-ecosystem Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional for half the worth. And whereas that is broadly the product proposition right here, the shape issue is very totally different, and it is necessary you perceive how and why earlier than shopping for it.
For starters, Galaxy XR has a inflexible plastic strap that cradles the again of your head, like a Quest Elite Strap, providing balanced assist. However it’s non-detachable, and this implies you are caught with it for the lifetime of the headset. You may’t swap it out for a mushy strap to lean again on a chair, couch, or mattress. When you’re within the thought of watching films on an enormous digital display screen, a pitched use case for each Imaginative and prescient Professional and Galaxy XR, you want to concentrate on this. And for those who’re concerned about utilizing the headset on a airplane, for instance, you’d end up bumping the again of the strap into the seat ceaselessly. When you need not use the headset in these situations, although, the rear strap design is all upside.
In the case of the entrance of Galaxy XR, although, the variations are much more necessary to know.
There are basically two methods for a half-kilogram headset to connect to the entrance of your head: towards your complete higher face, or simply the highest of your brow.
In principle, the higher face strategy, utilized in headsets like Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and Meta Quest 3, distributes the stress over a larger space. However this space additionally contains the sinuses below your decrease brow and cheeks, that are very delicate to being crushed, and that is the reason for a lot of the discomfort related to VR. It additionally blocks out your view of your periphery, except for the odd open interface Meta launched for Quest 3 final 12 months.
The alternate strategy, an upper-forehead pad, is what Samsung Galaxy XR makes use of, like PlayStation VR2 and the discontinued Meta Quest Professional and HoloLens 2 headsets. This retains the stress off your sinuses, and makes the visor really feel as if it is floating in entrance of your face, slightly than being connected, whereas additionally letting you see the true world beneath you and to the perimeters by default – there are non-obligatory facet blockers for immersion within the field. The singular adjustment you make is to the dial on the rear, tightening or loosening the headset’s grip in your head.
Galaxy XR felt comfy and lightweight in my 25 minutes with it. However that merely is nowhere close to sufficient time to inform you whether or not it could be comfy for hours on finish. What I can inform you is that its ergonomics really feel similar to Meta Quest Professional, besides 200 grams lighter (Galaxy XR feels very mild), and Quest Professional’s consolation was extraordinarily divisive. How the brow pad strategy will really feel for you’ll rely upon the precise form of your cranium. Some individuals discover the strategy considerably extra comfy than any ski-goggle-style headsets, whereas others discover it agonizingly painful.
Possibly sometime somebody will launch an app that allows you to scan the form of your head to advocate whether or not a specific sort of headset strap ought to go well with it. Within the meantime, I like to recommend making an attempt to get a demo of Galaxy XR, for those who’ve by no means used a headset with its ergonomics, earlier than dropping $2000.
How That Affected What I Noticed
My description up to now describes how the strap design of Samsung Galaxy XR may restrict how you should utilize the headset, how comfy you are feeling, and the way you see your environment by default. However it additionally impacts how your eyes are aligned with the lenses.
To be clear, I am not speaking about horizontal alignment right here. Galaxy XR has totally automated IPD adjustment, guided by its eye monitoring, with motorized lenses that shift sideways to match the horizontal separation of your eyes, which varies between individuals. This labored flawlessly for me. In truth, the method labored quicker than Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. However this solves for less than considered one of three axes.
A problem with a forehead-mounted headset is that it may well restrict how shut the lenses can get to your eyess laterally. To what diploma, once more, will rely upon the precise form of your cranium. Headsets like Quest Professional and PS VR2 have a separate dial on the entrance to regulate the depth of the visor to your face, letting you convey the lenses nearer to your eye, however Galaxy XR doesn’t.
The outcome was that I wasn’t getting the total subject of view, and nor the total binocular overlap, which means I might see faint darkish traces the place the 2 lens views intersect. And worse, it induced a form of perceived show brightness inconsistency, the place areas of the lenses close to the sides seemed to be darker. That is one thing I’ve seen earlier than many instances in headsets the place my eyes aren’t shut sufficient to the lenses. If Galaxy XR had a lens depth dial, I would have used it. However it doesn’t.
Days later, I came upon that there are two brow interface sizes within the field of Galaxy XR, and it is doable I used to be simply utilizing the incorrect one for my head. I used to be not knowledgeable of this earlier than or through the demo.
Placing the lens depth problem apart, the shows of Galaxy XR are vibrant and extremely sharp. They felt round on par with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, maybe a tad sharper. As we have stated earlier than many instances at UploadVR: 4K micro-OLEDs are the last word shows for headsets, and blow the 2K panels you discover on mainstream headsets out of the water. A 2K LCD appears like a display screen. A 4K micro-OLED appears like a digital world. When you strive 4K micro-OLED, you’ll be able to by no means really return. Galaxy XR isn’t any exception to this actuality.
Monitoring & Passthrough
One of many first issues I like to check when making an attempt a brand new headset is its core XR know-how.
Passthrough, your view of the true world, is tough to match between headsets with out utilizing them in the identical room and the very same lighting, as all cameras are closely affected by their atmosphere. However my preliminary preliminary evaluation is that Galaxy XR’s passthrough is the very best available on the market but.
With the identical 6.5 megapixel decision, it felt as sharp as Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, and the attitude and depth felt extra right, whereas it lacked any of the annoying warping distortion of Meta Quest 3.
Galaxy XR’s passthrough does, nevertheless, exhibit an analogous blur as Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional whenever you flip your head. When you hold your head nonetheless, shifting objects like your fingers seem easy, to be clear, and the latency feels extraordinarily low. However for those who rotate your head, there is a distinct movement blur. As I coated in my Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional evaluate, that is the alternative scenario from Quest 3.
Testing Galaxy XR’s hand monitoring (seize by Ian Hamilton).
Transitioning right into a digital residence atmosphere, which you are able to do at any time by double-tapping the capacitive touchpad on the facet of Galaxy XR, I discovered the positional head monitoring to be rock strong, at the same time as I received up and walked across the room. In 2025, for a first-class tech firm like Google at the very least, inside-out positional monitoring by way of pc imaginative and prescient is basically a solved drawback.
Hand monitoring, alternatively, was extra of a combined bag. It is low latency and has little or no jitter, and shortly recovers from full occlusion. However it does not deal with overlapping your fingers fairly in addition to Quest 3 or Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, with noticeable jankiness, and once I tried shifting my fingers quickly, the monitoring always minimize out, with the fingers flickering out and in of existence. It would not be appropriate for fast-motion video games.
Meta has had years to refine its hand monitoring, since delivery the function as a software program replace for the unique Oculus Quest, with 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and a pair of.3 updates all bringing important enhancements, together with to dealing with quick motions. We’ll be carefully following whether or not Google does the identical for Android XR by 2026.
Sadly, I used to be not capable of check Galaxy XR Controllers in-headset, so I am unable to inform you about how properly they do or do not work. I did briefly maintain them, although. They felt barely low cost, and did not conform to my fingers in addition to Meta’s Contact Plus controllers. However I have to strive them in XR.
A Word On The Battery
Similar to Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, Samsung Galaxy XR requires the included exterior tethered battery. And as such, every little thing I stated in regards to the tradeoffs of a tethered battery in my Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional evaluate applies.
Once I placed on Galaxy XR, I needed to consciously modify the battery to an acceptable place. And once I stood up, I needed to put it in my pocket and transfer my arm in entrance of the cable. It is an added friction that crops up even in a 25 minute demo, and one that you just want to concentrate on for those who’re coming from a headset with a built-in battery, or contemplating getting your first-ever headset.
In distinction, it is refreshingly handy to select up a Meta Quest headset and simply put it in your head, with no thought for cables or batteries wanted.
How annoying an exterior battery is will come down to non-public desire. Some individuals could not care much less. However I would wish to as soon as once more quote Oculus government Jason Rubin in our 2019 interview with him, after we requested whether or not his firm was contemplating a tethered transportable compute mannequin:
“That’s a mannequin we’ve undoubtedly explored. There’s plenty of upsides to it, like visually having the smaller glasses in your head, huge benefit. Battery, retaining the load away, the warmth away from the display screen, having the ability to separate battery. All of that’s nice.
The issue is whenever you do it, trigger we’ve tried it, you may have a wire. And also you don’t ever neglect that wire.“
After all, lots has modified in six years, and our sources counsel Meta plans a tethered puck for its subsequent headset too. However it stays to be seen which strategy to the battery customers will select in the long term.
Efficiency & Android XR
The demo I had was nowhere close to lengthy sufficient to evaluate a wholly new XR platform, so I will keep away from making sweeping conclusions right here.
What I can inform you is that Android XR broadly appears like a crossover between Apple’s visionOS and Meta’s Horizon OS, and on Galaxy XR it felt extremely snappy. I might open 2D or immersive apps and navigate across the system menus with none seen hitch in framerate. Efficiency was noticeably smoother than what I am used to with Meta Quest 3. However I did not have time to actually push it to its restrict, and in contrast to with Meta’s Horizon OS, in Google’s Android XR you’ll be able to’t convey up home windows whereas nonetheless inside an immersive expertise.
On paper, Galaxy XR’s XR2+ Gen 2 chipset is barely round 20% extra highly effective than the one in Quest 3, however Galaxy XR has a number of different methods up its sleeve, together with twice the RAM (16GB), eye-tracked foveated rendering, and a default refresh price of 72Hz, simpler to keep up than Quest 3’s default 90Hz. A few of it might even be all the way down to software program. Google, in any case, is the corporate that makes Android itself, whereas Meta is forking it and is not precisely identified for its software program high quality.
Google Maps immersive mode on Android XR
That 72Hz refresh price does include a tradeoff, although. In Google Maps immersive mode, for instance, when very shiny content material was being displayed on the fringe of the lenses I might see a faint flickering impact. It is a well-known problem with low-persistence shows for those who drive them beneath 90Hz. And once more – a standard theme of this text – varies between people.
Talking of Google Maps immersive mode, it is basically PC VR’s Google Earth VR formally ported to standalone VR for the primary time. On Galaxy XR’s 4K micro-OLED shows it seems to be and feels unbelievable, and that is how I need to plan journeys to any extent further. Its immersive Gaussian splats of choose places have been cool to strive, too, however considerably decrease high quality than Meta’s Horizon Hyperscape.
Google Photographs with AI 3D synthesis on Android XR
One other Google function that impressed me was in Photographs. Whereas different headsets like Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and Pico 4 Extremely already allow you to convert 2D photographs into 3D, Android XR goes a step additional by permitting this for movies too. It is exceptional how shortly it really works. Like many Google options, it is server-side, so for those who’re against that for privateness causes, you will miss out. However it was exceptional to see a 2D video flip into 3D so shortly, in entrance of my eyes.
The strangest factor about Android XR is that by default, it does not use the gaze-and-pinch interplay system launched by Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. As a substitute, you level along with your fingers as you’ll on Quest 3. Eye monitoring is all the time lively for foveated rendering, however gaze-and-pinch is an choice, off by default. I enabled it in Settings, although, and located it to work properly. I am very puzzled as to why it is not the default, as my nearly two years of time utilizing Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional has me unshakeably satisfied that it is the future default enter system for all of XR.
Conclusions
My time with Samsung Galaxy XR and Android XR was frustratingly quick, and this text paperwork solely my very preliminary impressions.
Galaxy XR delivers the magic of 4K micro-OLED in a standalone kind issue at half the worth of Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and the Android XR platform from Google appeared well-made in my time with it, and is a possible severe risk to Meta in the long run.
However Galaxy XR’s kind issue, whereas maybe comparable at first look of a render, is basically totally different than Imaginative and prescient Professional (and Quest 3), and my expertise with comparable headsets tells me that its consolation may differ considerably between people.
Samsung didn’t present UploadVR with a evaluate unit, however we have now ordered our personal Galaxy XR at our personal expense, and goal to convey you a evaluate subsequent month after we get it.
