Samsung Galaxy XR: Is this the $1799 Apple Vision Pro Killer?

It's not that the newly launched Galaxy XR is so much better than the Apple Vision Pro; it does roughly the same things. But it does them at half the price. Can that help it break through to the genuine mass market?

The VR headset formerly known as Project Moohan was launched by Samsung today. And, judging from the early feedback of those that have used the device, it looks like being, if not the final nail in the coffin of the Apple Vision Pro, at least a rival that will hasten its journey to the cemetery.

To be clear, this whole category of devices is possibly on short notice now that the first generation of genuinely capable smart glasses such as the new Meta Ray-Bans are here. But at half the price, most of the spec, and pretty much all of the experience of the Apple Vision Pro, the Samsung Galaxy XR changes the market dynamics considerably.

Android XR's Debut

Galaxy XR is the first product built on the new Android XR platform developed together by Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm Technologies. Samsung is pitching it as the first step in its long-term XR journey, stating that there are "innovations to come across the full spectrum of XR form factors, including AI glasses."

Google's Gemini is baked in at a system level, which theoretically allows users to lean into the full range of multimodal AI functions and means that the headset will respond in 'conversational ways' to requests based on what it sees around it. 

Crucially, all apps built on the Android platform work out of the box on the headset, at least at a base level. And since the platform is built on OpenXR standards, it should be easy for interested developers using OpenXR, WebXR or Unity to optimise the experience further.

Under the Hood

Galaxy XR is built around the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 and the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU 5 Plus, and features two Micro-OLED 3552 x 3840 screens that cover 95% of the DCI‑P3 color profile. Its (separate) battery will give you 2.5 hours of video use or 2 hours of general use. That's about 30 minutes less on both counts than the Vision Pro. Unlike the Vision Pro, however, your neck muscles will probably be able to outlast the battery, the unit coming in at 545 g (19 oz) compared to the Apple device's much heftier 750-800 g (26.4–28.2 oz) for the latest generation M5 model.

A Herd of Elephants

That M5-powered Vision Pro is the baby elephant in the room. That is going to provide a performance hike up against the Galaxy XR, and early feedback is that the M2 Apple experience is already smoother and has slightly less lag. Comparative tests will probably start to drip out in the coming week and it will be interesting to see whether the price difference can be justified. Twice the price is a lot but, as history shows, if anyone can make that work for it, Apple can.

The big ol' bull elephant in the room is that this already feels like an evolutionary cul-de-sac. Samsung mentions AI glasses three times and further developments to come in this space three times in the launch press release. Yes, there are high end use cases where such devices make sense, and Adobe's Project Pulsar Spatial FX and 3D compositing app aimed at social video content creators was specifically namechecked by Samsung at launch and looks interesting.

But with Apple pulling resources from a next gen Vision Pro and throwing them at AI glasses, and Samsung already obviously looking ahead to the AI glasses future, the Galaxy XR feels more like an interesting footnote at the end of a paragraph rather than the launch of a whole new chapter.

Yes, it might be an Apple Vision Pro killer. But arguably high prices and consumer indifference got there first.

Key Specifications