Blending smooth design with superior AI options, Samsung’s debut XR headset impresses on efficiency but stays area of interest purchase as a consequence of price, consolation
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday took the wraps off its long-anticipated prolonged actuality headset, Galaxy XR, signaling the tech big’s bold leap into a brand new frontier the place {hardware}, software program and synthetic intelligence converge.
Developed below the codename Project Moohan, which means “infinite” in Korean, the title captures the essence of what the Galaxy XR goals to supply: a boundless area the place customers can transfer between the true and digital worlds. Through its pass-through mode, the headset permits customers to remain immersed in digital experiences whereas conserving the true world in view, symbolizing limitless prospects.
The Korea Herald was granted a hands-on session with Samsung’s first XR headset powered by multimodal AI — an expertise that proved putting, even inside a restricted timeframe.
Sporting a smooth, futuristic design paying homage to an area helmet, the Galaxy XR felt surprisingly light-weight and comfy. Weighing simply 545 grams, it supplied a cosy but balanced match, suggesting minimal fatigue even with extended use.
Control was refreshingly intuitive. The system responded to a easy “pinch” gesture — bringing the thumb and index finger collectively — eliminating the necessity for exterior controllers. With real-time monitoring of all 10 fingers, the Galaxy XR permits exact hand-motion navigation, enhancing the sense of presence and interplay in digital environments.
Once the gestures have been mastered, I used to be capable of entry XR-optimized photographs and YouTube content material, delivering spatial video experiences that recreated a near-theater-like atmosphere. A 360-degree dance efficiency demo transported me to the middle of a live performance stage, showcasing the system’s potential for immersive leisure.
At the guts of this vivid expertise lies an OLED show with a decision of three,552 by 3,840 pixels per eye, totaling 13.6 million pixels. This surpasses the 11.7 million pixels of Apple’s Vision Pro (3,660 by 3,200 per eye) and units a brand new benchmark for XR show high quality.
What really units the Galaxy XR aside is its deep integration of multimodal AI, able to processing not solely textual content and pictures but additionally voice and video. This permits seamless, multi-sensory interplay.
I summoned a video via a voice command to Samsung’s Gemini AI assistant, then used eye monitoring to pick a consequence and triggered playback with a pinch gesture. The “Circle to Search” function additional allowed real-time object recognition within the bodily surroundings just by gesturing towards an object, blurring the boundary between digital and actual.
The system gives 256 gigabytes of inside storage — lower than the Vision Pro’s 1 terabyte mannequin however adequate when paired with Google’s cloud infrastructure.
One minor downside was consolation. The tight match left seen stress marks after about 10 minutes of use, elevating questions on long-term wearability.
Priced at 2.69 million received ($1,880), the Galaxy XR is considerably extra inexpensive than Apple’s Vision Pro, which begins at 4.99 million received for the same configuration, but far pricier than Meta’s Quest 3 (512GB), retailing at 729,000 received.
That positioning locations the Galaxy XR firmly within the premium, early-adopter section, the place innovation and efficiency take priority over accessibility — and the place Samsung’s reentry into immersive expertise indicators that the subsequent battle within the XR area has solely simply begun.
By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)