Samsung Galaxy XR hands-on: A smarter, more open take on Apple's Vision Pro for half the price

Apple's Vision Pro was meant to usher in a new era for headsets. However, its high price and somewhat limited utility resulted in what may be the company's biggest flop in years. Now it's time for Samsung to give things a go with the Galaxy XR. It's a fresh take on modern mixed reality goggles developed through deep partnerships with Qualcomm and Google and it attempts to address some of the Vision Pro's biggest shortcomings.

The hardware

While both Apple and Samsung's headsets have a lot of similarities (like their basic design and support for features such as hand and eye tracking), there are also some very important differences. First, at $1,800, the Galaxy XR is essentially half the price of the Vision Pro (including the new M5-powered model). Second, instead of Apple’s homegrown OS, Samsung's headset ...