A little more accessible than the Apple Vision Pro, this Android XR headset could use more polish.

I have had the new M5-powered Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR headsets sitting on my desk for several weeks. These are expensive, cutting-edge pieces of hardware. Apple's version is $3,499! Samsung's headset is roughly half that—still a pretty penny at $1,800. Mustering the energy to don them has been a task.

You can watch movies, play immersive games, and get some work done with multiple virtual screens. None of these experiences has been so compelling that I want to wear a headset on my face for more than an hour. Still, I gave it the ol' college try, and my takeaway is that Google and Samsung have more work ahead of them to improve the Android XR experience; I've also had a strange and newfound appreciation for the quality of Apple's mixed reality headset.

Finding ...