Introducing Galaxy XR, the first Android XR headset

And Samsung is even worse: remember GearVR ?

I had a Note device that on launch was compatible with GearVR, but they killed support for it in one of the few the Android updates. This was back when getting 3 Android updates was "lucky". i.e. they launched and completely killed GearVR (paperweight level) all within 5 years.

> My money says this goes the way of the Pixel tablet.

I need to do a Google search every time to recall their history with tablets. I remember the Nexus tablets which came out for like a 3 year streak.

Then it was the Pixel C in 2015, then a 3 year gap until the Pixel Slate, then 5 years before the Pixel Tablet. Do not ask me about any of their capabilities or their intention in the market because every release could have been anything.

I'm so beyond getting on board with anything Google puts out, it's kinda just funny to watch and laugh at this point.

Its obvious this was greenlit in response to Apple Vision Pro, which means is about 1 year away from being killed as soon as Apple pulls back on Vision Pro in favor of some sort of AR smart glass technology

this was an event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITXJquX9FqM

Meta is making it work

Only buy the product for what it is, and not what it might be. Assuming they don't go out of their way to brick it post shutdown, you should still have an ok device.

Did Apple try to get into this market? Their device is fairly ridiculous compared to where VR seems to have been going all these years: cheap nearly disposable headsets like the Oculus. Which I believe is half the price of the original HTC Vive.

More expensive than the Vive isn't the way forward. Apple had a tech demo and slumping quarterly reports and need some PR wins, so out came the headset. I don't think it was a good faith effort to get into this market. I think it was to get headlines, jazz up stocks, and get attention as an innovator outside of laptops and phones.

I have no idea what Google can do here, but Android is a long running project. The Pixel line has long-ish term support. Google can eat Oculus's lunch. I just think the question is if Oculus's walled garden is now too high to climb, both in software and patents. FB money and Carmack's talents are going to be hard to beat here.

If I had to guess, I'd say Google saw Oculus get good at games, but everything else about it is fairly uninteresting. XR/AR could be hot and those new Meta glasses are pretty much Google Glass on steroids. So who knows, but seeing Google dive back into AR/XR is promising and I think they can compete here in a way they can't with VR games.

I could see myself buying AR glasses branded Pixel or Google. I'd think they'd be a better product than Meta. I don't know where Google is going with this and this product seems underwhelming, but we may have an entirely different product in a year or two. I have a feeling both Apple and Samsung's product are PR placeholders until they can catch up to Meta on shoe-horning this into Ray-Ban-esque glasses format.

This is really just a hacker news/inside tech meme. Look at half the comments on this submission, they're just low effort "lol Google kills off products" statements. Random people on the street would have no idea what you're talking about, because they use chrome, android, Google search, discover, Gmail, and Google maps.

I think Google just has a habit of making products that excite techies but then prove unsustainable for a wider audience (reader being the prime example). I think them trying that (and then failing) is better for everyone than them simply not even trying, which is what some other major tech players do(Apple)

If people actually want to use this product and it is selling well and there are a lot of android XR users, then it's unlikely that Google will kill it. If it doesn't sell well and there aren't many android XR users, sure, it may be killed, but I don't think you'll find many examples of companies sustaining an unprofitable line of business just for the goodwill of the few people using the product.

When you click through its front and center but I also found it odd.

They're really not that interchangeable. They're targeting different hardware with different performance ratings and control schemes.

Sure you can probably stream PC VR from steam to most of these but it's not the same as on device.

It's a Samsung product though

Exactly my first thought. "One year of support at best". It's sad that it's become a meme. I remember when they were the Good Guys...sigh.

I thought the same. They're throwing in a ton of extras to try to sweeten the deal. Those ones you listed are probably $50/mo in total. Plus it says something about a bunch of sports subscriptions too, which are probably very pricey.

(also they want you hooked on those services so they can rebill you after 12 months)

I guess that's what, ~$600? But the odds of using all that on the same account and caring about the savings seems pretty niche.

I don’t think either sound like a good deal to be honest

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I personally used a HoloLens, it was absolutely not a better product. Interesting for the time, but wow was the fov small, and the uses limited.

Having used XReals and Vision Pro (which I assume will be very similar), they're not even in the same ballpark for experience for movies and for desktop. XReals feel like a crappy monitor strapped to your face that bounces with your pulse, tilts, etc and not enough resolution to be good for coding. Vision Pro feels like you're in both the virtual world and real world (plus the ultra wide Mac Virtual Desktop is amazing). I tried to dev on XReal and quickly gave up. Vision Pro I've been using consistently for over a year. Is it worth it? That's personal preference, but I think so.

Double the resolution, integrated cpu and gpu, +3 DoF

The XReals are just screens so no tracking and lower resolution at 1080 vs 4k. They're completely different products.

But what AR can you do with them? I mean, what AR content can you get nowadays? Labeling the stuff around you? Pedestrian or bike navigation (not full screen display but hints)? Tourist information? Any of this integrates with a sibling app for extra info on the connected phone? I'm asking all this because for games I think VR is much better, and trying to understand the current practical value of customer AR.

This is roughly 100x better of a screen so that pricing tracks.

(I have Xreals and they're a fun toy, but AVP and this are what the average person thinks of when they think of a virtual screen, not the peephole xreals offer.

The xreal are great and imo do 90% of what I want to do with AR

The software ecosystem and wireless are the things lacking