00:00Tilt planet up. Ah! I feel like I was just dropped out of a plane.
00:05Today we're talking about Samsung's brand new Galaxy XR headset. Yeah, it looks a lot like the
00:10Apple Vision Pro, but it also does a few things better. It's lighter, cheaper, and smarter,
00:15at least on paper. But do I think you should go out and spend $17.99 on Galaxy XR?
00:21After testing it for the past week, I'd say the answer isn't so simple.
00:25I want to start off with the good. First off, the Galaxy XR is way more comfortable than the
00:30Vision Pro. It weighs just 545 grams, and that's about 200 grams lighter than Apple's headset.
00:35And I'm telling you, it makes a big difference with how long this thing is on my head. There's
00:39also no strap digging in across the top of my head, so I was able to wear the headset for
00:43hours without
00:43wanting to rip it off. Some parts feel cheaper. We've got plastic arms and a plastic battery,
00:49and the buttons aren't anything special either. But no question for the price,
00:52I'll take those trade-offs any day. Looking a little bit closer,
00:56the Galaxy XR packs dual 4K micro OLED displays. They're crisp and colorful,
01:01and watching Netflix flipping through Google Photos or exploring 3D spaces, it all looks fantastic.
01:06The pass-through video isn't quite as bright or clean as the Vision Pro's, especially in low light.
01:10But overall, the visual experience on Galaxy XR is solid. Now let's talk about controls,
01:15because that's where the Galaxy XR starts really showing its rougher edges. The hand and eye
01:20tracking work mostly fine, but it's not nearly as seamless as the Vision Pro. Sometimes I'd look at
01:25the bottom of an app to move it, and nothing. Or I'd overshoot what I was trying to click. I
01:30found
01:30that I had to be pretty deliberate, especially with my eyes, in order to navigate to whatever app
01:35or menu I wanted. But just like Vision Pro, you can pair a controller. I'd say that's a good idea,
01:41especially if you plan to use this for playing games.
01:46Yeah, so the eye tracking is definitely annoying me. So I'm trying to aim with my eyes at a specific
01:51item, and I keep having to look down, and I feel like after calibrating, I shouldn't have to do that.
01:59The good news is that you can recalibrate at any time. The bad news is that I feel like I
02:04need to.
02:05If eye tracking isn't working the way it should, you do have the option of hand control, which is
02:09basically turns your hand into a mouse, and there's a line that goes from your hand to the screen
02:13to select that what you want. But I feel like you shouldn't have to do that, and it's not something
02:17that you ever have to do on the Vision Pro. One big selling point of Galaxy XR and the Android
02:23XR
02:23operating system is Gemini Live, the built-in AI companion. This is where the Galaxy XR starts to
02:28feel genuinely smart. Can you pull up information on this flower and open up a separate window in Chrome?
02:34I've opened a Chrome window with information about light purple hibiscus flowers.
02:39Gemini can answer questions or carry out actions based on pretty much anything I have open on my
02:43screens. Things like identifying flowers in Google Photos or giving in-game advice in Diablo Immortal.
02:49It's not perfect, though. DRM-protected stuff like YouTube TV? Gemini can't see it, so it's basically
02:54blind there. But either way, it still leaps and bounds ahead of Siri and Apple Intelligence and Vision Pro.
03:00There are a few things you could try. You could check your quest log or map for clues,
03:05or look for any quest markers or highlighted areas in your current location. You could also
03:10try talking to the villager you just freed. They might have some information for you.
03:14I feel like Gemini on something like this is not as attractive or compelling as it will be
03:18once it comes to smart glasses, but this gives you a taste of that future.
03:23I mentioned YouTube TV. That's a good segue to the Galaxy XR's app selection. It's okay, I guess.
03:28You do notably get YouTube with 180 and 360 videos, which are really compelling,
03:34and a native Netflix app, which the Vision Pro still doesn't have.
03:38Movies, okay, so House of Dynamite, right? So if I click on that,
03:43and then I go into Gemini. Can you pull up movie reviews of this in a separate window?
03:48I pulled up the movie reviews for House of Dynamite in a separate video.
03:53So that's actually useful because I didn't need to tell it what movie this is, right?
03:58And then so I could just scroll through, and I could see all the reviews here,
04:02and I could have said Rotten Tomatoes, but in this case I could see the ratings on this side,
04:06and then I can decide if I want to watch it or not. There's also Google Maps with immersive mode,
04:10which lets you fly through cities. It's genuinely awesome once you get the hang of it.
04:14Tilt planet up. Ah! I feel like I was just dropped out of a plane.
04:22You can game with XR titles like Demio or play regular Android games from Google Play,
04:27but I wish there were more native apps. There's about 70 to start and more to come. One of my
04:31favorite apps on the Galaxy XR is Asteroid, which thrusts you in the middle of a 3D movie
04:35where you're mining an asteroid for riches, and you can talk with the AI version of the main character.
04:41This is DK Metcalf. Got a moment to chat?
04:44Powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chip, the Galaxy XR runs most of these apps and tasks
04:50smoothly, but I did run into some bugs. I had apps freeze, menus lag, and that fan? Yeah,
04:55you'll hear it kick in when things heat up. Is some of this probably fixable via software updates?
05:00Sure. But if the goal was to get the best of Vision Pro from the jump,
05:04these hiccups don't really help the Galaxy XR's case. Battery life hits at around 2 hours,
05:09which again is fine, but it's not better than the Vision Pro. I was getting closer to 3 hours on
05:14the
05:14new Vision Pro M5. Speaking of which, let me know if you'd want to see a video dedicated to my
05:19experience testing Apple's refreshed headset. If you did see some of my older videos here on
05:24the channel about Vision Pro, you might remember that using it as my MacBook display is pretty much
05:29my favorite feature or use case. So of course, I was really curious about how that would work
05:34for the Galaxy XR. If you want to bring your PC desktop into the Galaxy XR, you can,
05:40but it takes some effort. You have to install Samsung's second screen app on a Galaxy Book,
05:45sign into your Samsung account, and then find the PC link option in quick settings.
05:49Once you're connected, performance is fine. I know, I feel like I keep saying that in this review,
05:54but it really is true. Again, it works, but not just quite as well as I wish it did.
05:59For Apple's setup, you just look at your Mac and click Connect. It's that simple,
06:03and that alone is just a classic case of all of Apple's stuff working better together.
06:11Before I get to my verdict, I just have to say,
06:14Mixed Reality is still a developing product category. Even with companies like Samsung,
06:19Google, Meta, and Apple all in the game, these headsets still have a long way to go before they feel
06:24truly ready for the masses. With the Galaxy XR, it's the little thing that break the illusion,
06:30the occasional bugs and performance hiccups, hand and eye tracking that isn't always precise,
06:35and the app library that's still pretty limited, at least for now.
06:39If Samsung and Google really want people to buy into this vision of mixed reality and spend $1,800
06:43to do it, all that friction needs to be addressed. This product needs to be smoother, more intuitive,
06:49and more connected to the rest of your devices. Don't get me wrong, it's been exciting to see this
06:53launch and have it undercut the Vision Pro price-wise by pretty much half,
06:57but there's no question this category is still finding its footing.
07:00That also makes you wonder, will we ever really be ready for full mixed reality headsets?
07:04Most people don't want to strap something big on their face. Instead, they want glasses that
07:08are lightweight, stylish. In a few years, the real winners might not be these bulky headsets at all.
07:13It could very well be smart glasses that do a lot of what XR does, but without taking over your
07:18whole head. And Samsung and Google have promised their take on smart glasses is on the way.
07:26For now, if you're curious about mixed reality and want to save money over the Vision Pro,
07:30buy, but only if you're okay being an early adopter. If you want something polished and stable right now,
07:36skip it, or at least wait for Samsung and Google to iron out the bugs.
07:40That's my take on the Galaxy XR, but I want to know what you think. Would you trade the Vision
07:44Pro's
07:44polish for a headset that costs half as much, or are you waiting for the glasses version instead?
07:49Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more buy or skip
07:53reviews. For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
08:04I would say the pass-through on the Galaxy XR is pretty good, and I can definitely walk around,
08:10but it's a little bit blurry, and there's a little bit of motion blur as you walk around,
08:13so you just have to be careful of your surroundings. But I can do simple,
08:18everyday tasks. Not that I would do this in real life, but you can.
08:29There you go. Wait, am I getting it wet?
08:34No, that's not gonna work.
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