Samsung Galaxy XR review: It needs more polish

It was mine The new Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR headphones running the M5 have been sitting on my desk for several weeks. These are expensive and sophisticated pieces of hardware. The Apple version is $3499! Samsung’s headset costs nearly half that amount, and is still a pretty penny at $1,800. Mustering the energy to wear it has been a task.

You can watch movies, play immersive games, and get some work done using multiple virtual screens. None of these experiences were convincing enough to make me want to wear the headset on my face for more than an hour. However, I tried it out in college, and my takeaway is that Google and Samsung have more work to do to improve the Android XR experience; I’ve also had a strange, new appreciation for the quality of Apple’s mixed reality headset.

Photo: Julian Chocato

Find comfort

I purchased the Galaxy The process was smooth, although long shipping times meant my inserts arrived weeks before the XR.

Although I appreciate how lightweight the Galaxy XR is compared to the Vision Pro, I constantly struggled to find a comfortable fit. You put on the headset and turn the knob at the back to tighten the band around your head, but there’s often a fair amount of pressure on your forehead, which also gets warm when the audible fans start; It’s almost impossible no You have a sweaty forehead after an XR episode. Two magnetic light shields in the box do a good job of preventing ambient light from filtering into your VR, but they’re not perfect, as I still experienced some minor light bleed.