Samsung Galaxy XR Review

Design and screens

• Comfortable floating headset design
• Gorgeous 4K OLED displays
• Pass-through could be sharper

It’s easy to say that Samsung has copied Apple’s Vision Pro design, but there’s way more nuance to it than that. Where Apple’s headset sits on the face like a pair of ski goggles, the Galaxy XR hovers in front of my face, sitting on my forehead rather than making direct contact. 

That does mean there’s a gap between the headset and my face, where I can see the real-world environment around me, but given the headset’s mixed-reality nature, I think it works in Samsung’s favour here. 

It means that I can still look down at my keyboard to orient myself or check a quick notification on my phone without taking the whole unit off. There are accessories on the box that snap onto the headset for a more immersive experience akin to VR headsets, but I never really felt like I needed to use them. 

In that vein, at least, the Galaxy XR is closer in design to the ill-fated Meta Quest Pro than Apple’s headset. Though the Quest Pro was canned pretty quickly after launch, I think that had more to do with the prospect of a work-focused Meta headset than the hardware, which I thought was actually quite comfortable at the time. 

And like Meta’s headset, the Galaxy XR uses a hard headband with a back-mounted crank system to tighten the headset into place. It’s much easier than faffing around with strap systems, though the caveat is that you won’t be able to properly lie back and use the headset if that’s how you tend to relax. 

That said, the headset itself is impressively slim, given the high-end tech packed inside. 

Part of the reason why is that it doesn’t actually have a built-in battery. Instead, a braided cable on the left strap connects to a specially designed Samsung power bank that I can slip into my pocket or put on a nearby table. 

It’s not as clean as Apple’s Vision Pro in use, then, and I was initially disappointed to have to carry around a power bank, but the cable is just the right length – not so short that it feels taut, but also not long enough to get tangled. 

It’s just the right size to reach my trouser pockets, where the power bank tends to live when I’m using the headset. It doesn’t seem to get as warm as other power banks in use too, which is nice for something living in my pocket.  

Still, all of that combines into a headset that’s really comfortable to wear, even for a couple of hours at a time. Samsung’s decision not to mimic Apple’s metal-clad headset might mean it doesn’t feel as premium in the hand, but ultimately it was the right decision. 

Between that and the lack of a built-in battery, the headset is light on the head, with the pressure mainly balanced between the forehead and back of the head, rather than the cheeks and nose as with Apple’s option. It’s still far from a feather-light pair of specs, weighing in at 545g, but it’s much lighter than Apple’s 800g alternative. 

It also accommodates glasses wearers well, with a forehead spacer included in the box that adds a little space between my eyes and the lenses so my (fairly large) specs fit – though custom prescription lenses are also an option at an additional cost if that’s something you’re interested in.  

I think where you’re really going to notice a difference between the Galaxy XR and more entry-level mixed-reality headsets like the Meta Quest 3 is in the lens department. 

While the Galaxy XR uses the same pancake lens tech as Meta’s option, the displays underneath are way better here. First up, the switch to OLED means that colours are vibrant, blacks are deep and everything just looks gorgeous – especially when watching 360-degree content on YouTube. 

But the bigger difference is the resolution; the headset manages to pack a full 4K (3,552 × 3,840) resolution in each of its two lenses, and that translates to much crisper visuals, be it graphical fidelity in VR-style games or, importantly for a headset with a focus on productivity, crisp text that makes using Google Docs in XR a doddle. I should know; I’m writing this review in Docs on the Galaxy XR right now. 

That’s combined with two 6.5MP front-facing cameras to try and deliver a high-quality mixed-reality experience – something that’s mostly achieved. I will say, though, the pass-through from the cameras isn’t quite as detailed as I was expecting. 

It’s more than enough to walk around in my physical environment without bumping into anything, but in the same vein, it’s not quite high-res enough to render elements like on-screen text on phones and traditional PC screens. I think Apple has the upper hand there. 

Software and performance

• Android XR feels familiar
• Google apps shine brightest
• Gaming appeal is limited

If you’re familiar with the Android operating system in general, there’s a good chance you’ll hit the floor running with Android XR. The home menu looks a lot like a tablet home screen, except floating in your physical space. 

There’s the time and date, along with connection information and battery life, with pages of apps that I can scroll through and open. It also supports notifications for installed apps, offers a Quick Settings menu to toggle features on and off, and pretty much anything else I can do on Android. It really is what it says on the tin; Android, but in mixed reality form.  

You might notice that I didn’t mention controllers earlier, and that’s for good reason: the headset is designed primarily for hand- and eye-tracking. And as you might expect, it works exceptionally well; we’ve come a long way from the janky early days of hand-tracking, with Samsung’s option on par with Apple’s Vision Pro. 

With a total of 12 cameras tracking positioning, I can reach out and grab windows, push buttons, and the like, or I can use my hands as pointers, tapping with my forefinger and thumb to select. It’s nothing that new, but as the standard for XR/VR interaction, it works about as well as you’d expect – without the need to hold bulky, cumbersome controllers. 

You can get some if you really want them, but they’ll set you back an additional £/$249 – they don’t come in the box. 

The headset also offers eye-tracking tech that lets you essentially aim the cursor with your eyes and tap your fingers to select. It’s easily the fastest, lowest-effort method of browsing the interface, and while it does take some getting used to, it works well most of the time. There are times when it doesn’t quite get what I’m looking at, which can be frustrating in the moment, but I suppose it’s still relatively early technology. 

What I do like is that, with the headset’s cameras pointing down at my lap, I don’t need to raise my hand to tap – I usually just put my hand on my knee, and that’s usually enough for the headset. 

The app situation is an interesting one; while there’s technically access to any app available on Google Play, not every app is XR-ready – those are much rarer right now. The main XR experiences instead come directly from Google, with apps like YouTube, Google Maps and Google Photos really showcasing what the mixed-reality platform can do. 

Google Maps is a fun one to start with, even if it’s exceptionally niche – I’m not exactly going to get directions while using an XR headset. But with a new immersive mode that blends Google Earth and Google Street View, you get a new way to fly around (even from orbit) and see towns, cities, and other locations before actually going there, either from above or street level.

YouTube is the app I find myself using most often. The default interface is much like the tablet app, though once you tap a video to start playing and enable immersive mode, the player expands and other elements – like the description, comments, and related videos – shift to new floating panels on either side of the player.

You can also watch the vast collection of 360-degree videos on the platform in an immersive 3D view – something you can’t do on the competing Vision Pro. Cheeky move there, Google. 

And if I wanted to go and make a cup of tea in the kitchen mid-watch, I could shrink the screen back down and ‘carry’ it with me, positioning it just to the right of the kettle so I could watch while I waited. You know what they say – watch a kettle, and it’ll never boil. It also makes following video tutorials an absolute doddle, with a floating video to glance at for guidance. 

The Google Photos experience is enjoyable, too. Though the default interface, much like YouTube, closely resembles the tablet variant, there’s a new menu to view my images in a more immersive 3D view – similar to that of the Vision Pro. It uses Google’s AI tech to add depth to my snaps and will also react to slight head movements, making them feel a tad more realistic than viewing on a flat screen. 

I also like the way I can swipe through my images in a big, immersive side-scrolling gallery – it’s proper Minority Report-style.

I do think Google Chrome could’ve done with an XR-specific overlay though. It works fine as-is, again mirroring the experience of Chrome on a tablet, but with such large windows available in XR, I’d like something closer to the desktop browser with more buttons and functionality – not necessarily tacked onto the browser itself, but maybe on floating windows on the side like the YouTube app. 

Google’s apps get quite a lot of attention, but that’s not to say there aren’t any non-Google XR-ready apps available on Google Play. There are options like Calm, Inside Job and NFL Pro Era that I’ve tried over the past few weeks, along with Adobe’s Project Pulsar, which let me edit spatial reality videos designed for XR headsets in spatial reality. 

There’s also a healthy selection of more physically involved apps like Djay, which gave me virtual decks and a selection of vinyls to mix with, all overlaid onto my real-world environment, and there are a few full VR titles available too – though a lot of those require the controllers that, unfortunately, don’t come in the box. 

Regardless, a gaming machine this isn’t; it doesn’t have anywhere near the sheer number of big-brand games that Meta has on its Quest platform, making the cheaper VR headset the better option for pure immersive gaming. 

Still, I was more than happy to work with 2D-style Android apps on the headset. They display in tablet form by default, and I can resize and reshape the windows to fit wherever I’d like simply by reaching out and grabbing the corners with my hands. 

It meant that I could run Google Docs on a big central window to write when paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, with apps like Slack, Notion, Chrome or Spotify flanking it to the left, right (or even on the ceiling if I’d like). All the apps stay anchored exactly where I put them, even if I walk away and come back, which really helps break down the barrier between the real and the virtual. 

The only frustration is that there’s no way to save that layout for easy access later. I’d love for the headset to recognise that I’m sat at my desk and display the apps in the layout I use when I’m working. Even if not for work, the ability to sit in my favourite place on the sofa and instantly get access to a layout I’ve saved would massively streamline the overall process. 

For the most part, the headset’s XR-tailored Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, paired with 16GB of RAM, was more than enough to power my multi-app usage and deliver smooth frame rates where needed. It may not be in the same league as Apple’s desktop-class M5 chipset in the latest Vision Pro, but I’d argue that much of that power is wasted anyway. 

AI

• Gemini works well enough
• Circle to Search included
• Could be more useful

Of course, it wouldn’t be Android software without Google’s virtual assistant, and Gemini is here in full swing. 

It works exactly like on an Android smartphone, able to answer general knowledge queries, open apps on your behalf and, in some cases, perform actions in apps on my behalf. It meant I could summon Gemini in Google Maps’ immersive view, have it take me somewhere, and then ask questions about that location. When it works like this, it’s very cool.

There’s also Circle to Search, activated by holding my thumb and forefinger together for a few seconds, at which point I can circle whatever I want to find out more about. This can be something in an app, or if I’ve got the pass-through mode on, something about my environment.

Now none of this is really that new if you’ve used an Android phone in the past few years, but Gemini can certainly come in handy when it comes to the productivity side of things. 

The execution of Gemini in Galaxy XR is largely a success then, but I can’t help but feel it could be more useful. There are in-app functions that Gemini can handle, like those in Google Maps, but those are very niche and rather rare right now. With a smarter Gemini rolling out to phones in Android 17 capable of interacting with first- and third-party apps on your behalf, I’d love to see something similar on the headset.

That said, at least Samsung is sweetening the experience with long-term access to the more powerful Gemini – and more – with 12-month subscriptions to Google’s AI Pro 2TB Plan, YouTube Premium, Google Play Pass (to try out some new XR apps), Calm and StatusPro NFL PRO ERA as part of the Explorer Pack, bundled with every purchase. That alone is worth over £665, around a third of the price of the headset itself. 

Battery life

• Around two hours maximum
• Immersive use drains faster
• Standby time disappoints

Without the size and weight constraints of a built-in battery to worry about, you’d assume the accompanying power bank has enough capacity to deliver long battery life. It is a fairly chunky brick, after all, even if it can still fit in a pocket. 

Sadly, that’s not really the case here. During my time with the Galaxy XR, the headset would last around two hours at best – though even that would depend on what I was doing. 

If I were simply using 2D apps like TikTok and Instagram or streaming a movie on Netflix, it’d be fine, but jumping into more immersive, power-hungry situations – like the immersive mode in Google Maps and when gaming – you can expect that number to drop further, usually to around an hour and a half.

Either way, that’s not really long enough for a headset that’s equally positioned as both an entertainment and a productivity device. Longer movies like Oppenheimer, which runs three hours, are practically out of the question, and anyone using apps like Virtual Desktop to work on large, immersive XR screens will have to take a break every few hours.

You can, of course, plug the power bank into a USB-C charger and charge it while you’ve got the headset on, but it’s not the perfect fix. You’d not only be tethered to a wall, limiting the range of movement, but you could also damage your charger or power bank if you accidentally go too far away. 

The standby time isn’t great either; I left the headset on standby with a near-full charge, went back a few days later, and it was completely dead. 

Should you buy it?