I’ve never attended a press event like the one Samsung prepared with Google for the reveal of Galaxy XR.
I’d already seen the operating system in an earlier state last year, so I asked that UploadVR’s hardware expert David Heaney get his eyes into the headset for whatever amount of time Samsung would allow. That amounted to roughly 25 minutes as I captured video of him testing the passthrough and hand tracking with quick movements.
David Heaney
Earlier, before the demo, we sat for a couple hours with our eyes glued to a high resolution large-size screen mirroring the view from a Galaxy XR headset. Multiple representatives wore the Samsung headsets and we asked them to perform an assortment of tasks.
One of the most interesting tasks I asked about was using the Galaxy XR headset to capture a video of David and I sitting there. Then, I asking them to take it into an Adobe app to insert 3D text floating in between us. While the video spent minutes processing, the representative pulled up another flat app to show multitasking works in Android XR while the (simple) special effects were added to the video. The headset did output a video with text floating in the space between us. I haven’t even done that kind of CGI production experiment on an Apple Vision Pro, though I didn’t look at the output long enough to really judge its quality.
They launched the Inside Job Owlchemy introductory experience briefly, but the only pure VR game we saw played by reps was Walkabout Mini Golf. I saw its icon in the menu, so I asked them to launch it. It was played by two representatives, and I watched the second one hold both controllers clumped together as if the game required holding both for gripping a singular virtual object. I glanced at David to confirm he was seeing what I was seeing. Several people in the audience pointed out Walkabout is a game played with one controller. The representative put the other one down and I showed them how to access the slingshot in Welcome Island, with everything working as it should.
This moment came after we were surprised to learn Samsung made a call not to include the controllers bundled with the headset, while also charging $250 for a pair, the same as Apple does for the PlayStation VR2 add-ons for Vision Pro.
That means, like Apple Vision Pro, developers cannot expect buyers of Galaxy XR to be equipped with standard controllers for most of the most popular VR games. Meanwhile, unlike the soft strap-only Apple Vision Pro, the hard strap on Galaxy XR will make the headset unworkable for airplanes or lying down in bed. I asked a representative whether Galaxy XR included a good enough display system to replace any existing device category. I can’t recall the specific language of the answer, but it wasn’t yes.
The gaze-based interface on Galaxy XR looked to function effectively for navigating the interface. Apple is all in on a gaze-pinch interface too, and Vision Pro already spent nearly two years inviting developers to build for that system before supporting controllers, which will be available to buy from Apple in November.
For Android developers who remember the Mirage Solo, Google’s use of Samsung to shoulder the cost of launching a new headset platform might feel a bit like watching a cat run by twice in The Matrix.
For those who don’t remember the VR of 2018, Google launched experimental 6DoF controllers right before pulling the plug on the entire Daydream effort. Back then, they used Lenovo to make a headset featuring much the same input system as the Oculus Go – a single 3DoF controller – paired with breakthrough 6DoF comfort for head movement. And then Google folded its VR effort entirely as the first Oculus Quest hit the market and Lenovo made the Rift S for Facebook.
Walkabout Mini Golf originally launched on the Quest platform, which by now has been around for more than half a decade with a public record of improvement. Every Quest headset sold is compatible with Walkabout because each one ships with a pair of controllers, only one of which is necessary to play the game.
All these years later, only some of the people who buy Google’s first Android XR headset will have the controllers to play one of VR’s best games, as Google hopes people will start developing their gaze-pinch apps for both visionOS and Android XR.
Henry Stockdale
It’ll be an easy port to Android XR from Horizon OS. But how many sets of controllers will be waiting to test those controller-based game ports on Google Play in 2025 and 2026?
