Samsung has apparently inadvertently confirmed the “Galaxy XR” name for its upcoming mixed reality headset, and quietly enabled a “3D Capture” camera mode that allows recent Galaxy smartphones to gain spatial photo and video recording capabilities for the headset.
What leaked — and why it matters
The telltale clue was discovered in Camera Assistant, Samsung’s Good Lock module for fine camera controls. The new build harbors a ‘3D Capture’ toggle that adds a button to the viewfinder, and literally calls out support for “Galaxy XR devices”. According to SamMobile, the update started showing up on the Galaxy S25 FE, and on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, you can also see the feature. The description’s plural use of “headsets” suggests a product family rather than a one-off device.
Another well-known leaker, Ice Universe, has uploade video taken while using the mode, revealing 4K 30fps output and a “Shot in 3D” tag within the Gallery app. If that level of detail carries over from device to device, it would give Samsung a technical talking point as it enters a market where spatial video has typically debuted at lower resolutions.
How 3D Capture will probably work on Galaxy phones
Smartphone “3D” or spatial video typically relies on two rear cameras recording at the same time to form a left and right eye view. There’s an extra reason why a lens layout layout helps, because side by side sensors can produce the stereo parallax required for depth, and many a Galaxy device already sport this very layout already.
But there’s software to perform such extreme rectilinear contortion, which is more complex the more the phone’s lens spacing is less than the human interpupillary distance (about 63 mm on average). I think Samsung’s image pipeline will line up the frames and come up with an estimate of depth, pack that information in to a stereo-friendly format (probably some sort of multi-view HEVC or paired streams or something). Headset playback is the intended output, allowing small parallax cues to create compelling spatial information. This is a stereoscopic, not a full volumetric, reconstruction, a though modern reprojection on XR headsets can add a bit of motion parallax for more of a sense of being there.
The practical trade-offs are predictable: larger file sizes, more processing overhead and more battery use at capture time. And if it’s 4k 30fps stereo they are truly serving up, efficient HEVC encoding and thermal controls will be key.
Which Galaxy models might have it
There is no compatibility list from Samsung. According to the leak, the Galaxy S25 Ultra already brings up the feature, and the Galaxy S25 FE in the market sports the new Camera Assistant build. Given their beefier ISPs, nicer thermals, and more consistent dual camera pairings, you’d expect flagship tiers like the Galaxy S25 series and the latest Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip models to be first in line.
2 things will limit the phones that are compatible: hardware capable of 2-stream sync’d capture, and software support within Camera Assistant. Cameras that have differing focal lengths, or less processing power, may still make spatial photos (synchronous stills are easier) while constraining high-resolution video. There can also be regional variation, because Good Lock modules have a history of releasing in waves.
Positioning against Apple and the broader XR push
Here are Apples contributions: Apple made consumer spatial memories a thing when it let newer iPhones record stereoscopic video for Vision Pro. First Apple implementations (recorded at 1080p 30fps), then became ubiquitous on the whole lineup. If Samsung’s mode records at 4K 30FPS all the time, it does give it a clear spec on paper; how the real-world quality looks like, though, will depend on the optics, the stabilization, the compression, and the quality of the playback in a headset.
The decision also ties in neatly with Samsung’s recent announcement of a partnership with Google and Qualcomm to collaborate on Android XR. Google’s involvement implies lower OS-level hooks for spatial media capture, storage, and playback, and Qualcomm’s new XR platforms provide the GPU and AI horsepower necessary for low-latency stereoscopic rendering. Crucially, user-generated content is the key to XR engagement – and a smooth phone-to-headset pipeline provides Galaxy XR with a content engine from the get-go.
What to watch next
There are still important questions that remain unanswered: Will 3D Capture include both photos and video on all supported phones? What codecs and containers will Samsung utilize and will exports work well with third-party editors? Will Gallery get even simple depth-aware editing — like stabilization, convergence nudges, and alignment fixes — to reduce eye strain and stress?
“Headsets,” plural, in the accompanying feature text is also worth noting. That could mean more than one Galaxy XR model, or a timetable that involves one higher-end unit and another that’s more affordable. Either way, the leak points to a strategy focused on ordinary creators, not just the pros (which is to say, studios)—you’d use spatial capture in your default camera flow and trust the headset to be the wow factor.
If Samsung could get reliability and storage efficiency and easy sharing right, 3D Capture could end up as the single most important new button on the Galaxy camera, because the kind of XR content people love the most is the kind they actually shot.