Samsung Galaxy XR headset hands-on: first impressions

Samsung’s Galaxy XR lands as a confident swing at mixed reality, and following a guided demo, I walked away impressed by the display quality, the comfort fit, and the bold AI angle. But the biggest question remains: does this headset offer a must-have reason for being over and above the wow-factor moments?

What I tried was a slick lightweight headset running on Android XR and powered by Google’s Gemini, which drives many of the headline features. It’s ambitious, genuinely premium, and seemingly designed to undercut Apple’s pricing while reaching beyond Meta’s gaming-first identity.

Design and comfort: wearability and weight balance

In terms of comfort and wearability, the XR is a bit of a surprise on the face: despite tipping the scales at around 545 grams, it doesn’t suffer from the front-heavy exhaustion of many headsets.

The placement of the battery in a pocketable module on a cable actually has some practical ramifications, though: it means that there is less weight on your forehead, and session comfort remains high.

Controls are basic: a touch strip on the right band, a top-side action button, and a volume rocker on the left. The strap is easy to cinch and accommodates hair and headgear without theatrics. It’s the most wearable design I’ve used for extended demos compared with bulkier high-end headsets.

Displays and passthrough: clarity and color quality

Inside are dual 4K-class micro‑OLED panels (3,552 x 3,840 per eye), and you can play 8K HDR video with it. Text is clean, color pop is great, and fine detail stands up even when you lean in close. Passthrough is high-resolution and low-latency enough to feel like you’re just talking through glasses, with eye-tracking and a cadre of sensors silently doing their job behind the scenes.

I didn’t require prescription inserts, but they were available for colleagues who did — expect support for corrective lenses. The optics here establish a high baseline: this is hardware that makes content look good, not that which you forgive for looking bad.

Gestures and workspace: controls and desktop feel

Gesture control looks like a familiar playbook: pinching to select or grab, turning your palm to call up the main menu, positioning windows where wanted. I organized apps around me and synced a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in minutes. The interface is akin to a bendable desktop hanging in the air — easy to learn if you’ve dabbled with other headsets, not too scary if you haven’t.

A quick fling in Google Maps had me swooping over landmarks and neighborhoods in 3D. It’s fun, and it suggests what might be possible on the productivity front if you’re able to use multiple resizable windows at once. The UX is simple, with fewer “where did that cursor go?” moments than early‑gen rivals.

AI spatializing in practice: photos, video, and depth

Samsung and Google huddle closer to AI to alchemize media into spatial content. In Google Photos, 2D shots were turned into layered 3D scenes: subjects came forward from their backgrounds, and such subtle details as wet sand clinging to a child’s foot added depth that felt shockingly authentic.

Gemini can also add color to older photos and bring short moments to life. It’s powerful, sometimes with the force of magic, and sometimes with the force of the uncanny. On YouTube, I watched basic edits made in-headset and the platform serving a spatial/2D version based on the viewer’s device. AI up-conversion of 2D videos did well with certain action shots — jets taking off from the runway — but faltered with complex edges like windblown hair, serving as a reminder that generative depth maps remain something of an elusive beast.

Performance limits and battery life: what to expect

Battery life is estimated at around two hours (closer to two and a half for video), and it’s possible to plug the pack in while using it. The bigger barrier to entry right at launch, though, is mobility: Samsung has conceived the Galaxy XR for use while standing in one place. There’s no full-home anchoring, walking experiences, or travel mode yet — you need to be surrounded on all sides by panels (not a big room box), so no pinning a timer to hover over the stove or easily enjoying it miles up in the air just yet.

That simplifies safety and the UX, but it necessarily limits application scenarios. If Samsung added room mapping and stable anchors later, the day-to-day usability of the headset would increase dramatically.

Price and market context: where Galaxy XR fits in

At a price of $1,799.99, the Galaxy XR falls squarely between Apple’s ultra-premium tier and Meta’s mainstream pricing. The figure is aggressive for its display and build, but it’s content that drives adoption. Even today, many Android apps show up as 2D windows unless “spatialized,” and while AI goes a long way toward bridging the gap between reality and VR, native entertainment and productivity apps are what will ultimately make this sticky.

Industry trackers, including IDC, pointed out that while AR/VR is charting single-digit multimillion annual shipments, next to phones and PCs its microscopic size requires new hardware to ship with demonstrated jobs to be done. Samsung is betting people will be interested in looking at a screen so large, and is leaning on the help of developers to make apps that look great on it.

Early take: strengths, trade-offs, and who should buy

In short doses, Galaxy XR can be thrilling: high-definition micro‑OLED panels, clear passthrough, and intuitive gestures; AI that can make long‑forgotten photos feel newly personal. The trade-offs are as plain to see: limited mobility at launch, a short battery window, and an immature software library still feeling its way in the new spatial space.

If you’re an early adopter who prioritizes display quality and would like AI to remix your existing media into 3D, this is the most comfortable headset that I have tried in this price class. For everyone else, that defining use remains yet to gel. We have the foundation here; we just need the reasons — apps, workflows, and experiences — you can’t get on a laptop or phone.