Samsung and Google attempt to one-up Apple with AI-powered headset

It’s been more than 17 years since the modern smartphone era began with the launch of the iPhone, and tech companies have been obsessed with trying to disrupt it ever since.

The most common approach is mixed reality XR headsets: computerized goggles that put all of your apps and other digital content right in front of your face.

Samsung is the latest to take on the category with the Galaxy XR. Samsung will start selling it on Tuesday night for $1,800, about half the price of Apple‘s Vision Pro.

Early adopters will also get a suite of digital freebies, like free access to the paid version of Google‘s Gemini AI assistant and YouTube Premium for a year.

The headset was made in partnership with Google for the software and Qualcomm, which makes the chip powering the Galaxy XR.

Samsung’s Galaxy XR lets you enter an immersive, virtual computing experience where your apps and other content appear to float in your field of view. External cameras project the real world onto the tiny 4K displays in the headset, meaning you can walk around a room while wearing the Galaxy XR without bumping into anything.

You control everything with hand gestures, your voice or a mix of both.

As for the headset itself, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at an Apple Vision Pro.

From the curved glass on the front of the Galaxy XR, to the metal trim and the external battery pack that dangles from the headset by a cable, it’s almost as if Samsung and Google spent the last two years reverse-engineering the Vision Pro.

And in those two years, we’ve learned a lot about these computers for your face.

They’re niche, expensive products that most people don’t want to use, and there’s still no killer app or enough immersive content to keep you consistently entertained and justify the $2,000 or more you’re spending.

The promise of the metaverse evaporated as soon as ChatGPT came on the scene in late 2022 and the tech industry shifted its focus to artificial intelligence. Even Mark Zuckerberg, who changed his company’s name to “Meta” in 2022, barely talks about the metaverse anymore.

But Samsung has a different pitch for the Galaxy XR.

It may come with all the drawbacks of Apple or Meta’s headsets, but Samsung and Google say the Galaxy XR is really a stepping stone to AI glasses currently in development with eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.

Those devices will rely on Google’s AI assistant Gemini, which is also central to the experience on the Galaxy XR.

Google showed an early demo of those glasses at its annual I/O event in May, but there are no details on when such a device will launch. Google also has a long track record of announcing products at I/O that never actually go on sale to the public.

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But Google and Samsung are acting like things are different this time, and that’s why Gemini is such a big part of the Galaxy XR.

While you can control everything in the headset using hand gestures and Samsung even mimicked the same gestures Apple came up with for the Vision Pro.

The Gemini controls were, however, the most impressive portion of the Galaxy XR demo Samsung had in New York last week.

I could use Gemini to organize floating windows of apps in my virtual workspace, ask it questions about landmarks I was looking at in Google Maps, or prompt it to generate a goofy video using Veo, Google’s AI video generator that’s like OpenAI’s Sora.

Overall, the Gemini demo was flawless. It understood everything I said, even in a noisy conference room, and executed my commands quickly.

It wasn’t exactly revolutionary, but it was a step beyond the capabilities of the Vision Pro, which doesn’t have generative AI features at all.

I could see how Gemini will evolve to fit into a more comfortable and stylish form factor, like Meta has with its Ray-Ban AI glasses. And I can now understand why Apple has reportedly changed its plans from developing a new version of the Vision Pro in favor of AI glasses that are expected to launch in 2026.

Now for the major downside.

Gemini runs in the cloud, meaning you must give it permission to “see” everything you do on your headset by transmitting it over the internet to Google’s servers. Google doesn’t have the same private cloud technology Apple has for its AI systems, so you risk sharing a lot of personal information about what you do on your device with the company. That’s going to be a nonstarter for many people.

Even though you can see the promise of AI-powered glasses, they’re even more of a niche product than immersive headsets, much smaller than smartphones, laptops or tablets.

Meta, the market leader for the category, only sold 2 million pairs of its Ray-Ban glasses in the first two years. By comparison, Apple sells well over 200 million iPhones a year. We’re a long way off from glasses becoming a must-have accessory to your phone like wireless earbuds or a smartwatch.

And as impressive as Gemini is so far, a future where the smartphone is replaced by an AI device like glasses has never felt further away.