Samsung’s new Galaxy XR headset brings a feast for the eyes with its dual 4K OLED displays enhanced by sophisticated eye-tracking cameras that enable foveated rendering — essentially focusing graphical horsepower where your gaze lands, leaving the periphery in softer resolution to save power while boosting detail exactly where you look. This technology delivers vivid true blacks and richly detailed visuals, making compelling immersive 3D experiences more accesible.
The headset supports an intriguing feature to spatialize your ordinary 2d photos and videos into continuous, AI-powered 3D visuals, enhancing the sense of depth and immersion beyond simple foreground-background effects. Samsung has updated several of its flagship Galaxy models to incorporate 3D photo and video capture functionality compatible with the Galaxy XR headset. These include the Galaxy S25 series (including S25 Ultra and S25 FE), as well as the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7 foldable models. The latest version of Samsung’s Camera app offers a dedicated ‘3D Capture’ mode, enabling users to create spatial photos and videos that can be viewed in immersive 3D on the Galaxy XR. Depending on the array of cameras, results may vary between models. There’s no confirmation yet whether the 3D capture format is the same MV-HEVC standard format used by Apple.
If you want to cut the real world out of your experience, Samsung thoughtfully includes magnetic blinders to block ambient light, letting you dive fully into the virtual environment. High quality passthrough thanks to multiple 6 and 12-megapixel cameras provides color-accurate views of your actual surroundings, a vital backdrop for blending real and virtual worlds. Not information about if the headset itself can capture in 3D for photos and videos.
On the AI front, Samsung integrates its Gemini assistant, which does far more than just spy listen. It multitasks like a prodigy—organizing your windows, translating in real time, and even identifying objects or information about anything you point the headset at…
…This means you could ask about the smartwatch your friend is wearing... Now, here’s where reality humorously bumps up against sci-fi ambition: Samsung (and Google) seems intent on turning every user into a hyper-whimsical, digitally tethered child, eagerly asking their AI to explain every little detail of the objects around them—as if asking your friend about that device and having a genuine conversation with the person right in front of you is just too passé. Because who needs spontaneous human interaction when you have an AI to interrogate your surroundings to fill every moment with consumerist curiosity?
Apple’s approach to artificial intelligence in the Vision Pro feels restrained—its integration is careful -but useful, specially on working with text which is difficult to use on a headset- and centered on user privacy. Android XR, on the other hand, takes the opposite path with aggressive AI integration aimed at data collection and behavioral profiling, turning the user into a target for marketing. Still, it redeems itself by offering genuinely practical features such as real‑time translation and contextual assistance, though none are truly life‑changing
Controllers on the Galaxy XR are modern and tactile, with scroll-sensitive areas on the controllers and easy-to-replace AA batteries ensuring a comfortable and uninterrupted gaming or productivity session. The interface itself combines hand-tracking, eye movements, and voice commands, promising fluid multi-modal navigation.
While the glossy Samsung demo videos paint an almost utopian view of life with the Galaxy XR, the real allure lies in its ability to blur the lines between work and play through breathtaking 3D visuals and AI-enhanced multitasking. Just remember—next time you find yourself staring at someone’s shoes and asking AI for the price, maybe try a little old-fashioned chatting instead.
The reactions in the video feel a bit over-the-top, as if they’re really thrilled just because icons are floating in mid-air like they do in the Vision Pro (but without interacting with the room illumination and shadows like Apple’s solution). I mean, what else could you possibly expect to appear as a desktop? It’s a bit like making a huge fuss over the simplest of gestures—almost as if just seeing floating icons is supposed to be mind-blowing.
But let’s focus on the 3D features, which are exciting. If Apple’s bet is on offering the highest-quality and most immersive content in the world, Samsung’s approach is different—it relies on YouTube, far less impressive, yet home to thousands of VR180 3D videos uploaded over more than a decade. And there’s plenty of other 3D content indeed… If only Google doesn’t once again discard 3D playback. All it would take is a simple button to watch classic SBS and Top‑Bottom 3D videos properly. After all, Google has previously blocked 3D playback on devices that already supported it—like Nvidia 3D Vision, the Nintendo 3DS, modern VR headsets (yes, really, Google?), and old 3D phones.
There’s a complete absence of any mention regarding watching 3D movies—not on YouTube, nor on any other major streaming platform. YouTube, in particular, represents a massively squandered opportunity. Despite having possessed all the necessary technological tools and infrastructure to emerge as the undisputed leader of 3D content distribution and viewing, the platform failed to capitalize on this potential. Let’s hope WebXR gets real integration this time—something more polished and less experimental than on the Vision Pro- but no words about if it will be supported.
One of the most fascinating experiences the Galaxy XR promises is exploring Google Earth in full 3D. Thanks to the headset’s dual 4K OLED displays and eye-tracked rendering, users can glide above photorealistic cityscapes, dive into mountain ranges, or float over oceans with cinematic depth and realism. The integration of Google Earth’s 3D buildings layer and immersive navigation makes the experience more than just a map—it becomes an interactive planetarium at eye level. Combined with Gemini’s AI features, you can even ask for information about landmarks you’re virtually flying over, from historical context to restaurant recommendations nearby. It’s the kind of digital globe that turns geography lessons into spaceflight—and the closest thing yet to “seeing the world without leaving your chair.”
The Galaxy XR’s real-time 3D conversion of photos and videos transforms flat memories into vivid, immersive experiences. But only if you have them in Google Photos. Leveraging AI and advanced spatial computing, the headset Google Photos on the cloud analyzes 2d images and video frames to generate depth maps and layered spatial structures (privacy not included1), producing a dynamic 3D scene you can explore from multiple angles. This conversion is not just limited to simple foreground-background separation but creates continuous depth, adding realism and a sense of presence. For videos, the AI processes frame-by-frame spatialization, making motion feel natural and lifelike in 3D space. We used Google’s AI to convert 2d to 3D videos in the past, and while remarkable, is not as good as the world’s best 3D strong conversion available with our SpatialGlass App for iPhone (and soon for other devices).
Despite Samsung’s unapologetically Apple-inspired approach in certain aspects, the Galaxy XR manages to stand tall on its own merit. Yes, its Android XR ecosystem is still younger and less populated than it was Apple’s polished visionOS App Store even since its launch, but Samsung’s offering brings nearly identical hardware ambitions to the table: dual 4K OLED microdisplays, precise eye- and hand-tracking, and a lightweight design that undercuts Apple by more than 200 grams. Both headsets make trade-offs—Apple prioritizes its custom silicon and vertical integration, while Samsung opts for an “open” ecosystem powered by Qualcomm and Google—but where Samsung truly shifts the narrative is on price. At $1,799, roughly half the cost of the Vision Pro, it puts spatial computing within reach of more users—costing about the same as a high-end smartphone, and even less than many foldable models. In other words, 3D immersion has finally stepped out of the luxury-tech bubble and into something far closer to mainstream reality.
1.- Why privacy matters? Privacy is the foundation of genuine freedom, because without it, individuals lose the space to think, speak, and act without fear of surveillance or punishment. When governments or corporations can monitor every aspect of our lives, personal autonomy dissolves, creativity diminishes, and dissent becomes dangerous (as those killed in the 12021 coup in the country west of T,hail_and could attest). A society that sacrifices privacy in the name of control opens the door to tyranny, where compliance replaces conscience. Protecting privacy is, therefore, not just about secrecy—it’s about preserving the right to live as free human beings