Google and Samsung Making XR Headset Powered by Qualcomm’s New Chip

Curious about the world of Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in devices like the Meta Quest 3, but would rather experience it through hardware brands you are more comfortable with, like Samsung or Google? I have good news! Those two are collaborating on a device that could launch at some point in the near future and it’ll run Qualcomm’s newly announced Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip.

Qualcomm announced the new chip this morning and mentioned that it’ll live inside the (likely) new device from Google and Samsung. All parties were pretty vague on what the partnership means, but Samsung did at least acknowledge  they “aim to create the best-in-class XR experience for Galaxy users.” That could mean a new Galaxy-branded XR device.

Google is building the software that powers this device, so they mostly just say that they are looking forward to their partnerships with Qualcomm and Samsung on it, and they also confirmed that they are “excited for the Android ecosystem to take advantage of Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2’s capabilities and enable new experiences.” So what we could get is a new Galaxy device made for XR experiences that is powered by Android. That could be cool.

As for the chip itself, the XR2+ Gen 2 takes a decent leap in several categories when compared to the XR2 Gen 2 that is in the recently launched Meta Quest 3 headset. The graphic below highlights the boosts in areas like GPU and CPU frequency, more concurrent cameras, and support for higher resolution displays at 90fps.

As someone who is not at all up-to-date on the world of XR/VR/AR, I can’t provide much insight on what any of this means. Look, if you remained into VR after all these years, like the idea of AR, and want to see a future that mixes the two to make the world around you fun to interact with via headset, this is your thing.

As more details come out or we get closer to a launch, we’ll try to keep you informed.