Samsung Galaxy XR review: A great Vision Pro alternative, but for whom?
Since I got to go hands-on (and head-on) with the Samsung Galaxy XR last October, something has been needling at me. It was something I couldn't (ironically) wrap my head around, but all the same, I couldn't shake it. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, I was finally able to pick up a review unit for the Galaxy XR and start wearing it outside of a closed demo, and it suddenly hit me.
I don't think this thing is meant for me… or you.
It's cool, don't get me wrong. I'm excited about what it may bring, but for now, I don't have a lot of use for it. I think the primary reason for that is I'm not sure Samsung or Google knows who or what this is for, beyond one specific demographic, which I'll discuss later. It has some neat parlor tricks, for sure, but for the most part, as I explored the capabilities of this headset, I realized it's really just a big and bulky set of AR glasses.
I love AR smart glasses. I use them when I fly because I can get a large virtual screen with multiple windows floating in the air in front of me. The Galaxy XR has a few other tricks in its arsenal that I've had a chance to explore, but it's also missing some big things that really should be there in a true XR headset. I've spent two weeks with the Samsung Galaxy XR, and these are my thoughts.
Hardware wins
The Samsung Galaxy XR headset is beautifully designed. More importantly, it is well-designed so it doesn't feel too heavy while wearing it. A big part of that is because Samsung did the smart thing and offloaded the battery into a battery pack that you slip into your pocket. Are you paying attention, Meta?
I have worn the Galaxy XR headset for hours at a time, and it hasn't bothered me too much, except that it was a relief when I was able to take it off. In fact, it's been great getting work done with it. The headstrap clamps to the back of your head with a knob to twist to adjust the fit. The only thing I would like would be the ability to adjust where the back of the strap lays on the back of my head. As it is right now, the strap goes straight back and sits too high. My ponytail may have something to do with that.
The battery and its connector are also well-designed. I'd like to see pips on the battery to indicate how much battery is left, but that's about the only thing missing. Speaking of the battery, Samsung advertises around 2-3 hours of runtime on a single charge. I tested this, wearing the headset for two hours, and found this to be reasonably accurate. During that test I had a Google Doc, a browser with a few tabs, a streaming app, and my email open.
The headset plugs — and locks — into the battery using a USB-C connector, but it's proprietary to that battery pack. You cannot plug the headset into a different battery pack, but you can plug in and charge the headset while it's running, as long as you have a sufficiently powerful charger. Low-powered chargers will allow the headset to drain the battery more slowly. I found a 65W charger that I normally use for my laptop was enough to power the headset up while it ran.
The software, however...
When it comes to the software, Samsung has some of it right, but there's a lot that needs work. I'll start with the good. The overall interface is solid, including the gestures, hand tracking, and eye tracking. Moving windows around, resizing them, and placing them where you want; it's all intuitive. I think the gesture to open the launcher/multitasking — pinching your thumb and finger while your hand faces you — is the hardest to learn, and honestly, it's not that hard.
The app launcher looks a lot like what you get with XReal's Beam Pro, so I was already familiar with it. But the quick settings and toggles are all just icons that don't necessarily tell you what they are or what they do. They need work. I do like the option to "Tidy up" your windows. That button places all your windows side-by-side neatly so you can see them all. That gets handy when you've got too many windows open at once.
The headset has access to the entire Play Store, which is good. But some of those apps are "Not optimized for XR" which is fair enough, but to be perfectly honest, many of those apps that are optimized are really just floating rectangles. Now, if you want to talk about XR-optimized, let's talk about the MLB app.
This is an app that is XR ready and all in on 3D content. From highlights and video clips to the overall immersive interface, it's pretty remarkable, and it's not even baseball season. I'll be very interested to see what this looks like in April when I won't be inundated with video clips of Eveil Blue winning the World Series (#SourGrapes). But even that app is flawed. I ran into two big issues. First, I couldn't enter my username and password credentials; the box did not function. Also, the passthrough slider would not move, so I got stuck in baseball's VR environment. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to be on a slow Sunday afternoon, and if I ever have a slow Sunday afternoon, maybe I'll partake.
Other apps don't display well. In the case of Paramount Plus, the video interface was washed out, and there was no way to darken it.
3D content is really killer. Apps like Google Photos can take any photo and "spatialize it," giving it depth. A couple of really great examples that I found were a photo I snapped of the strip in Las Vegas and a photo we took outside of my son's graduation. It's really remarkable, but the nature of 3D/spatialized content means it's hard to share it with others.
One surprise I found was the ability to pin apps to places — more or less. This is a feature that turned into a big use case when Apple introduced the Vision Pro. You could pin a timer above a stove while cooking, for example or Pin a virtual TV to your wall. When I first tested the Galaxy XR in October, I asked about that and I was told that it wouldn't be available. Well, it is. While sitting at my kitchen table, I opened my browser, a streaming app, and a document. Then, when I got up to walk into another room, the apps stayed where I left them, but there were some oddities that I didn't expect, and I'm not sure if they're good or bad.
The apps stayed in place regardless of where I went in my house, including different rooms. So as I stood in my bedroom, I could watch (and control) the streaming app I left open in my kitchen. For other apps, like my document editor, I could see the "back" of the app, backward letters and all. I think I'm into it.
Meanwhile, some apps nuked the rest of my layout. The Play Store, for example, would hide all other apps whenever I opened it, for no real reason. Other apps, like Google Maps in "immersive view" made sense to hide other apps. But the issue with immersive apps is there's really no real way to exit the immersive experience. The only way I could do it was by going back into the launcher and launching something else.
I found it to be a very inconsistent experience overall. It's mostly good and fun, but we come back to the question of why? I can have three apps open in front of me — great. But I can do that on an ultrawide monitor as well. So, what's the hook?
Immersive 3D is one big one. The ability to convert 2D into 3D on the fly is pretty neat, and I think it's a look at how things will be in the future. I'm not sure how long we'll be stuck with 2D screens at this point.
Some other notes
The virtual keyboard on the Galaxy XR is not great, and that's putting it very politely. I actually specifically ordered a Clicks Power Keyboard after the first time I tried to use the Virtual keyboard. It's bad. Connecting a Bluetooth keyboard helps, but every now and then, the Bluetooth lagged, which meant I couldn't type or backspace, and things just froze for a moment. It broke the experience.
Eye tracking is very good, as is hand tracking, but using them both at once needs a bit of refinement. There were times I had to extend my arm almost to its full length before the hand tracking took over from the eye tracking.
There are two buttons on the top of the headset I haven't mentioned yet. One summons Gemini, and the other is a volume rocker. Summoning Gemini is nice, and Gemini can help you with actions inside the headset, like "Gemini, how can I turn on the immersive environment?" which it helped me to do, but it could not help me take a screenshot, so I guess AI is just gonna AI.
Finally, the Passthrough video is good, but not amazing. It's very grainy, similar to what the MetaQuest 3S is capable of. I can easily navigate my home and even cook and eat wearing the headset, but the grain is noticeable.
What does it all mean?
Overall, I'm left with the impression that this is a developer-focused device. It's not bad for consumers, but more developers need to get on board to make the experience worth it. But even more than that, I don't think the future is wearing computers on your face. I think the future is wearing glasses on your face that can do all of this. That's going to be the winning formula.
I mentioned XReal a few times during this revie,w and there's a good reason for it. Rumors abound that XReal is working closely with Google on Project Aura and that what we're going to see is largely the Galaxy XR, but in a glasses form factor. That's the dream.
We're not there yet, but the Galaxy XR is a necessary step in that direction. There is some really great tech in this headset, and it's comfortable enough to wear for literal hours. But at the end of the day, it's not the consumer product you should be looking forward to. It's a foot in the door so developers can start making apps that will make Android XR and project Aura incredible. If you can wait that long, you probably should, but if you want a taste of the future in an imperfect form factor, Galaxy XR is waiting for you.