Samsung and Google have taken the wraps off the product that was being whispered about at trade shows and in leak threads for months: the Galaxy XR, a full-blown extended-reality headset built on the new Android XR platform and tuned around Google’s Gemini AI. It’s on sale today in the US and South Korea, and the sticker shock is real — $1,799.99 — a price point that undercuts Apple’s Vision Pro by a solid margin while aiming squarely at people who want a premium mixed-reality experience without buying into Apple’s ecosystem.

If you’re trying to picture it: think Vision Pro vibes with Samsung’s own design language layered on top. The brains are Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, a platform Qualcomm developed with Samsung and Google for this generation of headsets. The visual headline is the micro OLED stack — Samsung advertises a 29-million-pixel panel (3,552 × 3,840 per eye total resolution) covering roughly 96% of the DCI-P3 color space, which on paper gives it more pixel density than Apple’s Vision Pro, while Apple retains an edge on fluidity with 120Hz versus Samsung’s 90Hz.

Mixed reality means mixed sensors, and Samsung didn’t skimp: dual high-resolution passthrough cameras, six external environment-tracking cameras, two eye-tracking sensors, and iris recognition for unlocking and some password flows. Those cameras enable hand tracking, gesture control, the usual passthrough experiences, and — because we now treat everything as a social medium — 3D photo and video capture. Audio is Dolby Atmos through built-in speakers and the headset has six microphones for voice and spatial audio capture.

Practicalities matter here as much as pixels. Samsung says you’ll get up to two hours of general use or about 2.5 hours playing video — numbers that are comparable to the early claims Apple made for the Vision Pro. The headset itself is relatively light at 545g (about 1.2 lb), and the external battery pack is another 302g; Samsung emphasizes an ergonomically balanced frame and a detachable forehead cushion and light shield to improve comfort during short sessions. The headset supports prescription lens inserts and an IPD spread from 54–70mm. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Where the Galaxy XR is trying to make itself felt is software: Android XR is billed as “built entirely for the Gemini era,” with Google folding Gemini into the headset’s interaction model so you can speak, point, and ask the assistant to rearrange windows, fetch context, or identify objects in passthrough with Circle to Search. Google’s vision here is that standard Play Store apps work on the headset out of the box — with special mixed-reality versions of Maps, Photos, Chrome, Meet, and Google TV available for deeper experiences, like Google Photos automatically spatializing 2D images into depth, or Gemini surfacing contextual info while you watch a YouTube clip. Samsung and Google are also leaning on developers and content partners: streaming apps, sports apps, and creative tools like Adobe’s Project Pulsar are part of the early push.

Game and entertainment support is part of the pitch, too: major streaming services and VR content libraries will be supported, and there are native titles and ports lined up (Samsung noted NFL Pro Era and Owlchemy Labs titles, among others). Samsung is also selling a $250 controller and a $250 travel case; early buyers get an “Explorer Pack” that bundles a year of Google AI Pro, YouTube Premium, Play Pass, and a selection of apps and services — a way to soften the immediate cost of entry.

Why does any of this matter beyond spec-sheet one-upmanship? For Google, Samsung’s device is the first visible consumer piece of Android XR — the hardware proof point for the company’s XR OS and Gemini integration. For Samsung, it’s the culmination of a long internal program (Project Moohan) to build a premium XR device and an ecosystem that extends to lighter smart glasses (Warby Parker is on the roadmap). And for the market, it’s another bid to revive interest in XR at a time when headset shipments have been soft: analysts have warned that the market is still evolving and adoption is far from broad, but a competitively priced, partner-backed flagship could tilt interest back toward premium mixed reality, especially among enterprise and creative users who have use cases beyond gaming.

There are obvious tradeoffs. Battery life is limited, many apps are still adapted phone apps rather than native spatial experiences, and the ecosystem challenge remains — developers must make genuinely useful mixed-reality experiences for consumers to pay for a $1,800 device. Samsung’s weight and comfort choices are competitive on paper, but real comfort is judged in hours of continuous use; those 2–2.5 hour battery numbers and the external battery format make long wear sessions a logistical consideration.

If you’re thinking about buying one, the headset is available now on Samsung’s site and in Experience Stores in the US and Korea, with financing options for buyers who don’t want to drop $1,800 up front. Early promotions will bundle services and apps to sweeten the launch; accessories are an extra cost and the total tally for a “full” set — headset, controller, travel case, and extras — can climb substantially. For those who want a Vision Pro competitor that runs Android, leans on Google AI, and feels slightly less like an Apple purchase, Galaxy XR is the first mainstream option to consider.

Galaxy XR is the moment Samsung and Google wanted: a high-spec, AI-enabled XR headset that proves Android XR is real and that Gemini can be a central part of spatial computing. It’s not a mass-market device yet — pricing, battery life, and an early app ecosystem limit it — but it’s arguably the clearest counterpunch to Apple’s Vision Pro so far, and a concrete signal that Google intends to make XR a platform, not just a gadget.