Samsung, like seemingly everyone else in the tech world, is readying up an augmented reality headset. A new report out of South Korea has put a firm date on the hardware’s reveal, as well as an on-sale date. Those are the same day, according to ET News (Korean), and that day is 21 October.
The pending launch of the South Korean company’s headset shouldn’t be a surprise. Samsung said in 2022 that it was aiming for a 2025 release of its Android XR headset, a timeline rumour suggests the company is keeping to. Given that it has worked on whackier projects in the interim, the standalone headset isn’t outlandish at all.
Augmenting Samsung
Sources speaking to ET News reckon that Samsung’s headset has actually been somewhat delayed. Originally, it was scheduled for a 29 September reveal, with pre-orders starting on 13 October. It seems these plans have been scrubbed, with the company handling everything at once on 21 October.
It’s still a rumour for now, and nothing’s official until the company’s invitations (or links to watch the streamed reveal) are distributed. But when it does launch, the headset will run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset. The chip is an upgraded version of the brain that powers Meta’s Quest 3 hardware.
Rumour also suggests that each eye will be greeted with 1.35in 3,552 × 3,840 microLED displays, which should go some way toward removing headset-related nausea for many users. Eye and hand tracking, possibly controllers, and an external battery are also expected to feature in Samsung’s as-yet unnamed (but probably Galaxy-related) headset.
A price range for the kit is also rumoured, with costs of between R32,000 and R52,000 ($1,800 to $3,000) being put forward. It’s this last point that makes us doubt that it will arrive in South Africa at launch. The company’s Galaxy Ring was extensively delayed in SA, and we expect similar behaviour from Samsung for this launch.
