Samsung's upcoming Android XR project is turning, not only because it has a variety of visual professional features, but also because its display may be better than Apple's $3,500 headphones. This is not necessarily a good thing. This means Samsung's “Moohan Project Moohan” costs more than $1,000, just sticking the computer to your face. If Apple's headphones teach us anything, few people want to spend over $500 on VR devices.
As 9to5google first discovered, South Korean tech news website Elec reported that Samsung's upcoming XR (Extended Reality) project has a larger and intensive display, according to anonymous industry sources. With machine translation reading, Elec claims the display on its upcoming Android XR headset is a 1.3-inch OLEDOS (OLED on silicon) panel with a pixel density of 3,800 ppi or pixels per inch. Compare it to the 1,200 ppi USD 500 Meta Quest 3 monitor and it's already impressive. More importantly, it's more dense than the micro-ol-style panel similar to the Apple Vision Pro, which has a limit of 3,400 ppi.
The report notes that the panels are targeting the Moohan project (Moohan means “infinity” for Koreans), which is still working behind closed doors at Samsung. As ELEC points out, these types of displays are expensive. The panels for Samsung headphones and Vision Pro are made by Sony. The company showed off a 1.3-inch, 4K OLED panel in 2023 costs more than $1,000. Even if Sony and Samsung crowds make such monitors, the Moohan project will be a very expensive product.
Apple's $3500 “space computer” is one of the most capable headsets with the prettiest, most beautiful OLED display. Still, Apple struggles to engrave its super expensive headphones niche. Vision Pro sales in 2024 fell just a few months after their release. According to anonymous sources, Apple had withdrawn from production of the device late last year, knowing it had enough components to meet demand.
Apple has been updating its headsets, and recently brought Apple Intelligence features to Visionos 2. Technically, it offers some of the largest displays, or blowing a MacBook screen into a huge super speeding ratio. The question is the price and what you expect to do on the Vision Pro. The lack of a controller essentially makes it impossible to use VR games. While Apple brings more passive, short-form content to the platform, that's not enough to attract more people to drag $3,500 on new devices.
The Android XR is formed very, very similar to the Apple Vision Pro. YouTuber Marques Brownlee gives us the best look inside Samsung headphones. It has full color drive of an external camera for augmented reality capabilities. This allows you to manipulate your application in 3D space. The biggest new feature is Google's Gemini. AI can access Samsung's external cameras, allowing users to ask questions about the environment. For example, Brownley asked Gemini about photos of the Wadi Rum Desert in Jordan. The headset turned on Google Maps and showed him the area through satellite images.
Does that feature make people line up around the block to spend over $2,000 on their headphones? Probably not. The Vision Pro is capable, although it's also bulky and uncomfortable after being used for too long. Samsung's headphones seem to be lighter than Apple, but that's not an important reason why consumers don't adopt vision professionals like Apple does. This is a factor in price compared to its functionality. The Vision Pro can be like a beautiful, huge TV, but only suits one user at a time. You can get a great OLED TV for less and enjoy it with your family.
The elephant in the room is Yuan Yuan Quest 3 and US$300 Meta Quest 3s. Any other competitive headsets, like the HTC Vive Focus Vision, can't match its features even at a price point of $1,000. Meta has had a start since buying Oculus in 2014 and now it has a loss-leading position in the VR market. Still, even the meta doesn't seem to fit in the idea of ​​cheaper VR headphones. Bloomberg recently reported that Meta is planning a sequel to the cheaper Meta Quest Pro. The company sold for a poor price and removed it from the lineup two years after its release.
No one stops talking about “metawords”, but companies like Google, Meta, and Apple all think workers want to spend hours trapped by VR headsets. VR or AR games are fun, but this is not for anyone who is sick or feels vertigo. The XR will not be a follow-up to a smartphone until these devices become as light and comfortable as a pair of glasses, as many companies seem to think they are.
