During the demonstration, Park Yu-jin, professional of the Immersive PP Group, MX Business Division of Samsung Electronics, wearing the Galaxy XR, said, “Find me a pizza place in New York.” The large screen set up at the event then moved to Kesté Pizza e Vino on Fulton Street in New York. The screen displayed exactly what Park was seeing through the Galaxy XR. Following Park’s gaze, one could see the interior and seating arrangement of the pizza restaurant on the other side of the globe.

Samsung Electronics plans to usher in the era of multimodal AI with Galaxy XR, where the world previously searched through keyboards on mobile and PC can now be searched with voice and gestures and shown in virtual reality before one’s eyes. Although Apple and Meta have already launched products in the related market, Samsung Electronics has set a strategy to lead the new market by emphasizing compatibility with the existing Android platform ecosystem and optimization between hardware and software (SW). To this end, Samsung Electronics has been closely collaborating from the planning stage with Google, which developed the XR operating system AndroidXR, and Qualcomm, which is responsible for the Snapdragon XR2+ 2nd Generation chip that acts as the brain. Justin Payne, Google’s XR Product Management lead, said, “Samsung and Google have maintained a long-standing collaborative relationship, but for this product, we have continued an unprecedented form of cooperation. Both companies shared a vision for XR and co-developed everything.”

The Galaxy XR’s display features a 4K micro-OLED with a resolution of 3552×3840, and a total of 12 cameras are built-in for high-resolution passthrough (scenes in front of the eyes appear as they are), spatial and motion recognition, and eye tracking. It includes 16 gigabytes (GB) of memory, 165GB of storage, and the maximum usage time based on a full battery charge is up to 2.5 hours.

The XR headset has improved on the hardware that was previously uncomfortable to wear. Samsung Electronics explained, “The Galaxy XR weighs 545g, about 100g lighter than Apple Vision Pro, and applies an ergonomic design to minimize fatigue from prolonged wear.”

According to the Galaxy XR interface, major applications of the Android OS are also specialized for the device. For instance, at the event, when the AndroidXR version of Google Maps was turned on, a three-dimensional Google map viewed from the air appeared. Samsung Electronics plans to introduce more apps and in-app content to AndroidXR in the future.

Various partnerships have been established to secure content for XR devices. XR content will be provided in connection with major global services such as Adobe, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Amaze VR. In Korea, plans are to showcase XR-exclusive content in collaboration with Naver’s streaming platform Chzzk.

Samsung Electronics intends to maximize the use of multimodal AI technology that simultaneously understands and processes text, images, voice, and video through Galaxy XR. Kim Jung-hyun, vice president of the MX Business Division, said, “We have been preparing for XR for over 10 years, and an important point there is implementing multimodal AI. The reason for collaborating with Google is also to best realize multimodal AI on the device.”

Samsung Electronics expressed confidence in overtaking early movers Meta and Apple with Galaxy XR. This is because they have collaborated with Google and Qualcomm, leaders in SW and chip fields respectively, from the product planning stage, enabling them to excel in product competitiveness such as optimization between hardware and SW. Vice President Kim said, “The most important thing in this market is the meeting of AI and XR, and how impactful the combination of these two technologies can be is crucial to winning the competition. From that perspective, when Samsung Electronics and Google meet, we can show the most differentiated product.”

Samsung Electronics plans to quickly rise to the top of the market, using the compatibility with the Android ecosystem spread across various devices such as smartphones and smartwatches as a stepping stone. Choi Won-joon, chief operating officer (COO) of Samsung Electronics’ MX Business Division, emphasized, “Based on AndroidXR, Galaxy XR will elevate the mobile AI vision to a realm of infinite possibilities, becoming an everyday device for both the industry and users.”

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is operating experience zones at seven Samsung stores nationwide, including Gangnam, Hongdae, Shinsegae Daejeon, and Shinsegae Daegu, starting from Oct. 23. Purchasing customers will receive 10 benefits, including Gemini AI Pro, YouTube Premium, and Google Play Pass.

Source: BusinessKorea