While we’re only talking about Apple’s Vision Pro finally unveiled last June, other players are joining the ranks as well. Among them, Samsung has made an unexpected comeback, years after abandoning its Gear VR and other projects.
Last February during its Unpacked event, the South Korean manufacturer announced that it was working on a new concept of immersive headphones in partnership with Google for the interface part based on Android. It would be an extended reality helmet (mixing virtual, augmented and mixed reality). Last week, VRTuoluo, a Chinese outlet, published images and information about the quickly removed prototype. But the UploadVR site had time to capture them.
We discovered a headset in a fairly classic format, close to the Meta Quest, HTC Vive and other devices. This would have four cameras on the front to track movements. Two other sensors would be used to go from virtual reality to color reality. Finally, we would find a depth sensor to better appreciate your environment and reinforce manual tracking.
No drivers, but with hand and eye tracking
Inside the helmet, Samsung would have integrated two OLED screens with “pancake” lenses that allow a sharper image and a thinner and lighter front part of the helmet (the screen). The product would be powered by the Exynos 2200 chip designed by Samsung. It is more powerful than the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 processor that many helmets on the market equip (Meta Quest 2, Pico 4, HTC Vive XR Elite…), but less than the Qualcomm chip of the next Quest 3 (Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2).
Gyro would have pointed out that the Exynos 2200 chip, used in the Galaxy S22, had the unpleasant side of consuming a lot of power and heating up the smartphone.
The most surprising thing among the information leaked by the media before deleting them: Samsung headphones would not come with drivers. Its entire operation would be based on hand and eye tracking, like Apple’s Vision Pro.
The arrival of the latter at the beginning of 2024 would have led Samsung to delay the launch of its own helmet by six months to avoid head-on collision. The story probably also to update it and rethink it in terms of design. Samsung is none other than one of Apple’s partners for its headphones, especially in terms of its screen announced as its strong point. It is not certain that the published photos are those of the new version or of a previous prototype. The helmet whispers between 1000 and 2000 dollars (between 900 and 1800 euros approximately).
Source: BFM TV
