Samsung’s Galaxy XR is the first to adopt Android XR as a $1,799 mixed reality headset built on the new platform. Co-developed with Google and Qualcomm, Galaxy XR has Gemini voice and vision AI built into core apps. Featuring Qualcomm’s XR2+ Gen 2, 4K micro-OLED panels, hand and eye tracking, and a forehead rest, it comes in at half the cost of Apple’s Vision Pro. But a two-hour battery is still a major drawback for sustained use. A decade after Google Glass and HoloLens pilots did not scale, Galaxy XR shows incremental progress toward deployability in specific workflows, but heat, optics, and power management remain unresolved gating factors.

From an enterprise perspective, Samsung is prioritizing training, design, and heavy-industry collaboration as the near-term value-add. Its announcement highlighted Samsung Heavy Industries’ use of Galaxy XR for virtual shipbuilding training. Outside of training/simulation, practical enterprise value is limited today. On the platform side, Google signaled that Android XR will soon add Android Enterprise Framework support, which is crucial for app distribution in corporate fleets. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces developer program is also important as it seeds an enterprise ISV ecosystem on Android XR. Altogether, this Samsung-Google-Qualcomm collaboration is a credible start, but proving ROI beyond training will take time.

The competitive landscape is evolving quickly. Apple’s newly updated Vision Pro swaps in an M5 chip and a redesigned “Dual Knit” strap but keeps the prohibitive $3,499 price and same fundamental tradeoffs as its predecessor. Vision Pro still relies on an external, cabled battery pack, which, in addition to its price tag, makes it a difficult consideration for mobility and shift work. With reports that Apple has paused a cheaper Vision Pro variant to redirect teams toward its AR smart glasses effort, buyers should expect Apple to support its premium headset while simultaneously accelerating investment in lightweight and portable eyewear.

Meanwhile, Meta is making strides using AI investments as its wedge into wearables. After a year of iterating on its ergonomic and consumer-facing Ray-Ban camera glasses with multimodal Meta AI, the company introduced Ray-Ban Display with a built-in glanceable display plus a Neural Band wrist wearable that reads muscle signals for low friction input. Priced at $799 and relying on phone and cloud computing, Meta makes a strong case that voice-first and seamless input with visible feedback is the right entry point for eyewear technology. For frontline situations, their discreteness can beat the immersion of a visor even though they can’t replace a fully mixed reality headset for 3D visualization or complex training.

For these devices, processing and power are major design considerations. Galaxy XR runs compute locally on Qualcomm silicon while leaning on Gemini for voice and vision-based interactions like Vision Pro does with Apple silicon and Siri. Meta’s glasses, however, push their heavy lifting to the phone and cloud. Practically, visors struggle with heat and battery constraints, which is why both Apple and Samsung externalize batteries. There is much progress to be made here. In 2023, for instance, regulators approved very-low-power 6 GHz short-range Wi-Fi for AR/VR wearables, but over-the-air wireless charging remains distant.

Announced as a new operating system in December 2024, Android XR’s pitch to developers combines familiar Android app development with XR-specific management. Samsung’s launch is intended to kickstart developer interest, but the broader market has not yet seen explosive headset demand, which is why vendors are emphasizing AI and smart glasses to expand the addressable base.

Moving past Meta’s metaverse misfire with “virtual worlds,” multimodal and generative AI models are giving the industry a first glimpse at the concrete value they can offer as assistants, in training, and for collaboration. Galaxy XR isn’t the final form factor. At $1,799, it is more accessible than Vision Pro and benefits from Android XR, but without breakthroughs in battery, optics, and input, adoption will remain limited to narrow workflows. If Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm can demonstrate concrete use cases beyond training and simulation, Android XR could see its first real-world tests while the industry advances toward lighter glasses.

For more information, download VDC’s 2025 Global Market for Enterprise Wearables Executive Brief and watch for upcoming updates.