On the track of Hyper | How is the experience of Apple Vision Pro? Samsung Electronics introduces XR.

Author: Zhou Yuan/Wall Street News

Is the highly anticipated groundbreaking device "Vision Pro" from Apple receiving market acceptance beyond expectations? This question remains unanswered.

However, Apple is not stopping there. According to exclusive information from the supply chain obtained by Wall Street News, Apple is reportedly developing the Vision Standard Edition (tentatively named Vision internally), with plans to release it in the fall of 2025. Compared to Vision Pro, the most significant change in Vision is a weight reduction to around 400g, while maintaining a 4K resolution for each eye.

Similar to how Apple's main competitor in the global smartphone market is Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electronics is also joining the competition. According to reports from Korean media, Samsung Electronics is set to launch an XR device by the end of 2024, equipped with the Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 2 chipset.

The XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, released by Qualcomm in early January 2024, promises to provide XR devices with more realistic and immersive application experiences.

Immersive Experience: Outstanding Audiovisual Experience

The most significant improvement in the current Vision Standard Edition is a weight reduction of 30%-40% compared to Vision Pro.

After comprehensive user experiences, Wall Street News found that the weight of around 600g - 650g of Vision Pro indeed caused some discomfort around the head and eye sockets during use. This discomfort typically arises within 60-120 minutes of wearing and varies in intensity from person to person.

Reducing the weight to 400g would significantly enhance the comfort of wearing.

Following Steve Jobs' emphasis on minimalistic design and user-friendliness, Vision Pro automatically detects the status upon wearing, powering on automatically; when removed, the headset goes into sleep mode without the need to toggle the power switch.

Upon wearing the headset, the configuration process begins, including account login, interpupillary distance adjustment, eye tracking initialization, and hand tracking initialization. The entire configuration process is user-friendly, similar to Apple's other electronic products like iPhone and iPad.

The interpupillary distance adjustment seems to be designed for multiple users (family users). Each time Vision Pro is worn, it automatically detects the interpupillary distance. If switching from User A to User B, Vision Pro takes about 10 seconds to complete the interpupillary distance correction.

In addition to high resolution, clarity, and contrast in visual effects, the field of view of Vision Pro is similar to Pico 4 Pro, narrower than the naked eye. Thanks to the 12 cameras and powerful M2 chip on the front of the device, the performance in ambient light is impressive, with minimal delay even in bright light conditions, making the user experience almost seamless on the "screen" (OLED silicon-based lenses). The ambient light seen through Vision Pro is almost indistinguishable from the real environment.

This kind of immersive experience basically covers the majority of daily spaces. With the outstanding performance of the two OLED silicon-based chips and M2 chips with a resolution of up to 23 million pixels in Vision Pro, the sensation generated for the brain when actually worn is like seeing the real spatial environment through a piece of glass, without the sense of detachment caused by "this is a screen" feeling.

Compared to the visual experience, the audio system built into Vision Pro, supported by spatial audio and directional sound transmission technology (the source of immersion), brings a more immersive application experience.

According to many review users, the sound experience of such a small peripheral device is considered "amazing" and "unprecedented": the sound in various scenarios (such as cars whizzing by, concerts, bullets, water droplets, wind, bird songs, machinery, beer foam, etc.) is clear, bright, delicate, and rich in layers.

However, due to the open design of Vision Pro, although the sound leakage protection is in place, it is still difficult to completely eliminate sound leakage in noisy environments. Therefore, it is not suitable for making private calls or listening to related recordings in such environments. Of course, Vision Pro is rarely needed as a listening and communication device in these scenarios.

Vision Pro is a "quasi" MR device. In other words, it is both AR and VR. This difference is adjusted by the digital crown of Vision Pro to blend the real and virtual environments, also known as "immersion".

When in AR (Augmented Reality) mode, the immersion is 0%, suitable for "work and productivity" scenarios such as offices, meetings, or commuting. At this time, sensitivity to the outside world needs to be maintained; if in an entertainment or fixed closed non-working state, the immersion is 100%, the field of view is completely virtual, known as "VR (Virtual Reality)".

Samsung Electronics adopts Snapdragon chips to compete

Samsung Electronics, the strongest competitor to Apple's smartphones globally, is also not idle this time.

On February 29th, according to Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics is expected to launch XR devices by the end of 2024, possibly even together with the new generation of foldable phones Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. Samsung Electronics plans to produce 300,000 XR devices in 2024.

What are the differences between AR, VR, MR, and XR?

Simply put, based on actual shooting. Actual shooting is 0% virtual + 100% real. VR (Virtual Reality) corresponding to actual shooting is the opposite, 80% virtual + 0% real; AR, or Augmented Reality, corresponds to XR (Extended Reality), with the former being 80% virtual, 20% real / the latter being 20% real, 80% virtual; MR is the collective term for AR and VR (Mixed Reality), so it is 50% virtual and 50% real. Samsung Electronics XR has no more details available at the moment. Reports only mention approximate release time and prices: around $500 (Meta Quest 3) and $3499 (Apple Vision Pro), with the preliminary price possibly around $2000.

Additionally, this XR model is explicitly equipped with the XR2+ Gen2 chipset released by Qualcomm in early January this year.

Compared to the XR2 Gen2 (released in September 2023), the XR2+ Gen2 has seen a 15% increase in GPU frequency, 20% increase in CPU frequency, 25% overall performance improvement, and a 50% increase in energy efficiency; AI performance has improved by 800%.

At a 90Hz refresh rate, the XR2+ Gen2 supports a resolution of 4.3K per eye; if the refresh rate is 120Hz, the resolution per eye adjusts to 3.7K. This chipset also supports 12 or more concurrent cameras, serving as end-user facial or eye sensors, providing a clearer and more immersive MR or XR experience.

In addition to these superior performance enhancements over the XR2, the XR2+ Gen2 also inherits almost all other advantages of the XR2 Gen2, such as hardware-accelerated camera perspective, achieving an end-to-end latency of about 12 milliseconds (full-color video perspective).

These data actually describe the underlying performance of this chipset, but may not be directly perceivable to end-users. Qualcomm's official description might provide a more intuitive understanding: devices equipped with the second-generation Snapdragon XR2+ can support 12 or more parallel cameras and powerful terminal-side AI, easily tracking user movements and surrounding environments, thereby enabling convenient navigation and unparalleled experiences blending physical and digital spaces.

However, the mentioned 12 milliseconds, whether it refers to the time from sensor receiving light to processing the image by the chipset, or directly displaying the image results on the screen, is not specifically clarified by Qualcomm.

Furthermore, while delivering such outstanding experiences, the XR2+ Gen2 also consumes more power, requiring a higher density battery for support. It is worth mentioning that the XR2+ Gen2 has been specially optimized for wireless power, with Qualcomm's Vice President and XR General Manager Hugo Swart stating that this chipset is designed specifically for fully wireless headsets.

Public information indicates that besides Samsung Electronics XR, a domestic MR company called "Playing Dreams" will also launch a headset product featuring the XR2+ Gen2 chipset in 2024; in addition, MR products like Immersed Visor and HTC's Vive headset will also feature this chipset.

Currently, this remarkably performing chipset, when applied, whether it can match or even surpass the performance of Apple Vision Pro's desktop-level M2 chipset, will only be revealed after many products equipped with this chipset are launched.