Samsung announced it’s holding a Galaxy Event on October 21st, which will feature Project Moohan, the company’s long-awaited Apple Vision Pro competitor.
The News
The livestream event is slated to take place on October 21st at 10PM ET (local time here), which is said to focus on “the future of AI” and Project Moohan.
“Come meet the first official device on Android XR—Project Moohan,” the video’s description reads.
There’s no official indication yet on what the headset will be priced, or even officially named at this point. A previous report from South Korea’s Newsworks suggests it could cost somewhere between ₩2.5 and ₩4 million South Korean won, or between $1,800 and $2,900 USD.
The company’s event site does however allow users to register for a $100 credit, valid when purchasing qualifying Galaxy products.
We’re hoping to learn more about the headset’s specs and promised VR motion controllers, which Samsung has yet to reveal.
Since our previous hands-on from last year, we’ve learned Project Moohan includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 + Gen 2, dual micro‑OLED panels, pancake lenses, automatic interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment, support for eye and hand-tracking, optional magnetically-attached light shield, and a removable external battery pack.
My Take
Personally, the teaser doesn’t really serve up the sort of “wow” factor I was hoping for, as it highlights some fairly basic stuff seen in XR over the past decade. Yes, it’s actually has been that long.
While I don’t expect Moohan to stop at a Google Earth VR-style map and immersive video—neat as those things are—it’s interesting to me the company thought those two things were worthy additions to a launch day teaser for its first XR headset since the release of Samsung Odyssey+ in 2018.
As the first official headset supporting Google’s Android XR operating system though, I expect the event will also focus on Moohan’s ability to not only use the standard library of Android apps and native XR stuff, but also XR productivity—provided Samsung really wants to go toe-to-toe with Vision Pro.
By all accounts, Moohan is a capable XR headset, but I wonder how much gas Samsung will throw at it now that Apple is reportedly shifting priorities to focus on Meta-style smart glasses instead of developing a cheaper and lighter Vision Pro. While Apple is still apparently moving ahead with Vision Pro’s M5 hardware refresh, which is rumored to release soon, that’s going to mostly appeal to enterprise users, which leaves Samsung to navigate a potentially awkward middle ground between Meta and Apple.
Moohan’s market performance may also dictate how other manufacturers adopt Android XR. And there’s worrying precedent. Google did the same thing with Lenovo Mirage Solo in 2018, which was supposed to be the first headset to support its Android-based Daydream platform before Google pulled the plug due to poor engagement. Here’s to hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.
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