Samsung Will Finally Stop Screwing Around and Release Its Vision Pro Killer

Samsung is almost done teasing its first-ever XR headset. According to an investor call this week, Project Moohan, Samsung’s Vision Pro killer, is set to be released in the second half of this year and will finally go on sale before the year is over. Given that Samsung has been teasing its headset for a year now, there’s already a decent amount that we know about it.

As any Vision Pro killer should be, Project Moohan will debut with some high-end specs. It will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip, pancake lenses, and also feature a similar UI to Apple’s Vision Pro that relies mostly on hand tracking (and eye tracking in the future) instead of physical controllers. The displays, which are arguably the Vision Pro’s biggest selling point, will also likely be Micro OLED, just like Apple’s $3,500 competitor. And, perhaps disappointingly, Project Moohan will also share a design quirk in common with the Vision Pro—it will use an external battery pack for power in an effort to take weight off the headset and your head.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “So, what’s the difference between Moohan and the Vision Pro?” it’s hard to say at this point. One thing that Project Moohan will claim as a first, though, is the distinction of being the first headset to run on Android XR, which is Google’s mixed-reality-specific operating system. How that stacks up to Apple’s visionOS will be a major question since, again, seamless UI is one of the strengths of Vision Pro.

Likely the biggest opportunity to differentiate itself from Apple will be in the price arena. Vision Pro is notoriously expensive, which makes it prohibitive for the vast majority of people who are interested in an Apple XR experience but can’t justify the cost of several MacBook Pros to find out what it’s like. And on that front, my hopes aren’t super high for the reasons I just mentioned. Project Moohan has all of the things that make the Vision Pro expensive—a premium display, a hand-tracking-based UI, a premium chip, and premium materials. My wallet just cried a silent green tear while writing that.

I’m leaving space for Samsung to surprise me on price, however. Vision Pro sales have been tepid at best since its release in 2024, and a huge part of that is likely due to price. Sure, Samsung is capable of playing the long game just like Apple, but a big part of convincing people to want more of a product is ensuring that they actually get a chance to use it in the first place. Either way, it’s objectively exciting to see more (and bigger) players in the XR space, because the more attention there is, the closer we are to having headsets that are smaller, lighter, and cheaper.