10 years ago, at IFA, Samsung unveiled the Gear VR, a VR headset using a Galaxy phone as a screen and brain. A sequel followed, and the company saw great success: Analysts reported that Samsung was the leading manufacturer of VR headsets in 2016. Of the 6.3 million headsets sold that year, 4.5 million were Gear VR. The company also worked with Microsoft and built an AR mixed reality headset in 2017, but it wasn’t long before Samsung pulled the plug on its VR efforts.

That’s a lot of history, but it was necessary to explain why Samsung might be cautious before getting back into the game. And it’s very cautious. During MWC 2022, Han Jong-hee, CEO of Samsung Electronics, hinted that the company was working on a new headset. Then in 2023, Samsung would have delayed its headset because of the Apple Vision Pro. During the July 2024 Unpacked for the new Galaxy Z foldables, Samsung once again mentioned its upcoming XR product, saying it should be released this year. But now that 2024 is almost over, is the project still alive?

It is! IDC analyst Bryan Ma spotted a clue during Samsung’s recent investor presentation. Under the Outlook 2025 In the header, a paragraph reads “Improving connectivity between products, including upcoming XR devices, to further improve user experience in the Galaxy ecosystem.” Yes, devices, plural. And this just after explaining the plans to boost sales of the Galaxy S25 series.

A slide from Samsung’s third quarter financial report

This suggests that the Galaxy Unpacked event in early 2025 that will showcase the S25 series will also feature Samsung’s XR headset. But given the number of delays we’ve had so far, that’s not a sure thing.

By the way, Samsung is not working on this alone. This is a partnership between Samsung, Google and Qualcomm (as mentioned during an Unpacked 2023 event). Google will likely provide the core software, while Qualcomm will provide the chipset. The Meta Quest 3, for example, runs a custom version of Android on a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, so this is a known and successful recipe.

It has been said that the headset will use micro-OLED displays with a higher pixel count and higher brightness than the LCD displays used in Quest headsets. It’s unclear whether this will be a Samsung-made display or not. Regardless, Samsung has other components it could contribute to as well. For example, late last year the company unveiled an ISOCELL sensor with a built-in depth-sensing ISP that can be used in XR headsets for tracking.

Rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S25 have been circulating for a few months now and will only become clearer as January approaches, the likely launch date. We’ll keep an eye out for any mention of XR devices that could arrive alongside flagship phones.

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