- Samsung is holding a virtual event on October 21 to announce an Android XR device
- Buyers who reserve one now can get a $100 credit toward other Samsung gear
- Samsung, with Qualcomm and Google, has been teasing the Moohan project for months
Samsung has announced that it will announce its new XR headset running Android XR. The new device and possible Apple Vision Pro competitor, currently called Project Moohan, will be revealed on October 21 at 10 p.m. EDT (or Wednesday at 11 a.m. Korean time in Samsung’s hometown) during an event titled Wide open worlds. We don’t know much about the device or Samsung’s launch plans, but if your interest is already piqued, you can sign up to buy the headset now and get a little bonus for your faith.
Samsung has been teasing Project Moohan for some time, and the device made an appearance last month at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit… under glass. We have yet to see an official working prototype. The new headset will likely use Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon XR2 chipset, but many questions remain about its specifications and capabilities.
Hopefully these questions will be answered in a week, because Samsung is ready to start taking money for this headset. If you book a Moohan — and it probably is won’t be the final name of the headset – Samsung will give you a $100 credit towards other Samsung gear once your purchase is complete.
What we know about Project Moohan: not much!
This tells us several things. First, real products will be available soon. Samsung probably wouldn’t offer a pre-launch bonus for a product that won’t be available until next year. Will the new headset be available on October 21? I hope so, but if not I would expect it to be in my hands for the holiday shopping season.
Second, we have a slightly better idea of what the Moohan project might or might not cost. In other words, it won’t be cheap. Samsung wouldn’t give a $100 bonus for a headset that costs $500 and competes with Meta Quest 3. It will be a more expensive – and hopefully better performing – XR headset.
The results of Project Moohan will also launch Android XR, Google’s new platform for XR software development. We don’t know much about the apps and features that will launch with Android XR, but we can assume that Samsung will be the first of many device partners for Android XR, just like Android.
When we talk about XR, we usually mean a mix of virtual reality and augmented reality. The latter involves using cameras to place virtual objects so that they appear in your real space. Of course, smart glasses are considered the holy grail for XR hardware developments. We haven’t seen any smart glasses among the Project Moohan news and tips, but it’s possible we could learn more, or even see the first Samsung smart glasses, next week.
The Worlds Wide Open event is virtual, so you can watch it on Samsung’s YouTube channel, but it won’t be happening live. We’ll try to get our hands on the new Project Moohan Android XR headset as soon as we know what to call it, if not sooner, so check back next week to see if we know more.
