The Samsung Galaxy XR headset comes with $1,000 worth of freebies – here’s what’s included

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Priced surprisingly low at $1,799, half the price of Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.
• Contains “The Explorer Pack” with $1,000+ value of premium subscriptions.
• Headset use circumstances heart on immersive leisure {and professional} spatial enhancing.

Samsung formally launched the Galaxy XR headset, and although most particulars have been already accessible pre-launch, the corporate managed to maintain the worth level of $1,799 below wraps. 

The information got here as a shock to many, because it locations the headset at half the worth level of the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. To justify the worth level even additional, Samsung is together with a variety of free extras with the acquisition. 

Additionally: Samsung affords free $100 deal to new Android XR headset customers – the best way to redeem it now

Accessing immersive leisure experiences, comparable to watching your favourite present on a display screen that mimics the theater expertise from the consolation of your front room, is among the largest attracts to AR/XR headsets. To assist customers get essentially the most out of the headset and uncover their favourite use circumstances, Samsung contains “The Explorer Pack” with each buy.  

“I feel the immersive leisure to me might be essentially the most compelling use case,” Drew Blackard, SVP of Cellular Product Administration at Samsung, advised me. 

This bundle will get customers over $1,000 value of subscriptions, together with 12 months of entry to Google AI Professional, YouTube Premium, Google Play Cross, and an XR Pack, which features a three-month subscription to YouTube TV, a 12-month subscription to NBA League Cross, NFL, PRO ERA, Mission Pulsar from Adobe, Asteroid, and Calm. That is so much.

I had the chance to demo watching a YouTube video on the headset, which was routinely spatialized for an immersive viewing expertise. Moreover, the video was taking part in on a suspended display screen in my surroundings, with separate home windows for feedback, including to the immersion. Provided that it was one in all my extra memorable experiences, I can see how YouTube TV and YouTube Premium subscriptions may very well be helpful. 

Additionally: I wore good glasses with xMEMS audio system and cooling followers – and wished my Ray-Bans had the identical

Different integrations, comparable to Mission Pulsar from Adobe, have been demoed on stage to exhibit how the headset may also profit working professionals, enabling customers to edit video spatially inside their 360-degree surroundings. 

After all, Gemini was on the heart of lots of the demos, providing the AI assistant overlayed on any utility the consumer had opened and the surroundings passing via the lenses. 

The Google AI Professional subscription, which by itself prices $240 per yr, not solely permits customers to expertise larger utilization limits when utilizing the headset, however because it’s connected to their Google account, it additionally means they’ll benefit from the Professional perks, comparable to 2TB of cloud storage, entry to Whisk and Move, Gemini 2.5 Professional mannequin and Deep Search in AI Mode, larger limits to Jules, and extra.