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Samsung and Google's XR project officially has a chipset in the XR2 Plus Gen 2
- Qualcomm just launched the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2, an XR processor.
- This processor will power the Samsung/Google VR headset hinted at in 2023.
- The XR2 Plus Gen 2 is now the most powerful XR chip in Qualcomm’s portfolio.
In January 2023, during the launch of the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung and Google jointly announced a partnership to bring a new experience to the XR space. Although neither company directly said so, it’s assumed this is a VR/AR headset powered by Android.
Since then, though, we haven’t heard much else about the new product. Finally, today, we have some significant news: Qualcomm has launched the new Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 processor and confirmed that it will allow “Samsung and Google to provide leading XR experiences.” In other words, whatever the Samsung/Google VR experience is, this is the processor that will power it.
According to Qualcomm, the XR2 Plus Gen 2 is now the most powerful XR chip in its portfolio, taking the throne from the previous flagship XR2 Gen 2 (no Plus). You can see a bunch of specs and capabilities in the image above, but the most notable is the 4.3K per-eye resolution and 90Hz refresh rate support. This would allow for some incredibly crisp imagery inside a headset (if that’s what Samsung and Google are working on).
The XR2 Plus Gen 2 also supports up to 12 concurrent cameras. This would be very useful for MR (mixed reality) and AR (augmented reality) experiences.
Given that Samsung and Google jointly announced their collaboration in the XR space in January last year, it makes sense to anticipate they would make another announcement around this time. Perhaps there will be more news on January 17 when Samsung launches the Galaxy S24 series.