During the Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday, Samsung unveiled three new high-end phones and teased a bunch of upcoming devices, including a dual-folding phone, XR headset, and AR/smart glasses. The company's first XR headset was displayed at the event, and ahead of its launch, its operating system is getting a boost from HTC's VIVE team.

Google acquires part of HTC VIVE team to improve Android XR before Samsung XR headset launches

Google has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a part of the HTC VIVE's engineering team. The company said in its press release that the HTC VIVE development team is incredibly strong technically and has a proven track record in the virtual reality (VR) segment.

The company said it is looking forward to working with HTC VIVE's engineers to accelerate the development of Android XR. If you don't know already, Android XR is a version of the Android operating system that is designed for augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), and virtual reality (VR) headsets.

Samsung's upcoming XR headset, which is currently being showcased in the form of Project Moohan, will be the first device to run Android XR. Project Moohan is very close to the final version of Samsung's first XR headset, which will be launched later this year.

You can watch Project Moohan XR headset in our video below.

Ahead of the launch later this year, Google appears to be ramping up the development of Android XR so that it is completely ready for the platform's first headset. Since HTC VIVE is one of the world's most popular VR headsets, its engineers can help a lot with the VR aspects of Android XR.

Several Google apps, including Chrome and YouTube, will be available on Android XR. It will also feature Google's Gemini AI assistant, who will always be there to help you with any task that you are accomplishing. It can also help you in playing games by offering you in-game tips.

What to expect from Samsung's first XR headset?

Samsung's first XR headset likely uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip, which has a six-core CPU, a powerful Adreno GPU, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7, and an ISP that can process inputs from up to 12 camera sensors simultaneously. Rumors say it has two 4.3K OLEDoS or Micro OLED screens with a 90Hz refresh rate.

The South Korean firm's first XR headset will compete directly with Apple's $3,500 Vision Pro headset. Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper (but still priced at $2,000) Vision series headset, and it could launch by the time Samsung launches its XR headset.

So, we could see an interesting battle between Apple, Meta, and Samsung in the spatial computing space.

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