Victoria Song, reporting for The Verge:

Watching the first few minutes of KPop Demon Hunters on Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, I think Apple’s Vision Pro might be cooked.

It’s not because the Galaxy XR — which Samsung formerly teased as Project Moohan — is that much better than the Vision Pro. It’s that the experience is comparable, but you get so much more bang for your buck. Specifically, Galaxy XR costs $1,799 compared to the Vision Pro’s astronomical $3,499. The headset launches in the US and Korea today, and to lure in more customers, Samsung and Google are offering an “explorer pack” with each headset that includes a free year of Google AI Pro, Google Play Pass, and YouTube Premium, YouTube TV for $1 a month for three months, and a free season of NBA League Pass.

Did I mention it’s also significantly lighter and more comfortable than the Vision Pro?

Oh, and it comes with a native Netflix app. Who is going to get a Vision Pro now? Well, probably folks who need Mac power for work and are truly embedded in Apple’s ecosystem. But a lot of other people are probably going to want this instead.

Many people are painting the Galaxy XR as some kind of Apple Vision Pro killer, but it’s impossible to kill something that never lived. Apple Vision Pro is a niche, developer- and enthusiast-oriented product that has sold so few units that Apple opted to shift its virtual reality strategy away from it entirely. It’s uncomfortable, has no content, and is too expensive for anyone to fully justify. The Galaxy XR is a high-end competitor to the Meta Quest 3 line of headsets, a set of products that are successful. When people think of VR, Apple Vision Pro doesn’t even register in people’s minds. That’s partially Apple’s fault — Apple Vision Pro is advertised as a “spatial computer,” not a VR headset — but also because it’s just too expensive. The Galaxy XR plays in the same arena as Meta, however, due to content availability and price.

But history tells me this product is destined for failure. Putting Apple Vision Pro aside, Meta made a $1,500 headset like the Galaxy XR three years ago: the Meta Quest Pro. But while the standard Meta Quest series has always been quite successful, the Meta Quest Pro never succeeded and was eventually discontinued two years later. The Meta Quest Pro was a mediocre headset for its price and launch year, but it certainly was highly overpriced, just like Apple Vision Pro. That’s not a marketing problem — it’s just that the device was too high-end for most VR buyers. Even though buyers of the cheaper Meta Quest headset were most likely cross-shopping it with the high-end model, most of them opted for the low-end version because VR isn’t a commodity nor a necessity — it’s a luxury.

Almost nobody is cross-shopping Apple Vision Pro with anything, and normal Meta Quest prospective buyers will never spend $1,800 on a VR headset. It’s evident to anyone with their head screwed on right that Samsung and Google made this product to compete with Apple, ended up cutting the price in half, and declared their mission accomplished without realizing competing with Apple Vision Pro is a terrible business idea. You can’t kill something that never lived. Apple Vision Pro buyers will keep their headsets sitting in a drawer somewhere and aren’t interested in anything new. (I’m speaking from experience.) Meta Quest buyers will keep their Meta Quest 3S headsets and buy a new one whenever the next version comes out. The Galaxy XR is the awkward middle child that occupies the position of the failed Meta Quest Pro — competing with products well below its price.

Any VR headset over $500 is a guaranteed failure because that’s usually the maximum amount most people have to spend on luxury goods, usually over the holidays. $1,800 is a staggering amount of money when a $300 product performs identically. The Meta Quest 3S is not as advanced as the Galaxy XR or Apple Vision Pro, or even the Meta Quest Pro from a few years ago. But it does the job and it does it well enough for most people. That’s how a company gets people to buy luxury goods with their disposable income. “Stop, stop, he’s already dead!” cried Apple.