The Future of Virtual Reality Unleashed: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Drives New Era for Google and Samsung VR Devices

Virtual reality and augmented reality headsets are slowly becoming more practical and accessible, with devices like the Meta Quest 2 and 3 readily available, and the Apple Vision Pro approaching release. Qualcomm has now revealed a new chip for VR and AR devices, promising higher graphical performance and responsiveness.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 (great name, I know), which is an upgraded version of the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip used in the Meta Quest 3 . It’s designed to power standalone VR and AR headsets, without a separate PC or other device connected to provide processing power, but it also has hardware support for that capability as well.

Qualcomm says the new chip has a 15% faster GPU frequency and 20% faster CPU freqency, compared to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2. It also supports a resolution of 4.3K per eye running at 90FPS, or 3.7K per eye at 120 FPS. That’s roughly double the resolution used in the Meta Quest 3, and close to the Apple Vision Pro—the company’s website says the Vision Pro delivers “more pixels than a 4K TV to each eye.” The higher resolution can can help make text and other smaller elements more readable in VR environments.

Qualcomm

The chipset is also designed to power enhanced AR experiences, where the outside world is shown on the display with digital elements placed on top. It supports 12 or more concurrent cameras, with full-color video passthrough and depth sensing. There’s also software support for hand, head, face, and controller tracking, as well as Wi-Fi 7 and 6E.

Qualcomm confirmed that Google and Samsung are both testing hardware with the XR2+ Gen 2, after the companies previously announced a VR/AR partnership in 2023 . Presumably, we’ll eventually get a Samsung VR/AR headset with Android-based software to compete with the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, but no details about the finished product are available yet. Samsung previously worked with Oculus to create the Samsung Gear VR in 2015, which relied on a connected Samsung smartphone, and Google’s initial Daydream platform for VR was phased out a few years ago .

Qualcom says there are more than five companies working on products with the XR2+ Gen 2, including Samsung, HTC Vive, Immersed, and Play for Dream (formerly YVR). There’s also a reference platform developed with Goertek and Tobii, pictured above, but that won’t be commercially available.

Source: Qualcomm

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