Qualcomm’s Secret Project With Samsung and Google Is Mixed Reality Smartglasses and I’m Excited
Qualcomm introduced a reference AR glasses made by Goertek at Mobile World Congress 2024.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
We only hear whispers about Qualcomm, Samsung and Google joint project since the first three companies officially announced them early last year. What started out as an unofficial Apple XR headphone competitor was Pro Vision encountered internal disagreements that led to reset after reset after reset.
Recently, in an interview with CNBCQualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon shed some light on the issue and painted a more vivid picture. And it’s not quite what most people imagine.
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Instead of a self-powered or battery-connected XR headset, the chipmaker is working with Samsung and Google to develop a pair of mixed-reality smart glasses. Most importantly, the wearable will be tethered to a smartphone, shifting much of the weight, processing power, and battery demands of a traditional headset to a device we’re already used to carrying around.
“It’s going to be a new product, a new experience,” Amon told CNBC. “But what I really hope from this partnership is that I want everyone who has a phone to buy the glasses to go with it.”
Consider Qualcomm’s involvement in the most capable smart glasses on the market, such as Ray-Ban Meta Glasses And Xreal Air 2 Superand the building experience of Samsung and Google Android Smartphone and platform, combining these two experiences seems like the most logical and safest path.
The Goertek reference glass has a camera sensor and is powered by a smartphone.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
In fact, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip is specifically designed for mixed reality experiences in smaller form factors like glasses. At Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the company showed me a Goertek reference design—one that the company shares with hardware makers for inspiration when building their own wearables—and it looked promising.
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Tested bulkier VR headsets like Meta Quest 3 And Apple Vision ProQualcomm’s reference design is much more compact, more practical, and importantly, feels more natural.
If Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google can improve the display quality, optics, and audio performance of their upcoming mixed reality smart glasses, I wouldn’t be surprised if they attract a similar, if not larger, audience as Apple did with the Vision Pro.
With so many people involved, price will be important. On the plus side, we already have smartphones in our hands, so half the work is done for them.
