Author: Zhou Yuan Wall Street News.
Has Tim Cook's new space-computing epoch-making device "Vision Pro" received more than expected market acceptance? The issue is currently inconclusive.
But Apple's footsteps didn't stop there. Wall Street has exclusively learned from **Chain that Apple is developing the standard version of Vision (tentative name internally Vision) as planned, and it is tentatively planned to be released in the fall of 2025. Compared to the Vision Pro, the most significant change in Vision is that the weight has been reduced to about 400g, and the resolution is still 4K per eye.
Just as Apple's biggest competitor in the world is its Samsung counterpart, Samsung will not be absent from this feast. According to Korean media reports, Samsung will launch an XR device at the end of 2024, equipped with a Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 2 chipset.
Among them, XR2+ Gen 2 will be released by Qualcomm in early January 2024, which can provide a more realistic and immersive application experience for XR devices.
The most significant improvement in the Vision Standard Edition is now a 30%-40% weight reduction (compared to the Vision Pro).
After Wall Street's experience of using the actual use of many people, it was found that in the actual use process, the weight of about 600g - 650g of the Vision Pro does bring a certain sense of pressure to the position of the head and eye sockets. This discomfort occurs within about 60-120 minutes of wearing, and the depth of fatigue caused varies from person to person.
If it can be reduced to 400g, it can greatly improve the wearing comfort.
Vision Pro follows the principle of minimalist design and ease of use that Steve Jobs has always emphasized: after putting it on, the sensor automatically detects the status and the power automatically starts; When removed, the headset automatically sleeps without having to turn the power switch on or off.
When the headset is worn, it directly enters the configuration process, which mainly includes account login, interpupillary distance adjustment, eye tracking initialization, and hand tracking initialization. The whole configuration process is very good for users, and it is no different from other Apple electronic products such as iPhone and iPad.
Among them, the interpupillary distance adjustment link seems to be mainly designed for one machine with multiple users (home users). With each wear, Vision Pro automatically detects the interpupillary distance. If you were originally a user A and later become a B user, Vision Pro will detect it for about 10 seconds, and the interpupillary distance correction will be completed.
In addition to high-resolution, high-definition, and high-contrast visuals, the Vision Pro's field of view width is similar to that of the Pico 4 Pro, but narrower than the naked eye. At the same time, thanks to the 12 cameras all over the front of the fuselage and the strong computing power of the M2 chip, when expressing ambient light, except for the extremely dark ambient noise, other normal light environments, and even strong light, the sense of delay of Vision Pro is almost negligible, and the ambient light seen by users on the "screen" (OLED silicon-based lenses) is almost the same as the real environment.
This kind of scene experience basically encompasses most of the daily space. The excellent computing power performance of the two 23 million pixel OLED silicon-based chips and M2 chips of Vision Pro is like seeing the real space environment through a piece of glass, but there is no sense of difference and fragmentation caused by "this is looking at a computing screen".
Compared to the visual experience, the Vision Pro's built-in audio system is supported by spatial audio and directional sound transmission technology (immersion**) to bring a more immersive application experience.
According to many review users, the sound experience of such a small peripheral can be called "amazing" and "unprecedented": the timbre of various types (such as cars whistling by, concerts, bullets, water droplets, wind sounds, birdsong, machinery, beer foam sounds, etc.) in various scenarios is clear, translucent, delicate, and rich in layers.
However, due to the open design of the Vision Pro, it is difficult to achieve complete sound leakage in noisy environments, although the sound leakage protection is relatively good. Therefore, it is not suitable for making private calls or listening to relevant recordings in such environments. Of course, in this scenario, it is rarely necessary to use the Vision Pro as a listening and communication device.
The Vision Pro is a "quasi" MR device. That is, this is both AR and VR. This distinction is made by using the Vision Pro's Digital Crown to adjust the blending of the real and virtual environments, or "immersion".
When in AR (Augmented Reality) state, the immersion level is 0%, which is suitable for "work-production" scenarios such as the office, meetings, or commuting. At this point, you need to be sensitive to the outside world; If it is in an entertainment or fixed closed non-working state, the immersion level is 100%, and the field of vision is completely virtual, which is called "VR (virtual reality)".
Apple's mobile phone is the world's strongest competitor to Samsung Electronics, and this time it is not idle.
On February 29, according to Korean media news, Samsung is expected to launch an XR device by the end of 2024, and may even be launched with a new generation of foldable phones Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. Samsung plans to produce 300,000 XR devices in 2024.
What are the differences between AR, VR, MR, and XR?
To put it simply, take the actual shot as the benchmark. Real shooting, that is, 0 virtual + 100% real. VR (virtual reality) corresponding to real shooting, contrary to real shooting, 80% virtual + 0 real; AR, or Augmented Reality, corresponds to XR (Extended Reality), where the former is 80% virtual and 20% real and the latter is 20% real and 80% virtual; MR is a combination of AR and VR (Mixed Reality), so it's 50% virtual and 50% real.
The Samsung XR didn't have further details, with the report only mentioning an approximate release date and pricing: between about $500 (Meta Quest 3) and $3,499 (Apple Vision Pro), with an initial price likely to be around $2,000.
In addition, this XR is clearly equipped with the XR2+ Gen2 chipset launched by Qualcomm in early January this year.
Compared with XR2 Gen 2 (released in September 2023), XR2+ Gen 2 has a 15% increase in GPU frequency, a 20% increase in CPU frequency, a 25% increase in overall performance, and a 50% increase in energy efficiency. AI performance improved by 800%.
XR2+ Gen 2 supports 4 per eye at 90Hz refresh rate3K resolution; If the refresh rate is 120Hz, the resolution per eye is adjusted to 37k；The chipset also supports 12 or more concurrent cameras as on-device user face or eye sensors for a sharper, more immersive MR or XR experience.
In addition to these superior performance over XR2, XR2+ Gen 2 inherits almost all of the other advantages of XR2 Gen 2, such as hardware acceleration for camera perspective, which can achieve end-to-end latency of approximately 12 ms (full-color** perspective).
These data actually describe the underlying performance of this chip, but it cannot be directly perceived by C-end users, and it may be more intuitive with Qualcomm's official description: devices equipped with the second-generation Snapdragon XR2+ can support 12 or more parallel cameras and powerful device-side AI, easily tracking the user's movement trajectory and surrounding environment, so as to achieve convenient navigation and unparalleled excellent experience that integrates physical and digital space.
However, the 12 milliseconds mentioned here is the sensor receiving the light until the chip processes the picture, or does it directly display the picture result to the screen? In this regard, Qualcomm did not specifically state.
In addition, while delivering such a great experience, the XR2+ Gen 2 also consumes more energy and requires a denser battery to support it. It's worth mentioning that the XR2+ Gen 2 has a specially optimized design for wireless power, and Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR at Qualcomm, said that this chip is designed for completely wireless headsets.
According to public information, in addition to Samsung XR, there is an MR company called "Play Your Dream" in China, and in 2024, it will also launch a headset product equipped with XR2+ Gen 2; In addition, the MR of Immersed Visor and the VIVE headset of HTC will have this chip.
At present, whether this chip with amazing parameter performance can be comparable to or even surpass the performance of Apple's Vision Pro's desktop-level M2 chip in application, and it will not be revealed until many products equipped with this chip are launched.