Should you watched Samsung Unpacked 2023 earlier this week, you will know that the corporate introduced a brand new initiative within the subject of Prolonged Actuality, or XR. What we did not get have been any particulars of an precise bodily product – which is the place a brand new leak is available in.
As noticed by GalaxyClub (opens in new tab) (through SamMobile (opens in new tab)), a battery that has simply handed by regulatory certification in South Korea matches up with a selected mannequin quantity that the rumor mill related to an upcoming Samsung machine final 12 months.
That machine, with the mannequin quantity SM-I120, was considered some sort of AR/VR wearable. Add within the announcement at Samsung Unpacked, and the looks of this battery module, and it seems to be seemingly that this {hardware} product is on the best way.
Goodbye Gear VR
We won’t glean all that a lot info from this battery leak – we do not know the capability, for instance – however it factors to a standalone machine that may work independently, with no connection to a pc or a smartphone.
That makes it completely different from the Samsung Gear VR sequence, units which you needed to slot a telephone into. We will count on a fairly clear break from the digital actuality {hardware} that Samsung has pushed out prior to now.
It is value remembering that this won’t be the product Samsung was referring to at Unpacked, in partnership with Qualcomm and Google – in truth it would solely be a prototype. However it’s an fascinating peek into what’s coming sooner or later.
Evaluation: what’s Prolonged Actuality anyway?
Phrases like digital actuality and prolonged actuality may be troublesome to maintain on prime of – particularly when firms use them in numerous methods. A label connected to one thing by one producer won’t imply the identical factor as a label utilized by one other producer.
What most individuals agree on is that digital actuality (VR) refers to fully enclosed digital worlds (see the Oculus Quest 2, for instance). Augmented actuality (AR) refers to placing digital overlays on prime of the bodily world, and that is one thing you are able to do with the cameras on loads of smartphones now (see Google Maps Reside View).
Then there are units that kind of combine the 2: combined actuality (MR). Maybe one of the best instance of that is the Microsoft HoloLens, although the time period is kind of laborious to pin down – typically it means a extra supercharged, interactive model of AR, and typically it means VR with a touch of AR (comparable to a video name feed dropped right into a digital world).
Prolonged Actuality (XR) is most frequently used as an all-encompassing time period that covers AR, VR and MR – which implies Samsung hasn’t given an excessive amount of away by telling us that it is engaged on new expertise. Anticipate the leaks and rumors to proceed.