The best XR headset you can buy today
The Meta Quest 3 features cutting-edge pancake lenses, a powerful Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, thousands of games, and the ability to easily connect it wirelessly to a Windows PC for work or play. Plus, with streaming services like Xbox Game Pass, GeForce Now, Netflix, and tons of others, it’s an entertainment powerhouse like no other. It’s also got a massive amount of third party accessory support so you can customize it to your liking.
Serious potential
Samsung Project Moohan might be months away but it’s got a huge amount of potential thanks to top-of-the-line hardware that likely features high-resolution OLED screens, top-notch cameras, a super sleek design with magnetically-removable light blockers, and the power of Android XR to back it all up. It’s unproven and the price is unknown, but we expect to see more later this year.
Samsung Project Moohan made waves when Samsung announced it alongside Android XR, a new and exciting version of Android built specifically for XR devices like AR glasses, VR headsets, and mixed reality headsets. It’s an upcoming mixed reality headset that will blend the virtual and real worlds into games and productivity, just like the Meta Quest 3.
Project Moohan, as it’s currently known, will receive a final product name sometime later this year before the expected launch. Samsung showed off the hardware for the first time publicly at Samsung Unpacked 2025 during the Galaxy S25 unveiling.
Samsung Project Moohan is said to sport higher-end hardware than the Meta Quest 3 and promises to be the best VR hardware to date, merging quality hardware with a more affordable price tag than the Apple Vision Pro. But does that mean it will be a better headset? Let’s find out.
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While both Samsung Project Moohan and the Meta Quest 3 are mixed reality headsets, they each look and fit quite differently. The Meta Quest 3 is designed mostly to fit cost restraints so it can be under $500. That includes shipping with a relatively uncomfortable cloth strap for your head and an all-plastic design.
Samsung Project Moohan has a far more premium look and feel, and while some parts are plastic to keep weight down, it looks a lot more like a Meta Quest Pro than a Meta Quest 3. This includes rigid side straps with a wheel on the back for quickly adjusting size, a large, plush pad for the back of your head, and another large plush pad for your forehead.
Unlike the Meta Quest 3, Project Moohan doesn’t put any weight on your face at all. The rubber light blockers are magnetically removable — Samsung hasn’t even shown off these parts of the headset yet — so you’ll feel no pressure on your face while wearing the headset for long periods of time.
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You can swap out the Meta Quest 3’s face pad, head strap, and more, ensuring it fits you perfectly.
The Meta Quest 3’s default cloth strap distributes weight on your face and around the sides and back of your head. Some people, like me, find this to be uncomfortable and end up buying a third-party head strap along with several other Meta Quest 3 accessories to make it more comfortable to wear.
While this sounds like a negative at first, Meta’s “modular” design of the Quest 3 means you can take all the important parts off — the head strap, the face pad, etc — and replace them with ones you find more comfortable.
When I work while wearing a Quest 3, I tend to use a Kiwi Design H4 Boost head strap and I take the face pad off completely so the headset’s weight isn’t resting on my face. Otherwise, when I’m gaming with a Quest 3, I keep the face pad on to provide maximum immersion.
It’s not clear yet if Project Moohan will be a modular headset. One of the biggest problems with the Meta Quest Pro was that its head strap and battery couldn’t be easily removed, so you had to add things to the headset instead of easily replacing them with something more comfortable. We’re hoping Samsung learned from Meta’s design mistake on its Pro headset.
Project Moohan has automatic IPD adjustment, giving it an advantage over any other VR headset on the market.
Samsung Project Moohan has automatic IPD adjustment thanks to its eye tracking capabilities which ensures that each user has the exact right eye distance calibration the moment they put the headset on. That’s a huge advantage for Samsung over every other VR headset on the market which all require manual IPD adjustment.
Some headsets, like the PlayStation VR2, will help you choose the right IPD by using eye tracking to display an image you can line up. The Meta Quest 3, like most other VR headsets, requires you to know your IPD ahead of time. Adjusting it on a Quest 3 is easy and can be done via the IPD wheel on the underside of the headset, but you still need to know the right number before using it.
Samsung’s headset supports controllers but we haven’t seen them yet.
The Meta Quest 3 ships with two motion controllers — one is held in each hand — and also supports controller-free hand tracking for more effortless interactions. Each of these controllers features a joystick, three face buttons, a trigger, and a grip button.
Samsung Project Moohan will also have controller and hand tracking support, but Samsung hasn’t confirmed if the headset will ship with controllers included or if they’ll be a separate purchase. Apple Vision Pro famously shipped with no controllers and no support for motion-tracked controllers. Apple later added support for controllers due to feedback, as they’re simply required for some experiences and types of games.
Meta Horizon OS, the operating system that powers Meta Quest Headsets, is built upon Android and always has been. Similarly, Android XR, which powers Samsung Project Moohan, is also a specific version of Android built for XR devices. While they sound similar on the surface, there are some significant key differences to consider.
While both are based on the Android Open Source Project, Meta Horizon OS features significant layers of customization that Meta has built over the past decade. Meta has built so much on top of Android that it actually packages it as a “separate” operating system, calling it Meta Horizon OS, and now offers it as an option for third-party companies to build their own headsets on.
Meta Horizon OS not only revolves around the “Meta Horizon experience,” which includes promoting the Meta Horizon metaverse app front and center, but also ties Meta services deeply into the OS. Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram all have native Horizon OS apps, and while a few other apps can be downloaded on the app store, Meta Quest headsets are still mainly gaming consoles with some extra computing functionality.
The Meta Quest’s operating system is built on Android but doesn’t feature the Google Play Store. Android XR will.
Android XR is built upon the Android Open Source Project as well but, like most builds of Android, Google services are at the center. Android XR is said to be “the first version of Android built for the Gemini era” which means Google Gemini is able to operate the entire experience if you ask it to.
Google explained that Gemini can see what you see, including both the virtual and real world, and is able to answer questions and interact with virtual screens as you see fit. This could open up significant new design and interaction paradigms that we simply haven’t seen before, but we’ll need to wait until the full product launch to get a better idea of the actual functionality.
Both operating systems are designed to enable multitasking in mixed reality, plus allow for full immersive apps and games.
Both operating systems support native multitasking, giving users the ability to open multiple windows at once and float them anywhere in real 3D space. You can think of these a bit like resizable virtual monitors that you can place anywhere, all of which are able to be interacted with like a smartphone or tablet interface.
Since Android XR has the Google Play Store built in, it’s expected that Samsung Project Moohan will have substantially more 2D apps at launch than the Meta Quest ever has. Conversely, the Meta Quest sports thousands of games that will take time to convert over to Android XR. Meta funded several of the best Meta Quest games, so it’s not likely they’ll see a release on an Android XR-powered headset.
If you want to learn more about how both operating systems compare, see our detailed Android XR vs Meta Horizon OS comparison.
Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets power the Meta Quest 3 and Samsung Project Moohan, but Project Moohan features the more powerful Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2. This new chipset allows Samsung to include higher resolution cameras and displays on Project Moohan, all while sporting better overall performance.
Neither are “laptop-grade” chips like what’s included in the Apple Vision Pro, but both chips are very capable and are roughly comparable in performance to a 2023 flagship smartphone with significant customizations to account for the extra processing needed for space tracking and motion tracking.
We know a some specs for Project Moohan but many technical specs, like amount of RAM, storage, and display resolution, are still unknown. It’s said that Samsung Project Moohan features micro-OLED panels with up to 3,000 DPI resolution. The Meta Quest 3 uses LCD panels with roughly 1,200 DPI resolution.
| Specs | Samsung Project Moohan | Meta Quest 3 |
| Display type | Micro-OLED | LCD |
| Display resolution | 3,000 DPI (rumored) | 1218 DPI (2208 x 2064 per eye) |
| Refresh rate | Unknown | 120Hz |
| Lens type | Pancake | Pancake |
| FoV | Unknown | 98° vertical, 106° horizontal |
| IPD adjustment | Automatic | Manual per mm |
| Speakers | Built-in stereo | Built-in stereo |
| Included head strap | Adjustable rigid plastic with back padding | Elastic cloth |
| Facial interface | Magnetically-removable | Removable via clips, velcro |
| Controllers | Supported | Included |
| Hand tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 | Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 |
| RAM | Unknown | 8GB |
| Weight | Unknown | 503g |
| Price | Unknown | $499 |
Both headsets use pancake lenses, but Samsung Project Moohan builds eye tracking into the lenses. This will enable Samsung to have even better performance thanks to something called foveated rendering. This technology allows the headset to render the highest resolution at the center of your vision while saving processing power by lowering the resolution outside of that.
Meta supports fixed foveated rendering which attempts to recreate the same concept without eye tracking. While it is effective in enhancing performance, it creates lower resolution outside of the center of the lens and reduces visual quality in those areas.
Considering you cannot buy Samsung Project Moohan yet, this one’s a bit of a no-brainer until then. The Meta Quest 3 is the best VR headset you can buy in terms of value and available software. It’s got the most games of any VR headset and, since it’s a standalone VR console, doesn’t need a PC or external display to work. That’s an amazing value for just $499.
Samsung Project Moohan will almost certainly sport better hardware than the Meta Quest 3 when it launches, but it’s expected that Samsung will charge quite a bit more for its first Android XR-powered headset. Current rumors estimate the price to be around $999, although we’ll need to wait until later in the year to actually find out.
If you’re looking to get into XR today, though, the Meta Quest 3 is the right choice as it not only has a vast library of games and support for many streaming services, but it also supports native Windows desktop streaming for easy hookup to a PC.
Why wait? The Meta Quest is already great
With thousands of games, popular streaming services, easy PC connectivity, and plenty of accessories to customize your experience, the Meta Quest 3 is already an amazing headset worth owning.
With great power…
Samsung and Google have a chance to redefine the XR experience with Android XR and Project Moohan, two very polished-looking products that are slated to debut later in 2025.