Samsung’s Project Moohan headphone has a secret weapon. You’ve got the lowdown

While Meta’s Quest headset line dominates the VR space, mixed reality — using digital displays that overlay the real world — represents a new frontier I’m only beginning to explore, and goes beyond new Meta Ray-Ban Generation 2 To devices closer to Ray Ban offer glasses. This is the place View Google Project Moohan MR Aim to make progress. Unlike its previous efforts in this space, such as Google Glass, the company hopes to gain an advantage by partnering with Qualcomm and Samsung to boost its chances.

At the Snapdragon 2025 Summit in Maui, I sat down to chat with him Samir Samedhead of Google’s Android division, and Alex Katouzian, general manager of Qualcomm’s mobile, computing and XR group, to check it out. Mohan Project And how to expand Android and Gemini combine with collaboratively designed headphones. Which, despite CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein Get hands-on time With an early version released last December, it is still under development.

“We’re very excited about the device coming out really well,” Samat said. “We’re definitely getting close.”

It was clear to attendees at the Snapdragon Summit that Moohan’s project was still in development. The headset was quietly placed in an easy-to-miss corner of the action, on display for only two hours under glass and out of anyone’s hands. But Samat was optimistic about the progress made in the past year, which includes “subtle but very important improvements to the hardware,” he said.

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On the design side, Samat clearly pointed out the improvements in weight balance, ensuring the ergonomics are correct and that light enters where it should be. Weight balance is crucial in designing smart glasses that are expected to be worn for hours on end. when Apple Vision Pro Launching in early 2024, CNET’s Stein noted that the headset felt more hefty after just half an hour when using the standard single strap. However, using the double strap was more comfortable, but, as he put it, “it looks like the headband on my CPAP machine.” In short: “There are a bunch of changes that I don’t think you see when you look at it, but when you put it before and after, I think people will notice that a lot.”

“I’ve seen early prototypes so far, and there’s a big difference,” Katouzian added. “I think the weight and balance are really good and mechanically designed very well.”

Moohan’s project uses Qualcomm’s XR2 mixed reality chip. Katouzian said the company worked with Google and Samsung to improve everything.

Samat continued that the software has come a long way, and was quick to stress that there has been a lot of improvement in integrating Gemini into the headset. This brings Moohan’s project into the barrel that Qualcomm and Google have been beating throughout Snapdragon Summit 2025: The Gemini experience that uses multiple large language models to answer queries will be an increasingly important part of using devices, from phones to laptops to headphones, going forward.

“What would happen if, in user experience, your AI assistant could see and hear what you hear… if they could see the same virtual world that you see at the same time, and you could ask them to walk around and explore that world with you?” Samat said. “I play around with this a lot. Even to explore places, like going somewhere in Google Maps and then walking around and asking Gemini questions and exploring an entire city with it.”

Bringing contextual information to the screen as you go about your day has been the dream of old experiences, like the mixed reality glasses Google Glass released in 2013 and Google Daydream in 2016, which turned your phone into an augmented reality headset. Samat made an oblique reference to these, saying the company “had its fair share of innovation and leadership, but also some things that could have worked better.”

But Samat also pointed out what’s changed in the meantime — one of which is the computational power from chips like the Qualcomm XR2 that powers Moohan’s project. This silicon “unlocks another level of precision,” he said, pointing to other technical advances, such as the optics in eye-tracking devices. AI has improved overall, too, with non-Gemini apps that can, for example, enhance Google Photos with AI experiences uniquely enabled in the XR world — experiences that “you’ll see soon enough,” Samat joked.

The companies believe that combining Google’s software, Qualcomm’s computing power, and Samsung’s ergonomic design will create something special that fits the mixed reality format better than anything we’ve seen before.

In addition to Project Mohan, Google is exploring a whole host of ideas, including smart glasses. At some point, they’ll take what’s been developed for its mixed reality headsets and pare it down to something that will directly compete with Meta’s Ray-Ban Display and other products like it. And with Samsung in the mix, there’s a lot of potential.

“The proximity between glasses and phone will bring an advantage that was not present in the market before,” Katouzian said.

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If a smartglasses collaboration does happen, Google has another feature that might be more attractive than Gemini’s integration: individual mode. Not everyone wants smart glasses Ray Ban or Oakley. Google previously announced it was working with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to put a successor to Moohan’s project into a variety of frames, which could appeal to consumers who aren’t fans of it. Sport wraparound shades.

“Aesthetic is very important,” Samat said. “Yes, of course, it’s a piece of technology, but it also has to be something you want to wear.”