There’s no question that smartphones have come a long way over the past decade or so, replacing conventional computers for a lot of people (especially from younger generations) with bigger and bigger screens, thinner and thinner bezels, more and more horsepower, and a constantly expanding scope of capabilities.
Are handsets soon to become a thing of the past?
Standalone is the (costly) dream
At least for the time being, Samsung is envisioning a headset capable of playing games and movies, as well as sending emails and making video calls with the help of a transparent screen of some sort and possibly little else. Unsurprisingly, the company also aims to (eventually) integrate this device with other in-house products, like Galaxy Watches and DeX software.
In other words, these could be the non-Lite Samsung Glasses designed to provide the existing Microsoft HoloLens 2 some serious competition in the business-friendly AR niche. AR Office, Holo Call, and AR Simulation are the three visionary use cases promoted in the short but incredibly exciting 30-second video embedded above.
Unfortunately, the HoloLens 2 still costs a whopping $3,500, and while it’s obviously far too early to make any specific predictions on the retail pricing of Samsung’s first Microsoft and Apple-rivaling AR headsets, something tells us they’ll probably also land in sell-a-kidney-to-afford-them territory.
