Standalone VR headsets are finally ready to make a big leap forward

Tech company media events broadly divide into two categories: Apple-style events where completed new products are revealed just before they hit stores, and Qualcomm-style events where new technologies are revealed well ahead of actual availability — sometimes without even naming the first products that will include the innovations. Rather than proclaiming one type of event better than the other, I view both as valuable. Apple reveals “what is now,” while Qualcomm shows off “what will be.”

Last December, Qualcomm announced a breakthrough chipset called the Snapdragon XR2 for mixed reality devices. Specifically built for standalone VR and AR headsets, XR2 appeared ready to smoke the smartphone-ready Snapdragon 835 chips used in devices like the consumer Oculus Quest and enterprise HTC Vive Focus Plus, thanks to generation-caliber performance improvements. A chart promised twice the CPU and GPU performance, 4 times the pixel throughput, 6 times the display resolution, and 11 times the dedicated AI TOPS. In short, XR2-based all-in-one VR headsets would perform far more like PCs than mobile phones.