Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon XR2+, Upgraded Chipset for VR Glasses Ahead of CES 2024
American chip designer Qualcomm is announcing the Snapdragon XR2+ chipset, as an upgrade to the standard XR2 Gen 2 chip that was introduced in September 2023. It will be officially presented at the upcoming technology fair CES 2024, and is intended for VR and MR glasses, as well as other wearable devices.
The new Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset supports a resolution of 4.3K per “single eye” on the glasses, compared to the previous version which had 3K. The new chip, as announced by Qualcomm, can integrate up to 12 cameras simultaneously for body tracking and the Passthrough function.
This feature allows you to step outside of your view in the VR device, to see a real-time view of your surroundings. Additionally, the company promises that devices with this chip will be able to enter full-color Passthrough in less than 12ms.
When it comes to standard specs, the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 can handle content up to 90 fps. This chip also represents an improvement in raw power, with an approximate 20 percent increase in CPU speed and 15 percent increase in GPU speed over last year's chip. It is important to note that all these functions are integrated in one chip to save space, which is not easy to achieve in most VR glasses.
QualcommQualcomm will likely present only the chip at CES, as it hasn't announced any devices that will use it. However, the company said it is working on something with Samsung and Google that will include the XR2+ Gen 2. The previous XR2 Gen 2 chip powers the recently launched Meta Quest 3 VR glasses, so we expect this upgrade to enable even more powerful standalone VR glasses in the near future. .