Qualcomm’s Powerful Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 Platform To Take On Apple Vision Pro

Qualcomm is updating its chip lineup with the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 in order to compete with Apple in the spatial computing space. This is an upgrade to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 with several performance improvements, with the aim of bringing a smooth experience that hits a target of 90 frames per second. Samsung and Google are both partners working with Qualcomm to bring new products to market.

The CPU portion of the chip is getting a frequency bump of about 15%, while the GPU will be getting a slightly bigger boost of 20%, which according to Qualcomm will “deliver crisp visuals with faster frequency rates, less jitter and stunning details.” It will also be capable of foveated rendering and game super resolution, technologies that will help in reaching resolutions as high as 4K.


Qualcomm’s vice president and general manager of XR, Hugo Swart, says that “Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 unlocks 4.3K resolution which will take XR productivity and entertainment to the next level by bringing spectacularly clear visuals to use cases such as room-scale screens, life-size overlays and virtual desktops.”

This new horsepower will also receive an assist from powerful on-device AI that will allow headsets utilizing this new platform to use 12 or more cameras to track a user, the user’s movements, and the environment surrounding the user. This is important data that that developers can use to create more immersive experiences.

This new platform shows that Qualcomm is serious about not letting Apple have this market all to itself. It’s especially important that they have both Google and Samsung on board as partners. However, whether any of these companies have the patience to wait for this market to grow is still up on the air.