iQOO 15, Realme GT8 official, Galaxy XR is here, Week 43 in review

The iQOO 15 went official this week, and it's rocking a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC and a potent 7,000mAh battery. The 6.85-inch 144Hz gaming phone is out in China first, and it shattered the sales records, selling in just 30 minutes what its predecessor did in its first day.

Realme brought us the GT8 Pro and GT8. Both have camera systems tuned by imaging great, Ricoh, but the Pro has nicer cameras and a swappable camera island bezel design. The GT8 Pro has the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, while its sibling has last year's generation Snapdragon. Both phones are on sale in China, and we're eagerly awaiting a global move.

Samsung unveiled its first Android XR device - the Galaxy XR headset. It has micro-OLED displays with 3,552 x 3,840px resolution for a total of 27 megapixels (that is close to 8K resolution). The supported refresh rates are the 72Hz default, a 60Hz option, and a 90Hz option. The virtual display covers 109° horizontally and 100° vertically. Two cameras on board can be used for video passthrough (allowing you to see the world outside for an XR experience). The cameras can also capture 3D photos and videos. They have 18mm f/2.0 wide-angle lenses and 6.5MP sensors. Additionally, there are six world-facing cameras for what is known as inside-out tracking – position tracking without external hardware required, just you and your headset.

The Galaxy XR weighs 545g with the forehead cushion, and there is a separate battery that weighs 302g. The weight doesn’t include the light shield or the optional cushion size adjusters. The Samsung Galaxy XR is powered by the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2. This has a 20% faster CPU and a 15% faster GPU than the regular XR2 Gen 2 and supports 12ms full-color video passthrough. The chipset is paired with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

The Galaxy XR can run any Android app, but developers can use platforms like OpenXR, WebXR, and Unity to create apps for it. There's a built-in theater-like experience, and you can watch multiple things at once.

Samsung is now selling the Galaxy XR for $1,800 in the US and Korea.

Next-gen Galaxy S26 units will all use the Exynos 2600 SoC, which, according to rumor, will be better than the current Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Still, some Galaxy S26 units will use Samsung-produced Snapdragon chipsets as well.

The OnePlus 15 will be unveiled in China on October 27 and will pack a 7,300mAh battery. Camera-wise, expect the OnePlus 15 to have a 3.5x zoom option.