Somnium VR1, the European wide field of view PC VR headset, has started shipping to US customers, after already shipping in Europe in late 2024.
Alongside the milestone, the company is greatly simplifying its lineup by no longer selling all but three of the seven models it offered to preorder customers, and this includes no longer selling the base model. Somnium, a Czech company that was previously focused solely on their social VR platform
will also be raising the price of these remaining three models later this month. Somnium VR1 was announced in 2021 with the
in partnership with VRgineers, known for their Somnium Space headsets. Somnium VR1 started out as a standalone hybrid headset, powered by an embedded Snapdragon XR2 processor. However, in 2022 this idea was dropped in favor of a PC VR headset. Displays have a 20000:1 local dimming contrast, 100% NTSC colour gamut and 72Hz,90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates. An “experimental mode” 144Hz is also available. Somnium says that the displays, paired with dual-element lenses and large aspheric screens will deliver an output brightness of 210 nits to your eyes. This is around twice what Meta Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro can achieve. This is wider than any VR headset currently on the market. Pimax “5K” and “8K” were even wider, but are no longer in production and had significant distortion in the periphery.monster spec sheet for the timeThis focus on expanding field of view is why Somnium VR1 is so bulky in an era of far slimmer pancake lens headsets.ultra-high endSomnium says these four canceled variants were the least popular among preorders. While preorders will continue to receive these headsets, they will not be available for purchase by new customers.
The Visionary, Titan and Ultimate models will all feature eye tracking. The latter two also have hand tracking. Ultimate is the only model that has passthrough. But this new lineup brings the entry price for Somnium VR1 to EUR2500 – and these prices are set to increase on January 16.Pimax CrystalEye
Tracking
Hand
Tracking
Passthrough
| Price Classic |
EUR1900 | |||
| (for now) | Titan | EUR2900 | ||
| (for now) | Specter | EUR3100 | ||
| (for now) | Translucent | EUR3990 | ||
| As for new VR1 orders placed today, Somnium says those will take one to two months to ship, and that it is “trying to accelerate production as fast as we can to meet the demand”. | Later this year, it plans to start selling spare parts for Somnium VR1 to enable self-repairs. | We went hands-on with Somnium VR1 back in July. The full report is available at |
However, the experience of VR1’s lenses seems to vary considerably from person to person, far more than with most other headsets, and it’s unclear to what degree dialing in the configuration can solve issues you might experience. VR1 is a difficult headset to recommend. If you are still unsure, I recommend attending one of the community meetups that Somnium
holds in Europe or the US.