Somnium VR1 Price Hike Raises Base Model to €3000

Somnium, a rising startup from the Czech Republic, initially made waves with its social virtual reality platform, Somnium Space. However, in late 2021, the company shifted gears, unveiling its ambitious Somnium VR1 headset. In collaboration with VRgineers, a company renowned for its high-end XTAL headsets geared towards enterprises, Somnium VR1 boasted impressive specifications for its time. Although it was initially conceptualized as a hybrid headset, featuring a standalone function via a Snapdragon XR2 chipset, by 2022, Somnium opted to reinvent it solely as a PC VR headset.

What sets the VR1 apart is its display technology. It shares the same 2880×2880 QD-LCD with Mini-LED panels found in the Pimax Crystal. These displays offer a 20,000:1 contrast ratio through local dimming, cover 100% of the NTSC color gamut, and offer a choice of refresh rates—72Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz—with an “experimental” 144Hz mode as well. At 210 nits, the output brightness to the eyes is about double that of the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro.

Accompanying these remarkable displays are large dual-element aspheric lenses. Somnium claims these lenses allow for a field of view of about 130 degrees horizontally and 105 degrees vertically, which is notably wider than that offered by any other VR headset currently available. While Pimax’s “5K” and “8K” models were indeed wider, they have been phased out, primarily due to significant peripheral distortion.

This emphasis on a larger field of view accounts for the Somnium VR1’s substantial design in an era where slender pancake lens headsets are becoming the norm.