Somnium, a startup hailing from the Czech Republic, initially made its mark with its social VR platform, Somnium Space. However, in the latter part of 2021, it turned heads with the announcement of the Somnium VR1 headset, boasting impressive specifications for the era. This move was in collaboration with VRgineers, the company renowned for its high-end XTAL headsets tailored for enterprise use. Initially, Somnium VR1 was envisioned as a hybrid headset, equipped with standalone capabilities thanks to an onboard Snapdragon XR2 chipset. By 2022, the company had shifted its focus, opting to refine it into a purely PC VR headset.
The VR1 shares the 2880×2880 QD-LCD with Mini-LED panels with the Pimax Crystal. These displays offer a 20000:1 contrast ratio through local dimming, cover 100% of the NTSC color gamut, and accommodate refresh rates of 72Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz. There’s even an “experimental” mode that reaches 144Hz. The brightness level it delivers to users is 210 nits, which is about twice as much as what the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro provide.
These advanced displays are coupled with large dual-element aspheric lenses. Somnium asserts that these lenses provide a field of view roughly 130° horizontally and 105° vertically, surpassing that of any other VR headset currently available. While Pimax’s “5K” and “8K” headsets once boasted even wider fields of view, they have since been discontinued due to significant distortion issues at the periphery.
The dedication to achieving an expanded field of view explains the VR1’s bulky design—a notable contrast to the more streamlined pancake lens headsets seen in today’s market.
