When it comes to choosing a virtual reality (VR) headset there are plenty of options available at a variety of price points, which can get a little confusing. Getting a lot of the attention is the Oculus Quest thanks to its standalone, wire-free, ability and consumer-friendly price point. In general standalone headsets are a hot topic as they’re seen as the future so its no surprise that the announcement of the LYNX-R1 has sparked plenty of interest.
In what was expected to be a big announcement stream but ended up being a short flashy trailer, the LYNX-R1 is a high-end standalone headset which fuses VR and augmented reality (AR) together. While the video gave a good look at the headset’s design, with a selection of front-facing sensors, buttons on the side of the headband, a large cushioned back with dial tightening and a hinged connection for easily dropping in and out of VR/AR, many questions were still left unanswered.
Starting with the ones that were, the LYNX-R1 is being classed as a mixed reality headset with two B&W cameras for positional tracking, two IR cameras for eye tracking and two RGB cameras for pass-through AR functionality. It’ll be able to offer 6-degree’s-of-freedom (6DoF) tracking as well as hand tracking, all powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon XR2 platform.
When it comes to the visuals the device features a 1600×1600 resolution LCD display for each eye running at 90Hz. It’ll have what the company calls a ‘4-fold catadioptric freeform prism’ providing a claim 90-degree field-of-view (FoV) and 18 pixels-per degree.
Other specs include a two hours battery life, passive cooling, 128GB of onboard storage, stereo speakers, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity plus a USB Type-C port.
All this will set you back a cool $1499 USD, indicating the LYNX-R1 is being marketed towards the enterprise sector for training and other use cases. What hasn’t been mentioned is what sort of software platform the headset will use. Whether it’ll be one designed inhouse or be more agnostic to accept content from a range of services.
Pre-orders have gone live for the LYNX-R1, where you can place a fully refundable $150 deposit to secure one of the first batch, slated for a Summer 2020 launch. As further updates are made available, VRFocus will let you know.