Sony’s new headset, formally dubbed the SRH-S1 “content material creation system” combines a compact form-factor with novel controllers. I acquired to take a look at the headset first-hand at AWE 2024 and got here away impressed with the headset itself, even when the enter and monitoring nonetheless want some work.
The yet-to-be-priced Sony SRH-S1 is being designed as an enterprise headset. It’s constructed with Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor for standalone utilization. Sony additionally tells us it may be pushed by a PC by a compressed video stream (like Quest Hyperlink).
Sony confirmed to Street to VR the headset’s precise decision is 13.6MP (3,552 × 3840) per-eye, utilizing Sony’s own ECX344A OLED microdisplay. The show is able to 90 FPS and 1,000 nits (at 20% obligation cycle), with 96% DCI-P3 shade protection. Meaning the Sony SRH-S1 with has increased decision and higher shade accuracy than Imaginative and prescient Professional:
- Sony SRH-S1:
- 13.6MP per-eye
- 96% DCI-P3
- Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional
- 11.7MP per-eye
- 92% DCI-P3
The Sony MR headset additionally has compact lenses with a flip-up visor, and two totally distinctive controllers: one is a star-shaped pointer, and the opposite is a hoop that goes in your finger.
The SRH-S1’s ergonomic design is hits all the fitting notes. The headset has hardware-adjustable IPD, flip-up visor, rear-mounted battery for steadiness, and eye-relief adjustment. The attention-relief adjustment permits you to convey the lenses as shut as potential to your eyes for the utmost field-of-view.
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And although it’s all plastic, the headset and controllers really feel nicely constructed, together with the flip-up visor mechanism. Sony pitches the flip-up visor primarily so a consumer sitting at a related laptop can see the complete decision of their show, then flip down the visor once they’re able to view digital content material.
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Granted, even with the eye-relief dialed all the way in which in, the field-of-view wasn’t expansive. It felt smaller than one thing like Quest 3, however not too small to be helpful. A smaller field-of-view additionally means the headset’s pixels are much more densely packed, which—if the optics are as much as the duty—would imply notably sharper imagery than Quest 3 or Vision Pro.
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In my brief time with the headset the show seemed impressively sharp with completely no particular person seen pixels. Nonetheless, the content material I noticed wasn’t nice for clearly evaluating how the sharpness stacks as much as modern headsets. I can say although that the optics appeared to have nice edge-to-edge readability, rivaling what I’m used to seeing with Quest 3’s wonderful lenses.
I observed some reflections within the lenses, although I’m pretty sure most of this was on account of exterior mild reaching the lenses from the headset’s open periphery. I didn’t get to attempt it however Sony has proven the headset with a delicate peripheral blocker add-on for while you’d somewhat have much less reflections and extra immersion.
The demo seen I noticed was a digital filming setup the place I used to be capable of transfer and alter a digital digicam that was capturing a digital scene. I may additionally management the lighting by shifting lights round and charging their colours.
Whereas every part seemed very sharp, the content material being proven didn’t look nicely optimized for working on a standalone headset. That made the expertise fairly uneven—most likely not working at a gentle 90 FPS because it ought to—which made the head-tracking really feel sub-par.
This most likely impacted the sensation of the controller-tracking too, although I feel the controllers had their very own points with latency and precision. The ring controller specifically had tons of jitter, making it fairly dangerous for any form of precision enter—even simply grabbing and shifting issues. The star-shaped controller felt rather more exact, not simply because the monitoring was extra regular, but additionally since you naturally maintain it with an outstretched index finger, making it a pure ‘pointing gadget’. Even so it didn’t really feel as exact as what you’d anticipate from a Quest 2 or Quest 3 controller.
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I fairly just like the idea of the SRH-S1 controllers, however they want some work nonetheless on extra than simply monitoring. Each controllers even have bodily buttons on them that are elegantly hidden underneath the pores and skin… which additionally makes it very unintuitive to know they even exist.
The rep displaying me the headset was making an attempt to explain the placement of one of many buttons for me to press by saying one thing like “it’s in your index finger,” however they weren’t speaking concerning the button underneath the tip of my finger. As an alternative, there’s one other hidden button that you simply press with the within of the primary section of your index finger (earlier than you attain the primary knuckle).
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I actually don’t know if I’ve ever pressed a button utilizing that a part of my finger. So past being invisible, the truth that it’s in a bizarre place made it much more of an odd selection. It’s not essentially a dangerous selection; this could be an effective way to get two distinct inputs from one finger, given the distinctive controller design, nevertheless it must be rather more intuitive.
And, certainly, it’s possible consumer expertise particulars which is able to make or break the Sony’s SRH-S1 MR headset as a viable competitor to different headsets available on the market. I really feel pretty assured the corporate can get the gadget’s head and controller-tracking tightened up with none breakthroughs or main redesigns. However does Sony anticipate enterprise builders to determine all of the small particulars about learn how to train customers to make use of these distinctive controllers, and learn how to use them greatest of their purposes?
Sony says the SRH-S1 is particularly made to work with Siemens NX, a complete suite of CAD instruments utilized by Sony itself. Presumably it is going to work with a wider vary of software program too, however presently it’s unclear what software program platform or software program customary the headset will assist. Presumably OpenXR compatibility can be a sensible choice as an open customary, however even past that it’s not clear if Sony plans to keep up a software program distribution platform for the headset or depart it as much as firms to determine learn how to deploy and handle the software program.
Regardless of this being an MR headset, Sony sadly wasn’t prepared to point out the passthrough view, saying it was nonetheless being labored on.
Sony plans to launch the SRH-S1 headset later this 12 months. However pricing, regional availability, and software program compatibility haven’t been introduced but.