The Somnium VR1 promises to be the headset of choice for PC VR enthusiasts with the cash to spend, but does it live up to those expectations? We recently took it for a spin to find out.
If you’re interested in learning more about the specs and details of the Somnium VR1, check out my previous post about the headset opening for pre-orders, which also features my first impressions of the experience these specs create.
Somnium VR1 PC VR headset finally set to launch in July
Somnium VR1 is a wired PC VR headset with a 3K display and boasts the widest, distortion-free field of view of any consumer headset to date.
I was invited to try out Somnium VR1 by Artur Sychov, founder and CEO of Somnium Space, who covered my return airfare and accommodation from the UK to Prague. If you’ve read my articles before you’ll know that this doesn’t influence my impressions in any way, but I think it’s important to make it clear nonetheless.
The main reason I’m describing this as a “first impressions” article instead of a regular hands-on is because, frankly, I didn’t have much time to really try out the Somnium VR1. Somnium Connect was a 12-hour event, but the time allotted for demos was less than two hours, one near the start and one near the end, which was about the time that lunch was served. Combined with the four demo headsets for the 100 attendees in line, this meant that each person only had about 10 to 20 minutes to really try out the headset.
The rest of the day was taken up with talks from some of the biggest names in the European XR industry, with no VR1 demos during that time. Don’t get me wrong, talks from the likes of Lynx founder Stan Larroque and Ultraleap’s Emily Savage were interesting and engaging, but both I and the other attendees couldn’t help but wish they’d spent a bit more time talking about the hardware.
While with some headsets it can take 10-20 minutes to get the position just right, the Somnium VR1 is a highly configurable device, with PC tools offering a wide range of settings that can dramatically affect the experience, as detailed below.
Somnium VR1: First impressions
The first thing I noticed when I put the Somnium VR1 on was that it certainly offers a wider, distortion-free field of view than any consumer headset to date — definitely wider than the Meta Quest 3 or the Valve Index.
No, it wasn’t quite the full immersion I felt when I tried the $10,000 XTAL 3, which offers a 180-degree horizontal field of view, but the Somnium VR1 offers a much better feeling of immersion at a fraction of its price. I did notice a little bit of geometric distortion around the edges, but only at the edges of the lenses, and it’s nowhere near the level I saw with the old Pimax headset.
However, my excitement was quickly dampened when I encountered a strange issue I hadn’t seen in a VR headset in years. When looking at certain areas of the lenses, my eyes would not be able to focus and would begin to converge, causing what I can only describe as a strange “cross-eyed” sensation. This was true no matter where I set the IPD slider, and even when it was aligned exactly to my own IPD. At first, I thought one of the demo headsets was faulty, but the second headset exhibited the same symptoms, quickly ruling that out.
While most attendees did not report this issue, XR enthusiast Brad Lynch said he experienced the same problem. When I mentioned this to Sychov, he was initially puzzled. But then he took me out for more demos and we started trying out different lens distortion matrix settings available in the Somnium PC software tool. This made the problem less severe. I didn’t have enough time to find the perfect settings for my eyes, but with enough time, I can imagine that I would eventually find the perfect settings.
But when I could get the focus right, or close one eye beforehand, the image quality was excellent. It felt similar to the Varjo Aero, but with better contrast, slightly better color, and crucially, much improved brightness. As someone who’s been using the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest headsets a lot lately, I was surprised at just how bright the Somnium VR1 was.
In terms of comfort, the VR1 was surprisingly comfortable for a headset with a total weight of 850 grams. This is likely due to the rather unique feature of the side straps, which feature a hinge midway down the side. This hinge allows the thick rear padding to be rotated precisely to the desired position behind the head, while at the same time allowing the visor itself to be positioned independently to align the lenses with your eyes. However, headset comfort is best measured over a few hours of use, not a few minutes, so don’t draw any hard conclusions from this.
Footage of me using Somnium VR, taken by YouTuber Tyriel Wood.
And the unexpected star of the show was the Somnium VR1’s pass-through. Though not depth-corrected, the image quality of the pass-through was better than any other headset I’ve tried, including the Apple Vision Pro and Varjo XR-4. This is likely because it uses a much larger sensor than the smaller ones used in other headsets, allowing it to capture more light and avoid graininess, and the sharpening and noise reduction algorithms are nicely tuned.
Another impressive thing about VR1’s pass-through is the ability to use Somnium’s software to mask out only certain areas – in this demo, masks were used to show the actual flight simulation cockpit and controls, and of course the hands and arms, while the outside of the cockpit remained completely virtual.
What the Somnium VR1 lacks compared to headsets like the Valve Index and Bigscreen Beyond with Audio Strap is integrated audio. You’ll need to add your own headphones here, but the VR1 has modular anchor points on both sides and the bottom, which could lead to community audio add-ons.
Somnium VR 1: Conclusion
Somnium VR1 starts at €1,900, but if you want eye tracking for foveated rendering, that price rises to €2,500, and if you have an impressive cockpit that you want to mask with a pass-through, the Ultimate edition will set you back a staggering €3,500 – and of course that doesn’t include the necessary SteamVR tracking base station.
Given the price, this is obviously not the next mainstream VR headset, nor is it the next Valve Index, but it could be the ideal headset for relatively well-heeled flight and racing simulator enthusiasts who are used to spending thousands of dollars to get the ideal setup. Native DisplayPort images delivered to a truly wide field of view, with nearly 3K resolution and eye tracking, are not currently available from any company at any price.
However, the comfort of the VR1’s lenses seems to vary from person to person much more than with most other headsets, and it’s unclear to what extent tweaking the settings would solve any issues you may have. As such, it’s a hard headset to recommend. Somnium is hosting community meetups in both Europe and the US to let potential buyers try on the headset, so if you’re on the fence, I suggest you attend one of these meetups to see how well the VR1 suits your eyes, not mine.
