For the past year, we’ve heard next to nothing about Sony’s deeply anticipated SRH-S1 standalone mixed reality headset, which first came to light at CES 2024. However, exciting news has just landed: this enterprise-centric device now has an official launch timeline and pricing details.
Teaming up with Siemens, Sony is set to release the straightforwardly named SRH-S1. This headset is slated for a February 2025 debut, carrying a price tag of $4,750, specifically aimed at the business sector. Interested customers can start placing their orders from January 23, 2025, exclusively through Siemens.
Although last year’s buzz portrayed the SRH-S1 as a potential hit among creative professionals, Sony and Siemens have since shifted gears, now focusing on industrial applications. Their joint press statements suggest that the headset is designed to “power the industrial metaverse” and fine-tune everything from product design to manufacturing workflows via Siemens’ sophisticated mixed reality tools.
The SRH-S1 is feature-packed, delivering impressive visuals through its 13.6MP (3,552 × 3840) per-eye resolution, thanks to Sony’s ECX344A OLED microdisplay. Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, it also integrates what Sony describes as a “proprietary rendering technology,” crucial for real-time 3D object creation.
As a mixed reality device, this headset incorporates passthrough video capabilities and a convenient flip-up visor. It comes paired with ergonomic controllers designed for seamless 3D interactions, cleverly constructed as a stylus-type pointer and a ring for enhanced user experiences.
Siemens, over the past year, has been diligently refining its Immersive Engineering tools tailored for businesses. These tools empower SRH-S1 users to craft 3D assets in CAD, engage with various models, and even conduct collaborative, multi-user design reviews virtually through Siemens’ cloud-based NX X platform.
Bob Haubrock, Senior Vice President of Product Engineering Software at Siemens Digital Industries Software, emphasized, “Since showcasing our HMD at CES last year, our joint teams have fashioned tools that redefine mixed reality’s role in engineering. This not only supports global team collaboration with high-fidelity 3D models but also enables co-creation on crucial 3D CAD data within a secure, managed framework.”
In a related announcement at this week’s CES, Sony also hinted at an upcoming headset tailored for creatives, dubbed the XYN. While details on pricing and release remain under wraps, the XYN is speculated to be an evolution of the SRH-S1, differentiated mainly by its sleek black finish compared to the SRH-S1’s grey exterior. Though still in prototype form, this creative-focused headset seeks to broaden its appeal beyond the enterprise market.
