Lynx AR HERO

Lynx R1 launches as a standalone MR HMD

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The Lynx R1 is the first commercially available mixed reality headset to come out of the French start-up, but already it has some eye-catching attributes.

Primarily, the untethered R1 comes with Qualcomm’s powerful, 5G compatible, Snapdragon XR2 chip, allowing it to operate as a self-contained standalone unit, that offers 6DoF inside-out tracking, in addition to the now standard eye and hand tracking.

Dual LCD 1600 x 1600 90Hz displays leave it lagging somewhat behind competitor HMD from Varjo and VRgineers, but its cheaper price point and freedom from an external player might throw-up some interesting discussions in workflows where ultimate clarity is not the key driver.

Unique to the Lynx R1 are its ‘four-fold catadioptric freeform prism’ lenses. While they look to have quite a chunky build, the design gives a 90 degree circular view, and allow them to be fitted closer to the LCD panels.

Lynx R1 Prism display
The Lynx R1 uses a proprietary four-fold catadioptric freeform prism lens sat atop its LCD display

The four hours of battery life sounds like a lot for a piece of untethered hardware running under its own steam, but with 6 GB of LPDDR5 memory and 128 GB of onboard storage there’s a lot to look forward to testing.

Interestingly, the Lynx R-1 connects using Wifi 6, but also has a USB-C port that can be used to add a 5G modem and further unleash that Snapdragon XR2 chip, or to add an additional sensor for more custom projects.

Lynx add that the R1 is compatible with third party 3DoF and 6 DoF controllers, and it will be announcing technology partners soon, although its development appears to have been at least initially focussed for use with Unity3D.

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