Sony announced a new prototype version of its previously revealed XR standalone for enterprise. Codenamed ‘XYN’, the company says it’s targeting creators looking to make spatial content.
Update (January 9th, 2025): A previous version of this article reported that XYN was a rebadging of Sony’s SRH-S1 for enterprise, whereas it appears to be a prototype with still unconfirmed features. Thanks to Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost for the details and bringing it to our attention. An updated version of the article with that information follows below:
Original Article (January 7th, 2025): An enterprise version of the headset was initially unveiled at CES last year, however XYN (pronounced ‘zin’) seems to be a new variant of the enterprise device, which packs in some impressive displays, offering 13.6MP (3,552 × 3840) per-eye using Sony’s own ECX344A OLED microdisplay.
The Sony SRH-S1 “content creation system” revealed last year includes a display capable of 90 FPS and 1,000 nits (at 20% duty cycle), with 96% DCI-P3 color coverage, putting it above Apple Vision Pro in terms of resolution and color accuracy.
While Sony is staying tightlipped on specs, XYN appears to be a prosumer version of Sony SRH-S1, which Antony Vitillo of Skarred Ghost reports in a hands-on includes many of the same features, including mixed reality, 4K per-eye displays, a flip-up designs, and Snadpragon XR2+ Gen2 chipset.
Here’s the short of it from our hands-on with SRH-S1: on one hand, the headset’s ergonomics, flip-up design, and display clarity were all great. On the other, the system’s stylus-ring controller combo was very poorly tracked during our demo, and the content shown wasn’t well optimized for its internal Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset.
Beyond that, information is still thin on the ground. XYN’s price and release date are still uncertain, which is a baffling move as far as product announcements go. To boot, Vitillo reports XYN is a codename, and that it’s still a work-in-progress prototype.
What is known however is that its XYN Motion Studio PC companion software is coming out in March 2025, which supports connection with 12 ‘mocopi’ sensors for more seamless motion capture workflow.
Additionally, Sony is also launching what it calls its XYN Spatial capture solution, which converts images captured with a mirrorless camera and proprietary algorithms into high-quality, photorealistic 3D CG assets.
Notably, the headset itself is said to support “a wide range of third-party tools,” according to XYN’s press release.
That said, you probably shouldn’t expect XYN to compete with Quest on the lower end in terms of price-performance, as Sony’s standalone is targeting creatives and professional users. To differentiate the two, Sony seems to be offering XYN in a black color way, as SRH-S1 is housed in a more industrial grey colorway for enterprise.
