Canon MREAL S1 — specification and verdict
The MREAL S1 is not a training headset. It is a 137 g video see-through mixed-reality display that Canon sells into design review: two 1600x1200 panels at 120 Hz behind a narrow 45 x 34 degree field of view, with stereo cameras feeding a colour passthrough image so a full-scale CAD model can be checked against a real workshop. The narrow field means a trainee sees a letterbox of content surrounded by unaugmented reality, which is fine for judging a car interior mock-up and wrong for immersive procedure practice. There are no controllers in the box, so interaction is whatever the MREAL Platform software and hand tracking provide. Everything runs off a Windows workstation over Mini DisplayPort and a PCI Express card, so the wearer is tethered.
The S1 is sold in Japan through Canon IT Solutions and its distributors as part of an MREAL system, not as a headset you order on a card. Canon quotes an open price for the hardware and licenses the MREAL Platform software separately, and VRcompare put the headset alone at about USD 38,500 at announcement. The PC is a real line item: Canon's own MREAL Platform guidance calls for a Windows 10/11 workstation with a high core-count Core i9, 32 GB of memory and an RTX 3070 or RTX A5000 class GPU. There is no vendor MDM or kiosk mode, no fleet console and no per-seat app store, and we have found no European distribution for the S1, which makes a rollout in Poland or Germany a bespoke integration project.
Do not buy this for VR training. It is a tethered, controller-free, 45-degree-wide MR viewer built for design review inside Canon's own platform, our Android courses do not run on it, and the price is roughly two orders of magnitude above a standalone headset. If your requirement really is full-scale CAD review against a physical prototype, the S1 or its wider 58-degree sibling MREAL X1 is a serious tool; for anything a trainee has to practise, buy a standalone headset instead.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — PC-tethered devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 110°, from 39 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: 500 g, from 26 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $899, from 45 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
No controllers — hands only
Bare hands
Hand tracking works; nobody has published how detailed it is.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Canon
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — PC-tethered
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- PC-powered VR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2020-10-01
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2021
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- On sale
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
- micro-OLED
- OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
- Optics: not published by the manufacturer
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- 1600x1200
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 120 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 45° horizontal
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- 137 g
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- 45° horizontal · 34° vertical
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- RGB stripe · 3 subpixels per pixel
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- PassthroughWhat the front cameras give you: colour, grayscale, or nothing.
- Colour
- Passthrough camerasResolution, density and frame rate of that camera feed.
- Passthrough cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- IPD adjustmentMatching lens spacing to the eyes. Motorised is fastest when one headset passes between people.
- Manual
- IPD rangeHow far the lenses travel to match eye spacing. A narrow range excludes part of any group of adults, which matters when one headset is shared.
- IPD range: not published by the manufacturer
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Works with glasses: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Vision correction: not published by the manufacturer
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- 154 × 74 × 37 mm
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- 338 g
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Rigid halo strap
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- plastic
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Grey
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- inside-out 6DoF (video see-through MR)
- Base stationsWhether boxes have to be mounted on the walls before it works.
- Not needed
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Depth sensor: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- Yes*VRcompare
- Hand tracking detailHow much of the hand reaches the application: a pinch, or a jointed hand pose a scenario can read.
- Hand tracking detail: not published by the manufacturer
- Hands and controllers at onceWhether a controller in one hand and a bare hand in the other work at the same time.
- Hands and controllers at once: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking SDKThe SDK an application reaches the hand tracking through, and any named modes that change how it behaves.
- Hand tracking SDK: not published by the manufacturer
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- Face tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- Body tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- No
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- None (hands only)
- Other controllersWhether the headset works with controllers other than the ones it ships with.
- Other controllers: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- No
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- Yes
- Swappable facial interfaceRemovable, wipeable face padding. A consumable, and the difference between shared use and complaints.
- Swappable facial interface: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: not published by the manufacturer
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- Mini DisplayPort · PCI Express x4
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Over a cable
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Audio: not published by the manufacturer
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Microphone: not published by the manufacturer
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Enterprise
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $38500
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
- Comfort (from reviews)How it wears over a full session. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers, not from our own testing.
- Comfort (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Edge clarity (from reviews)Sharpness away from the centre of the lens. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Edge clarity (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking reliability (from reviews)How tracking holds up in poor light and fast movement. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews)How usable controller-free hand tracking is in a training scenario. Scored from agreement between reviewers.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
Automotive and heavy-industry design teams in Japan that already run Canon's MREAL Platform and need a 1:1 mixed-reality check of a CAD model against real hardware, with a workstation and an integrator behind them. Not for EHS or safety training departments, and not for anyone who needs more than one or two seats.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Canon publishes an open price rather than a figure, so the USD 38,500 in this record comes from VRcompare at announcement and no current street price could be confirmed. Canon does not name the panel technology; VRcompare records Micro LED, which our panel field cannot express exactly. Hand tracking is a VRcompare claim, not a line in Canon's specification table, and Canon's shared spec sheet lists a 55 to 78 mm interpupillary range across the MREAL Display line while VRcompare gives 57 to 76 mm for the S1, so we left the range out. Canon's maintenance table lists end-of-support dates for the older MD-10 and MD-20 displays but no production or support end date for the S1.
Canon MREAL S1 in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- The Water Studio2021
A walkthrough of what Canon's MR system is for: fusing rendered CG with real space so an operator can move around a virtual object freely. It also states the S1's position in the line — the entry model meant for everyday use, not the flagship.
Watch on YouTube - PhilanthroPwn2021
A news segment rather than a review, and the only consumer-facing coverage this headset received. Useful for the outside perspective: it explains why a camera manufacturer building a mixed-reality headset was treated as serious news rather than a curiosity.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
Canon MREAL S1 — frequently asked questions
- Can I run Skillsive VR training courses on the Canon MREAL S1?
- No. The MREAL S1 is a PC-tethered display driven from a Windows workstation through Canon's MREAL Platform, not an Android standalone headset, so our courses have no runtime on it. It also ships without controllers. Use a standalone Android headset for training and keep the S1 for the design-review work Canon built it for.
- Why does the Canon MREAL S1 cost around 38,500 dollars?
- The figure VRcompare recorded at announcement covers a low-volume industrial mixed-reality display with calibrated stereo passthrough cameras, sold as part of a Canon MREAL system rather than as a consumer product. Canon itself quotes an open price and adds the MREAL Platform software licence and a workstation on top. The comparison is with CAD review rigs, not with headsets.
- How wide is the field of view on the Canon MREAL S1 compared with the MREAL X1?
- Canon specifies about 45 degrees horizontal by 34 degrees vertical for the S1 and about 58 by 60 degrees for the X1, and describes the X1's display area as roughly 2.5 times that of the S1. The S1 is the smaller, lighter, more portable model at 338 grams with its head mount; the X1 is what you pick when the narrow window becomes the limiting factor.
Compare this device
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Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.