Simula One — specification and verdict
The Simula One is built around a detachable Intel Core i7-1365U compute pack with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, running SimulaOS, a Linux distribution whose job is to place desktop windows around you. The 2448x2448 LCD per eye across a 100 degree field of view gives the 35.5 pixels per degree that makes small text readable, which is the entire point of the design. For our training courses none of that matters: the platform is desktop Linux on x86, not Android, so a Skillsive course cannot be installed on it at all. Motorised IPD across 55 to 77 mm and a built-in diopter dial mean a trainee could physically get a sharp image, but there is nothing to show them.
There is nothing to deploy. The headset has been on preorder since it was announced on 2021-12-15, the standalone listing currently reads sold out, and the newest manufacturer updates from June and July 2026 are photographs of compute pack heatsinks and battery boards rather than shipping notices. SimulaVR is a small company selling direct from its own store, with no distributor presence in Poland or Germany, no vendor MDM, no kiosk mode and no enterprise licensing programme. Deposits stop being refundable one week after they are placed and stay that way until a headset arrives, which is an unusual amount of risk to carry on a training budget.
Do not order this for a training fleet. It is a developer workstation project, not a course delivery device, and after nearly five years of preorders there is still no date we can hold anyone to. If you want a headset that runs our courses, buy an Android standalone; if you specifically want Linux VR, follow the SimulaVR blog and spend nothing until units actually ship.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — standalone devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: 102°, from 24 models that publish the figure.
Median for this class: $599, from 32 models that publish the figure.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- SimulaVR
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — standalone
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone VR, also PC-powered
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2021-12-15
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- Released: not published by the manufacturer
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Announced
- 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.
- LCD
- 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.
- 2448x2448
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- 90/120 Hz
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- 100°
- 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.
- 35.5 PPD
- 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.
- Weight: not published by the manufacturer
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- Visible field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- 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.
- Motorised
- 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.
- 55–77 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Yes
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Fits over glasses
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Rigid strap with a dial
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- plastic · foam facial interface
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Black · White
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- Haptics in the headset: not published by the manufacturer
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- inside-out 6DoF
- Base stationsWhether boxes have to be mounted on the walls before it works.
- Base stations: not published by the manufacturer
- 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
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- Yes*VRcompare spec sheet
- 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.
- Controllers included: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller modelThe manufacturer's own name for the controller.
- Controller model: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- Controller tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Finger tracking on the controllerWhether the controller senses individual fingers, and how.
- Finger tracking on the controller: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller inputsButtons, sticks and triggers the controller offers.
- Controller inputs: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller hapticsVibration feedback in the hand.
- Controller haptics: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller powerDisposable cells or a built-in rechargeable — a fleet question.
- Controller power: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller weightOne controller, as the vendor weighs it.
- Controller weight: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- PerformanceHow much the headset can run — sharper scenes, more objects, smoother mixed reality. Higher is better.
- Performance: not published by the manufacturer
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- Intel Core i7-1365U
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- 10-core, 12-thread Intel Core i7
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 16 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- SimulaOS
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- 1000 GB
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- SD card slot: not published by the manufacturer
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- Battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- Battery capacity (mAh): not published by the manufacturer
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: 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.
- No
- 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.
- USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 · 2x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort Alt-Mode · 2x USB-A 3.2 · 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi 6
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- 5.2
- 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.
- Headphone jack
- 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.
- Premium
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $3499
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Standalone, 16 GB RAM (MSRP) $3499 · Founders Edition $4999
- 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
This is for Linux developers and engineers who want their editor and terminal floating around them at 35.5 pixels per degree, and who are comfortable funding hardware that is still being manufactured. It is not for a safety trainer, an HR department or anyone who needs a working headset on a fixed date.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
SimulaVR publishes no headset weight, no dimensions, no battery capacity or runtime for the compute pack, and says nothing about controllers, so we do not know what arrives in the box. The maker's page also now lists an i7-1365U and Wi-Fi 6 where the VRcompare sheet still has an i7-1265U and Wi-Fi 6E, and eye tracking appears only on the aggregator, not on the manufacturer's own specification. No firm ship date is published anywhere, so we deliberately left the expected release empty.
Simula One — frequently asked questions
- Has the Simula One actually shipped yet?
- No. It was announced on 2021-12-15 and is still sold as a preorder in August 2026. The most recent manufacturer posts, from June and July 2026, show compute pack enclosures, heatsinks and battery boards in production, and the store page still carries an expected shipping note from an earlier year. Treat any ship date you see as an estimate that has already moved several times.
- Do Skillsive VR training courses run on SimulaOS?
- No. Our courses are Android applications for standalone headsets, and the Simula One runs SimulaOS, a desktop Linux system on an x86 Intel processor. There is no Android runtime to install them into, which is why we mark the device incompatible rather than merely unsupported. For Linux-based teams that still want our content, the practical answer is a separate Android headset for training.
- What is the difference between the 3,499 USD standalone and the 4,999 USD Founders Edition?
- Both are the same headset with the detachable compute pack; the Founders Edition costs 1,500 USD more and buys priority in the shipping queue, according to SimulaVR's own preorder pages. Given that no unit has shipped yet, that priority is the whole product you are paying the premium for. A cheaper tethered configuration without the compute pack is also listed.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-10. 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.