Lynx Teases New Headset – Will It Run Google’s Android XR?

Lynx teased its next headset, which could run Google’s Android XR, with a dark image.

If you’re unfamiliar, Lynx is a French startup that in 2020 announced Lynx-R1, a standalone mixed reality headset with an open periphery design, and ran a Kickstarter for it in 2021.

Had it shipped on time, in 2022, Lynx-R1 would have been the first consumer standalone headset with color passthrough. But after repeated delays it was beaten to market by Meta Quest Pro, and by the time most backers had received their headset, Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro had shipped too.

Further, at the time of the Kickstarter Lynx-R1 was envisioned as a roughly $500 consumer product, directly competing with Meta Quest headsets, and backers did eventually receive their headsets for this price or a refund offer. But the price for new orders rose to $850 and then $1300 as the company pivoted to primarily targeting businesses.

Lynx-R1 Production Has Been “An Absolute Mess”

Lynx-R1 production has been “an absolute mess”, says the founder & CEO in a new blog post explaining the reasons.

Lynx founder Stan Larroque tells UploadVR that his company has “learned so much with the R1” in regards to electronics supply chains, and will not do a Kickstarter for the new headset.

He’s staying tight-lipped in regards to specs and details, but will share more “early next month”.

When Google revealed its Android XR operating system back in December, it announced that Sony, Lynx, and Xreal were building devices for it too. While Samsung is set to introduce Android XR with Galaxy XR, the announcement suggests that Lynx’s new headset could be the second device to run it.

Sony, Lynx, And Xreal Are Building Android XR Devices Too

While Samsung’s headset will be the first, Sony, Lynx, and Xreal are building Android XR devices too.

We expect the new Lynx headset to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 or XR2+ Gen 2, the chipsets in Quest 3 and upcoming Samsung Galaxy XR respectively, given that the current Lynx-R1 uses the original Snapdragon XR2 (also used in Quest 2).

Lynx also has a strong focus on openness and open-source, and recently released an open-source 6DoF positional tracking system that should work on any Android headset with a Qualcomm chip.