Some of the most amazing new hardware might make you look like you come from year 3000, or possibly look like one of the leading roles in “Star Trek”. Now that may or may not be a good thing for you but the Sony HMZ-T1’s absolutely impress us enough to warrant the odd looking fashion. In recent months there has been a surge in 3D television and movie viewing and it seems like this process is getting almost cheap enough to move mainstream. Often being relegated to movie theaters or painstakingly expensive home entertainment rooms, a 3D TV is not seen every single day. Sony is attempting to completely “rock the boat” with their most recent invention which is a personal 3D viewing system.
Encased in the same sleek design we see in Sony’s other gadgets like their Vaio line of computers the HMZ-T1 has a cool white finish that pleases the eye. It’s good to see that they have not left out the aesthetic polish that many tech manufacturers these days seem to forgetfully jump over. Now down to the tech specs, there is a 720p HD OLED screen for each one of your eyes as you put this futuristic looking piece of hardware on your head. Could this be the next big step for gamers, giving a nice private arena, and dramatically engaging video to make online video games that much more fun. From personal experience, the first time you witness real high def 3D you almost feel like you are having a dream, its almost surreal the odd sense of reality that surrounds 3D televisions.
The main negative part of these personal viewer-type headsets are based in the fact that they are nothing more than super heavy and thick glasses that impair your vision. Now don’t get me wrong, I would be more than happy to sacrifice some comfort and a lack of vision for some playing time in these bad-boys, but at a price of $800 Sony clearly could have done better on the comfort spectrum. The system has a very customizable and unique method to fitting the screens perfectly in front of your eyes, which is a very important factor when you are trying to make sure the two screens almost turn into one when you are looking into them. The only other negative pieces to these 3D viewers are that the integrated sound is nothing to applaud. To be honest though we couldn’t expect much from headphones that are built-in to the system but coming from Sony and having such a large three-figure price tag I believe they could have done more with the sound system. One work-around for Sony would be to allow people to detach the built in headphones and then reattach their own high quality cans into the system with full surround sound integration… now that would have been cool! Overall Sony has produced one very cool piece of technology that will surely impress any buyer, though a potential purchaser should take into account the niche flaws that come with any sort of similar first gen. technology.
