Would you buy a Sony Personal 3D Viewer for $900 Australian dollars?

Pre-orders for the HMZT1 - which will retail in Australia for $899 - are available from January 27, though no actual street date has been confirmed. The device straps around your face (perfect for movie nights with the significant other) and offers both 2D and 3D viewing, as well as surround sound. It will be compatible with the PlayStation 3.

According to the press statement, the headset comes bearing a 0.7 inch high-def OLED panel and a "dual panel 3D method", meaning that each eye, assuming you only have two, will have its own screen. Immersion and a cinematic experience seems key here, with a horizontal viewing angle of 45 degrees.

Sony claims using the device will be akin to watching a 750-inch screen from 20 metres away, so it won't offer the on-location grit many still dream of in virtual reality gear, but it's probably the closest we're going to get for a while. There's no doubting the appeal kit like this will have for gamers, but we won't know whether it'll work in practice until we have one in our big grotty hands.