Known for its many variants of VR headset, Pimax is back with yet more new products. This time, it seems to be following Valve's recent example, with a wireless VR headset, foveated streaming, ringfree VR controllers, and a very long Steam Machine.
Let's start with the VR headset, as Pimax isn't playing around when it comes to wireless capabilities on this thing. It's called the Crystal Pro, and it's totally wireless. Included in the box is a Wi-Fi 6E adapter, much like the Steam Frame, which hooks it up to a nearby gaming PC; however, Pimax is going one step further with an optional wireless streaming kit, 60G AirLink, that uses 60 GHz 2x2 MIMO for a higher-bandwidth, more robust connection.
"What if you could cut the cable and still send the image with no visual compression. That question is the reason this headset exists," Jaap Grolleman says in a prerecorded launch video.
Using two additional room antennas and two additional headset antennas, which poke out from the rear of the strap, Pimax is able to deliver up to 6 Gbps bandwidth—3 Gbps over each connection and each data stream sync'd up via the onboard Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC.
Pimax says 60G AirLink adds much less latency than standard Wi-Fi streaming—1.8 ms to 12 ms by its own presentation—and it uses this technology to offer something called Native Foveated Streaming.
Sound familiar? Valve introduced foveated streaming with the Steam Frame as a way to save on bandwidth for virtual reality using eye tracking. The Frame only streams a frame in high resolution where a user is looking; everywhere outside of that focus area is streamed at a lower resolution. It works great, in my experience, as unlike foveated rendering, I've not been able to notice any sign of foveated streaming in action.
Pimax is using its Native Foveated Rendering in much the same way, tapping the onboard 120 Hz Omnivision eye tracking. The focus area in the Crystal Pro is actually streamed at native resolution. It's full quality—straight from your frame buffer. Further out from the focus area, the detail diminishes until the outer edges, where it's much lower quality. You shouldn't be able to perceive that lower detail, providing everything works as intended.
As for the headset, it uses twin QLEDs running at a resolution of 2880 x 2880 each and up to 120 Hz. It taps Mini-LED for the backlight, with 576 local dimming zones per eye, and 200 nits of brightness. I was only a little disappointed not to see Micro-OLED again here, but I suppose the Dream Air and Crystal Super are already offering that for a hefty sum.
Speaking of sums, the Crystal Pro does make the Steam Frame look affordable. It costs $1,399 for the base model, or $1,899 with the 60G AirLink system. That alone costs $599.
What's surprising for the Crystal Pro is that it uses aspheric glass lenses. Those require more room in the front of the headset than pancake lenses, which are in the Dream Air, Steam Frame, and Quest 3, but Pimax says they're better suited for eye tracking.
The Crystal Pro comes with SLAM 2.0 inside-out tracking, which is perhaps the most exciting thing here, in combination with the new ringless controllers. During my recent testing of the Dream Air, I found the inside-out tracking left me wanting more, and the old school halo'd controllers were a little wobbly at times. SLAM 2.0 combines four cameras, a motion sensor, and infrared illuminators for low-light tracking, which I'm hoping will help bring this in line with the Steam Frame's top-tier tracking.
The new ringless VR controllers take a leaf from the Steam Frame. They have dual triggers on both sides, TMR sticks, grip sensing, and the full complement of face buttons, which, much like the Frame, means they can be combined into one regular controller's worth of inputs.
Pimax is once again trying to do one better here, with a central module that sits in between the left and right-side pads to turn them into an actual controller. A neat idea, even if I can't see myself using it much in practice.
The Crystal Pro also shares another similarity with the Frame. It has swappable faceplates, adding full-colour passthrough and LiDAR, or Lighthouse support for outside-in tracking. It also has optional over-ear speakers that Pimax has rolled out before, but definitely take inspiration from the Valve Index.
To top it all off, Pimax is bringing out a gaming PC called the Pimax Spation, which looks oddly familiar. It's more or less a long Steam Machine.
If any of these have caught your eye, you'll have to wait a while longer before you can get your hands on them. There are no on-sale dates offered as of yet.
1. Best overall: Steam Frame
2. Best budget: Meta Quest 3S
3. Best standalone: Meta Quest 3
4. Best high-resolution: Pimax Dream Air
