Pimax Unveils Dream Air: A Sleek VR Headset With a Standout Feature

The Pimax Dream Air headset marks an exciting shift for the company, traditionally known for its rather hefty VR headsets designed to offer a broad field of view. With this new venture, Pimax has set out to create something compact yet packed with features. A standout feature in the Dream Air is its self-tightening headstrap, a first in the VR headset industry.

Set at a price of $1,900 and expected to start shipping in May 2025, the Dream Air is taking aim at the niche of high-end, compact PC VR headsets, looking to compete with models like the Bigscreen Beyond and Shiftall MaganeX Superlight.

Now, if you know Pimax, you’d expect bold promises that might stretch the company’s resources thin. True to form, they’re introducing an innovative option—the Cobb compute puck. This add-on can transform the Dream Air into a standalone VR headset. The Cobb will house a Snapdragon XR2 chip and a battery, along with the potential for an optional SteamVR Tracking faceplate.

However, Pimax has a reputation for announcing new products while still working on delivering previous ones. For instance, the Crystal Super headset was unveiled in April 2024, with a targeted release in the last quarter of that year, but its launch has now slipped to early 2025.

The Dream Air promises to be a marvel of compact design with an impressive list of features:

– Weighing just 200 grams
– A resolution of 13MP (3,840 × 3,552) micro-OLED per eye at 90Hz, offering HDR quality
– 102° field-of-view
– Inside-out tracking
– Motion controllers and hand-tracking
– On-board audio
– Optional prescription lenses
– Eye-tracking
– Automatic IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment
– Automatic strap tightening

The automatic strap tightening is particularly intriguing, aiming to strike the perfect balance between snugness and comfort—something users often struggle with. The idea is straightforward: rather than tightening the headset manually until it’s almost too snug, this system adapts to each user’s head for optimal comfort and stability.

The design concept for this self-adjusting strap looks promising, even though we’ve only seen conceptual images so far. It seems to incorporate the mechanism invisibly under the fabric, implying a sophisticated, yet simple adjustment process.

If the Dream Air can truly self-adjust the headset’s tightness, it’ll be a game-changer for many users. Adding to this convenience is the automatic IPD adjustment, a feature which automatically aligns the lenses to suit the user’s eyes—a task often manually misjudged by users.

Whether Pimax can really deliver the sleek, streamlined device they promise remains to be seen. Nonetheless, this effort marks a refreshing departure from the practical and boxy aesthetics of their earlier models.

While Pimax ventures into the arena of compact VR headsets, they’ve not abandoned their roots. They assure continued commitment to developing their hallmark large, wide field-of-view headsets, despite this new direction.

Currently, you can place pre-orders for the Dream Air. It comes at a price of $1,900, with delivery slated for May 2025.