Pimax visiting Unbound XR

Pimax (pronounced: "pie(π)-max") is a technology company specialising in hardware- and software products for virtual reality. Pimax is currently one of the largest VR-hardware producers in the Chinese market. A brief look into Pimax's history shows that in 2016, their first product, the Pimax 4K virtual reality-bril, was released; this made Pimax the first to offer a commercially available 4K-bril for consumers. In 2017, they launched a crowdfunding-campagne on Kickstarter for the Pimax 8K-bril, raising approximately $3.7 million. On 19 December 2017, Pimax announced that they had closed a series A-financieringsronde of no less than $13.5 million. The following year, in May 2018, Pimax indicated that they were developing a 'knuckle style' controller fully compatible with SteamVR 2.0 and Vive accessories, and they have since been involved in many more VR-related projects.

All in all, Pimax is a highly successful VR company that started small but is gradually trying to take over the VR market. On 19 August 2019, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Pimax team to our office in Nijmegen. They gave us a demonstration of the Pimax products and explained what kind of company they are. In this blog, we highlight Pimax's products for you and describe our experience with this successful, originally Californian, VR start-up.

The company's first product, launched in 2016. The headset has a display resolution of 1920 x 2160 pixels per eye, resulting in a total resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. Altogether, this is the first headset with a 4K resolution.

The Pimax 8K is the company's flagship product. The headset features two 4K-schermen, one for each eye, with a field of view of 200 degrees. However, the Pimax 8K does not use the most common 8K-resolutiestandaard - 8K UHD -, which contains four times as many pixels as 4K UHD. Because the Pimax 8K contains two 4K UHD-schermen, it has only half the number of pixels as 8K UHD. Due to bandwidth limitations in the connection cable, the headset's input is therefore limited to 2560 x 1440 pixels for each of the two screens. This is then upscaled in the device to the actual resolution of the display, allowing you to enjoy exceptionally sharp and clear image quality with a powerful graphics card.

The headset uses the SteamVR tracking system - the base stations 2.0. This means that existing Vive-basisstations and controllers are compatible with the Pimax-bril, so existing Vive-gebruikers do not need to set up an additional tracking system or buy new controllers, but can simply upgrade to the Pimax headset. The Pimax 5K Plus and Pimax 8K are also compatible with the new Valve Knuckles. The headset can be used with SteamVR and Oculus-software, offering a wide range of VR games and apps. With the included software platform 'PiTool', all VR games and apps can be easily found and launched from one library.

The Pimax 5K Plus is based on similar hardware to the Pimax 8K but has a lower resolution of 2560 × 1440 screens per eye instead of 4K. Since this resolution is accepted as input, the headset eliminates the need for upscaling. Users of the Pimax 5K Plus noticed that the 5K Plus had a sharper image compared to the Pimax 8K, but that the screen-door-effect in the 8K was significantly less present.

As mentioned earlier, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Pimax team to our office in Nijmegen. Present at the reception were the vice-president from Pimax, the sales director (Ariana Wang), YouTuberSweViver(Martin Lammi), and commercial advisor from Unbound XR (Diederik Hermsen). We immediately noticed that the Pimax team truly stands behind their product: they are enthusiastic VR enthusiasts who want to build the best possible headset. The Pimax 8K was therefore developed partly based on user feedback. After a conversation about who the people behind Pimax and Unbound were, we moved on to a demonstration of the Pimax products. Pimax had brought two VR-headsets: the Pimax 8K and a new version: the Pimax RE (rugged edition). The Pimax RE is the headset we were able to test. In terms of specifications, the Pimax RE is exactly the same as the Pimax 8K, but there are indeed differences in appearance and design. The first thing that immediately stands out about the Pimax RE is the matte purple colour. It looks much more luxurious, and the matte material makes it feel much sturdier. The sturdiness is what sets the Pimax RE apart: for VR arcades and other commercial environments, it is essential to have a headset that does not break immediately if you accidentally bump it or drop it. Combined with the high display resolution and extreme field of view of 200 degrees, the Pimax RE is a very welcome addition to the commercial and business VR-landschap.

After our personal experience, we are certainly impressed with Pimax. Besides making incredibly good VR headsets, they are also a company that listens well to customer feedback and strives for perfection. We can therefore wholeheartedly recommend Pimax headsets to anyone looking for a high-end VR headset! We also believe that the Pimax RE is a very welcome addition for VR arcades and other business users who want to offer Pimax's unique VR experience to customers.