There have been a lot of hardware announcements in October for virtual reality (VR) headsets arriving this year but Pimax may have just stolen the show with its upcoming device. As part of the company’s very first Pimax Frontier event, it has just unveiled the Pimax Reality 12K QLED, an absolute monster of a headset that supports both PC VR and standalone gaming.
Pimax is known for its wide field of view (FoV) PC VR headsets and the Reality 12K QLED continues that trend while taking the company product portfolio in a whole new direction, all-in-one. It’ll offer a dual feature set, able to into a PC to run at maximum fidelity or utilise its onboard processing in conjunction with a rear-mounted battery pack to provide a fully standalone experience.
Upfront the Reality 12K QLED will boast a supposed 12K resolution QLED with mini-LED display (1200 PPI) topping out at a whopping 200Hz refresh rate – that’s when plugged into a PC. Still maintaining Pimax’s 200° FoV (horizontal), Pimax has developed a “Bionic Lens System” that combines both Fresnel + Aspheric lens designs providing 35 PPD at the centre thanks to the aspheric element whilst the fresnel section handles the wider view.
As for the standalone element which Pimax calls Omni All-in-One (AIO), this is thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 processor. Running in its standalone mode the headset will output at either 8K or 5K, a max refresh rate of 120Hz and a max FoV of 150-degrees. But that’s not even half of what the Reality 12K QLED headset has on board.
To say it’s feature-packed is an understatement. It’ll have full inside-out tracking thanks to four front cameras. These will give the headset 6 degree’s of freedom (6DoF), track the controllers – which are very similar to Oculus Quest’s – as well as your hands. Not much was mentioned about the controllers in fact, although there were a few sensors to mention. The Pimax Reality 12K QLED also gets Tobii eye-tracking for foveated rendering and the motorised auto IPD adjustment, two cameras on the inside to track facial features and three more underneath for lip and body tracking. Yes, that’s right, this AIO headset will be able to track your legs.
The amount of tech packed into the Pimax Reality 12K QLED is astonishing, even with the option to add further modules. Below you’ll find the specifications VRFocus has managed to gather so far from the presentation.
Pimax Reality 12K QLED Specifications
- Display
- 2x 5.5 inch QLED (Mini-LED backlit) 12K Resolution display (1200 PPI)
- Refresh rate: 200Hz
- Optics
- Bionic Lens System (Fresnel + Aspheric with 35 PPD peak fidelity)
- Performance
- Gemini Architecture – Qualcomm XR2 + Pimax Custom PC VR Engine
- Field of View
- Horizontal: 200°
- Vertical: 135°
- Interpupillary Distance
- Automatic IPD adjustment with motor
- Supported IPD range: 57–72 mm
- Audio
- Deluxe speaker module made by Tectonic
- Weight
- Dimensions
- 30% smaller than Pimax 8KX
- Connectivity
- PC connections: Fibre Optic cable
- Wifi 6E – 6GHz
- WiGig 60GHz module (optional)
- Positional Tracking
- 6DoF Inside-out tracking + hand tracking (4x cameras)
- Additional Tracking
- Tobii eye tracking module (2x cameras)
- 2x cameras for face tracking
- 3x cameras for lip & full body tracking
- Comfort & Useability
- Rear mounted, 6000 mAh swappable battery
- Swappable rear cushion
- 6DoF controllers
- 3x noise cancelling microphones
- Magnetic face cover
- Passive & Active cooling (dual fans)
- Additional Accessories
- SteamVR 2.0/1.0 compatible via cover
- Cellular 5G Cover for CloudXR connection
- Mixed Reality cover
Unsurprisingly, the one stat that didn’t get mentioned was the weight. Whilst others have been trying to make their headsets as light as possible the Pimax Reality 12K QLED packs so much in it has to weigh a fair amount. Even so, if the Pimax Reality 12K QLED has piqued your interest it’ll go on sale in Q4 2022 priced at $2,399, almost making the Varjo Aero look cheap. As an added bonus for existing Pimax customers, they’ll be able to get the full purchase price of their existing Pimax headset off the price of the Reality 12K QLED. Quite the offer not seen anywhere else.
Certainly going for the ultra-high-end of the consumer market, Pimax has raised a few eyebrows with this announcement. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.
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