Pimax Delays Dream Air Again, But Promises Widest Micro-OLED FOV

Pimax says Dream Air and Dream Air SE are now delayed to at least December, but promises the former will have the widest FOV of any compact micro-OLED headset.

Pimax announced Dream Air at the very end of last year, and the cheaper Dream Air SE back in May. Pimax claims they will be sub-200-gram tethered PC VR headsets with micro-OLED panels, eye tracking, and integrated audio. Dream Air is set to feature 4K panels, while Dream Air SE will have 2.5K panels and less advanced lenses.

Pimax plans two variants of each, with inside-out computer vision or SteamVR “Lighthouse” base station tracking, for a total of four models.

The Dream Air lineup is also set to introduce a completely unique feature we haven’t yet seen on another headset: a motorized self-tightening head strap, similar to Nike’s self-lacing shoes. Combined with automatic IPD adjustment, Pimax claims this will let buyers quickly and easily put on the headsets with no need to manually adjust anything at all.

Pimax is using an updated “Pimax Prime” financing system for both devices, wherein you make an initial payment of roughly two-thirds of the price to try the headset for 14 days, after which, should you choose to keep it, you pay the remainder. If you don’t want to keep it, you can return it for a refund.

Further Delay To December, At Best

When first announcing Dream Air, Pimax claimed it would ship in May. However, repeating its long history of repeatedly failing to meet its deadlines, when May arrived the company revealed a delay to “August or early September”.

Now that early September has passed, Pimax says that the SteamVR Tracking variants of Dream Air and Dream Air SE will actually start shipping from December, while the inside-out computer vision tracking models won’t ship to customers until next year.

‘ConcaveView’ Lenses & Price Hike

Pimax now claims that the higher-end Dream Air model will have the widest field of view of any compact headset that uses micro-OLED panels.

While micro-OLED allows for compact headsets with high resolution, punchy colors, and excellent contrast, including true blacks, the small panels are much harder to magnify over a wide field of view.

Pimax calls the lenses it developed for Dream Air ‘ConcaveView’, and as the name suggests, they feature a highly concave shape. This has two advantages: it both takes in light at steeper angles, and lets your eyes get closer to the lens without your eyelashes touching. Both factors improve the field of view.

Pimax is not the first company to take this approach. Apple Vision Pro also features concave pancake lenses.

According to Pimax, Dream Air achieves 110° horizontal field of view, which if true, would indeed be the widest yet for a micro-OLED headset.

The current shipping widest is Bigscreen Beyond 2, which, for comparison, claims 108° horizontal.

This increased field of view is coming alongside a price hike, however. For new orders of Pimax Dream Air, the price is $2000 for the SteamVR “Lighthouse” tracking model or $2300 for the computer vision tracking model.

Pimax has finally shown footage of what it says is a pre-production Dream Air prototype in use with multiple testers.

Previously, it had only shown renders.

As always, given the company’s long history of repeatedly failing to meet its deadlines and of shipping products without promised features, we strongly recommend exercising caution by waiting for reviews of the final hardware before placing a preorder for any Pimax headset yet to ship.