After a strong Kickstarter launch for its 8K and 5K headsets Pimax went a little quiet, with several months without regular updates for its backers. That’s not to say it hasn’t been busy, in fact at the end of August the company held a backers meetup in Berlin, Germany. This not only allowed customers to get hands-on with the latest iterations of the headsets but also for Pimax to reveal another, the Pimax 5K Plus.
While Pimax has shown the 8K version at a number of events, most of these tend to be more industry focused – VRFocus went hands-on with the prototype at CES 2018 – so the meetup was a good chance for European customers to demo the devices for the first time.
Pimax demoed the potential of 8K with several recommended graphics cards including the GTX 1080ti and videogames such as Arizona Sunshine, Onward, Pavlov VR, and Skyrim VR, allowing users to compare its tech with rivals already available.
Obviously the big news revolved around the Pimax 5K Plus headset. What does the ‘Plus’ indicated, well its all about improved visuals with a new panel that has enhanced sharpness with the PPI improved by 9 percent. What’s more while the 5K and 5K Plus will both be sold by Pimax – the latter being more expensive – Kickstarter backers for the original 5K model will be upgrade to the ‘Plus’ version for free.
Both the 8K and 5K Plus headsets are expected to begin shipping this month with Pimax hoping to complete all Kickstarter orders by Christmas 2018. Any 8K backer that may have decided they now want the 5K Plus model can do so, with the monetary difference being able to go towards accessories like the eye-tracking module or controllers (both of which are still in development). The first demo versions of the controllers are expected by the end of the year, with developers getting hold of them in Q1 2019. They should then see a public release in Q2 2019 if things go to plan.
The next few months look to be fairly busy for Pimax, as further details are released VRFocus will keep you updated.