Pimax announces Steam Frame and Steam Machine rivals

Pimax has announced a new VR headset as part of its Crystal series, as well as a mini-PC, to compete with Valve’s Steam Frame and Steam Machine. With the Crystal Pro, the company is boasting uncompressed images via the optional 60G AirLink kit. The Pimax Spation, on the other hand, is a powerful console-sized PC that blows the Steam Machine, at least in terms of raw performance, out of the water.

Pimax Crystal Pro features

The Crystal Pro is a standalone headset that can also be used with a PC, both wired and wirelessly. For a wireless connection, the Crystal Pro features a dedicated Wi-Fi adapter in the box. However, for uncompressed Native Foveated Streaming, you will have to purchase the third-gen 60G AirLink kit. With it, you get two room antennas for a 2x2 MIMO 60GHz solution. For a wired PC connection, there’s a DisplayPort 1.4a port.

The Crystal Pro doesn’t have an internal battery for weight savings, and there’s an external pack with 16,000 mAh capacity. The headset is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen1 chip and features TFT QD-LCD (QLED) displays that have 2,880x2,880 pixels resolution per eye. It supports up to 110-degree FoV and up to 120 Hz refresh rate. There are swappable faceplates for SLAM 2.0 (inside-out) or Lighthouse tracking.

Pimax Spation features

This dedicated mini-PC features desktop hardware, which means some of the components can be upgraded. By default, the Pimax Spation comes with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, a Radeon RX 9070 XT/ RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD, and a 1,000W SFX PSU. All this fits inside a custom chassis that seems quite compact, though the exact dimensions haven’t been shared yet. Pimax says they will also sell a DIY kit as well, where the user adds their own storage and GPU.

For connectivity, the Spation comes with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5G Ethernet, two DisplayPort 2.1 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB-C DisplayPort 1.4a connection, one USB4 (Type-C) port, and six USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A) ports.

In terms of design, the Spation seems to draw inspiration from the Steam Machine with an LED bar, two USB ports, and a power button at the front. It is much taller than the Steam Machine.

Pimax Crystal Pro, Spation pricing and availability

The Crystal Pro is priced at $1,399 for just the headset and battery. The Crystal Pro bundle with 60G Airlink costs $1,899. Reservations are now open, with hands-on demos starting in Q4 and shipping starting in 2027. Pricing for the Pimax Spation hasn’t been revealed yet. In comparison, the Steam Frame starts at $1,059 for the 256 GB model and $1,299 for the 1 TB config. The Steam Machine, on the other hand, starts at $1,049 for the 512 GB variant and goes up to $1,349 for the 2 TB variant.