Pimax, the China-based creators known for its fleet of large-FOV PC VR headsets, announced a new product in its lineup last week that’s set to straddle a number of device classes due to its convertibly between a Nintendo Switch-style handheld and snap-in VR headset display. The company has now launched a Kickstarter campaign in what it calls a “pre-sale” event.

Update (November 15th, 2022): Pimax launched its Kickstarter for Portal today, asking for $200,000 it hopes to garner over the course of the next two months.

Prices start at $300 for just the base handheld, which comes with a 4K LCD display. For the base model with a VR headset shell, called View, early bird pricing starts at $450. The QLED version of Portal + View, which is said to feature HDR, costs $550. Pimax stipulates a January 2023 delivery date on all products. You can check out all pricing tiers over at the Portal Kickstarter.

The company has high hopes for the project, as it’s already released stretch goals, which include a screen protector at $500,000, free games at $2 and $3 million respectively, and 3-month warranty at $5 million. The original article announcing Pimax Portal follows below:

Original Article (November 10th, 2022): Called Portal, Pimax is first pitching the device via a Kickstarter campaign in what it calls a global pre-sale event starting November 15th.

Following the recently announced Pimax Crystal, Portal is the company’s second standalone VR headset with an onboard processor—a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2—and it’s slated to take the company’s VR-centric product line in a drastically different direction. Boasting handheld gaming, smartphone-style AR, and 6DOF VR, Pimax is set to straddle multiple device classes at once with Portal, dubbing it a “metaverse entertainment system,” or ‘MES’ for short.

Handheld Gaming & Smartphone AR

Pimax is offering two fundamental flavors of its Portal handheld (sans headset), which looks a bit like a cross between a Nintendo Switch and a Steam Deck: a ‘standard’ 4K LCD version priced at $300 for 128GB storage and 256GB for $400, and a version with a QLED display priced at $550, promising a 5.5 inch HDR screen with 4k resolution and 144hz refresh rate.

We hope to learn more precise specs next week as it hits Kickstarter. There’s no product page available for now, only the hour-long reveal which aired yesterday, hence the dodgy screenshots. Those are a lot of buttons on those magnetically attached controllers.

Image courtesy Pimax

While being a Snapdragon XR2-powered handheld, the notable addition to Portal is its five cameras; one in the middle and four positioned on each corner of the handheld. Those are meant to drive both the smartphone-style AR capability and 6DOF VR room-scale tracking.

Image courtesy Pimax

Pimax is boasting a ton of features with Portal, including analogue triggers, mappable buttons, “low latency” input lag, standard compatibility with Android, native HDMI compatibility for wired SteamVR gameplay, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6.0E, 60 GHz WiGig module compatibility, microSD slot, and a host of extra stuff that we’ll get into below. That’s a bunch.

That’s nothing in comparison to the truly dizzying array of features and usecases—you might call ‘Pimaxian’ at this point—as the company is again throwing out a long list of attractive-sounding accessories, much like its original Pimax ‘8K’ headset Kickstarter in 2017.

SEE ALSO
Mixed Reality Flight Sims Are Accelerating F-16 Pilot Training in Ukraine

Portal View, Horizon, Social Edition: Snap-in VR Headsets

Taking a page out of Google’s handbook, Pimax is pitching Portal as a sort of Daydream-style device thanks to its ability to snap into a headset shell, which admittedly goes one step further by including a battery in the rear for longer battery life and better on-head balance.

The so-called Portal View also features snap-in controllers which is a pretty intriguing way of dealing with Switch-style controllers and plugging them into a Touch-esque formfactor. Remember, that 4k display actually pares down to 1,920 x 2,160 per-eye, putting it around the same resolution as Meta Quest 2.

Among its use as a standalone 6DOF VR headset, Portal View also includes optional lenses so you can either have what Pimax calls a standard VR experience with 100-degree FOV lenses (27 ppd), or a 60-degree FOV specifically for watching movies (40 ppd).

Pricing isn’t clear yet, although Pimax says the standard Portal with View headset shell will cost $450 while the QLED Portal headset + shell will cost $600.

Portal Horizon is the larger FOV version of View, which promises a 140-degree FOV (20 ppd). But wait, there’s another headset. Portal Social Edition includes face and eye-tracking, although that’s said to be ‘in the works’. There’s no word on what either Horizon or Social Edition will cost.

Accessories Galore

Pimax’s Portal ecosystem is ushering in a ton of accessories. Portal is supposedly set to support cloud gaming services like Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia’s GeForce Now via a WiGig 60GHz plug-in module. Sensible, if not a little late in fading cloud gaming craze.

The company hopes you’ll also elect to buy its dedicated Mini Station mini-PC, which features an AMD 6800U processor, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD so you can stream content to Portal locally, or use its native Wi-Fi 6E or additional 5G module to cloud game.

Image courtesy Pimax

You can also buy a larger screen and controller housing, which lets you snap the Portal and its supplied controllers into the body of an 8.8-inch clocked at 120Hz.

Image courtesy Pimax

Not only that, but the company is also creating an additional 5,000 MaH battery module that plugs into the larger screen housing.

And a dock for Portal to turn it into a TV-based gaming system, using up to four of its controllers for multiplayer console-style games.

Image courtesy Pimax

People who’ve followed along know Pimax’s creativity and enthusiasm is rarely matched with its ability to get product out the door. Whether we see all of these accessories materialize remains to be seen, as the entire product ecosystem Pimax is pitching here is ambitious to say the least.

Still, Pimax is a real company with real products, so we’ll be following along with the Kickstarter to see what makes the chopping block and what becomes just another fun accessory backers will have to wait for.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Bob

    Good lord.

    What more is there to say?

    • Max-Dmg

      Oh my gentle Jesus.

    • ViRGiN

      from the one hour video, there is enough potential for 3 hours long video of making fun of pimax

  • Derek Kent

    What a surprising and strange announcement. I watched the whole video and it felt like it was from another dimension with the incredibly poor choice of keynote speaker and frankly confounding number of products and uses. If it all works well it will of course be fantastic and very interesting, but pimax is a bit notorious for supporting their existing devices. We’ll see.

    • ViRGiN

      the video was a pure embodiment of chinesium.
      of course mentioning that pimax is a chinese company is pure racism according to pee-fanboys. yet pimax saying themselves that they have “western DNA” is not lol.

      • Cless

        To be honest man, both are racist statements… Two wrongs don’t make a right… :/

        • ViRGiN

          i wouldn’t call it racist at all.
          what about american guns?
          japanese cars?
          german precision?
          swiss punctuality?
          are those racist as well? i’ve never heard anyone being called racist for stating that they don’t like japanese cars.

          saying that main founder presentation was chinglish also means nothing racist. look up the dictionary.

          • Cless

            I mean… Those you mentioned aren’t, because they really aren’t similar to the “chinesium” you said. If you instead had just mentioned that they are a bad chinese company, nobody would have bated an eye… (Except for morons)

          • ViRGiN

            Chinesium – “Any metal whose properties fail to meet the expectations for the role in which it is found, and whose source is probably “Made In China”

            I’ve had dozens of interactions about this. Make a statement that pimax is a chinese company. Their counter argument? “you know quest 2 is made in china too?”. Some people are incapable of understanding the country of manufacture is not what makes something “chinese” or not.

          • Cless

            I am aware of what it means… doesn’t make it less wrong.
            China is a massive country and there are great companies doing great stuff there as well. You are just using a generalization, and those are by and large bad.
            I agree with you that those guys don’t offer a good argument against yours though.

          • duked

            Generalization is not racism, though, unless one’s really easily offended, Of course many people/companies make great stuff in China. But if a significant proportion of Chinese companies do products that are of bad quality, no wonder if the get a bad reputation.

      • duked

        Neither is racism.

  • Some good ideas, but it feels like it’s all getting a bit messy and convoluted now. I could hardly even follow half of what they were telling us this device was about, even with them trying to make it sound of simple and stuff, and that’s not a great starting point. And none of it has me convinced it’s going to be like AAA quality. I think it would take a company like Nintendo to a hybrid portable/VR/console device like this in such a way that the overall experience would feel of a high enough quality that a genuinely meaningful number of people would be interested in it. But, hey, good luck to them for trying new things.

    • ViRGiN

      not a single good idea there.

  • Cl

    Neat. That last paragraph makes me wonder what happened to decagear

    • ViRGiN

      it never existed. the plan from the very beginning was to get $10 out of every potentially interested user and never deliver anything. only a handful of people ever got a refund, which they promised to deliver anytime you change your mind.

      • Cl

        Did you downvote me for a questioning decagear? Figured you’d upvote since I’m mentioning how they disappeared off the face of the earth. Seeing how there has been absolutely no updates, I will assume it was a scam. Never trusting that one youtuber again, I forgot his name.

        *edit* checked thier site and it says first batch shipment Q4 22. We shall see.

        • XRC

          Used their free hip tracking app installed on smartphone and host PC. Left something insidious that kept sending data to their server, despite the app being removed from PC. Took clean install of Windows to finally remove…

          Not surprised considering investor background (Israeli spyware company)

    • ViRGiN

      oh and let me remind you the famous echo chamber, ‘THEY ALREADY DELIVERED DECAMOVE, HOW IS THIS A SCAM YOU META SHILL?`

  • kontis

    GearVR and Nintendo Labo proved that friction is the killer and most people won’t bother with cumbersome adapters for entertainment – once the novelty factor disappears – instead they will choose other kind of entertainment that doesn’t have that friction.

    Entertainment that has a lot of friction is something only the greatest enthusiasts do, so it stays a niche.

    • ViRGiN

      valve fanboy incapable of linking o valve full body tracking SDK so developers like me can implement support for it.
      so those rtx4090 owners compromised their quality for years? nobody gives a fuck about polycount. it’s totally irrelevant and vrchat abusers still looks like clown, spending time in gear vr grade virtual worlds running exclusively on pcvr in very low frame rate.

      • Cless

        They didn’t mention Valve once my dude, I get the feeling you keep faling in this false dichotomy of, anyone that throws a punch Meta’s way, and talks about PCVR MUST love valve, for some reason… Tell me if I’m wrong though.
        Also, I was not aware you were a dev! What are you working on mate? I’m genuinely interested!

        Uhh… Dude… you’re shooting yourself in the foot saying that there… One of the big reasons graphics suck in VR Chat… is because they try to make it as performant for Quest players as possible… (And the other big one is because “3D artists” are making characters without knowing anything about the craft)

        • ViRGiN

          full body tracking defaults to valve steamvr, he is praising that platform for years attempting to just smear meta.

          VRchat gets more stuff for exclusively pcvr use. The graphic sucks because most people don’t care and don’t have to skill to make it even look decent. Nobody is even bothered to bake lighting properly lol. You’ll find only a handful of good looking worlds, and they are not popular at all.

          • Cless

            Yeah, its not an art contest (sadly) but a popularity one so… yeah :/

            And well, I mean, Steam VR seems to be the most standard way of getting body tracking on PC, but I would argue its kind of agnostic, since its a free tool that you can access with pretty much any headset, only downside is it forces people to install Steam…

      • ViRGiN

        What a total idiot I am.

    • Cless

      I don’t think Zuck doesn’t know how to monetize those people, he is just not interested, niche users are, by its own definition, small groups. He wants to do with VR, what he did for Social Media. That is, getting the average joe to use casually VR, in the office, in their house… anywhere.

      • silvaring

        Gonna have to disagree, I think Zuckerberg want’s to ensure that Facebook can have a large stake in the big social VR platforms of the future, which is most certainly not going to be used by the average Joe because there are no solutions on the horizon to have a sunglasses style form factor / weight, and no solutions to solve for the vergence-accomodation conflict inherent in a limited plane focus display system (basically every VR headset invented, including ones that are still +10 years away).

  • A MES you say?! :p

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    Admittedly weird, but interesting if you look at the whole ecosystem. My initial though was that the only reason why one would consider the Pimax Portal may be to only have one device suitable for both pancake and VR gaming and video, while not being restricted to using a phone. That would be a rather tiny niche, with the detachable controls being the main benefit.

    The whole thing gets more interesting with the Mini Station PC and integrated Wi-Fi 6E or the extra WiGig 60GHz module. The AMD 6800U used in the PC is an APU very similar to the one used in the Steam Deck, but with 50% more RDNA 2 graphics cores and a higher TDP, which in benchmarks translates to a 50% and more increase in frame rates. This could/should enable this Mini PC to run PCVR games at GTX 1060 level, though I haven’t seen direct comparisons yet. Combine this with Wi-Fi 6E for low latency streaming or even WiGig 60GHz for uncompressed streaming, and you have a local PCVR streaming system. Combine it with a cloud VR service like PlutoSphere, and you can get the same (minus the uncompressed WiGig) without the PC.

    The quality of the experience and whether this actually works in reality is another question, but just the concept of having a tiny local server that can stream all your media to multiple phone and tablet sized devices with decent controls that can also be used for VR is attractive at least in theory. All your typical gaming and media needs served by an integrated family of media devices that all combined would fit into the size of a shoe box. The ultimate online/offline traveling media kit to provide you not only with cloud streaming, but everything run locally, from retro console emulation and Flappybird to Half-Life: Alyx and a huge virtual cinema screen. A kit that you will never lose as long as you carry it all in your hand luggage.

    • Bob

      The concept is one thing but executing it is a whole different beast. A lot of factors need to go right here and with Pimax behind the idea, I don’t think it’s a stretch to be profusely skeptical about all of this.

      Hiring a few 3D artists and some marketing people to flaunt off a fancy idea is relatively simple. Given the shaky history of their product launches, the reliability of their products and general mismanagment of their resources, expect the worst.

      Delays and disappointment expected.

      • ViRGiN

        it’s coming to kickstarter.
        only the most uninformed hoomans could potentially get excited about it.
        on top of that, pimax is known for using alt account to create a clout and false impression of actually positive reception by communities.
        they said they are coming to kickscammer, cause they enjoy the platform. people can suggest things like 512 gb memory. lol – does it take a genius to realize that? they are going for kickstarter, cause every single payment is nothing more than a donation. they have exactly zero obligations to deliver anything ever again. they could start pre-selling them on their website, using credit cards and paypal, but obviously they are not able to deliver any single thing for monhs if not years to come. these are a con artists.

        it’s interesting to watch mrtv post-stream interview, where sweviver – ex community member – employed by pimax for years now – seems absolutetly absent from this behemoth. he never even tried it. just heard his chinese (spoiler – thats racist) colleagues are loving it every single day. in the ‘frontier’ they called it a mainstream device, yet pimax employee, whatever role he is holding now – likely just a moderator for obsolete forums – said it’s not targeted at mainstream lol.
        peemax is such a shitshow, and it’s a great embodiment of the extremist extreme end of pcvr ab-users, ‘wanting big fov and hires’ and getting it, with years of delays, and thousands of issues.

        • kraeuterbutter

          well.. Pimax is a small company..
          not like Meta with Billions behind, not Valve, not HP,…
          so its impressive how far they still have come
          the 8kx meanwhile is lot better than it was at beginning and i know some who realy love that headset and its there daily driver
          Meta has spend billions in the last years… and we have now 2 headsets out there

          • ViRGiN

            > and we have now 2 headsets out there
            2 highly successfull headsets you mean? number one on the market.
            you think meta is on holidays?
            quest 3 will come out sooner than pimax ships crystal, 12k or portal.

            pimax got 20 millions from investors. what did they achieve since?

        • 1000% spot-on.
          If this were a REAL presale, it’d be on Pimax’s site with creditcard info, etc.
          Not on Kickstarter WHERE IT’S ACTUALLY ALLOWED for a Kickstartor
          to take every dime you have a not deliver a blessed thing.

  • ViRGiN

    okay what do you think their kickstarter goal will be?
    this is the company that got 20 millions from investors about 2 years ago.
    i expect some average yearly salary goal, making it an instant “funded in 1 day!” kickstarter brand. of course for years to come nothing will ever come out of it. you can pimax in a pimax lol.
    every single minut of their video is absolute cringe. nobody has ever asked for android gaming device lol.

    and most important – NOBODY KNOWS IF IT CAN EVEN PLAY ANGRY BIRDS.
    if it does, i’ll buy the whole stock lol

  • ViRGiN

    i think it’s damaging to even cover this as a news, but kudos to Road to VR for pulling it through.
    meta-shilling, family-friendly oriented uploadvr haven’t covered anything palmer luckey said for over a year, most notably – the euthanasia headset.

    • Bruh

      You do know that headset was a joke right?

      • ViRGiN

        So? It got medias attention all around the world. That was the whole point of it.
        And yet UVR did not say a single word, when they have covered more obscure topics>
        The point here is that palmer gave uploadvr millions of dollars over the years, and obviously you are not going to shit on the guy who was essential to your survival all these years.

        • ViRGiNIsaPu$$Y

          You guys mastered VR and now are mastering the portable handheld devices. Always innovating.

  • Hivemind9000

    Any idea what this will run natively? Is it Quest or Steam Deck compatible? Or is it just for streaming from your PC?

    • Well considering it’s ARM and not x86, that puts Steam Deck out of the question and the Quest software is locked to Meta’s own hardware (not to mention this needs to function as both a standard game and VR launcher). Sounds like it’ll be running android using their own custom UI layer.

      • ViRGiN

        these android games won’t be even rendered in stereoscopic 3D.
        pimax is a joke.

        • kraeuterbutter

          when you use the thin as a handheld, why should the games be rendered in stereoscopic 3d ?

          • ViRGiN

            Nintendo had 3D screen back in 2004 with Nintendo DS.
            That would be a diffrential factor.
            Why they haven’t even advertised it as a tablet?
            This thing does not even have a TOUCH SCREEN.
            This is beyond embarassing.

          • Cless

            I didn’t realize the lack of touch screen though, fucking laughable.
            Nintendo had those screens on the 3ds, from 2012 though

          • ViRGiN

            Yup. The entire idea is over 9000. Asus had PadFone series where you could insert phone into your tablet.

            Insertable VR is nothing more than junk, and nobody is going to be doing anything serious for it. Snake in product video!? Nothing is ready.

            Why would anyone need this? Every smartphone can do all of it here.
            All their products were always focused on ‘visuals’, highest resolution, best contrast, refresh rate etc. I mean that’s what they claim. And now they want to make steam deck killer 4k 144hz with split rendering (whatever that means) to play android games?

            Nvidia Shield, PSP GO, those were systems with controllers built in.

          • Cless

            I would argue that since it has 4 cameras, tracking should be better… Wait, let me remark harder that “should” because god I can see it already being bad and everyone complaining…

          • ViRGiN

            I can see it cameras being something to be launched “later”, as the company has zero experience using a single one in any of their products.
            Knowing that they have planned to ship other headsets with magnetic NOLO tracking – it’s totally possible that there is no 6DOF at all outside drifting IMU/gyroscope.

            I’m not aware of existence of an open code that you just ‘add’ to your hardware/firmware to make use of the cameras.

          • Cless

            Yeah, they probably are just flat out writing it from the ground up, or hiring some other company to make it for them…

          • ViRGiN

            Hiring company? They will give you a single free devkit to develop it all for them xD They are out of cash, and it’s really obvious how defensive that clown kevin henderson gets over “baseless” “accusations” from other worried users. They should be banned from kickstarter.

            Anyway, i’m pretty sure their campaign will be “successfull”, as in they will reach amount the money they set (something laughably low like 50k), but the product wont come out for years.

            They also make statements like “12k is about 70% done”. TF does that mean?

          • Cless

            Yeah, most likely. Well, hopefully they eventually get their shit together. It will definitely be better than they stumbling from mess to mess.

    • Main unit is ARM XR2 (like in the Quest2). There is an even bigger steamdeck-like dock that has a PC unit, or an optional streamer mini-PC/NUC that you can stream from. Also you can stream from an existing gaming PC, or use PCVR directly from a PC via cable or wirelessly stream via WiFi or WiGIG.
      There is also a living room dock that can make it capable of head-setless VR displayed on a TV/Flatscreen (I guess good for people who get VR Sickness?)

      It’s like they threw the kitchen sink at it. “What feature do you want?” “YES”

      While all the technology seems to be possible, It screams of vaporware. They just added EVERYTHING to it as a capability. I’ll wait to see an actual release of it to judge it though.

      • “head-setless VR displayed on a TV” ….
        Holy smokes, if Pimax told you 2+2=7, would you believe *that* …??
        “Headset-less VR on a TV”: wtf does that even MEAN??

        • ViRGiN

          headset?
          their presentation has text HANDset, yet joshua who lives in china for ages says HEADset

        • FFS, its in their video and their claims. Even when I said it sounds like vaporware.
          Get ahold of yourself, and work on your reading comprehension.

          As to their claims of Headset-less VR, they use their inside-out tracking cameras when the unit is in their media-center dock to track the joycon-things they have. Possibly they have a body tracking algo like you can do with a webcam or two on a PC. Ask them ya goon. These aren’t my claims, they are theirs.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Man they keep dumping stuff on the market as they go, instead of concentrating efforts on one or 2 models and provide good support.

    • Gonzax

      There are so many Pimax products every year that I don’t even pay attention to them anymore. They should stick to 2, maybe 3 different products, make them as good as possible and keep improving them instead of releasing new devices every two years, it’s just crazy.

    • ViRGiN

      EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LOOK AT ME, I AM VIRGIN THE FAILURE. LOOK AT ME. I WRITE MORE COMMENTS THAN ANYONE. LOOK A ME. I NEED YOUR HATE SO MY TINY BRAIN GET STIMULATION.

  • MasterElwood

    Nobody wants this. Or the crystal. We want the 12K! Where is it?

    • ViRGiN

      Stop simping for pimax.

    • kraeuterbutter

      i want the crystal

      • MasterElwood

        Why? What does the crystal better than the 12K? Serious question – maybe I am missing something

        • ViRGiN

          Nothing. It’s just 12k isn’t even done and won’t be done. They literally were telling you to purchase any headset to get full price reduction for the 12k. Now that these people bought their old stock, they are offering another product that can’t make use of that discount.

        • You’re missing nothing. Both Crystal & the 12K
          are nothing but the ramblings of a very diseased imagination.

        • kraeuterbutter

          i doubt that 200°x120° FOV on the 12k… not that it is not possible..
          but i have here a PImax, and i was not wowed by the FOV…
          i prefere the FOV of my Index, which less problems..
          so i think: besides the cheaper price of the crystal – the 140° diagonal is a more resonable, less problematic FOV… so i think – maybe they proof me wrong – the crystal will have less problems

        • kraeuterbutter

          its cheaper in price
          its earlier available
          and it has a – for me – big enough FOV… i have a Pimax, and know, that I dont need that kind of FOV
          all PImax headsets sofar had issues with some kind of distortions, the bigger the fov gets..
          the best headset with least distortions was the artisan… and from the roadshow: the crystal seems to be the first headset with (defacto) no distortions..
          i bet, the 12k will get back to have some of distortions..
          some of the testers were impressed..
          many said: better blacks and colors than the Varjo Aero
          better FOV than the Varjo Aero
          better clariety than the Varjo Aero
          less distortions compared to Varjo Aero
          local dimming: better working than on the Meta Quest Pro AND: on meta Quest pro it works only in apps that use it, Pimax works for every app, better than Varjo Aero (does not work so far at all)
          and: lot cheaper than the Varjo Aero
          sooo.. this are some positive sides.. will see how much of the also noticed negative aspects they can fix..
          for now i think i would not consider the Varjo Aero anymore, wait how the final crystal-product turns out

    • The 12K will be here in just six weeks.
      Like Pimax promised, remember …?
      Oh, you DON’T remember …?
      Good, ’cause that’s what Pimax is hoping.

  • Kenny Thompson

    Marketing BS aside, I guess I am going against the flow and think the concept here is pretty great…. Of course there are many sayings to the affect of “jack of all trades, master of none” for good reason…. Lets see if any of these multiple configurations can stand on their own.

    • ViRGiN

      this literally makes zero sense. everyone moved past insert something to something to have vr out of it. you’ll have smudgy screen, miscalibrated screen insertion, ipd issues, and MILLION other issues. this device literally does not exist. it’s a concept art coming to kickstarter.

      WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

  • Tommy

    Wake me up when it’s out of kickstarter and fully reviewed. Then, if there are enough sales, I may take a gander.

    • Get comfy, you’re in for a loooong nap.

  • Ok this seems actually pretty slick, aside from the right joystick not being in the same place as the left, just mirrored, but actually sitting further away from you. That’ll be an interesting trade-off. Actually might have to buy this one and try it out!

    • Based on their mock-ups, that right thumbstick looks to be far enough away as to be unusable on that hand. :/

  • Ookami

    ViRiGiN is going on a crusade in the comments for some reason lol

    • Max-Dmg

      We all were virgins once.

      • ViRGiN

        you invented viriginity and virginism

        • Max-Dmg

          Yeah because that makes sense…

    • Ad

      I had to finally block.

      • androsszit

        Same, it got me logged back into my profile instead of lurking I guess. Still, it’s the only person I’ve ever added to my Blocklist which says a lot.

        Going back to the actual article the idea if not the execution of a VR headset that can pull triple duty as a pancake handheld, Mobile VR, and PCVR device is pretty awesome. Guess price & performance will determine if it really works out.

        • ViRGiN

          You failed even at that androsszit.

          Sounds like you never used VR.

        • Ad

          I was shadowbanned from UploadVR because I asked if they felt ashamed for downplaying privacy concerns for so long, but I’m pretty sure they’re still posting insane screeds there.

          • Guest

            The moderators at UploadVR manually ban everything that does not fit their business model and have been doing it for a long time.

      • ViRGiN

        You failed even at that.

      • Ookami

        Yeah he actually blocked me a while back, but his comments will still show up because sometimes I’m just not logged into Disqus automatically.

        • James Cobalt

          He also has multiple accounts. Probably because people keep blocking him but he doesn’t know how to change his behavior.

          • Ookami

            Yeah idk if that’s sad or funny

          • James Cobalt

            It’s kind of depressing. I genuinely feel bad for him – he obviously doesn’t understand how his behavior is perceived or reflecting on him, and he seems desperate for validation and interaction, but also, I’m not interested in the drama and constant fighting. There’s some sort of mental health issue and maybe neuroatypical wiring going on there… that or he’s 12 years old.

          • ViRGiN

            Grow up James. You probably have multiple kids with multiple women, and your wife doesn’t even know about it.

          • Ookami

            Lol his reply is hilarious

    • ViRGiN

      It’s because my life is so shit and boring (do you want to be my friend ?) that I spend all my days in the comment, trying to grab attention as much a I can.

      • Seb Piotrovsky

        Wow! You’ve really impressed me now! Glad you’ve made a progress and finally can see the truth about you and admit it not only to yourself but also to others – that’s the first important step! Being a pathetic loner, who needs an interaction with people on internet so desperately that he can not resist an urge to respond to EVERY comment in EVERY article, must be realy heard for you… (and simply responding is one thing but doing it ON PURPOSE in a manner that a reaction to your comment is virtually guaranteed is other – I really feel for you…). So I’m really proud of you seeing you’ve started realizing that! Now, do the next step, and do what I already recomended you – get laid for the first time in your life! You will experience a wonderful feeling of relief when all of your gall, agression and hate FINALLY will rush out of you , you’ll see! :) And you really need to acommplish it asap cause creating an imaginary friend – CaryMGVR – is really worrying… (but at least you are trying to be as truthful as possible even in this sad situation by honestly stating “I’m a virgin” when writing from the second accout … – that’s comforting! You just should add: I’m a Virgin – literally and figuratively )). So for the sake of this forum, please go out and FINALLY KILL YOUR VIRGINITY which causes you all your pain and -in turn – your psycho activity here. And please DO it before you will finally kill someone IRL after trying to kill people here with words will not give you the relief you are after… And when you DO acomplish that, please let us know by changing your nick ( but I already told you this as Im sure your remember :) ). Wishes of good luck with acomplishing your mission from Polish pimax fanboy ! :)
        P.S. As always, I’m not gonna waste a second of my life reading your response, so I’m sure you will try REALLY hard when writing it, but please bear in mind you only make the effort for others here :) (so guys please show this poor guy some love by upvoting his reponse to my comment! :))

        • ViRGiN

          this is the definition of insanity lol.

  • ViRGiN

    fucking prick. are you some kind of hydra monster? leave some pu$$y for the rest of us!

    they are obviously out of business, coming to kickstarter, as their lawyer advised them they can’t take orders on their store and not face consequences. kickscam is for donating with no repercusions.

    in post mrtv-stream, sweviver joined and he never even used the device. frontier teased it as mainstream device, yet pimax employee said its not meant for mainstream.

  • Halton

    The thing is i’m looking forward how this going to happen, cool idea to bring all that together

  • HaltonHunter

    Although Pimax disappointed us for lots of time, this moment seems not that far away from, and compare to Steamdeck, it seems has more cost-effective.

  • Haltonislovely

    Seems not that terrible, compare to wear on the face, I would rather to play in the living room, this greatly reduces my chances of hitting the wall

  • Halton cheated on me

    Never used a Pimax headset before, but if this one delivers as they promised, I’ll definitely cop one.

  • HaltonOwnsAll

    No matter how worse they did before, at least the present, the Portal seems not that dramatic.

    • Anybody else get the feeling this Halton fellow isn’t on the up & up …?

  • Lynn

    one. for me, one for my kid. Settles >.<

  • F. Halton

    Man, seems an amazing device!

  • ViRGiNIsaPu$$Y

    I think its a smart move from them targeting the family / home theatre audience which might also wanna venture out to VR from time to time + Wii like motion controls playing on your TV+ couch coop/multiplayer gaming makes it truely versatile.

  • ViRGiNIsaPu$$Y

    Shux, this is seriously a powerful solution. It’s the future for sure. Hope you get the sales you deserve

  • HaltonHell

    This one is interesting, I can consider to give it to my children lol.

  • ViRGiN

    lol @ pimax for sending bots to create a clout and surprise criticism

  • Haltonwith2deck

    I just wonder when the editor can get one and have the review.

  • Toto

    144hz will probably be there for handheld and PCVR, most standalone VR games will probably run at 90hz like on Quest 2.

  • Fly

    I have no problem using my phone as a screen as people did for many years with the Gear VR…with no problems.

  • Adderstone VR

    No direction – This right here is a shining example of the “yes…and” improv show that is Pimax.
    This company has not had a clue what they themselves are doing for years now.

    A jack of all trades is never good at any one thing.
    Seems like they had a massive brainstorming session with ideas thrown into a hat, but then instead of pulling them out one by one and evaluation each idea for merit, they just gave the whole hat to the design team.
    Some ideas need to be left on the writers room floor, but when your leadership has no vision they seem to say “cool bruh” to anything and everything.

  • H.A

    Every new idea should be encouraged, people have the right to resist or accept it, but a lot of times, the enterprises don’t know if it was the right decision or the wrong decision until they take that step. At least, for now, the 4 in 1 is a bold idea, it worths the thumbs up.

  • Ad

    This company is a joke. This could have been an interesting concept, but they have no credibility and even within this product there’s no focus.

  • tomchall

    this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen

    • James Cobalt

      Isn’t it exactly what everyone was asking Nintendo to do with the Switch? What’s dumb about it? (I’m ignoring the fact that Pimax is a poorly-managed company with a terrible track record and complete lack of product focus; I’m referring purely to the concept)

      • Muki EX

        If Nintendo did this with a Switch successor, it would likely be well-received, as the Switch has a fantastic library as-is, so the fall-back of “just being a Switch” is okay.

        Android is a wasteland.

        The problem isn’t the VR+Handheld. That’s potentially great. It’s VR+Android Handheld.

        There’s a reason Valve used x86 on the Steam Deck; Windows on ARM isn’t fast enough to matter for games and Android is, again, a wasteland of traditional gaming.

      • The more you build a product for everyone, the less it’s for anyone. When you dig into the details you start to see just how many problems there are here, especially with regards to VR.
        Notice how they conveniently didn’t show anyone wearing this headset during the presentation. Assuming the screen is about the size of Switch, the viewer will necessarily need to be extremely bulky to accommodate it. You have to contend with smudges on the screen and will be maximally front heavy with a significant amount of extra baggage weight from being a tablet. Then you get to the controllers, the way they’ve demonstrated this working means the right analog stick basically won’t be reachable, you’ll have an analog stick on one hand and a directional pad on the other. When slotted, the joy-cons stick out a good bit which means they’re going to catch on things especially each other when doing two handed interactions.
        AR viewer games have proven to be a gimmick. Same with motion controller pancake games. No one’s going to build games for these use cases.
        Sorry to say it, but what you’re really looking at here is a bog standard Android gaming handheld wrapped up in a bunch of grifty marketing hype. This is definitely the shadiest thing Pimax has put out, and no one should be backing this Kickstarter. They are established enough at this point it shouldn’t be necessary for them and there are plenty of communication channels to hear from their community without taking their money.

        • ViRGiN

          just as expected, they put a goal equivalent to 154 pimaxes sold.
          they almost reached their goal already, and there is 2 monhs old.

          as usual, MASSIVELY SUCCESFULL campaign, with never coming out product.

          i hope more people back this shit. it’s ALWAYS a joy reading into comments half a year later.

  • Doug Fany

    Looks like a great device, if it’s that versatile I guess not eating for a month worth it.
    Would be cool to play VR, or PC games with GeForce Now or Switch games.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      That is the key: if this thing would be an extension to a Switch, you could play Switch games in 2D and VR if there are games for that coming out. Nobody will produce games for this one as the market is way too small, so not many people will buy it…

      • ViRGiN

        Switch has touch screen, pimax portal does not.
        Portal is running android, yet is completly unusable as a tablet.
        That is really stupid.

    • Ben Jacobs

      Wtf are you eating for 400 a month? :o

  • Gildahl

    The VR folks who own Pimax own it because they offer headsets with large FOVs that you can’t get anywhere else. So they are able to compete by offering something fundamentally different, even if the execution is flawed. This Portal thingy though is way, way out on a limb. Here they are basically competing with everybody but doing it in a way that has always historically failed to work. There’s always been an appeal for modular hardware gaming systems, but I can’t actually think of a successful one. There’s a reason why things like TVs with slots to insert proprietary VCRs were never a thing, or why consoles with expansion modules have historically done poorly or even killed a company or two (Coleco, Sega, etc.); or why Nintendo–understanding the low profit margins on these sort of things–made Labo products out of cardboard and sold them at a premium as a niche sort of thing. The reason? Because modular products are almost always compromises and lock you into an ecosystem where users get angry the moment you break backward compatibility (sorry, our new stereo VCR won’t work in your TV because we didn’t know that would be a thing this year and didn’t wire it that way). I’ve heard that Valve/Deckard may be attempting a modular hardware design, and wonder if that’s where Pimax got their ideas. The difference though is that as long as Valve manages to ALSO include new fundamental features that you literally can’t get anywhere else, they will be able to have success on the basis of that alone, and not on the modularity. As for Pimax Portal, other than the modularity, there is nothing here that I can’t already pretty much get–and not be stuck in a single ecosystem.

    • ViRGiN

      TLDR: scam

  • ViRGiN

    “innovative”
    “software has much improved”
    “super responsive”
    “within minutes”
    “things seem to have changed”
    “enjoying my sword for beat saber”
    “crystal coming soon”

    What a clown. Do you buy different controllers per different games? LOL! Sword came out with years of delay in a handful of units.

    Also what’s up with pimax circlejerking about milimeter precision?
    The standard for years has been sub-milimiter lol.

    • ViRGiN

      I am very close to be in the world guiness book of the most downvoted person ever. Please lash me more.

      • ViRGiN

        imagine being bothered by that. how’s your pcvr fool? enjoying rec room?

  • ViRGiN

    They were so close to gold mine.
    They should have made that thing foldable into a smartwatch, which then you would put into Pimax Monocole and have full immersion in one eye.

  • ViRGiN

    I’ve looked through technical specification, entire presentation and more. Not a single clip of anyone touching the screen ever.
    I mean if i was chinese, it would make sense not to include one as it avoids smudges on screen in VR mode… i guess? lol

  • ViRGiN

    covid and chip shortages affects every production, even when it doesn’t.
    it’s around the corner now.
    also, don’t forget about etee controllers – coming out ‘soon’, delayed by over 2 years or something.

  • Mike EY

    It needs the Mini-PC attached to run anything demanding… Should have made a 140deg FOV Quest2 competitor.

    • ViRGiN

      no

  • ViRGiN

    everyone wants a virgin wife; yet they are attempting to make fun of being ‘virgin’ lol

  • duked

    Thanks for not using CAPS.

  • poltevo

    I’m always surprised that Pimax are still going.

    • ViRGiN

      clearly they are on the last breath

  • ViRGiN

    SCAM ALERT! SCAM ALERT!
    @CaryMGVR:disqus they are asking for 193k euros goal. with the current price of 8kx dmas 1249 euro, they are looking for amount equivalent to 154 units sold of 8kx dmas.

    What a bunch of crooks!

  • ViRGiN

    also an update, i saw some twitter ‘hands on’ and there is touch screen apparently. but not really advertised – wouldn’t be surprised if they pull off ‘we didn’t say the piece you ordered will have one’

  • Im very interested in seeing how well this works in VR mode, if it works well and can also be used for android gaming I definitely am going to get one.

  • ZeePee

    The only people I see this appealing to is people who haven’t yet got into VR and want an android handheld gaming system.

    Anyone who’s into VR, will either want a Quest 2, or a much better PC VR Pimax headset.

    It will be a much worse PC VR headset than other Pimax headsets, and it will be have a much worse library in VR standalone. And it’s limited to android games, so it’s not like a steam deck where you can play PC games.

    I don’t really see the market here.

    It’s expensive, and I bet it doesn’t do VR well.

    Do you think they’re going to get the software and tracking and ease of use perfectly down, like Quest 2? I highly doubt that.

    Pimax users won’t be buying this headset. PCVR users won’t be. Quest 2 users won’t be.

    They’re just hoping this brings more people into VR who aren’t already in the market. And it may well do that, to be fair. But at the sort of price you’re looking at for the whole VR experience, I’m just not seeing it.

    It’s like Google daydream

  • ZeePee

    Portal is a bad idea.

    Crystal and 12K, are great ideas.

    Simple as that.