Pimax unveils Crystal Pro and Spation, competitors to Steam Frame and Steam Machine

At the Frontier 2026 presentation, Pimax unveiled the Crystal Pro VR headset and the compact Spation gaming PC. Both new products clearly overlap with Valve’s new lineup.

Crystal Pro vs. Steam Frame

The Pimax Crystal Pro features QLED displays with a resolution of 2880×2880 pixels per eye, a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, Mini-LED backlighting with 576 local dimming zones per eye, and aspheric glass lenses. The Steam Frame uses LCD panels with 2160×2160 pixels per eye at 72-144 Hz and pancake lenses. The field of view for both models reaches approximately 110°.

The main difference with the Crystal Pro lies in its wireless PC connection. Standard Wi-Fi streaming is supported out of the box, while the optional 60G AirLink uses a 60 GHz channel with a bandwidth of up to 6 Gbit/s. The Native Foveated Streaming system tracks eye movement and transmits the area the user is looking at without video compression. Pimax claims less than 2 ms of additional latency.

The Crystal Pro is powered by an external 16,000 mAh battery. The Steam Frame uses a 21.6 Wh battery located in the back of the headband.

However, Pimax’s higher specifications come at a higher price. The Crystal Pro costs $1399, and the bundle with 60G AirLink is $1899. The 256 GB Steam Frame is priced at $1059 / €1049, and the 1 TB version at $1299 / €1279.

Spation vs. Steam Machine

Pimax uses a desktop AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or comparable processor and a Radeon RX 9070 XT or GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card. It also includes 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, an SSD 1 TB PCIe 5.0 SSD, and a SFX 1000 W power supply.

Recall that the Steam Machine is built on a more compact AMD platform with a 6-core Zen 4 processor and RDNA 3 graphics with 28 compute units. Therefore, Spation is effectively positioned not just as an alternative to the Steam Machine, but as a much more powerful gaming PC in a similar form factor, designed for demanding PC VR as well.

Spation supports Windows and SteamOS. The RAM, storage, and graphics card can be replaced by the user, and Pimax is also preparing a DIY version. Interfaces include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet, two DisplayPort 2.1 ports, HDMI 2.1, USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4a, USB4, and six USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

Price and release date

The price of the Pimax Spation has not yet been announced. The Valve computer costs from $1049 for the 512 GB storage version to $1349 for the 2 TB model.

Pre-orders for the Crystal Pro are already open for $1. Demonstrations of the headset will begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with shipments starting in 2027. Pimax will announce pricing and release dates for the Spation at a later time.