I’ve enjoyed VR gaming (especially in sim racing), but PC VR has been something I’ve avoided. Why?
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Well I could never get the hype of wearing some massive headset that weighs the equivalent of a small car on your face — just to get more immersed into a game. The tech needs to be shrunken down into something actually usable, and the Pimax Dream Air is exactly that.
Available right now, I got to test it for its grand launch here at CES 2026, and trust me when I say I’ll never avoid PC VR ever again. These bring seriously premium specs to a headset that weighs less than six ounces!
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Making smart choices
(Image credit: Future)
The Pimax Dream Air packs all the specs you’d expect from a premium PC VR setup: 4K resolution per eye, 110-degree field of view, eye tracking for foveated rendering (rendering only the part of the screen you’re looking at in the moment to free up precious GPU memory), sensors for hand tracking, a split cable design to have the cord run down your back and more.
So how did they cram all of this in this tiny chassis? Well, it comes down to making some clever choices in the way certain elements are designed. Take the pancake lenses for example — normally with a flatter lens you’d have to put more depth on the front of the headset to account for a wider field of view.
(Image credit: Future)
Here, however, the lenses dish-in — they’re concave. That is the cheat code to expanding the view while not requiring additional bulk. And there are many more small design choices made to shave off size and weight here and there.
Gunning for pole position
So to test it, I went back to my favorite adversary of a circuit — Lime Rock Park in iRacing — and grabbed an open cockpit racer to try and achieve a best lap time.
Before even locking in and racing, the first thing I noticed immediately was both the crispy, flash flood of color that comes from those Sony Micro-OLED panels, the impressive 90Hz refresh rate smoothness, and (surprisingly) the high volume and nice bassy depth of those speakers on the headstrap.
(Image credit: Future)
Also shout-out to the magnetic gasket that packs plenty of plus padding for long-term comfort, and the dual fans that both keep the headset cool (and quiet) and provide ventilation for my face too.
Getting into the cockpit, though, my main problem in VR racing with bulky headsets has been my inability to look into an apex.
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When racing in real-life, the common trick to making sure you nail your line through a corner is to look towards the apex of a corner and beyond to the exit. That way you can just eyeball your way in and nail it with your depth perception every time.
With a massive headset, it always feels like a chore to move your head. With Dream Air, it’s effortless, and before long, I got into my flow and shaved four seconds off my lap time.
There’s so many incredible PC VR experiences that I feel have been gatekept by the size and weight of the devices needed to play it. Pimax just primed a breakthrough that could change that.
Outlook
(Image credit: Future)
Let’s be real — a combination of advanced tech that’s condensed and crammed into a super slim chassis like this was always going to be pricey. You can grab the Dream Air at prices starting $1,999, but luckily there’s a Dream Air SE model that you can pre-order for $899. The main differences are a lower resolution and smaller field of view.
But whatever you go for, my main obstacle to PC VR gaming has always been the size and weight of it. To don a massive headset is always a complicated process for the sake of a couple hours of gaming.
When that size and weight is removed, and you’re still getting a drop dead gorgeous window into your virtual world, that changes things significantly. It doesn’t feel like an Olympic sport to turn your head, packing your headset doesn’t require an entire cupboard. Put simply, this smushing down of the size and weight is exactly what I’ve been looking for to believe one thing: the PC VR hype is real.
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