Pimax Artisan — specification and verdict
The Artisan was Pimax's cheap entry into wide-field PC VR at 449 USD, with 1700x1440 per eye on RGB-stripe LCD panels running at up to 120 Hz. VRcompare measures 130 degrees of visible horizontal field against the 170 degrees diagonal Pimax advertised, so the width is real but not what the marketing implied. For training that mix is awkward: the horizontal sweep suits situational-awareness scenarios, while 1700x1440 through Fresnel optics leaves small procedure labels and gauge markings hard to read. There is no passthrough, no eye or hand tracking and no cameras on the headset, so everything a trainee does has to come from controllers that Pimax did not include in the price.
This is a tethered headset in the strictest sense: DisplayPort 1.4 plus USB to a gaming PC for every seat, and two SteamVR 2.0 base stations mounted and powered in every room. Controllers were not in the 449 USD box, so a working station cost noticeably more than the headset. Pimax offers no device management, no kiosk mode and no enterprise licensing for it, and the facial interface is foam rather than a wipe-clean swappable pad, which is a problem for shared use. Pimax's own Artisan product pages now return 404, so spares and replacements depend on whatever is left in the channel, and there is no EU distribution to speak of in Poland or Germany.
Do not buy the Artisan for training in 2026. It is a discontinued 2020 PC VR headset that needs base stations, a PC and separately bought controllers, and our Android-based VR courses do not run on PC VR at all. If a wide field of view is the actual requirement, take a current standalone headset from the catalogue and accept a narrower view in exchange for something you can deploy.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — PC-tethered devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Median for this class: $899, from 45 models that publish the figure.
Controllers and hand tracking
Ships without controllers, and does not track hands either.
Bare hands
No hand tracking.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- Pimax
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — PC-tethered
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- PC-powered VR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- 2020-01-06
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2020
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
- LCD
- OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
- Fresnel lenses
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- ≈1700x1440*VRcompare
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- ≈72/90/120 Hz*UploadVR, CES 2020 hands-on report
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- ≈130° horizontal*VRcompare measured visible FoV
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- ≈500 g*VRcompare
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- 130° horizontal · 95° vertical
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- 131.56° horizontal · 102.7° vertical · 127.67° diagonal
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- ≈86.79°*VRcompare
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- RGB stripe · 3 subpixels per pixel
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- PassthroughWhat the front cameras give you: colour, grayscale, or nothing.
- Passthrough: not published by the manufacturer
- Passthrough camerasResolution, density and frame rate of that camera feed.
- Passthrough cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- IPD adjustmentMatching lens spacing to the eyes. Motorised is fastest when one headset passes between people.
- Manual
- IPD rangeHow far the lenses travel to match eye spacing. A narrow range excludes part of any group of adults, which matters when one headset is shared.
- 60–72 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Works with glasses: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Vision correction: not published by the manufacturer
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- ≈280 × 108 × 136 mm*VRcompare
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- ≈514 g*VRcompare
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Soft strap
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- plastic · foam facial interface
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- Black · Blue
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- No
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- SteamVR 2.0 base stations (two required)
- Base stationsWhether boxes have to be mounted on the walls before it works.
- Required
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- 1000 Hz
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- No
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- No
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- None
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- No
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- None (hands only)
- Other controllersWhether the headset works with controllers other than the ones it ships with.
- Other controllers: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- No
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- No
- Swappable facial interfaceRemovable, wipeable face padding. A consumable, and the difference between shared use and complaints.
- Swappable facial interface: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: not published by the manufacturer
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- 2 x USB Type-C · headphone jack
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Over a cable (DisplayPort 1.4)
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Headphone jack
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Yes
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Mid range
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $449
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- Price by configuration: not published by the manufacturer
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
- Comfort (from reviews)How it wears over a full session. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers, not from our own testing.
- Comfort (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Edge clarity (from reviews)Sharpness away from the centre of the lens. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Edge clarity (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking reliability (from reviews)How tracking holds up in poor light and fast movement. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews)How usable controller-free hand tracking is in a training scenario. Scored from agreement between reviewers.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
Realistically nobody buying new. It was aimed at PC VR enthusiasts and location-based entertainment operators who wanted a wide field of view for under 500 USD and already owned SteamVR base stations and Index or Vive controllers. A training team without an existing lighthouse installation has no reason to start here.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
Pimax never published an end-of-support date, a discontinuation date or a closing firmware statement for the Artisan; we treat it as withdrawn because both of its product URLs on pimax.com return 404. Sources also disagree on the panel: UploadVR reported 1600x1440 per eye at CES 2020 while VRcompare and Pimax's own retail material say 1700x1440, and the advertised 170 degrees diagonal cannot be reconciled with the 130-by-95-degree visible field. Battery, warranty and certification data do not apply or were never published, and the 500 g bare against 514 g strapped weights in the only source available look implausibly close.
Pimax Artisan in independent reviews
Reviews we consider worth your time, each with a note on what the reviewer actually tested and why it matters for a training rollout. We do not own this hardware, so the tests are theirs — the reading of them is ours.
- Ludiks2020
A review run across thirteen games rather than one demo, which is the only way to catch how a wide-field headset behaves in titles that were not built for one. Breadth is the point here, not depth.
Watch on YouTube - MRTV - MIXED REALITY TV2020
An unboxing of the European version supplied by the maker, focused on comfort — the Artisan was positioned against the Valve Index, and comfort was the axis on which that comparison was fought.
Watch on YouTube
Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press play. Once you do, Google receives your IP address and device data and may process them outside the EEA — see our privacy policy for the details.
Pimax Artisan — frequently asked questions
- Do I need SteamVR base stations for the Pimax Artisan?
- Yes. The Artisan has no inside-out cameras and tracks only from external SteamVR 2.0 base stations, two of them, mounted and powered in the room. Neither the base stations nor controllers were included in the 449 USD headset price, so budget for both plus a PC with DisplayPort 1.4 before the headset is usable at all.
- Is the Pimax Artisan really 170 degrees field of view?
- Not as you see it. Pimax advertised 170 degrees diagonal, but VRcompare measures the visible field at 130 degrees horizontal and 95 degrees vertical, with about 87 degrees of binocular overlap. It is genuinely wider than most 2020 headsets; it is not almost twice as wide, and Pimax never published a per-axis breakdown that would reconcile the two figures.
- Can I still buy a Pimax Artisan in 2026 and will it get support?
- No, not from Pimax. Both Artisan product pages on pimax.com return 404 and the headset was superseded by the Crystal line. Anything on sale now is second-hand or old channel stock, and with no published end-of-support date you should treat firmware updates, warranty and replacement foam facial interfaces as unavailable.
Compare this device
Consider these too
The nearest devices in the same class, ranked by availability and launch price — not by our opinion of them.
The manufacturer publishes no specification page for this device, so the figures were checked against a third-party database on 2026-08-08. Third-party specification database
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.