I'm addicted to elite dangerous. I picked up a crystal primarily to play that every time I put it on and fire it up it fries my brain. The picture and audio quality are amazing.
Love hearing your review Skeeva! If this HMD had the lighthouse tracking faceplate included or installed on the Crystal itself, then I may have purchased this HMD already, even owning the Varjo Aero. If the launch went a little smoother and didn't require the battery then I would've ordered this headset. It was one that I was REALLY hoping would be a replacement of the Aero, but instead it just seems like another high quality headset option available for prosumers and enthusiasts.
I just cancelled my order for the crystal. Too many issues with it still for $1600 and I don't use VR enough to justify it in retrospect. I'll hold off and see what else comes out. Maybe a quest pro 2 or valve index 2 will come out. I found Pimax support quite helpful however with questions and my cancellation. If I was a heavy VR user I'd have bought it, and I might wait for the 12k. But for the 2-3 hours a week I play VR I can't justify $1600
Picking wide FOV as your first description is an interesting choice. Compared to every other Pimax headset it’s tiny. The clarity is absolutely astounding so the small FOV is worth it but it’s definitely closer to quest 2 than it is to 8KX.
If the Quest 2 is 100 degrees then the Crystal is around 140. It's significantly larger. Maybe even larger than the Valve Index. While it isn't as large as 8KX, it's a massive upgrade over most non Pimax headsets.
@@BetweenRealities I used TestHMD and got around 104 degrees in H&V for the Crystal, about 100V and 90V for the Quest 2, 114V and 104H for Index, and 96V and 140V for 8Kx.
Nice review right down to the point. Im getting my Crystal today July 31 2023 Im so excited more then any other headset I have owned and I have owned many...so many. May I ask you what are you computer specs? Im running a 3080TI. Does the Auto IPD and eye tracking work now for public release, has it been released now?
Im running an nvidia rtx 3090, Intel i9-9900k CPU, 32GB ram on WIndows 10. I'm not toally sure if the eye tracking update is beta or full release... ill try to find out
@@Skeeva007 I must say so myself WOW I am so happy with this purchase. This headset is really awesome other then the little weight but I will get use to it.I did the unboxing duiring the VR - CRU CAST and had to leave half way through the show to try it. Happy Happy Happy lol
Nice review. I realy wonder about Glasses. I wear glasses and can't be without them, it works in my Reverb G2 there is enough room. How about the Pimax, i see you wear glasses in the headset seemingly without problems, tho in an other review it was said that there was not enough room for glasses and that the glasses and the lenses would tough and therefor scratch. Did you have any issues? this for me means buy or not buy. Thx
I don't have any issues fitting my glasses in this headset. That being said all glasses are different sizes. I recently demoed this headset to hundreds of people at a convention and didnt have any issues with anyone's glasses fitting either :)
Great review skeeva,a little bit too pricey for my taste plus i don't think my 3070 can do it justice. But at the end of the day its still cheaper than the apple vision pro 😄👍
Can you elaborate a bit more of on the PiTools software? One of my biggest issues when I had a 5K headset was that about 50% of games would start up glitched and you needed to exit, open up PiTools and change the settings. In comparison, with the Valve Index, you just start the game and everything works. Has that been fixed?
I haven't found any games yet that have this issue. ive tested about 12 games so far. The I haven't had to do anything but the room setup in software so far!
Any thoughts on how the picture and FOV compare to my Reverb G2? I suspect it's much better with the min0led with local dimming, better lenses, and slightly higher resolution. The battery requirement makes me think,"WTF?" however.
Do you use the beta firmware or the public version? Because I can't understand people stating good tracking because my controllers jitter very much. I uploaded a very short video on my problem so maybe you have a look if this looks like with your controllers. I still don't know if I have a hardware issue or if others just have no problems with tracking due to beta firmware. I'm on the latest firmware and none of the updates before made any difference.
I saw in the comments you say the Crystal has the reported 140 FOV. That's a straight up Pimax lie. It's way smaller. Lots of independent measurements by many users bear this out. That's not a debatable or subjective FOV issue either. It's just a LOT smaller than advertised. Fact. People need to be made more aware of this
but these are not released to the public yet. They can talk about the lenses in R&D that will be released in 5 years from now for all I care, but you can't advertise NOW what's not available. AND, they never mentionned that you have to choose between clarity and FOV. They just advertize them all at once, for you to figure out what are the real limitations.@@sovietonion9542
The picture is amazing but the fov is still terrible the ergonomics just killed it for me they should of used another case n not just tryed use one thats memt to hold a 200° set up then theres the fact i touch the ipd button every time i took it on or off. Im glad i got to test it befor i was going to buy it n the picture really is as good as it can get right now but still a no from me. Ill be waiting for the index 2 (deckard)
I'm keen on a high quality WIRELESS Vr headset with a easy set up but suprise, pimax STILL hasn't fixed that. Will a 6900xt with 32 gb ram and 11700f cut it? Opinions wildly differ on that.Which is odd because my setup crushes every game Vr or not that is thrown at it.
Edge to edge clarity huh?? Yeah I'm not seeing edge to edge clarity. Maybe like 75% is clear and rest is blurry with CA on the very far edges. Auto IPD still not available for normal users.. So he's on beta software.
The only reason I never purchased this headset is because of these stupid arse off ear headphones…If I want to play VR when my mrs is asleep I can’t this is why I hated the G2 so much…I don’t want to be bound to there stupid arse audio solicitation…I want over ear headphones that work perfectly for my quest 3…I would of have this headset otherwise as I’m a sim racer
Yet another reviewer who doesn't mention the small sweet spot. Not sure what is going on with these reviewers. Bradley Lynch has the most honest review of it imo.
brad has got to be the worst reviewer of this headset i've ever seen. He clearly has something personal against the headset. Sweet spot is fine, edge to edge for me
Small sweat spot!!! What!!! Man, this is by far the best headset I have, and I have most of them. THE Aero ,8kx, G2, Quest 1 and 2 Psvr 1 and 2. This has the largest sweat spot with the best visual of them all. Brad is DEAD wrong on this headset and I stated so on his so-called review. He complained about the weight, but my little kids use my Crystal with no complaints. The Beyond has many issues, but he praises that headset. He's 💯% biased against the crystal, and again,, absolutely wrong.
@@kangjames2492 His team up with Matteo311 was a hit-piece. They even claimed that the Bigscreen was less expensive, completely forgetting the fact that you need base stations and controllers. They also manage to gloss over every good point of the headset, while going on the negatives for so long. It's like we get it, the Bigscreen is small. No IPD adjustment, no sharing, no resale, dependent on LH and forced to use controllers that are bigger than the headset. plus you want to talk about small sweetspots, the Crystal's sweetspot is larger than the whole bigscreen's lens. 🤣
@@antjones2281 I do think those two went on far too long about the negatives of the Pimax Crystal, but it's better than not mentioning them at all which is what I've seen other reviewers do. I'm surprised none of you think the sweet spot is a problem because that's the first unexpected surprise I got when I first tried on this headset. As to the price, in Europe both headsets cost about the same after everything you need is added. The price that Pimax advertises doesn't include VAT, which is an extra 300 euros in my country. Then you have to add 100 euros for the headphones as the sound is terrible without it, and another 100 euros for shipping. Altogether, the price of the Pimax Crystal is 2000 euros. I think that is roughly what you have to pay for the Bigscreen Beyond after you have added everything you need for it. Both of these headsets have their issues, but I definitely favoured the Pimax before I tried it. Lesson learned. I can't trust half the UA-cam reviewers out there.
You clearly don’t own one. The sweet spot is bigger on the crystal than the Quest2, G2, and Pico4. I can play MSFS and read instruments without moving my head at all. That’s impossible on any other headset. All thanks to the huge sweet spot.
I'm addicted to elite dangerous. I picked up a crystal primarily to play that every time I put it on and fire it up it fries my brain. The picture and audio quality are amazing.
What's up with the small distortion sweet spot though?
Love hearing your review Skeeva!
If this HMD had the lighthouse tracking faceplate included or installed on the Crystal itself, then I may have purchased this HMD already, even owning the Varjo Aero. If the launch went a little smoother and didn't require the battery then I would've ordered this headset. It was one that I was REALLY hoping would be a replacement of the Aero, but instead it just seems like another high quality headset option available for prosumers and enthusiasts.
This review was so good!! You fit everything
Thanks Jasmine!
YESS!! This was an amazing review! 🤩 And I got to be in the video! That’s sick!
Thanks for filming the B-Roll of me playing! You're the best!
Great review, thank you!
Doesn't the xr3 and xtal have higher resolution displays than crystal?
It looks siiickkk! $1,600 isn't in my budget, but it definitely looks cool!!!
yo!! fancy seeing you around these parts.
@@farmertrueVR OH, hello! It's like we're seeing each other everywhere now! Hahaha
I just cancelled my order for the crystal. Too many issues with it still for $1600 and I don't use VR enough to justify it in retrospect. I'll hold off and see what else comes out. Maybe a quest pro 2 or valve index 2 will come out. I found Pimax support quite helpful however with questions and my cancellation. If I was a heavy VR user I'd have bought it, and I might wait for the 12k. But for the 2-3 hours a week I play VR I can't justify $1600
Picking wide FOV as your first description is an interesting choice. Compared to every other Pimax headset it’s tiny. The clarity is absolutely astounding so the small FOV is worth it but it’s definitely closer to quest 2 than it is to 8KX.
If the Quest 2 is 100 degrees then the Crystal is around 140. It's significantly larger. Maybe even larger than the Valve Index. While it isn't as large as 8KX, it's a massive upgrade over most non Pimax headsets.
@@BetweenRealities That is simply not true. Vastly wrong, and really makes me question whether you own a Crystal at all.
@@BetweenRealities I used TestHMD and got around 104 degrees in H&V for the Crystal, about 100V and 90V for the Quest 2, 114V and 104H for Index, and 96V and 140V for 8Kx.
@@kingjamez80Pimax measures using the diagonal though. I think it makes more sense than using the vertical and horizontal.
@@Whatsup_Abroad That’s fine if Pimax uses diagonal. The fact is that it is vastly closer in FOV to Q2 than it is 8KX no matter how you measure.
Not sure but I think this is the first time the Pimax Crystal seems like a small headset. 😅
Great review
Thank you!
Great Review!
The Crystal had too much headache for me unfortunately! I can't sign the good E2E at all!
Great review!
Very neat device. I do think the Bigscreen Beyond may be a better alternative in some respects, especially if you are an existing valve index user.
Nice review right down to the point. Im getting my Crystal today July 31 2023 Im so excited more then any other headset I have owned and I have owned many...so many. May I ask you what are you computer specs? Im running a 3080TI. Does the Auto IPD and eye tracking work now for public release, has it been released now?
Im running an nvidia rtx 3090, Intel i9-9900k CPU, 32GB ram on WIndows 10. I'm not toally sure if the eye tracking update is beta or full release... ill try to find out
@@Skeeva007 I must say so myself WOW I am so happy with this purchase. This headset is really awesome other then the little weight but I will get use to it.I did the unboxing duiring the VR - CRU CAST and had to leave half way through the show to try it. Happy Happy Happy lol
@@GT1GT heck yeah! So exciting! Go back to some of your favorite games, it's like seeing them all for the first time!
Nice review.
I realy wonder about Glasses.
I wear glasses and can't be without them, it works in my Reverb G2 there is enough room.
How about the Pimax, i see you wear glasses in the headset seemingly without problems, tho in an other review it was said that there was not enough room for glasses and that the glasses and the lenses would tough and therefor scratch.
Did you have any issues? this for me means buy or not buy.
Thx
I don't have any issues fitting my glasses in this headset. That being said all glasses are different sizes. I recently demoed this headset to hundreds of people at a convention and didnt have any issues with anyone's glasses fitting either :)
A few people mentioned that barrel distortion from the display made them sick. Have you experienced this?
Does the crystal have a headphone jack? I personally don't want to be spilling sound from my gaming out into the house
Great review skeeva,a little bit too pricey for my taste plus i don't think my 3070 can do it justice.
But at the end of the day its still cheaper than the apple vision pro 😄👍
I think I'll wait until they have ironed all the kinks out. Maybe I'll get one if they upgrade to the xr2 gen 2
Can you elaborate a bit more of on the PiTools software? One of my biggest issues when I had a 5K headset was that about 50% of games would start up glitched and you needed to exit, open up PiTools and change the settings. In comparison, with the Valve Index, you just start the game and everything works. Has that been fixed?
I use an 8KX and never had that issue.
I haven't found any games yet that have this issue. ive tested about 12 games so far. The I haven't had to do anything but the room setup in software so far!
I have a 4090/
7900x3D Rig and I think this would be perfect.
I returned mine, we have the same rig basically except I have a 7950x3d. It looked amazing, but there were too many downsides to this headset.
@@CrecrossWhat are the downsides?
Any thoughts on how the picture and FOV compare to my Reverb G2? I suspect it's much better with the min0led with local dimming, better lenses, and slightly higher resolution. The battery requirement makes me think,"WTF?" however.
The resolution is much higher with virtually no sweet spot. Fov is pretty much edge to edge vertical and very good horizontal
slightly higher？where you got that idea from？
Higher resolution, For me the sweet-spot is very large. FOV is way better than the Reverb. But the battery thing is a serious drawback
Do you use the beta firmware or the public version? Because I can't understand people stating good tracking because my controllers jitter very much. I uploaded a very short video on my problem so maybe you have a look if this looks like with your controllers. I still don't know if I have a hardware issue or if others just have no problems with tracking due to beta firmware. I'm on the latest firmware and none of the updates before made any difference.
I am using the beta firmware
Do you use glasses with your Crystal or have some sort of inserts?
Go to around 4:20 and you'll see he's wearing glasses in that case.
I saw in the comments you say the Crystal has the reported 140 FOV. That's a straight up Pimax lie. It's way smaller. Lots of independent measurements by many users bear this out. That's not a debatable or subjective FOV issue either. It's just a LOT smaller than advertised. Fact. People need to be made more aware of this
if you get the large lens with worse quality, it is infact 140. you can search it up
but these are not released to the public yet. They can talk about the lenses in R&D that will be released in 5 years from now for all I care, but you can't advertise NOW what's not available. AND, they never mentionned that you have to choose between clarity and FOV. They just advertize them all at once, for you to figure out what are the real limitations.@@sovietonion9542
@@sovietonion9542everyone that has them and has measured using the testingbapp on steam has reported it at 112 and norm lenses at around 102
even on you that headset is huge
The picture is amazing but the fov is still terrible the ergonomics just killed it for me they should of used another case n not just tryed use one thats memt to hold a 200° set up then theres the fact i touch the ipd button every time i took it on or off. Im glad i got to test it befor i was going to buy it n the picture really is as good as it can get right now but still a no from me. Ill be waiting for the index 2 (deckard)
Great review Skeeva! I won’t buy this even though I love PCVR. It’s too bulky and my PC can’t handle it!
I'm keen on a high quality WIRELESS Vr headset with a easy set up but suprise, pimax STILL hasn't fixed that.
Will a 6900xt with 32 gb ram and 11700f cut it?
Opinions wildly differ on that.Which is odd because my setup crushes every game Vr or not that is thrown at it.
Edge to edge clarity huh?? Yeah I'm not seeing edge to edge clarity. Maybe like 75% is clear and rest is blurry with CA on the very far edges. Auto IPD still not available for normal users.. So he's on beta software.
Worst Customer support.....Little help...Long wait times and rudeness.
Might be a decent headset but it comes at a price.
The only reason I never purchased this headset is because of these stupid arse off ear headphones…If I want to play VR when my mrs is asleep I can’t this is why I hated the G2 so much…I don’t want to be bound to there stupid arse audio solicitation…I want over ear headphones that work perfectly for my quest 3…I would of have this headset otherwise as I’m a sim racer
Yet another reviewer who doesn't mention the small sweet spot. Not sure what is going on with these reviewers. Bradley Lynch has the most honest review of it imo.
brad has got to be the worst reviewer of this headset i've ever seen. He clearly has something personal against the headset.
Sweet spot is fine, edge to edge for me
Small sweat spot!!! What!!! Man, this is by far the best headset I have, and I have most of them. THE Aero ,8kx, G2, Quest 1 and 2 Psvr 1 and 2. This has the largest sweat spot with the best visual of them all. Brad is DEAD wrong on this headset and I stated so on his so-called review. He complained about the weight, but my little kids use my Crystal with no complaints. The Beyond has many issues, but he praises that headset. He's 💯% biased against the crystal, and again,, absolutely wrong.
@@kangjames2492 His team up with Matteo311 was a hit-piece.
They even claimed that the Bigscreen was less expensive, completely forgetting the fact that you need base stations and controllers.
They also manage to gloss over every good point of the headset, while going on the negatives for so long.
It's like we get it, the Bigscreen is small.
No IPD adjustment, no sharing, no resale, dependent on LH and forced to use controllers that are bigger than the headset.
plus you want to talk about small sweetspots, the Crystal's sweetspot is larger than the whole bigscreen's lens. 🤣
@@antjones2281 I do think those two went on far too long about the negatives of the Pimax Crystal, but it's better than not mentioning them at all which is what I've seen other reviewers do.
I'm surprised none of you think the sweet spot is a problem because that's the first unexpected surprise I got when I first tried on this headset.
As to the price, in Europe both headsets cost about the same after everything you need is added. The price that Pimax advertises doesn't include VAT, which is an extra 300 euros in my country. Then you have to add 100 euros for the headphones as the sound is terrible without it, and another 100 euros for shipping. Altogether, the price of the Pimax Crystal is 2000 euros. I think that is roughly what you have to pay for the Bigscreen Beyond after you have added everything you need for it.
Both of these headsets have their issues, but I definitely favoured the Pimax before I tried it.
Lesson learned. I can't trust half the UA-cam reviewers out there.
You clearly don’t own one. The sweet spot is bigger on the crystal than the Quest2, G2, and Pico4. I can play MSFS and read instruments without moving my head at all. That’s impossible on any other headset. All thanks to the huge sweet spot.