You're doing a great service for the vr community, talking about nitty gritty stuff we actually care about and not just "does/does not hit x amount of fps" that others apparently aren't capable of AT ALL. Keep it up!
Thank you for the OUTSTANDINGLY in depth review. You have gone above and beyond literally every other reviewer here. I watched the whole thing, and I was never bored. I actually ordered my Crystal yesterday, and this video made me feel better about it. I am not a simmer either, but the community confirmed specs sound so amazing. I just hope we get at least one more promised feature beyond the lighthouse plate this year
I honestly mostly watched the cat. Wondered if he made his own gloves. Counted the pillows. Wondered what this dudes deal was, motivations, etc. What's that stuff on the wall? Who paints their room this color? Stuff like that.
When the Crystal is fully functional and honestly reviewed by RUclipsrs like yourself, and available to purchase from my local Amazon store, I'm definitely going to buy and try. I did the same with the 8kx early last year and I'm glad I did (returned for an easy refund btw, too much distortion, for me anyway). Thanks for your vid mate and best cheers from Australia.
Thank you for this review. I watched every minute of it without even jumping forward or playing at 1.25 speed (this is what I often do for the other reviewer's videos). I own the Crystal, mostly for MSFS and I share your opinions. I wait now for DFR firmware release, and I don't unxderstand why Pimax lies again in their deep dive technology video in which they claimed that DFR is already available (they released the video at the end of July 2023). The Crystal is great, way better for simming vs. G2 (resolution, sweet spot, colors, even FoV). It's also 3x more expensive vs. G2, but worth it if your budget allows The company's marketing behavior though is incomprehensible to me.
I watched the first 20 minutes before looking at the length and oh my goodness, you were not kidding that you had a lot to say. Over an hour long. But, I find that is fantastic since you are diving in deep, as you normally do on your videos, to let folks know things that mainstream RUclipsrs doesn't touch. Tip of the hat to you for that. I'm super interested in the Crystal, even though I already own and love the Varjo Aero, and have no desire in switching HMD's. BTW, I do get a 110 degree horizontal on the Aero when wearing it comfortably with my 64.5 IPD in both of those FOV tests. I'm sure I could hit 114 if I tighten it. But, the horizontal is 78 degrees vertical for me. Thankfully FOV has never been an issue. But like other enthusiasts, I just enjoy all things in VR and am always looking for industry leaders. With the Crystals clarity and visuals, even though I love the Aero visuals and clarity, I would like to experience what the Crystal has to offer. Since I'm a variety VR live streamer with around 200 VR games, I'm still skeptical if the Crystal would be comfortable to wear for 4-6 hours at a time 5-6 days a week (the amount I live stream) or if the cumbersome size with fast action/moving VR experiences may cause an immersive breaking experience. Either way, thanks again for the info. If the Crystal didn't have a skeptical launch, if the lighthouse faceplate was already included or even available, then I would have probably ordered one. I'm still not sure this HMD would be worth the $2,100 or so dollars it would cost (once I get the lighthouse faceplate, lens protectors and dmas headphones) but your info has helped tremendously. Cheers
You're definitely not hitting 114 because more than 110 doesn't exist, well unless you account for the factors of why various measurement apps can give slightly different numbers vs rendered, as I said in the video, that's a possibility too. I'd be curious to see those, because there were versions of TestHMD which were bugged and added more horizontal or vertical though, it's 1.2 specifically you want. Cause you'd be the first person I've seen get that high, virtually every other measurement I've seen was around 100-105~ or so. Vertical sounds about right though. I've usually seen around 75-80 there. But thanks. I've really noticed a lack of super indepth stuff from a lot of VR reviewers and the Crystal just has so bloody much to talk about beyond simply reading a spec sheet. Because it's such a shame the launch had to go how it did, because Pimax had(And still has) something with a lot of potential on their hands. I'd REALLY hope Pimax fixes their problems by the time the 12k launches, but I'm not holding my breath. I probably wouldn't upgrade to the Crystal from the Aero, as while there's definitely some notable pros that I think would make it better if you were buying brand new(And you don't mind the tinkering, of course), unless you have A LOT of money to not care, hate lighthouses, or need those super deep blacks, I don't feel like it'd be an improvement worth that much when you already have an Aero, unless maybe you somehow got a lot second hand but niche items like these lose value FAST.
Just wanted to visit back and let you know that testing the Varjo Aero again with it as close to my face as I could get still had a 110 degree horizontal FOV@@Omniwhatever . Glad that I am able to wear it comfortably and still get that solid horizontal FOV. I also wanted to say that I did watch the entire review after my first comment and enjoyed listening to it. The Crystal has great visuals, probably the best available atm, but you hit the nail on the head with all the issues and Pimax stuff that comes with it. Even with the Aero, and even with not liking to tinker with stuff (although I am a natural at that kind of stuff), I'd be willing to tinker to get it in the best possible version IF it didn't come with all those issues you mentioned it being riddled with. The Varjo Aero is legit as near perfect as a HMD can possibly be for my wants and needs so I have no desire to "upgrade" or get a replacement. But the VR enthusiast in me wants to experience the best HMD Pimax has made and see exactly what visually can be improved. None the less, appreciate the in depth information as always and I hope the Crystal brings you many many years of enjoyment. Cheers
After seeing the whole video I must say, it's not only a perfect review but also a great source for solving some problems or improving the experience! Please keep posting this stuff, it's very helpful. Other youtubers post links in the description to "buy them a coffee" - do you have a way for me to thank you directly?
Thanks so much for the thought! I really do appreciate it. I may think about something in the future, but at this moment I don't have anything beyond affiliate links. My schedule is very inconsistent, I'm just particularly active right now since I'm on break from university I'll likely slow way down in about 2 months. I don't mind the affiliate links as I feel like people are still GETTING something purely out of that, and it might be something they'd have bought anyway, but with respect to stuff like donations, or perhaps patreon, I'm not sure how I'd feel about it since I'm not sure if I'd really be able to offer stuff or if how I go about my stuff would change when I start thinking about "Oh, people are directly giving me money for making stuff". As I said, maybe I'll work something out in the future as the channel grows. It's getting bigger than I expected.
Watching your videos since your RTX 3090 TI vs RTX 4090 benchmark, your review of the Crystal is perfect! Thank your for being so honest :) Very impressed with the DFR on Pavlov, every headsets released without eye tracking since the PSVR2 at 600€ is a pass for me
Yeah I was truly floored when I saw those Pavlov results. I'm SO upset only 2 games really support that kind of DFR. I wouldn't need to upgrade my GPU for a decade if every game supported it. I hope it catches on!
Congrats for the best Pimax Crystal review out there, the amount of great info and detail in this review is amazing, covering both the good and bad really well.
I agree on the difficulty in removing the lenses. It was a giant pain and I was certain I was going to break them. They make it look like such a cinch in the official how to videos. I must also say with regard to the company, although overall, my dealings with Pimax has been a mixed bag, I can say that the single best customer service experience I have ever had was with Pimax. The COO of the company took hours of his time to call me and work with me directly to personalize my experience with the 8KX and maximize performance by working on finding the best settings for my rig and the sims I would be using most. He totally knocked it out of the park.
Thanks for the lens discussion, I did not receive any message from Pimax about that despite having been in "ready for shipment" status since July 19th. Also, much respect to your min-max PCVR living space!
Very good review. It's very clear you know what you are talking about. To all the problems I would also add some quality control issues with the lenses and screens. Many of us have had some yellow spots appearing on specifically the left screen, sometimes only after a few minutes, other times after long playsessions. They have said they know what it is and they'll fix it with an update, but they don't seem that sure it will work. The other problem is the same issue of quality control with the lenses. They are having to send me a new left lens (for free thank god) because I get a different distortion profile than I do with my right one, and so do all of my friends and my brother. Getting them to send a new one was understandably not so easy because they first thought I wasn't wearing it right. But all in all I am so pleased with hte picture quality, if they can get everything working by end of this year it could be a great headset, after all the aero came out with barrel distortion and a lot of CA as well, sure they are a different company, but they fixed all of the issues in about 1 year.
I saw some reports about the yellow spot. At the time of the video being done, I hadn't seen TOO many reports so I wanted to wait and see how it developed before commenting. Does seem like it's not just an isolated case or two by now though. We'll just have to see what Pimax does to address it. QC seems to be pretty hit or miss.
@@Omniwhatever yep, if it can be solved via software like the valve index' column correction I would be ok with that, but QC is what I am afraid of. Strangely I have always seen reports on the left screen though...
well done on explaining the blooming issue corrently unlike others and a great review in general with some nice wake up calls if the viewer get's distracted by something else.
You're good, like really good. You have made the most honest and thorough review of Primax Crystal I have seen on the web 😊, unfortunately after I ordered the VR glasses ☹ I have now received my Crystals and have had them for 24 hours and you are so right, you say yourself you have a big head, I don't. Mine is quite "normal" 58 cm in diameter and it is not big enough to fill the glasses, so I have followed your recommendation and ordered the Quest mask of 11 cm, from Amazon, thanks for the tip. You are the most honest person on the web 😊
Thank you so much for this review. I finally received mine and I totally agree this you (even if the audio latency is a thing for me, in alyx for exemple, I shoot, then the sound come later... But zero latency watching 3d movies with bigscreen beta). The set is astonishing but I feel I am a beta tester for some things. When I start to shout, I simply put the mask on and... it's so beautiful that I have nothing to say, just to enjoy!
Awesome review! I might wait for everything to flesh out though, I don’t see any current reason for this headset in comparison to the quest pro though, which has all of its software and compatibility fleshed out. Cheers!
Love the content but at about 52:00 there's a number of us who recently received our Crystals and are having serious, serious, coloring situations. The colors are stale and have a yellow/brownish hue. Similar to what you'd find on an iOS device with Night Shift enabled. Pimax has been mute on this issue.
Think i will keep my Quest 2 (i got it for a bargain price that was too tempting). I'll use the savings get a 4090 and max the res of the Q2. I'll wait till high end VR headsets drop and get these 2nd hand or ex display models etc.
By the way, I'm a DCS pilot, and here these VR glasses really have their right.......The world becomes "real" ;.) an absolutely fantastic pair of glasses with the problems that are right now, but still far, far better than mine old Reverb G2
I’m completely new to VR and recently bought a pico 4 a few months ago as it was fairly cheap and just wanted to see what VR is like in 2023. Safe to say I was fairly blown away by the PICO (remember it’s my first headset so I have no experience or comparisons what so ever). But it’s clear to say I am definitely just a little clarity/resolution slut. I’d go as far to say I don’t even really care about anything else. Now as I get far more experienced with Vr that will no doubt change but I think I’m going to pick this headset up because every review I have seen they have basically all said the clarity and pixels on the screen are INCREDIBLE. I think that for me is good enough. It’s just a shame it looks so huge and clunky when it’s on your face. I think personally the most aesthetic VR headset I have seen is the quest pro. I still dabble in buying that almost everyday. Decisions are so hard when it comes to VR headsets.
Pico 4's a great starting headset! Has pancake lenses and some decent screens. Unfortunately, I haven't tried the Quest Pro and my only experience with the Pico 4 was a short 15-20 minute demo at GDC, so I can't compare too strongly to the Crystal. But if you want clarity this definitely won't disappoint, long as you're willing to work with the quirks. But you will need an absolute monster of a rig to truly unlock it's potential. The image quality is truly top-tier and favorable compares to even monitors now, and so few headsets can claim that in my opinion. If you have Amazon available to you, they have a great return policy if you want to try something and see if it's for you or not. I don't think the pixel density of the Quest Pro's gonna be much different from the Pico 4, but I hear the lenses are much better.
@@Omniwhatever thank you for your reply. It’s so cool to hear back from people who are experienced with this sort of tech because I am as Green as they come ATM. I had a really disappointing experience recently using the PSVR2. I purchased one a few days ago and I was so stoked to play both chapters of the walking dead (I even bought the bundle on the PS store for £50.00 which was a complete rookie mistake). As soon as chapter one started I could take my eyes off that grainy Mura effect. Now I know a lot of seasoned VR users say the PSVR2 is amazing and I did enjoy the colours and the crisp and smooth gameplay but I just couldn’t get passed that filter effect. I’m all about total immersion and that’s why I’m excited to dabble in VR but I tried my hardest to ignore it and look through the lense as I’ve read people say but I just couldn’t. It was to obvious for me and I found it really ruined my gameplay experience. Luckily I’ve managed to return it and get my £530.00 back. I’ve heard a lot of users say they will gladly take the Mura effect and have the perfect blacks from oled but sadly I think I’m the opposite. I’d rather have slightly different colours but not have this really off putting grain across my lense at all times. Feel really let down by that experience if I’m honest that’s why I’m willing to sell out some extra money and truly get an unreal VR experience. I am going to start researching good quality gaming rigs but that again is a completely new industry for me as well as I don’t even own a gaming PC
Hi, I really liked your review, obviously you spent a lot of time doing it ! I wanted to know if during your reserches you've heard customers complaining about colors and brightness of the Crystal ? I recieved mine and I think (I'm sure) the panel has a problem, the brightness is really low, there's a weird greenish tint and colors are quite dull, it feels like wearing dark green sunglasses, or like a Matrix movie filter... I own a 5k+ and if I make direct comparison the 5k+ is brighter and has better colors 🤔. I watched your other videos so I'm aware of the colors in profile.json and the local dimming values, but nothing can improve the image quality, if I move the sliders I can get something "not too ugly" but absolutely not accurate and with whites burnt and blacks washed. I've submitted a ticket to their support service, but they take days to answer, so I'm just hoping you have an advice or an idea of what to try, while I'm waiting 😅 (I'm french maybe some sentences are not perfect, if something is not clear I can develop). Thank you
Check your profile.json settings and see if you're effected by the color bug I mentioned in the video. The Crystal looks a lot better without it happening and it's very erasy to trigger.
@@Omniwhatever hi, thank you for your answer, and yes I've already tried to modify the profile.json, I saw your other videos, I tried a lot of things to correct this issue since my message, and I had 2 days with good colors and good brightness (with some modifications in the profile.json), I think I may have a defective cable, because when I have color issues I have battery issues too, I can't charge through the cable and I have 2h of autonomy. On the contrary when I have good colors, the autonomy is ok. And I have those issues with or without the powerhub. I give up, i'll wait for the customer service answer, I've sent them like 5 messages with the maximum of information. I should have waited for a resaler in Europe🤷♂
I keep hearing about the brightness being so great....I received an early unit with the fiber cable but glass lenses....the one thing I was disappointed by was the brightness. I mean it was ok but my Quest Pro is better. So I sold my Crystal....I have since ordered another one and hope the new one I get is a bit better. Fingers crossed!
That's really strange because I know somebody who has a Quest Pro and thought the Crystal was leaps brighter than it was. I've seen some people have the brightness default to below 100 so maybe you had it set to below 100 or were impacted by the color bug I mentioned in the software section? Which does make the image feel noticeably dimmer.
Just finished watching....thank you so much for the incredible level of depth you've gone to for us to be maximally informed as possible. So insightful and helpful! Also, your energy is down right contagious and I mean that in the very best of ways!!! 😁
I got a samsung odyssey oled I was non impressed by the sde then I bought a G2 and when I saw the Grey blacks smsll fov and the HD screen look I got back to my oled and put back the g2 on the box.
I was of the mind that they advertised the wide fov lenses as the specs. But to bait and switch the FoV and use the higher FoV lenses as an additional purchase is bs.
At 52:40 those color errors output to file that you need to change manually - has that been fixed in the latest beta? Or we need to edit the file every time still?
@@Omniwhatever thanks, I found the file with the common setting. However I tried the per game setting with individual adjustments and can't see it save anything in either local or roaming subfolders cfg files. Any idea where the per game settings are? Or does per game setting not save color/contrast/brightness?
Yes, I'm aware of that. But lots of people also have it work too, it's not just like 1-2 people who have it work and then everyone else doesn't or it's just 1-2 people who have issues with the battery. I said it's an issue some people are having and it's currently being investigated.
If you have a pimax with a usb hub you should be ok. I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now and I don’t have any battery issues. Hope you get the issue fixed. Mine shipped with a. Copper cable and usb hub.
You mustn't forget that more FOV when achieved by new lenses with same display would result in lower PPD! So even if you believe their promise (and I kinda do), you must keep in mind that there is a tradeoff. Btw, great review! Keep it up!
Yes, but also no. It depends on how it's done. They could still have the same peak PPD value of 35PPD in the center, but there could be a more noticeable falloff of PPD in the peripheral area. VR headsets do not have uniform PPD across the whole image.
@@Omniwhatever Correct, but still worth to be mentioned that there will be a tradeoff compared to the recent lenses - at least in the peripheral area. With this technique, I would even expect more lense distortion in the peripheral area, thus leading to even more color shift there. But maybe Pimax is quicker than Varjo in the correction of this shift. 😉
Dear Omniwhatever Luke ross VR modded games (Cyberpunk , Zero Horizon Dawn ect) is working with Pimax Crystal? Can you use open xr layer or just steam VR? And can you play with 4090 with affordable fps? Furthermore can you play also praydog Resident Evil VR mod and the crystal controllers are working ? Because my G2 working very well with these modded games in open xr mode and i can achive affordable fps with my rtx 4080 and it will be very important question because i would like to upgrade my G2 if these are workign with also Pimax Crystal. Thanks this answer in advance.
I don't play Luke Ross's stuff, not my thing at all, so can't really say. Think that some other people have done it though. No issues with playing the RE mods with it though, don't see why there'd be a problem.
@@Omniwhatever Thanks this anwer very much! Bionocular overlap is good in this eadset ? You can see the 3d effect very well right? Because in the past i have one pimax 5k plusand the a3 effect was very poor because of this lack of bionocular overlap.
Thanks this answer and please tell me the crystal contoller is compatible most of the steam VR games and Oculus home games ( with revive ) ? Thanks this answer in advance, @@Omniwhatever
You do? I didn't say otherwise. The initial launch of the Crystal was a mess where some people got shipped plastic lenses and the 42PPD lenses are plastic.
Horrendous support in 3 weeks 1 reply and I wouldn't mind if it was a minor problem. 2 bios corruptions loads of gfx drivers crashes and re installs. I have a 7900 xt. Screen corruption on the left eye. A service reset fixes that . I have had about 7 hours total of play time interrupt by very serious problems. The problem seems to be the USB leads. 2 weeks ago I requested new leads but nadda no response. Worst tech company I ever delt with !!!
I wouldn't buy it after trying it due to the small distortion sweet spot, but this is still a good review as it covers the distortion sweetspot and other issues missing from the inferior reviews on youtube. One thing though that's missing from the review is how the sheer size of it can be a problem as you will be accidentally banging the controllers on the headset while playing some types of games. For this reason, and a few others, i disagree with the conclusion that this is a good headset for all types of games. To me, this is a simmers headset. Too many issues come up in other types of games.
I didn't mention that, because I strongly disagree with that being an issue. I've used Pimax headsets for a long time and not once has that ever been a problem in any of the games I've played. I, personally, think the size issue is overblown.
Good review. One tip....If you don't want to be on camera, then don't. Just do a voice over or even use an avatar. It's not the great "hook" you seem to think it is. It's just odd and distracting not a nice scene to see. Other than that carry on!
No, I don't think I will and I'll keep doing what I'm doing. I know it's not going to be for everyone but everyone has their own approach to things and some people have liked it just fine so far. If people don't like it they don't have to watch then. There are people who think avatars/vtubers are a dumb thing for example.
He doesn't sound anything like Bradley and his conclusions are the opposite. After using it for myself, I agree with Bradley and wouldn't recommend this headset other than to simmers. Also, Bradley has no affiliate links for this headset in his review. That may be the most important difference.
@dtz1000 Did you miss the part where I said it's there but I'd still very strongly recommend not buying it from Pimax directly and a third party like Amazon, NOT via the affiliate link? Especially with all the ragging on Pimax and saying it's their decision to make if they still want it even after ALL these warnings? Hardly a glowing recommendation or anything to discredit the review.
You're doing a great service for the vr community, talking about nitty gritty stuff we actually care about and not just "does/does not hit x amount of fps" that others apparently aren't capable of AT ALL. Keep it up!
Thanks! I was inspired in part by the lack of super indepth stuff I saw from most people. I spent a lot of time researching for this one.
@@Omniwhatever well, you certainly hit the mark on the super in-depth stuff and then carried on a mile past it (in a good way). :P
That was extremely helpful and awesome! Unprecedented depth! Thank you!
Thanks for the review! You're a blessing to the VR community ❤.
The review I've been waiting for! Grabbing some popcorn and starting now.
Ya, need lots of nice buttery popcorn, lol! Well worth popping some and watching this vid imho. Thanks mate and best cheers from Australia.
Thank you for this awesome review, you went really in depth which seems to be something missing from alot of vr headset reviewers at the time.
Thank you for the OUTSTANDINGLY in depth review. You have gone above and beyond literally every other reviewer here. I watched the whole thing, and I was never bored. I actually ordered my Crystal yesterday, and this video made me feel better about it. I am not a simmer either, but the community confirmed specs sound so amazing. I just hope we get at least one more promised feature beyond the lighthouse plate this year
Holy shit, I just looked at the amount of your citations, it has to be a good review. I'm excited. Ps. you have a cute cat
I honestly mostly watched the cat. Wondered if he made his own gloves. Counted the pillows. Wondered what this dudes deal was, motivations, etc. What's that stuff on the wall? Who paints their room this color? Stuff like that.
@@moolieboy Haha, yeah, the stuff around also was getting a lot of my attention.
Great thorough review. You covered it all pretty much. Thanks for the honesty.
When the Crystal is fully functional and honestly reviewed by RUclipsrs like yourself, and available to purchase from my local Amazon store, I'm definitely going to buy and try. I did the same with the 8kx early last year and I'm glad I did (returned for an easy refund btw, too much distortion, for me anyway). Thanks for your vid mate and best cheers from Australia.
Thank you for putting this together. I hope you keep releasing updates on the headset if/as Pimax delivers on the updates.
Thank you for this review. I watched every minute of it without even jumping forward or playing at 1.25 speed (this is what I often do for the other reviewer's videos). I own the Crystal, mostly for MSFS and I share your opinions. I wait now for DFR firmware release, and I don't unxderstand why Pimax lies again in their deep dive technology video in which they claimed that DFR is already available (they released the video at the end of July 2023).
The Crystal is great, way better for simming vs. G2 (resolution, sweet spot, colors, even FoV). It's also 3x more expensive vs. G2, but worth it if your budget allows
The company's marketing behavior though is incomprehensible to me.
You deserve waaaay more exposure and I hope you get it. Quality content. Thank you very much :)
I watched the first 20 minutes before looking at the length and oh my goodness, you were not kidding that you had a lot to say. Over an hour long. But, I find that is fantastic since you are diving in deep, as you normally do on your videos, to let folks know things that mainstream RUclipsrs doesn't touch. Tip of the hat to you for that.
I'm super interested in the Crystal, even though I already own and love the Varjo Aero, and have no desire in switching HMD's. BTW, I do get a 110 degree horizontal on the Aero when wearing it comfortably with my 64.5 IPD in both of those FOV tests. I'm sure I could hit 114 if I tighten it. But, the horizontal is 78 degrees vertical for me. Thankfully FOV has never been an issue. But like other enthusiasts, I just enjoy all things in VR and am always looking for industry leaders. With the Crystals clarity and visuals, even though I love the Aero visuals and clarity, I would like to experience what the Crystal has to offer. Since I'm a variety VR live streamer with around 200 VR games, I'm still skeptical if the Crystal would be comfortable to wear for 4-6 hours at a time 5-6 days a week (the amount I live stream) or if the cumbersome size with fast action/moving VR experiences may cause an immersive breaking experience.
Either way, thanks again for the info. If the Crystal didn't have a skeptical launch, if the lighthouse faceplate was already included or even available, then I would have probably ordered one. I'm still not sure this HMD would be worth the $2,100 or so dollars it would cost (once I get the lighthouse faceplate, lens protectors and dmas headphones) but your info has helped tremendously. Cheers
You're definitely not hitting 114 because more than 110 doesn't exist, well unless you account for the factors of why various measurement apps can give slightly different numbers vs rendered, as I said in the video, that's a possibility too. I'd be curious to see those, because there were versions of TestHMD which were bugged and added more horizontal or vertical though, it's 1.2 specifically you want. Cause you'd be the first person I've seen get that high, virtually every other measurement I've seen was around 100-105~ or so. Vertical sounds about right though. I've usually seen around 75-80 there.
But thanks. I've really noticed a lack of super indepth stuff from a lot of VR reviewers and the Crystal just has so bloody much to talk about beyond simply reading a spec sheet. Because it's such a shame the launch had to go how it did, because Pimax had(And still has) something with a lot of potential on their hands. I'd REALLY hope Pimax fixes their problems by the time the 12k launches, but I'm not holding my breath. I probably wouldn't upgrade to the Crystal from the Aero, as while there's definitely some notable pros that I think would make it better if you were buying brand new(And you don't mind the tinkering, of course), unless you have A LOT of money to not care, hate lighthouses, or need those super deep blacks, I don't feel like it'd be an improvement worth that much when you already have an Aero, unless maybe you somehow got a lot second hand but niche items like these lose value FAST.
Just wanted to visit back and let you know that testing the Varjo Aero again with it as close to my face as I could get still had a 110 degree horizontal FOV@@Omniwhatever . Glad that I am able to wear it comfortably and still get that solid horizontal FOV.
I also wanted to say that I did watch the entire review after my first comment and enjoyed listening to it. The Crystal has great visuals, probably the best available atm, but you hit the nail on the head with all the issues and Pimax stuff that comes with it. Even with the Aero, and even with not liking to tinker with stuff (although I am a natural at that kind of stuff), I'd be willing to tinker to get it in the best possible version IF it didn't come with all those issues you mentioned it being riddled with.
The Varjo Aero is legit as near perfect as a HMD can possibly be for my wants and needs so I have no desire to "upgrade" or get a replacement. But the VR enthusiast in me wants to experience the best HMD Pimax has made and see exactly what visually can be improved.
None the less, appreciate the in depth information as always and I hope the Crystal brings you many many years of enjoyment. Cheers
After seeing the whole video I must say, it's not only a perfect review but also a great source for solving some problems or improving the experience! Please keep posting this stuff, it's very helpful. Other youtubers post links in the description to "buy them a coffee" - do you have a way for me to thank you directly?
Thanks so much for the thought! I really do appreciate it. I may think about something in the future, but at this moment I don't have anything beyond affiliate links. My schedule is very inconsistent, I'm just particularly active right now since I'm on break from university I'll likely slow way down in about 2 months.
I don't mind the affiliate links as I feel like people are still GETTING something purely out of that, and it might be something they'd have bought anyway, but with respect to stuff like donations, or perhaps patreon, I'm not sure how I'd feel about it since I'm not sure if I'd really be able to offer stuff or if how I go about my stuff would change when I start thinking about "Oh, people are directly giving me money for making stuff". As I said, maybe I'll work something out in the future as the channel grows. It's getting bigger than I expected.
Watching your videos since your RTX 3090 TI vs RTX 4090 benchmark, your review of the Crystal is perfect! Thank your for being so honest :)
Very impressed with the DFR on Pavlov, every headsets released without eye tracking since the PSVR2 at 600€ is a pass for me
Yeah I was truly floored when I saw those Pavlov results. I'm SO upset only 2 games really support that kind of DFR. I wouldn't need to upgrade my GPU for a decade if every game supported it.
I hope it catches on!
Congrats for the best Pimax Crystal review out there, the amount of great info and detail in this review is amazing, covering both the good and bad really well.
Thanks for the time and effort. I already got my Crystal from pre-order, but I still learned a thing or two about the headset.
I agree on the difficulty in removing the lenses. It was a giant pain and I was certain I was going to break them. They make it look like such a cinch in the official how to videos. I must also say with regard to the company, although overall, my dealings with Pimax has been a mixed bag, I can say that the single best customer service experience I have ever had was with Pimax. The COO of the company took hours of his time to call me and work with me directly to personalize my experience with the 8KX and maximize performance by working on finding the best settings for my rig and the sims I would be using most. He totally knocked it out of the park.
Thanks for the lens discussion, I did not receive any message from Pimax about that despite having been in "ready for shipment" status since July 19th. Also, much respect to your min-max PCVR living space!
Very good review. It's very clear you know what you are talking about. To all the problems I would also add some quality control issues with the lenses and screens. Many of us have had some yellow spots appearing on specifically the left screen, sometimes only after a few minutes, other times after long playsessions. They have said they know what it is and they'll fix it with an update, but they don't seem that sure it will work.
The other problem is the same issue of quality control with the lenses. They are having to send me a new left lens (for free thank god) because I get a different distortion profile than I do with my right one, and so do all of my friends and my brother. Getting them to send a new one was understandably not so easy because they first thought I wasn't wearing it right.
But all in all I am so pleased with hte picture quality, if they can get everything working by end of this year it could be a great headset, after all the aero came out with barrel distortion and a lot of CA as well, sure they are a different company, but they fixed all of the issues in about 1 year.
I saw some reports about the yellow spot. At the time of the video being done, I hadn't seen TOO many reports so I wanted to wait and see how it developed before commenting. Does seem like it's not just an isolated case or two by now though. We'll just have to see what Pimax does to address it. QC seems to be pretty hit or miss.
@@Omniwhatever yep, if it can be solved via software like the valve index' column correction I would be ok with that, but QC is what I am afraid of. Strangely I have always seen reports on the left screen though...
well done on explaining the blooming issue corrently unlike others and a great review in general with some nice wake up calls if the viewer get's distracted by something else.
Upvote for the patient cute cat in the bed !
You're good, like really good. You have made the most honest and thorough review of Primax Crystal I have seen on the web 😊, unfortunately after I ordered the VR glasses ☹
I have now received my Crystals and have had them for 24 hours and you are so right, you say yourself you have a big head, I don't. Mine is quite "normal" 58 cm in diameter and it is not big enough to fill the glasses, so I have followed your recommendation and ordered the Quest mask of 11 cm, from Amazon, thanks for the tip.
You are the most honest person on the web 😊
Thank you so much for this review. I finally received mine and I totally agree this you (even if the audio latency is a thing for me, in alyx for exemple, I shoot, then the sound come later... But zero latency watching 3d movies with bigscreen beta). The set is astonishing but I feel I am a beta tester for some things. When I start to shout, I simply put the mask on and... it's so beautiful that I have nothing to say, just to enjoy!
Awesome review! I might wait for everything to flesh out though, I don’t see any current reason for this headset in comparison to the quest pro though, which has all of its software and compatibility fleshed out. Cheers!
Love the content but at about 52:00 there's a number of us who recently received our Crystals and are having serious, serious, coloring situations. The colors are stale and have a yellow/brownish hue. Similar to what you'd find on an iOS device with Night Shift enabled. Pimax has been mute on this issue.
This was a great in-depth review! Thanks
Think i will keep my Quest 2 (i got it for a bargain price that was too tempting). I'll use the savings get a 4090 and max the res of the Q2. I'll wait till high end VR headsets drop and get these 2nd hand or ex display models etc.
Or just get a used 8KX
By the way, I'm a DCS pilot, and here these VR glasses really have their right.......The world becomes "real" ;.) an absolutely fantastic pair of glasses with the problems that are right now, but still far, far better than mine old Reverb G2
How long do your batteries last? Mine last around one hour……..before I used another 80 dollar on a 45 w charger and a 3m usb c to usb c cable
LMAO. I got mentioned :D:D
THNX FOR GREAT REVİEW
24:20 somethıng passıng on :) right side of you
I’m completely new to VR and recently bought a pico 4 a few months ago as it was fairly cheap and just wanted to see what VR is like in 2023. Safe to say I was fairly blown away by the PICO (remember it’s my first headset so I have no experience or comparisons what so ever). But it’s clear to say I am definitely just a little clarity/resolution slut. I’d go as far to say I don’t even really care about anything else. Now as I get far more experienced with Vr that will no doubt change but I think I’m going to pick this headset up because every review I have seen they have basically all said the clarity and pixels on the screen are INCREDIBLE. I think that for me is good enough. It’s just a shame it looks so huge and clunky when it’s on your face. I think personally the most aesthetic VR headset I have seen is the quest pro. I still dabble in buying that almost everyday. Decisions are so hard when it comes to VR headsets.
Pico 4's a great starting headset! Has pancake lenses and some decent screens. Unfortunately, I haven't tried the Quest Pro and my only experience with the Pico 4 was a short 15-20 minute demo at GDC, so I can't compare too strongly to the Crystal.
But if you want clarity this definitely won't disappoint, long as you're willing to work with the quirks. But you will need an absolute monster of a rig to truly unlock it's potential. The image quality is truly top-tier and favorable compares to even monitors now, and so few headsets can claim that in my opinion.
If you have Amazon available to you, they have a great return policy if you want to try something and see if it's for you or not. I don't think the pixel density of the Quest Pro's gonna be much different from the Pico 4, but I hear the lenses are much better.
@@Omniwhatever thank you for your reply. It’s so cool to hear back from people who are experienced with this sort of tech because I am as Green as they come ATM. I had a really disappointing experience recently using the PSVR2. I purchased one a few days ago and I was so stoked to play both chapters of the walking dead (I even bought the bundle on the PS store for £50.00 which was a complete rookie mistake). As soon as chapter one started I could take my eyes off that grainy Mura effect. Now I know a lot of seasoned VR users say the PSVR2 is amazing and I did enjoy the colours and the crisp and smooth gameplay but I just couldn’t get passed that filter effect. I’m all about total immersion and that’s why I’m excited to dabble in VR but I tried my hardest to ignore it and look through the lense as I’ve read people say but I just couldn’t. It was to obvious for me and I found it really ruined my gameplay experience. Luckily I’ve managed to return it and get my £530.00 back. I’ve heard a lot of users say they will gladly take the Mura effect and have the perfect blacks from oled but sadly I think I’m the opposite. I’d rather have slightly different colours but not have this really off putting grain across my lense at all times. Feel really let down by that experience if I’m honest that’s why I’m willing to sell out some extra money and truly get an unreal VR experience. I am going to start researching good quality gaming rigs but that again is a completely new industry for me as well as I don’t even own a gaming PC
Hi, I really liked your review, obviously you spent a lot of time doing it ! I wanted to know if during your reserches you've heard customers complaining about colors and brightness of the Crystal ? I recieved mine and I think (I'm sure) the panel has a problem, the brightness is really low, there's a weird greenish tint and colors are quite dull, it feels like wearing dark green sunglasses, or like a Matrix movie filter... I own a 5k+ and if I make direct comparison the 5k+ is brighter and has better colors 🤔. I watched your other videos so I'm aware of the colors in profile.json and the local dimming values, but nothing can improve the image quality, if I move the sliders I can get something "not too ugly" but absolutely not accurate and with whites burnt and blacks washed. I've submitted a ticket to their support service, but they take days to answer, so I'm just hoping you have an advice or an idea of what to try, while I'm waiting 😅 (I'm french maybe some sentences are not perfect, if something is not clear I can develop). Thank you
Check your profile.json settings and see if you're effected by the color bug I mentioned in the video. The Crystal looks a lot better without it happening and it's very erasy to trigger.
@@Omniwhatever hi, thank you for your answer, and yes I've already tried to modify the profile.json, I saw your other videos, I tried a lot of things to correct this issue since my message, and I had 2 days with good colors and good brightness (with some modifications in the profile.json), I think I may have a defective cable, because when I have color issues I have battery issues too, I can't charge through the cable and I have 2h of autonomy. On the contrary when I have good colors, the autonomy is ok. And I have those issues with or without the powerhub. I give up, i'll wait for the customer service answer, I've sent them like 5 messages with the maximum of information. I should have waited for a resaler in Europe🤷♂
I keep hearing about the brightness being so great....I received an early unit with the fiber cable but glass lenses....the one thing I was disappointed by was the brightness. I mean it was ok but my Quest Pro is better. So I sold my Crystal....I have since ordered another one and hope the new one I get is a bit better. Fingers crossed!
That's really strange because I know somebody who has a Quest Pro and thought the Crystal was leaps brighter than it was. I've seen some people have the brightness default to below 100 so maybe you had it set to below 100 or were impacted by the color bug I mentioned in the software section? Which does make the image feel noticeably dimmer.
Great stuff my friend... great stuff!!
I think your the coolest.
Yes! Thank you! & First! 🍿
Just finished watching....thank you so much for the incredible level of depth you've gone to for us to be maximally informed as possible. So insightful and helpful! Also, your energy is down right contagious and I mean that in the very best of ways!!! 😁
Man, you should be payed for this research!
I got a samsung odyssey oled I was non impressed by the sde then I bought a G2 and when I saw the Grey blacks smsll fov and the HD screen look I got back to my oled and put back the g2 on the box.
This is why everyone is waiting for a decent micro OLED headset to come out. LCD headsets have kept VR down for so long.
Great review
I was of the mind that they advertised the wide fov lenses as the specs. But to bait and switch the FoV and use the higher FoV lenses as an additional purchase is bs.
Re the Aero I get 110. Another guyy i know gets 112. And interestingly.. the Aero and the Crystal use exactly the same panels.
At 52:40 those color errors output to file that you need to change manually - has that been fixed in the latest beta?
Or we need to edit the file every time still?
That's been fixed, finally, as of the most recent beta client. Which should be public within the next 2 to 2 and a half weeks I think?
@@Omniwhatever thanks, I found the file with the common setting. However I tried the per game setting with individual adjustments and can't see it save anything in either local or roaming subfolders cfg files. Any idea where the per game settings are? Or does per game setting not save color/contrast/brightness?
Hmm😮, how much for glass lenses.
Imagine if we had DFR for the RE games.
Your just fortunate your battery works - I as well as others are only getting 2 hours from one battery
According to support FO and copper same - which I don’t believe
Considering they said to me they are working on a firmware fix kinda shows it is an issue as well
Yes, I'm aware of that. But lots of people also have it work too, it's not just like 1-2 people who have it work and then everyone else doesn't or it's just 1-2 people who have issues with the battery. I said it's an issue some people are having and it's currently being investigated.
If you have a pimax with a usb hub you should be ok. I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now and I don’t have any battery issues. Hope you get the issue fixed. Mine shipped with a. Copper cable and usb hub.
@@PaulBriggs-kb9by it’s resolved now but my hub is defective , didn’t stay connected , even with lots of duct tape … ;)
You mustn't forget that more FOV when achieved by new lenses with same display would result in lower PPD! So even if you believe their promise (and I kinda do), you must keep in mind that there is a tradeoff. Btw, great review! Keep it up!
Yes, but also no. It depends on how it's done. They could still have the same peak PPD value of 35PPD in the center, but there could be a more noticeable falloff of PPD in the peripheral area. VR headsets do not have uniform PPD across the whole image.
@@Omniwhatever Correct, but still worth to be mentioned that there will be a tradeoff compared to the recent lenses - at least in the peripheral area. With this technique, I would even expect more lense distortion in the peripheral area, thus leading to even more color shift there. But maybe Pimax is quicker than Varjo in the correction of this shift. 😉
ok, you're a pimaxian. got it
Dear Omniwhatever
Luke ross VR modded games (Cyberpunk , Zero Horizon Dawn ect) is working with Pimax Crystal? Can you use open xr layer or just steam VR?
And can you play with 4090 with affordable fps?
Furthermore can you play also praydog Resident Evil VR mod and the crystal controllers are working ?
Because my G2 working very well with these modded games in open xr mode and i can achive affordable fps with my rtx 4080 and it will be very
important question because i would like to upgrade my G2 if these are workign with also Pimax Crystal.
Thanks this answer in advance.
I don't play Luke Ross's stuff, not my thing at all, so can't really say. Think that some other people have done it though.
No issues with playing the RE mods with it though, don't see why there'd be a problem.
@@Omniwhatever
Thanks this anwer very much!
Bionocular overlap is good in this eadset ? You can see the 3d effect very well right? Because in the past i have one pimax 5k plusand the a3 effect was very poor because of this lack of bionocular overlap.
Thanks this answer and please tell me the crystal contoller is compatible most of the steam VR games and Oculus home games ( with revive ) ? Thanks this answer in advance, @@Omniwhatever
I'm going to guess fov is correct IF your eyeball is touching the lens. lol
Thanks, sorry i don't spend as long with my comment as you do on your videos
You don't get glass lenses as standard? It advertises as having glass lenses doesn't it?
You do? I didn't say otherwise. The initial launch of the Crystal was a mess where some people got shipped plastic lenses and the 42PPD lenses are plastic.
Horrendous support in 3 weeks 1 reply and I wouldn't mind if it was a minor problem. 2 bios corruptions loads of gfx drivers crashes and re installs. I have a 7900 xt. Screen corruption on the left eye. A service reset fixes that . I have had about 7 hours total of play time interrupt by very serious problems. The problem seems to be the USB leads. 2 weeks ago I requested new leads but nadda no response. Worst tech company I ever delt with !!!
clean your room 🤮
I wouldn't buy it after trying it due to the small distortion sweet spot, but this is still a good review as it covers the distortion sweetspot and other issues missing from the inferior reviews on youtube.
One thing though that's missing from the review is how the sheer size of it can be a problem as you will be accidentally banging the controllers on the headset while playing some types of games. For this reason, and a few others, i disagree with the conclusion that this is a good headset for all types of games. To me, this is a simmers headset. Too many issues come up in other types of games.
I didn't mention that, because I strongly disagree with that being an issue. I've used Pimax headsets for a long time and not once has that ever been a problem in any of the games I've played. I, personally, think the size issue is overblown.
@@Omniwhatever I guess you never played Thrill of The Fight on it then.
@@dtz1000 I have, actually. Still never had any problems.
Good review. One tip....If you don't want to be on camera, then don't. Just do a voice over or even use an avatar. It's not the great "hook" you seem to think it is. It's just odd and distracting not a nice scene to see. Other than that carry on!
No, I don't think I will and I'll keep doing what I'm doing. I know it's not going to be for everyone but everyone has their own approach to things and some people have liked it just fine so far. If people don't like it they don't have to watch then. There are people who think avatars/vtubers are a dumb thing for example.
Valuable information but can you show some gaming videos instead of being in a Halloween costume? Hard to look at you like that.
Worst Customer service on the planet
Pimax #1🇨🇳 A+ superior Headset! 👍
I may be wrong..but you sound very much like Sadly it's Bradly lol
He doesn't sound anything like Bradley and his conclusions are the opposite. After using it for myself, I agree with Bradley and wouldn't recommend this headset other than to simmers. Also, Bradley has no affiliate links for this headset in his review. That may be the most important difference.
@dtz1000 Did you miss the part where I said it's there but I'd still very strongly recommend not buying it from Pimax directly and a third party like Amazon, NOT via the affiliate link? Especially with all the ragging on Pimax and saying it's their decision to make if they still want it even after ALL these warnings? Hardly a glowing recommendation or anything to discredit the review.
@@dtz1000 ooh ooh ok..that's my opinion and umm I'm sticking to it! Good on ya mate!!