Pimax Crystal Review: A Triple Configuration Replacement?

Note: The picture has been provided from Pimax staff and official websites

I’ve been in this for a long time. In iRacing alone, for over a decade, and with VR since the first commercial product. At that time, I needed something that could replace a triple monitor setup, and the compact format of HMDs was ideal for that task. However, using VR had some drawbacks that have become quite burdensome over time.

While VR gave us unprecedented immersion up to that point, it also provided us with new problems to deal with, such as lack of sharpness and resolution, the need for enormous graphic power, and the discomfort of wearing a device (weighing at least half a kilogram) on the head during long sessions. The various versions of HMDs until now have tried to solve that and make us forget our typical screens, but have they succeeded?

Pimax is a Chinese company based in Shanghai founded in 2015. From that moment until now, it has been a machine for launching products. Our colleague Óscar knows this well because they provide Real o Virtual with the most innovative material every few months. In recent times, Pimax has found that the VR’s stable niche is in simulators, and they have tried to adapt their most mature product to this market.

The Pimax Crystal is an virtual reality headset announced by Pimax on May 31, 2022 and released in May 2023.[58] The headset is similar to the unreleased Pimax 12K QLED headset and is hybrid standalone that can operate with or without a PC. The announced specifications are up to 160Hz refresh rate, up to a 140 degree diagonal field of view at a pixel density of 42ppd. The panels are QLED type and the lenses are interchangeable optical aspheric glass. The headset was announced to use inside-out tracking and optional lighthouse tracking. The headset has integrated Wifi 6e wireless and an optional 60Ghz WiGig adapter. The headset also integrates eye tracking with a motorized automatic IPD adjustment capability. The Crystal headset was expected to have an MSRP of $1,899 but the final price was $1599.

As you can see, the features are impressive. And indeed, Pimax has tried to make it the complete headset, the one that wins on all fronts. But wanting to cover a lot comes at a price (and not just economic) since there are some fronts where that ambition does not achieve its goal. Let’s start with the basics.

Packaging

Pimax’s packaging is compact. Much more than other manufacturers, and we find ourselves with a not very large but very heavy box, which will arrive at our homes in a neutral cardboard. Inside, an elegant black configuration with a thoughtful placement of all the elements that this headset brings.

So, right off the bat, we find:

• Two batteries.
• An external battery charger.
• A USB 3 connection hub.
• The Pimax Crystal HMD.
• A screwdriver to adjust the lenses.
• Connection cables for assembly.
• The controllers.
• A different interface than the installed one.

I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything. The instructions tell us that there is a set of replacement lenses, but according to what Pimax has told us, these are already installed in the glasses, so we don’t have to look for more in the package.

Construction

The first thing that catches our attention when taking the visor out of the box is its enormous weight compared to what we have used so far. Normally, we expect about 500 or 600 grams per visor. Both HP Reverb G2 and PSVR2 fall within these ranges, and regardless of how comfortable they are, this weight allows them to be worn for more hours without causing neck pain.

Pimax breaks the mold here by touching on 1.2 kilograms (with the battery included), balancing this weight between the front and back of the visor. In my case, I haven’t had any problems or hints of pain, but it’s true that the weight of the whole assembly makes the mobility you may have associated with pronounced inertia.

The construction is mainly of plastic with a tactile feel that is not excessively satisfying and flexes when pressed at various points. The lenses, which are glass, do seem to be of quality, marking one of the great leaps so far. Inside, there is a Qualcomm XR2 Gen 2 like the one integrated into the Meta Quest 3, whose mission is to give wings to this visor to compete in the world of PC-free headsets.

Specs

Controller

Setting It Up and Comfort

Knowing the field and being a user myself, I was surprised by the maze of cables needed to operate these Pimax Crystal , but it’s best to stick to the recommended settings and connect everything as instructed. It’s the only way to get the PC to recognize the headset. Initially, I had trouble getting it recognized until I connected absolutely all the cables and the hub.

There aren’t many instructions for putting the helmet on your head either. The battery is necessary for its operation, so we can’t avoid those 150 grams either optionally. In Pimax’s videos, we’re advised to adjust the straps for our head and to close or open a rear adjustment to fit the helmet and bring our pupils closer to the lenses.

Comfort is quite questionable. The interface doesn’t adjust “well” and there are light leaks in various areas. If we force this adjustment, the pain in the forehead starts to take its toll within minutes, so we have to leave it at an intermediate point, which also leads us to suffer from the inertia of weight when we move our head to look for objects in our environment. There’s a 15mm facial interface that Pimax sells for 20 dollars on its website, and that’s the solution they’ve mentioned so far.

Software

The stack of programs needed for the Pimax client to run is important. We’ll see lots of libraries of various kinds asking for permission to make changes to the system. It doesn’t inspire much confidence, especially considering a potential clean-up where it’s tough to know what corresponds to what and what came with the Pimax client.

The Pimax service must be running for the headset to be recognized by the PC. Also, another thing I don’t like is that you need to log in to manage a local device. Supposedly, it’s to access store applications, so I like that there’s an option to log in as a guest since I don’t need to access that part of the software.

Within the software panel, we have many options. You can adjust the sampling frequency between 120, 90, or 72Hz, adjust the light, definition, rendering type, color balance, and many other parameters. In that aspect, it’s very comprehensive. It allows and gives the freedom to make many configurations with the headset to make it exactly to our liking.

At first, it seems that the way to operate the headset is by using SteamVR, so OpenVR is the way to go in most simulators we’re going to use. At its native resolution, the HMD is hardly usable in any simulator, as the quality is so high that the processing power needed is beyond what any current graphics card can provide. We’ll need to lower it to 50% (for example, with an RTX 3090) and adjust from there.

To make it work with OpenXR, you need to delve deeply into the geek side. Downloading and running programs from GitHub is mandatory to change runtimes, and being able to change rendering options will become normal. Take, for example, this guide found on the Pimax website:

• https://pimax.com/how-to-run-openxr-on-the-pimax-crystal/

This is not precisely expected behavior for the average user, so these are configurations reserved for the advanced.

Usage

Once almost all the problems related to set up and startup are solved, it’s time to use the set. One last point before continuing is to “cover” the usage sensor they have just below the nose because if it doesn’t detect that the glasses are on, it turns them off immediately, so you’ll lose connection with any other program you’re using between VR sessions, such as Discord. A small piece of insulation tape is enough to keep the glasses continuously connected.

And now, we use the headset on track, in the simulator. The quality of vision we get at just 50% in SteamVR is much better than any headset I’ve tried so far. The sharpness obtained is no less than any monitor, and the only thing noticeable is that the resolution could still be higher if we didn’t depend on our limitations in graphics processing.

Note that there are small graphical glitches in the output on the screen. They’re not particularly visible and don’t affect the experience much, but they exist, mainly at the beginning of the simulation and the first moments of the track exit.

If we do a test at 100% of Steam (or configuring OpenXR), we see what the true quality of image that these Pimax Crystal can provide really means. The quality of the colors, the naturalness of the lights, the similarity of the proportions, and the complete absence of errors related to optics make us think that it would be possible if the problems of comfort and weight were solved.

The sharpness of the images projected on the lenses is truly worth losing oneself in them. Taking a stroll through the historic circuits of Automobilista 2 at sunset or sunrise while having that amount of detail and seeing them with such verisimilitude makes it very difficult to go back, even with the defects already mentioned. Just for this, it’s worth trying them out.

Feelings

Pimax emphasizes that this headset is perfectly capable of replacing a triple-screen experience, and in part, I have to agree with them. Immersion, which is something that has always characterized VR, is always there. That’s clear that we also have it in these Pimax Crystal , but they’ve also provided a quality of image never seen before, and this is the most noteworthy improvement of this headset.

It’s a commitment to completely renewed optics, far from the old fresnel models, which marks a new evolutionary leap in VR and is the way to go in the continuous improvement of this and other brands. And I say continuous improvement because, for example, Pimax keeps focusing on solvable issues such as ergonomics, comfort, and weight, which somewhat weigh down the result of what could have been a magnificent headset.

After a month of use, what I can say is that going back seems unbearable. Yes, comfort is gained, and the weight is reduced, but the landscapes, the environment, and the realism that these glasses have offered me, it’s going to be difficult to achieve them in the short term with other headsets.

Final Thoughts

My evaluation, as a VR user but not an expert in the multitude of headsets that come out, is that Pimax has managed to take an important step forward in image quality, lighting, colors, and in eliminating one of the barriers that some put to virtual reality, which is none other than definition and the eternal comparison between monitors and HMDs.

It’s a very big pro, but it doesn’t come alone. The question is how much we can overlook those problems we’ve mentioned and isolate ourselves to enjoy a visual experience like no other so far. That and the breadth of our wallet will determine our enjoyment with this headset, which currently sits at 1599 dollars and can be purchased at the following links:

• Pimax Crystal for 1999 euros on Amazon

On the Pimax official store you can use the coupon code boxthislap to save 50 dollars, from its cheaper starting price.

• Pimax Crystal on the Pimax store for 1599 dollars