So this is my impressions on the Crystal. It might be interesting to some, as i am doing racing and flying on my rig. I have RaceBass+-style tactile as well as an SFX150 motion system. I am running Zen4 CPU and RTX 40 GPU, playing exclusively in VR and was very happy with my Reverb G2 so far. The games i tested so far were Iracing, MSFS, AMS2 and briefly some DCS.
I am trying to keep this review as short and neutral as possible as this is my first Pimax headset and i don't have any affiliation to Pimax whatsoever. This is not intended for anyone whose main questions are, is the Crystal big and heavy or does it say "Pimax" on the box. Yes it is, simple as that
Unboxing-Build Quality-Initial Setup-Software
The headset came nicely packed with the optical cable, powered USB hub, DMAS speakers and 35ppd glass lenses, so it was the final retail version. There was no damage whatsoever, it also included the updated foam pads to prevent damage to the front strap holder, some early shipments had suffered from.
The build quality is good, about on par with the G2. No Aero premium quality, but also nothing to whine about. Anybody coming from a G2 should also have a good impression about how the controllers feel in hand.
Initial software setup was without any hiccups. Install the Pimax client software, connect the headset, update firmware and off i went. I had already setup all of my games that need that to run with OpenComposite/OpenXR on the G2. Running Mbucchia's excellent PimaxXR and OpenXR toolkit apps worked without any issues, i just reset my toolkit settings, so i could work from a clean slate.
I had also already setup buzzteebear's OpenXR motion compensation with my witmotion acceleration sensor. Enabling that gave me the same effortless motion compensation i had before without the need to change anything.
The software features a very nice virtual desktop, similar to the Aero, which i have always missed on my G2. I could go into more detail here, but the SW offers some quite unique funcitonality like per-eye IPD adjustment, that helped out some people on other threads with their personal eye characteristics.
Visual Quality-Performance
Coming from my already great G2, the visual quality is breathtaking. I am able to run both Iracing and AMS2 at a native resolution at 90fps locked and MSFS at native resolution at 50+ fps. As my GPU allowed fo some headroom with the G2, which i ran at 120% resolution across the board, i did not have to change any in-game settings to achieve those framerates, but that buffer is obviously gone now. Motion reprojection in MSFS is a nice option, locking the fps at 45 while displaying 90 locked in the headset.
The clarity across most of the FOV is really astounding, i can see cars turn in at the end of Mulsanne in LeMans and the cockpit as well as the landscape in MSFS are pinsharp all the way to the horizon. There is some sharpness dropoff and increased CA to the very edges of the screen, i would say this affects the last 15% on each side, but sharpness is still comparable to G2 center resolution imo. I didn't find distortion to be an issue, but was not specifically looking for it either.
The blacks, color and constrast are great. The local dimming has some slight blooming issues on the stock settings, but doing a small change to the setup file gets rid of most of that and the local dimming gives you intense blacks next to bright light sources.
FOV with the supplied 11mm comfort facemask is slightly wider than the G2 with modded 6mm facemask horizontally, while vertically it is wider by a bit, which is very nice for looking out of the window in MSFS.
Inside-Out Tracking-Battery
I have been happy with the tracking on my G2 for Simming and the occasional Alyx and the performance of the Crystal is very similar in that respect. No issues.
While not being a fan of the battery concept, that whole topic is a non-issue for me. I am an engineer and the battery mechanism is surely not a good design, but the stories about women not being able to pull out the batteries and such are grossly overexaggerated. Unlocking the left and right side consecutively lets me take out the batteries with little effort from the charger and headset every time. Regarding battery life, i have connected my headset to a single USB-port on my 5-year old noname powered USB hub and the batteries last around 5-6 hours. I will try connecting it to my higher quality hub, which is further away later, but at them moment the whole battery swap topic has become a non-issue for me.
Audio
I am wearing ANC in-ears to cancel the noise of my motion and tactile system anyway, but have started to use the built-in DMAS speakers for flying, because they are really good quality with pronounced bass and good detail. I have not taken a deep dive on latency etc., but i did not immediately hear any problems there. Pimax is working on fine-tuning the DSP-code in that respect at the moment, as far as i can tell.
Fit-Comfort-Stability
So here is where i spent some time trying this and that, although for me it was actually comfortable from the beginning. When first putting it on, you feel the weight of the headset and the strap is set completely wrong, putting all the weight on the front pushing on your nose. Honestly though, just pulling the front strap to balance that out, the headset rests nicely balanced on my forehead and cheekbones and does not touch my nose at all. The supplied 11mm comfort mask is quite cozy and feels nice on your face. I have also tried the 15mm version, but while being armchair-comfortable that one decreased the FOV by quite a bit, so no option for me. The smallest of the supplied headset is crap, i didn't bother trying it out.
Some people also complained about CA and general color issues, but the headset has a vertical sweet spot of about +-5mm for that. Once you are outside of that, the whole picture changes color and CA kicks in quite heavily. Due to the pronounced nature of that, i did not find it hard at all to find the sweet spot and once set correctly, the headset naturally falls into that, so no issues there. Some might miss that, as the very wide clarity sweet spot does not give much indication, whether your headset is seated correctly.
For driving with heavy tactile shakers and flying the headset stability is not an issue at all, but i was concerned about headset movement with motion. The Pimax facemasks seem to be made for rather wide, flat faces and that leaves some wiggle room on the sides, compared to the G2 mask, that fit my face like a glove. Indeed, without any modifications, you can feel the headset slightly shaking side-to-side when going over heavy curbs at high speed on my SFX-system. Up and down movement with heave is not an issue.
Based on some recommendations, i bought the Lichifit Quest 2 strap for the back of your head (10EUR) and the Studioform Apache strap for the top of your head (20EUR) and those are game changers for both stability and comfort from the already good state the headset was in for me in its stock state. The motion-induced shake is only very dimly noticeable now, far away from causing any visible image degradation, even with hard suspension cars on bumpy tracks like Long Beach. Also, i can only second people like VR Flightsim Guys, that state, the headset can comfortably be worn for hours.
Preorder-Support
Well, i only have one recommendation here: never buy from Pimax directly! I had preordered, faced some short-term delays in shipping, finally decided to cancel my order and ask for a refund, when the headset was becoming available at a local dealer. The cancellation was accepterd right away, but the refund took around 12 days, with me writing several emails to customer support, posting on Reddit to create some pressure etc. I don't want to say, they would have not refunded my money if i had not, but that whole process left a sour taste in my mouth. The local dealer shipped the unit to my house within 2 days as expected with all the bell and whistels of the preorder version and proper return options.
Final comment
So yes, i am very happy with the Crystal now, and it did not take much mucking around at all to get it there. I was mainly waiting for the strap accessories being shipped around the globe to further improve the great experience. Am i guilty of wanting to make it work for the breathtaking visuals? Sure thing! But just to give you some reference, the Crystal was 1899EUR from my local dealer. The BSB for example is only 1369EUR in my country, while a lighthouse would set me back another couple of hundreds EUR, so with the BSB package being even considerably cheaper, price was not a deciding factor. I could have easily gone down that road and i am sure, most will be happy with theirs, but the fact, that the headset cannot be driven at full resolution at 90Hz was putting me off. Compared to the Crystal, which i am running at native res., the BSB at 90HZ only offers 65% of that the Crystals resolution.
Sorry guys for that lengthy post, i hope for some it is interesting or even helpful in their decision making. That whole discussion has become quite childish and ridiculous lately, so i will just focus on enjoying my new headset now
