What I did notice at the time is that the centers of the lenses of the 8KX are at minimum 67 mm apart (when IPD is set to 60). So I checked if I actually could look at the exactly same area in the scene shown in the headset and if it was 100% clear, and no, it was not. Either the left or the right eye had 100% on that spot, but never both. Now the mid-range clarity of the 8KX isn‘t bad and it‘s sweet spot is pretty big, but it‘s just at say 95%. That might also have contributed to my issues, perhaps I am particularly sensitive to this disparity.
And I have an IPD of 64 so was off by only 3 mm (of course I had the 8KX set to 60 as it gave me less strain than 64 or any other value); you with 55 would be 12 mm off, that should be quite difficult to soothen by the soft IPD settings.
What’s the point? You get $800 max for your Crystal. So you have your Crystal 6 months after paying £1600 and get half back when you trade in. Yikes that’s some depreciation.
Pimax needs to state the final price of the 12k and what you get for your money. DMAS? Shipping? Taxes?
I’m finding this somewhat amusing. A lot of people stated interest in a trade-in program at least a year ago. (I guess they really need to get sales of the Crystal?)
What makes you think that the 12K will be out in 6 months? That’s a pipe dream IMO bro. hehehe.
Considering the history so far, is it really realistic to expect to know the final price and ESPECIALLY what you’ll get for the money?
Yeah. 800 is really not much of a draw for me to plop down 1600 pounds or whatever and lose like half of that (even within 1 year), especially if my unit is in really good condition. Not getting my nubs hard at all…
If I do ever bite for the Crystal, I think I’d need better incentive and more information about the 12k. If I can find some comfort point about all of this stuff, MAYBE.
What we know is that they intend to show a prototype at CES2024. So if you were very optimistic, it will launch in 2024.
But now let’s be realistic: from first prototype to be good enough to demonstrate to the public to final product takes a while, this is not done within 3-6 months. So second half of 2024. And then look at the Crystal “launch”. We are pretty much one year later, they just announced the software to be feature complete - while it is still missing any of the two wireless features, and no MR sleeve is to be found anywhere either. So the 12K could launch September 2024, and be in a sort of a usable status in September 2025.
So after two years the Crystal wouldn’t get you 800$ in return anymore on ebay. Just think of the competition which will have entered the market by them: Pico 5/6? Valve? Varjo? Any microOLED based high def headsets? Who wants to place a huge brick in his face in 2025 for a regular FoV?
So if you plan on getting the 12K no matter what, and were on the edge about the Crystal, it may make sense to you.
For me it doesn’t really add up because I have no reliable information on the ETA and the overall quality & feature completeness of the 12K. And if I don’t know if I am going to buy the 12K, and pretty much ruled out to get what the Crystal offers at a four digit price, nothing has changed.
They should have 12K ready soon I supposed since they announced Crystal trade in. And since 12K shares many components with Crystal, it shouldn’t delay that much longer.
The way Pimax have set a Crystal trade in cut off date for Dec 31st.
The way BSB has been a success.
The way Pimax will show the 12k at CES2024.
The poor sales of the Crystal.
The bad yield rate of the Crystal lenses.
The fact the VR-1 will beat Crystal in nearly every way.
Pimax needs to get back to ultra wide FOV before any other HMDs appear with wider than 103 FOV.
Now Crystals had a six month run I reckon the 12k will replace it.
12k is probably done. They probably just want to perfect it and also they don’t want to release at the same time with the Crystal. Strategically, it’ll hurt Crystal sell.
Sure, I’m with you. We’ve seen the DAS in a perpetual state of 50% off. Every time the date ends a new one begins. Not a bad thing.
True, but the 12k is a much simpler device now the Crystal has been released. I’m sure Pimax will drop the XR2 chipset and go back to PCVR basics.
It was Nordic Ren who said the yield rates were between 16-60 pairs a day. As for poor sales, well we’ve seen indicators. Continued loaners to YTers. Continued sale on the DAS. No mention of the wide FOV lenses because of bad yields on the current lenses. Now the trade in programme. It doesn’t even register in the Steam Hardware Survey even though it’s been out for a few months now.
Yes that is the most worrying aspect of Crystal. No PCVR streaming. No demo of the promised Wigig module. An AiO headset with 10 games in the store. Even if HL:Alyx was on the Pimax store people would still buy it on Steam. Pimax need a reality check or at least 1 exclusive.
Well, they already announced a trade in for the 12K aiming at the Vision series what, 18 months, ago? That most certainly is not an indicator of readiness when it comes to Pimax, rather perhaps one of a slight sense of desperation to get the sales going.
And I hadn‘t even noticed any cut-off date for the Crystal trade-in: end of 2023, @Atmos said? Woah, that‘s wild because by now it is pretty obvious it will be anywhere but not in a true launch state by that time. Perhaps ready for a Pimax launch™, because that can mean anything, they‘d do it with nothing more than a slide deck if they believe its advantageous to them… but don’t believe you will see a 12K in a shape which would allow you to assess if this headset with the features as proven to work reliably at the time of making the decision to trade in or not. So if you buy the Crystal based on the trade-in promise, you are already depending on Pimax to extend the trade-in program far into next year, or even beyond, in order to be of any value to you. They will probably extend it, but still, it‘s all pretty fragile, and what happens if they need/get another investor and that company demands a more rigid management style, including getting rid off trade-in programs as soon as legally permitted?
I personally think that if they had the 12K in a good shape today they‘d just forget about the Crystal and move all efforts to the 12K, as it would have specs to blast all competition out of the water. At least, if it all works out fine, reliably. But my guess is that they still have tons of unsolved issues, and some of them may be of the kind where an obvious solution is not apparent to them yet. 200 degrees horizontally is really quite a different beast. Eye-tracking will be a major challenge - and it is a mandatory feature at the same time, because DFR will be so much more important here than for say a Crystal.
Well 8kX & 5kS have higher trade in value… 5kS boosted to $900 and 8kX what you paid with max suggested retail cap.
As for launch? If trade in end of 2023 and 12k is more or less ready. Well we know pimax will hit CES 2024, then enter CNY and Spring Festival. So best optimism? Start shipping late April early May if all goes well.
Do you really expect the 12K to ship in May 2024 - even if things go reasonably well?
I don‘t. Actually positive that Pimax have not dug themselves another hole by giving any ETA for this product. At least some sign of hope in terms of Pimax ability to learn after all.
Why not, they started development together with the Crystal. They are not starting now. That’s why I fear te brick weighs a ton, even more than the Crystal but for sure not less, still old gen 1 Snapdragon and still no DP2.1.
