First of all, hello community! Long time VR enthusiast here that works with the VR on daily basis!
So basically I saw some youtube guy who says that DO NOT purchase Pimax from their website and instead wait for it to be a sale on Amazon or similar. I saw the official messages here that were very open about purchases and shipping and it increased my confidence.
Do you guys think it’s safe to order 8KX from the Pimax website? Any idea when is the estimated shipping time? If the product is DOA or starts to malfunction, how is customer support? Is the device easy to return? I mean 1400 / 2000 dollars is a HUGE amount of money and I take it very seriously to get the support I deserve after spending that much.
I am on so edge because I want to experience all the cool games with good quality with big FOV and not with the Rift S I currently have.
Pimax is a small company and tech support will always going to lack compared to huge corporations. I was a backer and no problems with my unit, I recently purchased the 8kX. Is there a risk, sure.
I’d say it’s relatively safe to buy directly from Pimax, the support is either good or bad, I’ve heard both sides of the story.
The only thing why I’d recommend you to wait, is that we are not exactly sure when they start shipping the 8k-X. Should be quite soon, but there has been some unexpected delays due to the coronavirus etc.
Edit. And as @Pimel said above, they’re really working on improving the support.
Hi. Welcome to the forum. I have personally received very good support admittedly it was a software issue and fixed remotely. I do see an improvement in Pimax such as CES as an example. As above they are a small company with limited resources. I’m sure the 8k x will be a huge step up from the competition. I have ordered myself. If your in a hurry to receive the Hmd I’d be cautious as Pimax do suffer delays. I think all production in China will be affected due to the virus. I wish them well.
After trying out the 8KX in Orlando a few weeks ago I was sold. Regardless of the shoddy customer service (trust me, I’ve been through it myself trying to get a replacement cable for my 5K+), I STILL had no issues throwing down the cash for the new headset. It’s that good.
I’ve owned a Rift, Vive, and currently play games on my Pimax 5K+. Speaking from my personal opinion, the step up from the 5K+ to the 8KX isn’t exactly amazing, it’s just what I wanted my 5K+ to originally be during the Kickstarter. A wide FOV headset with a super sharp and smooth image that looks like a high resolution computer monitor. The FOV is the same, so if you’ve already tried a Pimax you won’t be blown away by it, but the image quality is fantastic. I was able to make out more details in the games I tried (The Lab, Beat Saber, and Skyrim), and the SDE was gone. It’s surprising how much having a SDE affects immersion, and how when it’s gone the visuals are so much better. It really felt like I was looking at high resolution monitor instead of every other headset I’ve tried. Not only was the SDE unnoticeable, but the higher 4K resolution was super detailed. I personally didn’t notice a difference with it running at 75hz either. No lag, or delay, but I’m also not super sensitive to refresh rates.
I’d say it really all boils down to what you want from your headset. To me, it’s worth spending the cash to basically have a version of the 5K+ that has a higher resolution and no screen door effect. The 8KX is all that, plus the new DAS and comfort kit, which basically makes it the perfect headset. At least for quite some time until headsets with higher refresh rates and high resolution wireless are released (1-2 years from now?? Who knows )
I have been through all kinds of BS with Pimax products, customer support, you name it. And its frustrating as hell !! HOWEVER once you get their headsets working properly they just cant be beat. I really hope they got the eye strain issue resolved with the newer headsets.
@Kamppis
FWIW, I have a loaner 8kX, so it exists. People seem to be able to get better support by taking their problems to the forums when necessary, so since you are already here, you at least have some way to follow up.
As for the YouTube guy, depending on who he is, there may be some temporary conflict of interest there.
I have an 8K, which I like a lot. Is it perfect? No, no VR headset is. Most of my complaints are fixed by the 8KX (SDE, not as sharp as I would like, …).
As to when/if you place your order, that depends on the risk you’re willing to accept. I’m happy I risked the Kickstarter. I think the 8KX is far less of a risk. I placed my order on the first day of CES, so I risked it.
If you’re someone who needs good, accurate package tracking, I’d suggest using Amazon, although you’d probably get it sooner if you got it direct from Pimax.
i would like to add, if your worried about support. You can always PM or tag heliosurge or Pimaxquorra, they are here almost all of the time (amazing) and will help you further with support if there are any problems.
And yeah. There is some politics going on with that YouTube warning (a bit of a falling out and sensationalising). I’m not saying you are guaranteed a perfect experience. But Pimax support is getting much better.
If I was a new customer I would likely wait until people start receiving the 8KX. Although I am sure it is much improved over my 5K+, I have totally enjoyed the 5K and would pledge again, hands down.
As far a support goes, for sure, Pimax has much work to do. For my part though, my 2 experiences with service were handled expeditiously. The replacement of my cracked first 5K+ was speedy but that was because the US depot handled it. I expect Shanghai to be less efficient for some time yet but should improve once they clear their backlog of tickets and things settled down in China with the CV.
The warning would be that this is truly an enthusiast adventure for the moment, I don’t recommend casual users looking for a “plug&play” experience to jump in without much homework, but if you can abide the teething of this small growing company and as you say “work in VR”, I would be inclined to recommend a close look at the 8KX. The biggest issue is the delivery of Sword/Sense. Re that, I had V1 bases and scored Index ctrls from Valve. Excellent combined with a Pimax.
The plug and play experience is very important to our team and that is one of our primary focus moving forward. In future releases there will be a lot of ease of use improvements in that area. Hopefully we can show off some of the changes we’ve been working on soon.
When people say support is improving…search back in the forum. It was said 18 months ago, 12 months ago, 6 months ago, now. Search how many times pimax has officially apologised for bad communication and support.
It’s always about to change despite it never has.
There may be positive case examples of people being helped as expected but it’s not the overall trend. Even those saying they had a positive experience often waited 2 months for their replacement.
Those in USA once had good support. But it’s gone now and they’ll threaten to sue me by telling you. First rule of there being no more US support is don’t talk about there no longer being US support, and threaten to sue those who do. I’ll call my lawyer in a minute and warn them of incoming threat.
Definitely wait for Amazon. RMA no hassles at all, new hmd within days or even your money back. The way it should be at this price tag.
You’d have to be a sadist to go down the pimax path twice. Don’t even do it once.
In my personal experience, support is spot on. Make sure you use the Forum to highlight if they are taking their time to come back. As folks have said, they’re a small China based company so they do miss things. But they’ve always sorted me personally as an early buyer
I am holding off with the 8KX for now until I get real reviews. But that’s just me
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