For me, there is noticeable differences between the 5K+ and the 8K.
Some background first… I’m an early backer. I pledged for the 8K then switched to the 5K+ and received my 5K+ back in early December. I also purchased the 8K BE and received it several weeks ago. I should make clear that I swapped my 5K+ unit for a 5K+ pre-order with the youtuber Tyriel Wood because I like his channel and he’s a fellow NY’er. But during my visits with Tyriel I did get to use the 5K+ and I’m currently waiting for his pre-order 5K+ to arrive which he will give to me. One last piece of information that I think is important before I begin… I have a low IPD of 60.
When I received the 5K+ back in December I promptly handed that unit over to Tyriel and he did a review of it. We both tried that unit on the video and to be honest, it was VERY disappointing. Having gone to a Pimax Backer’s meet prior to receiving the 5K+ I had a good idea of what the Pimax 5K+ was capable of. But the unit we received not only had distortions on the edge, it also had a major warping issue that I found unacceptable. In Tyriel’s first video he discusses this and I reported that here in this forum. Many people including SweViver blamed Tyriel’s lack of knowledge, experience, etc and a ton of suggestions from you the community here at Pimax. None helped. Ultimately that unit died after about 20 hours of use. Pimax support couldn’t resolve the issue and agreed to send a replacement. After a couple of weeks, the replacement unit arrived. A major improvement! The most important was that the warping issue no longer existed.
Since then though I have received the Pimax 8K BE. I’ve had no issues with that unit. Now having tried both the new and improved 5K+ and the 8K BE… I’ve noticed from a personal level some differences…
The 5K+ is more colorful… brighter would be a good description. Yes, the clarity is better but not by a great deal. The brightness was though a magnitude better. However… even the new improved 5K+ has edge distortions that I could clearly see. Yes, I could still play games with it and learn to ignore it because it wasn’t terrible but it was still there. But… I have NO edge distortions on my 8K BE… NONE! And before anyone says so… I have enough experience with the Pimax now to understand the placement of the unit and how it effects the visual. I’ve experimented with the HMD… forward, back, up, down, etc… I got it down to a science for my face shape and IPD.
Here is a simple drawing of my experience… Please note… Column A represents where I see distortions. And B is a line where I saw warping when ever I crossed that line…For example, if I had a gun in my hand in a virtual app and while that gun passed the line, the gun would warp into a weird shape until it completely passed the line.
Now having using both units and ultimately owning both… my preference is the 8K BE. I’m willing to give up the brightness for no edge distortions. Is the 8K BE the same as the 8K? I have no idea. I lent Tyriel an 8K BE and hopefully he’ll make a video and share his experience as well.
So while backers like me are waiting for their 8K, Pimax secretly put on sale 8K BE, which is identical to 8K apart from the business license. There weren’t enough displays for backers, only for those who paid more…
I completely understand your frustration… but I don’t believe it was exactly as you wrote. It wasn’t a secret and technically Pimax didn’t sell them…or I should say, I didn’t and couldn’t buy it direct from Pimax. Pimax did mention a while ago about producing a couple hundred BE units. I don’t know for sure if the 8K BE is identical to the 8K… I suspect it is though. And it’s also not so clear to me what the business license offers but I did pay a premium for it.
Hmm, but the 8k, 8k BE, 5k+ and 5k+ BE are all the same size screen and all use the same lenses so any distortion and/or warping should be the same on all of them.
Perhaps then if they were built perfectly, like how this new 8k BE sounds it is then non of any of the units should have distortion/warping?
I’ve been wondering about that myself… there has been changes…mostly in the software that has improved things since the three amigos did their reviews and even after SweViver mentions improvements on the 8K since his original video. Also… I question if it’s subjective or more about IPD and face shape myself. But I find it ‘weird’ that I see distortion on the 5K+ and not 8K. I would think they should be the same but for me, it clearly was not. I’m on the thought process that IPD and face shape places an important aspect in the seeing of the side distortions.
@tomohm
If you get chance with the 8k & 5k together again, maybe you should try swapping the lens.
Is it possible these early be 8k may have a previous lens version?
That’s actually an interesting theory and idea. Though I’ll be honest… I’m not so sure I’ll be adventurous enough to try that… at least not just yet. This 8K BE isn’t an early backer model so I don’t get the same level support I did receive with my 5K+. Since I’m really happy with how it works now… I don’t know if I’m really willing to begin experimenting with it like that.
FYI… the BE is not etched on the unit… it’s printed. I can also say that this 8K BE is far more sturdier than the first 5K+ I received but equal to the replacement 5K+ I received. So I agree… it seems like a regular 8K. When I first received the unit it had the lastest firmware and PiTools at the time and recognized it as an 8K. Only after upgrading to the last PiTools and firmware, PiTools now recognizes it as a BE model.
