That’s awesome. Probably due to wmr uses bw cams opposed to tracking ir.
Lenovo Explorer WMR headset - Short review and personal opinion VS the Pimax 4K
After some initial testing of my newly received Lenovo Explorer I decided to write a short review and impressions, since someone in this forum was curious about how could it compared to the Pimax 4K.
First I must say that, for some people I can appear somewhat critic in my evaluations, and I must admit it is true, since I have had (and currently still have some of them) various headsets, and my opinions are based on direct experience of some of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the HMDs tested until now, plus of course my expectations about what I would like to see in the future of VR.
I mostly agree with what Sebastian Ang said in his review on Mixed Reality TV:
so I will simply add my personal observations here, comparing it to the 4K when it is useful to note:
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Comfort of the headset is really good, it is very light, probably the less heavy HMD I ever had the chance to wear, waaaay lighter than PSVR, Oculus, and a little lighter than Pimax 4k, and the pull-up feature is really handy when you have to return to the real-reality or take a look around
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Contrary to what Ang said about the face foam, I noticed some light leakage laterally, probably due to the fact my head is a little smaller than him, so if you have a not so large head, or a thin face, you will probably experience some lateral light leakage too, but anyway it can be solved easily adding some foam or spacing meterial on the sides, the foam on the nose area is also very intelligently positioned and is always comfortable, even for people who have a big nose like me
, and because of the mobile foam on top of it, it blocks the nose light leakage 100% , in my opinion one of the best nose foam designs to date… -
Lens: First - This one I think is the negative aspect of this headset, lens quality is only slightly above sufficient, I can estimate about 40% of the lens view in the central area being the sweet spot, after that the focus becomes progressively unfocused toward the sides; Second - God Rays are QUITE A LOT visible , especially in dark screens with luminous objects; clearly not the best lens available for an HMD…even the Oculus DK2 ones were better; I can also totally confirm what Sebastian Ang said, that this headset IPD limit is 68 and 62 (Higher and Lower respectively, if I remember well…) personally I have an IPD of 67, that is still inside the comfort window but close to the maxium, more than that would have reduced the sweet spot to a very small area for sure…making it totally inadequate.
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Panel FOV: Testing the headset with “Real o Virtual” Free Test Tool available on Steam VR, I measured 105’ horizontal FOV, I noticed that by pressing the headset firmly on my face, compressing the foam and reducing the lens to eyes distance to the minimum, I was able to reach almost 110’, so it is possible that, depending from your face shape and eye-to-lens distance, and optimal IPD values, some people could reach the latter FOV values.
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Screen panel quality - The panel quality is quite good for an LCD display, colors are good enough and resolution wise it is 2880x1440 (1440x1440 per eye) and it clearly shows off; panel timing is also at very good values, as the ghosting effect that is so much prevalent on these type of displays is almost unnoticeable, tough, the screen door effect (SDE) is still somewhat evident, even at this high resolution, probably due to the type of pixel matrix used in these panels, wich is very similar to the type of pixel matrix used in PSVR, anyway it is better than most of the headsets I’ve tried until now, with Pimax 4k still being the absolute king to beat, in my personal opinion, will have to check for Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey tough, as soon as I manage to get them.
Also, the readability check in “Real o Virtual” test tool was really a surprise, text can be read quite good even at distance, only the last three lines of the readability test table were illegible, and aliasing is reasonably low. -
Software configuration and drivers - Windows Mixed Reality software automatically recognizes and guide you through the headset’s configuration, much like in Oculus software, and after that you’re ready to go… just be sure to have all the latest windows updates and cumulative upgrade (I think it is the 1709) as this is required to run the headset properly and with the latest bug fixes; my initial tests with some Steam VR titles gave good results, except that there is a known software incompatibily with WMR controllers in Steam VR Home and also some VR titles, that make you unable to move in “jump to” fashion, but there is a known workaround for this, explained here: How to enable Windows Mixed Reality joysticks for more SteamVR games | Windows Central , that let you enable the controller’s joystick movement.
As a final side note, for the controllers to be able to work you will need to purchase a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle, or a Bluetooth equipped Notebook, since none of the WMR headsets includes it.
That’s all for now, I will update and/or add more impressions to this post as soon as I’m able to do more in-depht testing, going to test some games and Skyrim VR soon 
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Awesome detailed review!
Since the cheaper hmds won’t work for me, right now I am thinking of biting the bullet and getting a vive. Does anyone have vive experience? How does it compare to the 4K?
tracking is the high point for vive. The Vive pro is comparable to the Samsung or the 4k. I have all three. which 4k? the BE or the original? If original then then you will be disappointed. The Samsung is comparable visually to the BE.
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It is the original. Is it that much better? I am setting myself up for the disappointing visuals. But I tend not to care too much about graphics anyway, just wanna play room scale games with decent controllers at the moment. Leap and driver4vr is good in the short term but too much wasted effort to get working.
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Original Pimax has nearly no SDE. the BE has SDE, but is far better than the Vive. It is comparable to the Samsung. The Tracking on the samsung is acceptable but not as good as the Vive. If you have Vive already then you can adapt the controllers to work with the Samsung. there are youtube tutorials by Sweviver. I find the samsung controllers work well for most everything i have tried.
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I always found the 4K SDE to be pretty noticeable, but it was the first headset I used. I don’t particularly care about SDE but then I haven’t tried a vive yet. Basically now I just wanna play games without fuss, had enough of tinkering. I think sacrificing the clarity of the 4K for the usability of the vive is probably worth it in the long term, after getting used to the downgrade in visuals.
The visuals aren’t all better on the 4K though right? Resolution yeah but how about the 90hz, brightness, and less ghosting on the vive?
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The Pimax 4K BE is not a real 4K panel, it has a 2880x1440 OLED panel , same as the WMR headsets, that’s why the resolution looks the same 
, don’t know what panel brand Pimax uses in it but it should probably comparable to the Samsung Odyssey.
Choosing an headset today is like betting to the lottery 
, personally I’m pretty satisfied with the Lenovo Explorer, there are not big issues with it and works well with most ot VR titles, but of course there is room for improvement, but talking about VR…there will always be…
Vive Pro has the worst price tag, in my opinion totally unjustified, but if you already have the Steam controllers and base station it plays strongly in its favor…except you can wait for the Pimax 8K/5K to come out.
After having seen many Samsung Odyssey reviews I’m pretty convinced it is the best and cheapest solution, considering it uses the same exact OLED panel of the Vive Pro, but it has the disavantage of the weight, something to keep in consideration if you don’t like the feeling, since it is not the lightest headset around (but the Vive Pro neither is…).
Until the perfect headset comes out, it is clearly a personal choice, and choosing wich factors are most important to you and wich ones you can leave out and get over
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Yeah exactly. It’s all subjective. Depends what you are looking for. No hmd is perfect. I would get a WMR because they are cheap and good, but it would require an entire cpu and motherboard upgrade in my case, so my choices are limited to vive and CV1. And I aim to avoid Facebook like the plague. Process of elimination means vive for me.
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Haha ! Welcome !..I totally hated the fact
Oculus was bought by FB, even using an old DK2, Oculus software was
continuously sending/receiving data on my PC, they probably have
integrated some form of telemetry and user data collecting in
it…now…I never joined FB, but as soon as I realized that the real
reason they invested in Oculus was for reaching millions of users and
have their data collection base even deeper, then I sold my DK2, and
made a promise to myself to NEVER have an Oculus anymore…except
maybe they totally revamp their privacy policy from top to bottom, or
sell their VR division to another company
Now I get you’re in a very big dilemma…LOL
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I had a quick read through their Oculus ToS recently. It got updated, no doubt because of all the attention FB is getting. Couldn’t stop thinking that FB are trying to create a Black Mirror-style dystopia, the way they carry on.
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Well, they ARE…that is the main FB and other companies purpose, sadly, but very few realize it and take a personal choice.
Close. Its not actual called pimax 4k be. Its just called
pimax be the front panel had the pi symbol but had flames kinda like hotwheels.
Featured a samsung qhd (2560*1440) oled single display.
The Odyssy features 2 oled displays equaling 2880*1600
Pimax 4k panel res diff +960*+540
Pimax BE panel res diff -320*-160
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Thanks for the clarification, nice to know Pimax uses the Samsung OLED panel.
@jonnypanic This could come handy for comparing panel and matrix screen quality of the current top HMD’s:
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Cheers. The Lenovo and Vive pro obviously look great. Vive third. Oculus looks absolutely awful to me, but maybe I am biased. Vive a bit less clear looking in ED than the 4K, and too orange, but I could live with it and change the colour scheme. Otherwise I think the vive looks decent. Skyrim looks blurry on all of them.
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I’m currently playing Skyrim VR on my Lenovo and it looks really good, very nice resolution, not blurry at all.
I think Oculus has a really good pixel matrix, but at this point the lower resolution of its panel becomes quite clear, compared to newer, higher resolution panels.
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Yeah I suspect he has TAA enabled in Skyrim, causing the blur.
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I think this info could be interesting or useful to people stuck on a cpu which doesnt support avx instructions.
After some deliberation, I have decided to upgrade almost my whole computer, rather than buy arift or vive.
Because: Facebook are evil and the rift costs 500 usd here.
Vive have awful customer support and are prone to serious damage, and costs 700 usd here.
So I realised I can do a big upgrade and get a wmr for the same cost as the vive, all with a clear(ish) conscience.
It’ll be an i5 8400 if anyone is wondering. A cheaper upgrade (i3/ryzen) is also possible but thought i’d futureproof. Budget is 470 usd for the upgrade (cpu, mobo, ram, case) 350+ if you shop around.
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