I mean, I think it’s borderline too late.
What I mean to say is, that for an AIO HMD, the Crystal is starting to be just too big considering what the competition has been putting out as of late.
When I think of the AIO with PCVR, Streaming, Stand-Alone, IO Tracking etc…
It doesn’t match up with the SIZE of the HMD.
How can you go out to the mass market and pitch this AIO HMD to the general populace in the hopes of getting mass adoption? I don’t think they realistically can at this form factor.
If the 12K is pretty much the same, I am skeptical it too could really make enough of a dent considering what’ll prob hit the market for the AIO mass market in the next few years.
I like the AIO direction of the Crystal. I really don’t like the size, but I think I could put up with the size. I don’t think the majority of consumers (esp. first time into the VR arena) will be happy with the size. opinion
It comes to a point where regardless of the spec and regardless of the size the mass market is driven by price. When you have a 105FoV AIO with smallish formfactor that works reliably and has a great store with no need for the switch it a hard sell to ask for another £1300 just to get the extra clarity.
Let’s not forget when it comes to wireless every current AIO that’s running the XR2 chipset is restricted to 150mb of bandwidth. So in theory excluding lenses they should all look the same. Will stand-alone games on the Crystal take advantage of the eye tracking, maybe but the Pico4 enterprise also has eye tracking for £600. I’m not the type to spend £1000 just for the luxury of £60 Aspheric lenses.
When you break it down like this, slap the Quest Pro lenses into a Pico4-sized HMD with an XR3 (that’s a Quest3 right there) and add the Aero/Crystal panels. That‘s $600-800 max, before taxes. Add a Pro line for an additional $200-300 for ET and maybe-baby face tracking and you‘re golden.
From my VAT-included perspective, the Crystal is €2.000. That‘s a clean €1.000, €700 if being generous too much.
If a PICO HMD had everything (all capabilities and features) (will have ) as well as display quality as the Crystal has, then the PICO form factor would be the more appealing by far.
For the Crystal, just how much of it is a design choice versus having too many constraints by their internal hardware that dictate the Crystal’s form factor?
Could they (PIMAX) have designed the headset better? Was there room for that? Or did they just hardware themselves into a corner with no real options for any other design/form factor?
The Crystal is just a spin-off of the 12K, which completely overtook it in the time-line because Pimax apparently encountered a number of hurdles they at current didn‘t manage to overcome.
The form factor is owed to wanting to accommodate for a FoV of 200 degrees horizontally, where one understands that it may necessitate a bigger housing (although we have seen small form factor prototypes of other companies, e.g. the 4 lenses design).
It‘s unfortunate, a bit like offering a 4 seat car in the form of a small bus with half of the room in the car just blocked for usage: you don‘t get any further advantage out of it, but have to deal with the unnecessary size and weight nevertheless. Unfortunately, these cars actually exist, they are called SUV‘s…
I was swayed by the wireless capabilites and inside out tracking, both of which use the xr2 chip so they may as well make it standalone at that point since they already have the hardware. I’m not sure why it’s so much heavier than other headsets though since the pico4 is essentially the same hardware but it’s much lighter
Probably too costly, but I would have appreciated a VERSION that was just tethered PCVR with high quality performance/visuals at a smaller form factor.
They can have their AIO version as well.
If the AIO version (current version) can manage to get past its beta state with all features working as intended and reliable, I’d still consider the Crystal.
He’s one. Dozens of other sim racers have been impressed. VR is not a one size fits all process unfortunately. I wasn’t impressed with his 8KX review, so I haven’t watched this one. But there are a LOT more happy sim racers using the Crystal than unhappy ones. Can’t fit everybody- can’t please everybody. Such is life
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For the Crystal, just how much of it is a design choice versus having too many constraints by their internal hardware that dictate the Crystal’s form factor?
No matter what the direction they’re going with…anybody who owned an 8KX knows this form factor is too bulky and heavy. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re not doing anything about it. It sucks because I was hoping that’s ONE SINGLE thing they would modify in ANY future NEW headset. The comfort level must be as a higher priority as the lenses itself.
They weigh far more and you can’t pair controllers to a vive tracker, so you’d need a watchman dongle (or whatever it’s called) that the controllers pair to and that costs like 50 so you’d end up getting closer for something that isn’t as elegant, requires extra ports, adds weight and looks unsightly. Plus Pimax don’t make any money from it.
You can already use a vive tracker if you want btw, just do mixed space calibration and badabing. If Pimax actually did suggest the vive tracker as their option people would lose their minds, but of course no good deed goes unpunished.
And by extension the people’s opinions you hear the most are negative etc etc.
Realistically, what anyone truly on the fence should do is wait for the amazon release and then try the product out for themselves knowing they have a good return policy available if it really isn’t for them.
Mine is coming in the next couple of days, just hard to find time at the minute. I would say my impressions are mostly positive but a strong focus on “if this headset suits you specifically”. Although that’s my opinion with headsets in general, they are very personal and subjective. It’s why reviews in general are a struggle in this space, you need to watch 10 reviews rather than 2, and hope they have comparisons to headsets you have already used ha.
) as well as display quality as the Crystal has, then the PICO form factor would be the more appealing by far.
