All I can say is - I have a SN203 5k+ for about 11 months that hasn’t developed any cracks yet.
Handling it with care though, no fall-test or running-against-the-wall experiments
I have a 203 serial 5k+ which was a replacement for my original one which cracked.
When I received it I checked closely for cracks & it had none.
Then after updating the firmware & testing for 1 hour, a tiny crack started to appear.
I haven’t used it since but I’m pretty sure its going to continue to crack.
This to me says the internal heat of the unit is what causes the cracks.
Maybe it’s a 50/50 chance yours will.
I thought it was fixed long before that? Or at least we were told it was only one bad batch of housings at some point. Must have been a pretty huge one then since it lasted almost a Year…
But Your 8K has cracks, right? Or was it a previous 5K+ unit that had cracks? It’s the same housing AFAIK (EDIT: between the two models)…
My 8k has 1 minot crack corner no expansion and a crack where the top strap goes. But otherwise for a first batch has faired very well.
My first 5k+ not sure how it faired as traded it for pc upgrades. It was a 202 that was not that bad with Black dot pattern. Likely was on par with Quest and index.
If you recall they advised folks to wait til september to RMA as newer housing and other things implemented.
It’s been a mess with lots of bad information floating around and I guess only time will tell if that’s the case.
Fingers crossed…
EDIT: Just thought I would mention mine had no cracks for months, then one small chip in one corner. Looked at it Yesterday and it also has a tiny crack in another corner (same side - no expansion) and one crack on each side of where the strap mounts.
I havent RMA yet since I got this headset in November I believe and I got cracks with my first headset which was from may. I’m pretty sure they haven’t fixed the crack problem so I see no point in sending it back yet. You’ll only have a bunch of trouble doing so and then having to send back the next one.
You can use your headset without controllers and base stations.
If you want to know if it will crack without needing to do too much just install Bigscreen and watch some netflix and Youtube in it. It’sd a great experience watching movies in it and if you leave it on for a fe big sessions and don’t see any cracks perhaps yours is safe. I think the cracks are more likely to be appearing for those of us who use out headsets for long sessions.
My 203 was fine until I clipped the corner with an Index controller. It caused a tiny chip about 1/10 mm and a hairline crack about 1/2 mm size . Neither has increased in months, unlike my original which developed stress cracks in several places that got worse rapidly.
For my part, my 203 seems up to be of reasonable build. I could tell it was a better “fit and finish” than my 202 as soon as I got it. Same plastic but no warping on the seams.