Hi all,
I’ve not been on these forums for quite some time! Just catching up on some recent posts. I was on a pre-order but cancelled due to lack of faith and concerns about quality.
1/ Did the plastic ever get improved? I’m still seeing photos of the housing cracking.
2/ Customer service improve at all? I did see a post a few months ago where the guy was posting for 2 months to get answers. Just checking now I think people still getting delayed responses?
3/ Have people that purchased their Pimax’s had good experiences? No issues? A solid product? Completely happy with their purchase?
The FOV on normal 150 degrees is what graphics card can handle, so the larger 200 degrees is for future graphics cards (probably other options of HMDs with larger FOV’s by then anyway - by the time any massively improved graphics cards are developed).
Here’s my reasons for cancelling my pre-order and just wondering if anything has changed?
https://community.openmr.ai/t/cancelled-preorder/12147/5
Black grid pattern pixels
Dead pixels / clusters of dead pixels
Distortion
Audio jack bad connectivity
Flimsy construction / glued uneven seems
PiTool breaking optimisation / oculus software
Product and website launch a complete flop
Website hacked for months with virus
Black bars on outer edges
SDE still present
Sketchy communication / bad PR
It was never 200 degrees FOV
RMA could be very lengthy
Numerous over optimistic deadlines
Dirty boxes / grubby HMDs / uneven plastic tone
Quite expensive for what it is
Requires at least the top end graphics card which is another £1300
Future graphics cards required to touch large FOV
In addition to the above back in January, I knew another HMD would be on the horizon in the near future and then Valve Index was announced. So I’m just weighing up my options. I’m waiting on the Index release and YouTubers getting their reviews out before I make my decision.
Thanks for you time 
Q 1? Hard to say. PimaxUSA claims it has & was in earlier batches. But some front housing were not batch/stamped identified & were still seeing Backers in 6000 & 7000 range reporting cracks & some pre orders. Simply put no numbers have been presented to quantify this issue is resolved. So atm maybe not.
Q 2? Customer Service is still being worked on (WiP). So while there is improvement, not enough time yet to measure a truly favorable improvement as of yet. Still a bit of hit & miss.
Q 3? Still varies. Majority seem to have relatively good results. But without published results of surveying owners it’s hard to say one way or the other. Something pimax should do is conduct an email survey of owners.
Actual FoV (Horizintal
Small approx 120
Normal 140 to 150
Large 160 to 165
Depending on person & title Large works well.
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Hi
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Mine is from a preorder (1235xx) but the casing is fine. It is a lot flimsy than the Rift I have though. But I believe this is a design choice because of the weight issue.
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As far as I have dealt with them, it’s bad. When I asked for the status of the order, I got something in the area of “It’s in the process of processing the process” as in it tells you nothing. The online tool they made for checking your order never showed anything (https://pimaxvr.com/pages/check-your-order-status) for me, and at the end, an email was sent to me with a tracking number. Until then there was no information what so ever. The delivery was shy of 2 months later than initially stated in the order confirmation email.
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The product is mostly fine. If I would name the issues, for me it would be the fragile plastic housing and the split screen thing that it does when you have your headset on before booting your PC. Turning it on after booting the PC or turning the hmd off then turning it back on again will fix this.
Black grid pattern pixels : I don’t understand but since I don’t understand it’s not there?
Dead pixels : None.
Distortion : It’s there but I would rather have the FOV with this level of distortion than 100 degree-ish FOV.
Audio Jack : Works OK for now.
Flimsy construction / glued uneven seems : The seams are clean.the housing is flimsy yes.
PiTool breaking optimisation / oculus software : I think the software guys are doing well. Frequent updates and it works fine for me.
Black bars on outer edges : I do not see them.
SDE still present : This will never go away with current 8K and 5Ks until way higher pixel counts. You have the display right at your face so…
Dirty boxes / grubby HMDs / uneven plastic tone : Mine did not have these problems so I believe it shouldn’t now. As in you should be able to claim RMA if it does.
Requires at least the top end graphics card which is another £1300
Future graphics cards required to touch large FOV : I believe it depends on your set bar. I bought it for Elite Dangerous and have a 1080ti, but with compromises, I can have a bit shy of 50fps at sparse areas and 30ish in space stations and asteroid belts. Of course, I would like more fps if I could but I can live with it. I believe immersion breaking is something subjective so you might want to think what works for you and what doesn’t.
As for alternative choices, I would recommend HP Reverb. It’s 2160x2160 per eye so if you are OK with smaller FOV, that’s the go to HMD for higher res atm. It’s been recalled so you need to wait a bit more, but it tells you that HP has a standard on what to ship so I even give them a plus for that one.
P.S. Pimax seems to have stocks in some Amazon shops (depending on the region) so you might want to check there. I only checked US, Japan, UK and Germany, but so far I could only find stocks in US and Japan. Atm, I cannot recommend Pimax to everyone, but when I get asked how it is by my tech savvy friends, I tell them facts and advise to get it from Amazon if they so wish to.
1/ I hope so! It definitely feels a bit flimsy in a few places. I adjust mine by the left side (since my Lighthouse is on my right), and I can feel some give in the plastic on the bottom where I touch it with my thumb. Hopefully it doesn’t crack!
2/ Customer service got to me quite quickly to solve a driver issue via Teamviewer. Less than a week’s turnaround, with the session itself being very late (for them) at night on a Friday. Well outside normal work hours.
3/ Great experiences so far. To the point where I will likely sell my previous headsets, as opposed to keeping them as spares like I used to, because I don’t think I can see myself playing with conventional FOV again. I may just buy a second 5k+ for insurance.
Black grid pattern pixels None that I can percieve
Dead pixels / clusters of dead pixels None
Distortion Pretty major around the edges, only really notice it when looking to the extreme left and right though. Not noticeable when I’m actually driving
Audio jack bad connectivity Haven’t plugged anything into it yet, will update
Flimsy construction / glued uneven seems Seams are even but contruction feels suspect. Definitely not bulletproof like the CV1 looked - but then looks can be deceiving, as I had to RMA my CV1 for hardware failure twice
PiTool breaking optimisation / oculus software PiTool was extremely painless for me. The only real issue is the engrish tooltips
Product and website launch a complete flop N/A, wasn’t here for it, got my 5k+ within 2 days of ordering it, free delivery via Prime
Website hacked for months with virus Doesn’t seem to be now?
Black bars on outer edges No black bars when set to Large FOV
SDE still present It’s there if you look for it, but far less than the CV1, which was already unnoticable after extended use
Sketchy communication / bad PR Still there. It’ll take a long time to fix the sense of hopelessness, even though they seem to be doing a much better job now than before
It was never 200 degrees FOV It isn’t, but it’s wild. It fills my whole vision. Whereas people feebly said “it’s like wearing a race helmet” to excuse the prev-gen FOV, this really does feel like wearing a proper race helmet
RMA could be very lengthy Fortunately haven’t had to deal with that
Numerous over optimistic deadlines N/A
Dirty boxes / grubby HMDs / uneven plastic tone Box was beautiful, HMD looks untouched except for obviously peeled/reapplied lens covers (as with first-batch CV1s, likely due to quality assurance being repeated on existing stock after initial high failure rate)
Quite expensive for what it is It’s half of what I paid for the CV1 at launch (166,000 JPY delivered vs 88,600 JPY delivered), and easily twice the product that the CV1 was
Requires at least the top end graphics card which is another £1300 Yes. I hoped to make do with my 1080, and indeed it could maintain 90fps with SteamVR’s automatic downrate, but it seemed like such a waste to downrate the resolution, so I did fork out twice the cost of the headset for a 2080ti
Future graphics cards required to touch large FOV I don’t think so… even without SPS, I was running large FOV at 36% render rate in the notoriously-inefficient iRacing at a comfortable 90fps in large-field multiclass races with just a 1080.
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1/ My 5K XR seems fine, the plastics feel a little flimsy in comparison to my Rift CV1, but not dramatically so. That said, over the 3 years I’ve owned my Rift, it’s been RMA’d twice…
2/ No, they’re shockingly slow to respond, and there are some things that are just lost in translation.
3/ I’m happy with my purchase overall, but I knew what I was getting into. I’ll admit the software and getting games working is still a ‘beta experience’ in my eyes, nothing like the Rift CV1 experience of being guided through the setup and BOOM, there are your games and they just work. It seems that you have to tweak and fiddle with something with every game to get it to work with the Pimax, be it Parallel Projections, using ReVive, or something else. That said, when it’s working, it’s damned impressive.
Black grid pattern pixels
Dead pixels / clusters of dead pixels - None in my headset
Distortion - Yes, 150 -> 170 degrees is distorted, I only use 150.
Audio jack bad connectivity - No problem with my headset.
Flimsy construction / glued uneven seems - Not an issue with my headset.
PiTool breaking optimisation / oculus software - Yeah, software is klunky
Product and website launch a complete flop - Yep, Pimax definately need to hire a web / social media analyst.
Website hacked for months with virus - Didn’t experience that.
Black bars on outer edges - Not a problem in my headset.
SDE still present - Yes, but it always will be unless you’re willing to spend a lot more money.
Sketchy communication / bad PR - Still an issue.
It was never 200 degrees FOV - It is “Diagonally”, but you should be used to that kind of marketing tactic, TV manufacturers have been selling TV’s since the 70’s measured diagonally.
RMA could be very lengthy - Not needed it
Numerous over optimistic deadlines - See above about web / social
Dirty boxes / grubby HMDs / uneven plastic tone - Not an issue for me.
Quite expensive for what it is - Nope, I’d say it’s bang on the money
Requires at least the top end graphics card which is another £1300 - Yes, but if you’re walking into this thinking you’ll play on Wide FOV without a top end graphics card, you didn’t do your homework.
Future graphics cards required to touch large FOV - 2080Ti handles it well in most games I’ve tried it, but the view is distorted and distracting, thus I don’t use it and I’m happy with 150.
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