I was referring to the linked review, too. There’s more than a few people who have said that they didn’t have problems with distortion on the Aero. Which makes sense. It’s the same on the 8KX. Distortion is one of the issues people experience when the optical geometry isn’t working for them as intended. People who fall into the range that the optical geometry was designed for won’t experience it.
Okay. So the 8KX’s optical geometry doesn’t work correctly for you (which I’ve often heard for low IPD), but the Aero’s does. That’s a solid reason to prefer the Aero.
I think this kind of effect is one of the things that clouds making comparisons between VR headsets. Each of them has a range of variability in eyes and face shapes that they can handle properly which represents only a subset of humans. There will be cases where a particular person falls into that supported subset for one VR headset but not for another one. Naturally in that case, they’re going to prefer the VR headset that works properly for them. Whereas the other one can’t even be a contender.
I look for signs of that kind of thing when I’m reading reviews. Useful comparisons between VR headsets only happen when both headsets work properly for the reviewer. That’s one of the reasons I found this particular review interesting. I think both VR headsets do work properly for him, so its a fair review.
I think the subset of humans for which the optical geometry of the 8KX works correctly is relatively smaller than other VR headsets. And that is largely because of the technical difficulties in wide FOV (which speaks to your experiences with small FOV headsets working better for you). I think this is a substantial part of why reviews on the 8KX can be so sharply varied between being total garbage or being the best VR headset on the market. It arguably is the best consumer VR headset on the market if it works properly for you.
Substantially improving the range of eyes and face shapes that are supported properly by the optical geometry seems to be a major goal of the upcoming 12K. If Pimax can pull that off, I think it stands to increase their market share considerably. As well as eliminate a lot of their negative reviews.