Pimax Crystal Light review: a new standard for affordable PC VR

2024 has been a large twelvemonth for VR, pinch caller headsets from Apple, Meta, HTC Vive, and Pimax. The latest from Pimax is nan Crystal Light, an inexpensive type of the awesome Pimax Crystal I reviewed past year.

The original Crystal is our apical prime for a PC VR headset, and it’s one of nan champion VR headsets available. However, nan Crystal Light is overmuch much affordable, perchance redeeming you hundreds of dollars.

Pimax had to trim immoderate features to little costs, truthful you request to cognize what’s different and whether nan fund exemplary is bully capable to beryllium a awesome SteamVR aliases sim racing headset contempt nan inevitable trade-offs.

Specs

Pimax Crystal vs. Crystal Light

The Pimax Crystal Light (left) looks almost identical to nan original Pimax Crystal (right). Alan Truly / Digital Trends

The Pimax Crystal Light’s astir eye-catching characteristic is its $899 value tag, which is $800 little than nan original Crystal. Pimax strategically trim immoderate features to trim costs while retaining nan aforesaid high-density displays and aspheric solid lenses for optimal clarity.

Many PC VR headsets for illustration nan HTC Vive Focus Vision usage Fresnel lenses that suffer from ocular artifacts known arsenic “god rays.” While nan pancake lenses utilized successful astir standalone headsets are lighter, Pimax matches that clarity without sacrificing show brightness.

Overall, Pimax recovered nan correct equilibrium of features and cost, pinch only a fewer trade-offs. The Crystal Light doesn’t person a standalone mode, truthful a gaming PC pinch a discrete GPU is basal to play games aliases tally apps. Pimax has a comparatively mini room of games for nan Crystal, truthful that’s not a large loss.

The Pimax Crystal Light’s lenses are made of solid and tin beryllium spaced pinch a thumbwheel. Alan Truly / Digital Trends

While nan original Crystal had automatic IPD adjustment, it’s easy to set oculus spacing by scrolling a thumbwheel connected nan near broadside of nan Crystal Light.

The Pimax Crystal Light besides lacks eye-tracking hardware, truthful my VRChat avatar doesn’t look wherever I do aliases blink astatine nan aforesaid time.

More impactful is nan Crystal Light’s fixed foveated rendering, which keeps nan halfway of nan show sharpest alternatively of pursuing my gaze. This characteristic reduces nan load connected nan GPU by dropping peripheral resolution.

A cropped screenshot shows really Pimax Crystal Light’s fixed foveated rendering puts pixelization retired of view. Digital Trends

Still, Pimax chose settings that will activity good for astir people. I only noticed a nonaccomplishment successful value erstwhile I searched for it. Pixelation originates adjacent nan edges of nan lenses wherever my eyes seldom task during gaming. I move my caput much than I flick my eyes to nan side.

These changes thief nan Crystal Light unrecorded up to its sanction pinch importantly reduced weight. Without nan request for nan rear battery, eye-tracking hardware, and auto-IPD motors, nan fund exemplary cuts complete a half-pound from nan heft of nan original.

Despite nan 1-pound, 15-ounce weight, nan Crystal Light is rather comfortable. Pimax includes nan aforesaid heavy foam facial interface and well-designed caput strap connected each Crystal headsets pinch aggregate accommodation points to optimize fit.

Pimax Crystal Light for PC VR

Half-Life Alyx looks awesome successful nan Pimax Crystal Light, and nan controllers held search well. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

The Pimax Crystal Light is simply a awesome prime for PC VR gamers who want to upgrade their aging Valve Index, HTC Vive Pro, aliases HP Reverb G2. There’s nary wireless option, but Wi-Fi often comes pinch trade-offs.

I tin play immoderate crippled successful SteamVR, and my Oculus Rift games besides look successful Pimax Play. I had to unfastened nan Meta Link app for authentication earlier moving Asgard’s Wrath. It looks unthinkable connected nan Pimax Crystal Light.

For Meta Quest owners eager for amended SteamVR value without nan hassle of optimizing Wi-Fi and value settings, nan Crystal Light’s DisplayPort relationship offers visually lossless gaming without compression artifacts aliases dropped frames caused by web congestion.

At $899, it’s nan astir affordable measurement to acquisition crisper graphics. The hardware solution is 2880-by-2880 pixels pinch up to 2 times oversampling if your GPU tin grip it. Dynamic scope is besides fantabulous acknowledgment to nan QLED show pinch mini-LED section dimming.

Pimax provides plentifulness of options to customize nan Crystal Light’s settings. Foveation is adjustable and tin beryllium switched disconnected wholly if you person a accelerated GPU that doesn’t request nan capacity boost.

Pimax Play has plentifulness of options to fine-tune my Crystal Light experience. Digital Trends

I tin besides set render quality, fine-tune for a peculiar resolution, and prime 72Hz to 120Hz refresh rates aliases an experimental upscaled 90Hz. Those some thief for less-powerful gaming systems.

The image value is outstanding. I get heavy blacks, plentifulness of brightness, a wide colour gamut, and crisp details. The biggest limitation is my PC. I’d person to spend thousands much for an ultra-premium Apple Vision Pro aliases a Varjo XR4 and costly GPU to get a higher-resolution system.

The Pimax Crystal Light and controllers remainder atop its box. Alan Truly / Digital Trends

The Pimax Crystal Light has inside-out search without guidelines stations, and Pimax includes 2 rechargeable controllers pinch beardown haptics.

For my tests, I utilized a desktop PC pinch an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super and an Intel Core i7-14700F. That’s a bully midrange gaming machine that useful good pinch nan Pimax Crystal Light.

PC requirements

The minimum requirements Pimax lists for nan Crystal Light aren’t very demanding, but an Nvidia GPU is basal if it’s a GPU that’s respective years old.

Apparently, you tin get by pinch an RTX 2070 aliases amended paired pinch astatine slightest a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 aliases an AMD Ryzen 2000. However, Pimax notes an older gaming strategy is only capable for little demanding games for illustration Beat Saber. You’ll request to little value settings and could suffer reduced framework rates erstwhile playing nan champion PC VR games.

Strong graphics cards arsenic accelerated aliases faster than Nvidia’s RTX 3080, RTX 4070, and AMD’s RX 6800 XT tin grip formation simulators and challenging games astatine mean value if you person a caller processor.

For nan champion quality, Pimax suggests utilizing a high-performance PC pinch 1 of nan champion GPUs connected nan market, specified arsenic an Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti, AMD RX 7900XT, aliases a amended GPU backed by a powerful CPU. The graphics paper is astir important successful this case.

More Pimax options

Pimax Crystal Super QLED and micro-OLED VR headsets aren’t disposable yet. Pimax

If you for illustration nan look of nan Crystal Light but request nan sharpest imaginable graphics, Pimax announced a high-end PC VR headset pinch a show that mightiness hit nan ultra-sharp micro-OLEDs of nan Apple Vision Pro.

The Pimax Crystal Super boasts 3840 by 3840 pixels per oculus pinch an action for micro-OLED displays for vibrant colors and heavy blacks. With 50 pixels per grade and a 130-degree horizontal section of view, nan show should beryllium rather impressive.

Pimax says nan Crystal Super will vessel successful 2024, but I don’t consciousness assured astir that. Like immoderate other Apple Vision Pro alternatives, delays are common. If you want a amended VR headset, nan Pimax Crystal aliases Crystal Light are bully solutions that are disposable now.

Is nan Pimax Crystal Light correct for you?

Pimax Crystal Light tin tally games and apps from my SteamVR library. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

The Pimax Crystal Light is an awesome headset for SteamVR gaming if you person a bully gaming PC. The crisp 2880-by-2880 autochthonal graphics solution tin beryllium fine-tuned via nan Pimax Play app to guarantee a usable framework complaint pinch a assortment of GPUs.

It mightiness not beryllium nan champion prime for VRChat since there’s nary eye-tracking, and astir assemblage trackers require guidelines stations and a $200 Pimax Lighthouse Faceplate upgrade.

If you play racing simulations that require predominant glances to nan side, the Pimax Crystal mightiness beryllium a amended solution since it uses move foveated rendering that keeps your position crisp nary matter erstwhile you look. The Crystal Light’s fixed foveation lowers solution astatine nan edges of nan edges.

Pimax headsets are made for PC VR truthful mixed-reality gaming isn’t a viable option. The passthrough camera value looks akin to nan Quest 2’s low-resolution grayscale sensors. I tried utilizing nan desktop mode for productivity, but that wasn’t a bully solution. However, it’s useful for quickly adjusting settings connected my PC without taking disconnected nan headset.

For astir PC VR gamers, nan Pimax Crystal Light will beryllium a large upgrade. It matches nan much costly Pimax Crystal successful galore ways and easy outperforms older solutions.

I urge Crystal Light for PC VR gamers and sim racers pinch high-performance PCs that request much value than a standalone mixed-reality headset for illustration the Meta Quest 3 can deliver. It’s 1 of the champion PC VR headsets you tin buy.