As one who has reviewed the Pimax Crystal Light and experienced the Crystal Super at CES earlier this year, I was looking forward to seeing the availability of the OLED panels for the Pimax Crystal Super. It's not that I don't like the QLED panels that were there, but you can't beat the blacks that OLED panels have and if you play a lot of flight sims like say Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky in VR, you can't beat OLED panels for recreating the darkness of space.
Pimax recently announced that you can now pre-order to Pimax Crystal Super 8K Micro-OLED version for $2199. This headset, which will still feature the interchangeable display engine should you want to go with the QLED panels, will feature Micro-OLED displays that are prominent on AR glasses that I've reviewed in the past. You'll get a resolution of 3840 x 3552 per eye with a field of view of around 103-105 degrees. Refresh rate on these are 90Hz, but I'm hoping they find a way to get 120Hz out of them like some of the AR glasses I reviewed where they initially came out with 90Hz support and bumped it up to 120Hz later via a firmware update. The Micro-OLED version is expected to start shipping sometime in the summer.
You can get the Micro-OLED engine bundled with a QLED engine for $300 more to give you a choice on which panel you want to use just by swapping them out. This will give you the best of both worlds in one package.
Now a pretty specialized SKU was introduced called the Pimax Crystal Super Ultrawide. You can order this right now and it costs the same as the regular Pimax Crystal Super. What's different is you'll get an estimated horizontal field of view of 140 degrees, which is fantastic. The trade off is that the binocular overlap has been reduced from 105 degrees to 90 degrees. Some people aren't going to notice the reduction and if so, this version is for you because you'll get an increase of 13 degrees horizontal over the standard Pimax Super Crystal. For those that are sensitive to the reduction in the overlap, you'd stick with the regular Crystal Super. This one will be available in July.
I do like the choice provided and if you are not going to notice the reduced overlapping, the Ultrawide would be a pretty great pickup if you are into sims. I'd love to be able to see more in my peripheral vision and reduce the ski goggles like effect as that's one of the things I really want to see improved in the VR space.
If you want a better PPD but sacrifice some field of view, you can also get the Pimax Crystal Super in the 57PPD version. As with the Ultrawide, there's some trade off from the default SKU to get this clarity. It will start shipping in June so next month.
While the Pimax Crystal Super uses inside-out tracking, there is a faceplate that you can order to let you use Lighthouses. For me who has this setup already, that's one option I'd probably prefer since it offers the most accurate form of tracking. That faceplate is scheduled for Q3 of this year.
All told, a lot is coming down the pipeline from Pimax for the Crystal Super line. Let's hope they don't run into any snags and can deliver on this unique VR HMD that has the potential to be one of the best out there this year.
