Pimax just announced two new wired PC VR headsets, Crystal Light and Crystal Super, as well as a wireless adapter for the current Crystal.
Pimax is a China-based startup best known for its 2017 Kickstarter for an ultra-wide field of view PC-based VR headset, but in recent years it has shifted focus from field of view to resolution.
The current Pimax Crystal, which started shipping around a year ago priced at $1600, is a hybrid headset that can be used as a native wired PC VR headset or a standalone headset, though the number of supported standalone apps is very small.
The new $300 wireless adapter for the original Crystal, promised at the headset's reveal almost two years ago, will make Crystal Pimax's first wireless headset. It uses a 60GHz signal, so it should support higher bandwidth and thus less compression than regular Wi-Fi streaming on headsets like Meta Quest and Pico.
The new Crystal Light and Crystal Super will not support this adapter. That's because unlike the original Crystal, the new headsets forgo the onboard chipset and battery in favor of a lighter wired-only PC-only design, with Light having a cheaper entry price and Super offering higher resolution.
- Crystal Light has the same 2880×2880 resolution QD-LCD displays as Crystal but drops eye tracking. The $700 base model Light lacks Mini-LED local dimming, but it's available in a second $900 model.
- Crystal Super will also come in two models. Both have 4K displays, but on the $1800 model those displays will be QD-LCD while on the $2000 model they will be micro-OLED. Unlike Crystal Light, Crystal Super retains the eye tracking from the original Crystal which enables eye-tracked foveated rendering.
| Crystal Light | Crystal | Crystal Super | |
| Wired (DisplayPort) |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Wireless | ❌ | $300 Adapter | ❌ |
| Lens Adjustment |
Manual | Automatic | Automatic |
| Resolution (per eye) |
2880×2880 | 2880×2880 | 4K |
| Eye Tracking | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Display Type (Models) |
QD-LCD ($700) QD-LCD w/ Local Dimming ($900) |
QD-LCD w/ Local Dimming ($1600) |
QD-LCD w/ Local Dimming ($1800) Micro-OLED ($2000) |
All Pimax Crystal models support markerless inside-out positional tracking and come with 6DoF Touch-like tracked controllers. This tracking is delivered via four greyscale fisheye cameras in similar positions as Meta Quest 2.
Crystal Light is set to make 3K resolution PC VR significantly more affordable than before, while Crystal Super promises to bring 4K Micro-OLED to PC VR for the first time.
Pimax claims Crystal Light will start shipping in May and Crystal Super will ship in late 2024. However, Pimax has a long history of repeatedly failing to meet its deadlines and of shipping products without promised features. For example, Crystal's eye tracking didn't work until four months after launch and the company still hasn't shipped the "Reality 12K QLED" headset it announced in 2021 with impossible-sounding specs like 6K per eye resolution and 200° field of view. We strongly recommend exercising caution by waiting for reviews of the final hardware before placing an order.
