When I reviewed the Pimax Crystal last year, I was very impressed by the technology from Pimax, the still somewhat unknown VR headset developer. Since that review, a lot of things have changed: Pimax has started to make much more of a name for itself within the flight simulation community, even partnering up with Microsoft to become an official partner for VR in MSFS 2024. The company also announced two new headsets earlier this year, both iterations of the previous Crystal: the Crystal Super and the Crystal Light. It’s the latter of those two that we will have a look at in this review.
Before we do so, here is a quick technical overview of the specs for the Crystal Light. The headset boasts the same 2880 x 2880 resolution per eye as the Crystal. It also has the same QLED panel with glass aspheric lenses offering 35 pixels per degree. The display technology of the Crystal Light is nearly identical to that of the Crystal. The differences instead lie in other areas: the Crystal Light lacks the eye-tracking feature from the previous Crystal. It also lacks internal storage and a battery, and thus requires a connection to the computer via the cable at all times, meaning the Crystal Light is not suitable for standalone VR gaming. Last but not least, the Crystal Light lacks the onboard X2 chipset used for on-device processing.
And frankly, these changes are incredibly welcome for flight simulation. They mostly mean cutting out on technologies that don’t, or have a limited benefit in flight simulation. This has made the headset a bit smaller and lighter, but most of all, much more affordable.
Physical Appearance
The Crystal Light unboxing experience was largely the same as for its “older brother”. A premium-looking, matte black box with a Pimax logo on top is all that conceals the headset and several accessories. Upon taking the Crystal Light out of the box, the differences are not immediately visible, but if you put the bigger Crystal Light next to it to compare, they become more obvious. The displayport cable is attached directly to the headset this time, with no way to disconnect or remove it. This is a bit inconvenient at times, if you want to put the device away for example, but mostly not a real problem. The faceplate looks the same, but the unit itself is a little bit smaller. The lack of the on-board processor means the headset does not need the fans or the heatsink to keep the processor cool. Furthermore, the Crystal Light does not feature the battery pack strapped to the back of your head, nor the power cable that runs over the top. This has made the Crystal Light 250 grams lighter, a very welcome change. The previous Crystal felt very heavy and I had some questions about its ergonomics, but the Crystal Light is a big step in the right direction to make the device much more comfortable to wear.
Setup and Software
While in my Crystal review I said that the setup could have been more straightforward, Pimax has also made some efforts to improve this area. Pimax Play, the software required to configure your Pimax Headset, finally comes with the Pimax OpenXR runtime integrated. This means you don’t need to use SteamVR to run MSFS, and you can use the OpenXR implementation which is much more performance-friendly. While I’ll touch upon performance later on, the OpenXR integration also means that you can pretty much use the Crystal Light right away after installing Pimax Play. Due to my experience with the Crystal, I managed to get myself setup with the Crystal Light fairly quickly.
While Pimax Play has not been changed significantly since my previous Crystal review, at least the Crystal Light can be used with less configuring and without the need to go and download external software from GitHub—although I still recommend downloading the OpenXR Toolkit for on-the-go customisation.
Unfortunately, Pimax did not solve my pet peeve with the account “requirement”. While Pimax Play is perfectly suitable to use without creating a Pimax account in the so-called Guest Mode, the software will ask you to login every time you start it up, which is a bit of a nuisance.
Display Quality
To write about the display quality, I could technically just copy and paste what I wrote for my previous Crystal review here. The display specifications are virtually unchanged, and so is the experience for the Crystal Light. VR is an amazing and immersive way to experience flight simulation, and everyone ought to try it out at least once in a properly configured setup.
The Crystal Light provides a beautiful image, with vibrant colours and true blacks, thanks to the device’s local dimming feature. The high pixel density creates an immersive feeling that makes you forget you’re looking at a screen, with sharp and detailed textures.
The FoV of the Crystal Light is pretty much the same as the Crystal. While technically the upper limit is slightly higher (up to 130°), in practice I feel like it’s pretty much on par. The Crystal Light provides a very wide view, showing you a lot of what’s in front and to the sides of you, without even moving your head. The edges of the screen are barely noticeable, providing an immersive experience that draws you in.
Performance
Performance in VR will always remain a factor in balancing your visuals, compromising on some factors to create a smooth experience. While I had to tone down my settings quite significantly for my time with the previous Crystal, it feels like I had to make less of a compromise with the Pimax Crystal. I was generally able to keep my settings in the medium-high range while maintaining smooth frames. Having that said, the settings to get the best performance isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution. While I was able to use somewhat higher graphical settings for less complex GA planes, more complex aircraft and airliners required a bit of a different setting to get smooth performance with FPS ranging between 30 and 40 FPS.
There are a number of settings at your disposal to impact this performance. In Pimax Play you can set up settings for the render resolution and the foveated rendering solution. You can also use an experimental refresh rate for the Crystal Light, called 90 Hz (Upscaled). The exact implementation is a bit lost on me, but compared to the normal 90 Hz refresh rate or the 72 Hz refresh rate, I didn’t notice a significant performance impact, while the graphical fidelity is reduced due to the upscaling technology.
The previous Crystal featured dynamic foveated rendering, a feature that would track your eyes and display the part of the screen you’re looking at in a higher resolution, while reducing the resolution of the areas you’re not looking at. The Crystal Light lacks the onboard eye tracking technology, and instead relies on a technology called ‘fixed foveated rendering’. Instead of following your eyes around, the higher resolution area is now a circle in the centre of your view. The areas outside of this are rendered in a lower resolution to gain performance.
This technology works fairly well, and you can indeed make significant performance gains by enabling ‘FFR’. If you utilise the OpenXR Toolkit you can customise this feature even further, giving you control over the shape and size of the higher and lower resolution areas. However, this feature does come with a bit of a caveat, that the areas rendered in a lower resolution can show graphical artefacts at times. These are not super obnoxious, but noticeable enough in your peripheral vision to cause some disturbance and get a bit annoying at times.
Generally speaking though, I am very positively surprised with the performance of the Crystal Light. The performance was mostly on par, and often better, than the previous Crystal. I did continue tweaking and toning down my settings, particularly my render resolution, to get even more performance out of the Crystal Light. However, this resulted in textures becoming too blurry to read, especially in aircraft where you interact with an EFB or FMS to read and enter data.
Having all that said, and similar to the previous Crystal, you will still need a powerful PC to utilise the Pimax Crystal Light at its best. This is a requirement that sadly has not changed from the previous Crystal.
Sound
The sound capabilities haven’t changed compared to the previous Crystal. The Crystal Light came equipped with the optional DMAS earphones that can be purchased separately, as well as the standard headphones. Both of these provide very clear and immersive sounds, with the optional DMAS earphones having an edge in audio quality. The positioning of the earphones blocks out a lot of sounds from your actual surroundings, and instead does an excellent job of immersing you in your flight simulation environment.
Conclusion
As the age-old adage goes: less is more. This certainty rings true for the Crystal Light. Pimax has removed several of the features from the previous Crystal, and the end result is a better VR headset overall. This is mostly because the developer has made these changes without reducing what made the headset so great to begin with: its display technology and quality. Combined with a serious reduction in the price, this makes the Crystal Light a serious contender for everyone looking to get an amazing visual experience in VR. The software has also become slightly better to use, although improvements can still be made here.
