As far as VR gaming is concerned, there are two distinct paths for VR headsets. One is affordable and lightweight, sacrificing high-end visuals for accessibility and affordability, and the other is packed with every imaginable feature, but without the cost.

On paper, the Pimax Crystal was supposed to be the ultimate gaming VR headset, rivaling the Meta Quest Pro in performance and even promising to challenge the unreleased Apple Vision Pro with its impressive glass lens and 8K resolution. In reality, however, it turned out to be a real disappointment. It takes a lot of effort and patience to use this thing.

As a recent embracer of VR, one of my biggest complaints was the lack of visual fidelity and performance compared to PC gaming; trying Pimax Crystal, powerful visuals and performance are great, but without key features, frustratingly I found that I was left with an unremarkably bad (and very expensive) user experience. Like the HTC Vive XR Elite, another high-end wireless VR headset, the Pimax trades features and usability for raw power.

Before delving into the extensive list of issues I encountered with the Crystal, a few positive aspects are worth mentioning. First, the display, with a glass aspheric lens with a peak fidelity of 35 pixels per degree (PPD), the image and on-screen text are very clear; Pimax also provided the Crystal with a plastic lens for comparison, and the difference is striking. The difference is striking, as the experience is like looking through real glasses, not plastic lab goggles.

The image quality is incredible; when the Pimax Crystal is working, almost every VR game I tried looked incredibly beautiful. This is especially true for games with cockpits like "No Mans's Sky". Especially in games with cockpits like "No Mans's Sky," the peripheral vision is much more expansive, even in situations where you would normally have to crane your neck to see. This may not sound like a big deal, but it has a huge effect on the immersive experience.

As for comfort, the headset fits well enough for users wearing glasses, and the headband has a dial for a perfect fit. It is worth noting, however, that the headset is on the heavier side, weighing 960 grams. The glass lenses are heavier than the plastic lenses, but the replaceable 6000mAh battery adds to the weight. The Crystal comes with two batteries, which held up to just under three hours of gameplay, but after 90 minutes of playing around with No Man's Sky, I needed a break to stretch this old neck; 90 minutes seems to be the limit for VR games, and I'm not sure I'd be able to get much more out of the Crystal than that. What excited me the most was the hot swap feature. You can quickly swap batteries without having to turn off the headset; it has a small 120mAh battery inside that activates whenever you're ready to swap it out. It's like having a battery backup, just think of it as taking a couple of minutes to swap out. This is neat, although you have to use a little elbow grease to pull the battery out of the slot on the back of the headset.

However, we found the setup process to be rather tedious and quite draining. We relied on the Pixmax app for most of the customization of the headset, but to make more detailed adjustments, we had to wear the Pixmax and use the internal Pimax VR experience app.

The calibration process simply involved placing a crystal on the floor in the middle of the potential play area. Still, it does not provide a boundary or virtual guardrail to define the space. As a result, I had to rely solely on intuition to avoid accidental collisions with desks or other office objects during gameplay.

Another problem I encountered was the height setting. The software asks you to enter your height in centimeters, which is fine. However, some SteamVR games have a bug that misinterprets that data and assumes you are a giant. Thus, in the RTS space game Battle Group VR, I was comically towering over the bridge of the spaceship, unable to control anything because I could not reach it. So I had to go back to the setup process and play with different values to find the proper height.

This leads to another problem: the hand tracking of the controller. The controller is comfortable and uses a halo design similar to other VR headsets. However, there is a noticeable input lag from button presses and gestures to in-game actions. In games such as "Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempest Fall" and "Walking Dead Saints and Sinners," there is enough input lag to pick up items or attack enemies that it feels uncomfortable. In addition, the odd tracking, movement, and inaccurate controls make it not feel as smooth and accurate as something like Meta Quest 2, which has better inside-out tracking, even though it has aged considerably more recently.

Many SteamVR games are not optimized for Crystal's controller either, so you have to manually bind the controls for each game. This adds an annoying amount of work before you can even start playing. To make matters worse, the controllers do not automatically turn off when the headset is turned off, so you must remember to physically turn them off individually to avoid draining the battery.

This is a bigger problem since SteamVR is where I have been playing all my games, as Pimax's digital storefront does not offer much gaming content at the moment, with only a dozen or so games and apps available. I am genuinely surprised that a headset in this price range does not have video pass-through capability. This would have allowed me to keep track of my surroundings while using VR and also something the old Quest 2 had. This omission is especially disappointing since setting up a play space has proven to be a Herculean task due to the lack of basic functionality.

Personally, I love the video pass-through. I can look through my phone while playing to see if there are any messages I missed, and VR can be a very isolating experience if I can't get out for even a moment. Another missing feature, and the most important one that is on the Pimax Crystal spec list but has not yet been added, is wireless mode. When the headset is switched to wireless mode, a "content coming soon" pop-up appears and the headset becomes a wireless headset that can only be used when connected to a PC. Until this is added, there is no way to see how well SteamVR games work streaming wirelessly to the headset.

Some of the eye tracking features, such as foveated rendering and automatic IPD, are also not in the launch package. However, a small button on the headset can be used to change the IPD settings and increase the interpupillary distance on the fly.

I am astonished that it feels like I am using a prototype or beta version of a VR headset instead of the final retail version that will ship later this month.

To Pimax's credit, the company acknowledges these problems. Many of the problems I encountered were already known to Pimax, and they assured me that they were working diligently to roll out updates before customers begin receiving them on August 26. For example, the battery hot swap was not working when I received the headset earlier in the week, but it is working now; Pimax is committed to post-launch support and fixes; and the company is working hard to ensure that the headset is working properly and that customers are able to use it.

While I appreciate the company's transparency, until these issues are resolved, I cannot recommend the Pimax Crystal to anyone considering a significant investment in a premium VR headset. Nor can I be 100% confident that Pimax will add all the missing pieces and squash the bugs within a month.

It's a shame because it had the potential to be truly outstanding with its hardware and design, if only it were functional. It will be interesting to see the status of the Pimax Crystal after its release.