Somnium VR1 VS Pimax Crystal - Through the LENS! Is it REALLY SHARPER? But HOW?! Let's DISCUSS! MSFS

A direct through the lens comparison between the Somnium VR1 and Pimax Crystal. But How can one be sharper than the other when they both have the same panels? Well, let me (try) and explain...
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Please note: I haven't had the VR1 very long and my time has been limited, so this video is an informal discussion on my thoughts and opinions so far. As I'm sure you can appreciate, things can feel very different testing the headset in my own environment vs a time limited demonstration.
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[@artursychov]

Thank you for this video Steve. It warms my heart that you noticed all these details. VR1 has been built around our optical stack. We have spent enormous amount of time, engineering and money to refine our optics to the micro details. Each lens is undergoing automated visual QA process twice.

[@colin8877]

I think I'll be happy with the clarity when I get the Crystal light.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

You definitely will Colin. Especially for the price!!

[@SargonDragon]

The panel is only one part of the whole optical stack. Lenses are a big deal. I think that's something consumers are only starting to become aware of due to the Quest 3. Its resolution isn't actually much higher than the Quest 2, but it gained much more clarity. Most of that is coming from the lenses, not the panel! So yes, it's very possible for there to be a big difference in clarity between two VR headsets that have the same panel resolution. There are so many other factors involved in both the software and hardware sides of the pipeline. Reviewers should be establishing objective measures of the total performance of the optical stack through the use of tools like MTF charts, Snellen eye charts, etc. Through the lens footage can be helpful, but it can also be misleading since it's subject to the limitations of the camera used and to potentially inconsistent quality of the capture itself. And other than that, we've usually only got the reviewers subjective impressions to go by. More objective and precise comparisons are possible than this, and not all of it requires fancy equipment.

[@danceoffAsh]

Damn that difference is massive! It's like wearing a pair of corrective glasses. Grats to the VR1 team.

[@eugene7758]

Maybe it finally makes sense for Pimax to add Almalence natively to Crystal :) :) :)

[@HighAspect]

That was my thought. Almalence greatly improved my image quality and sharpness

[@diegostalder9663]

i am wondering, how do you compare the VR1 with the aero in terms of weight and comfort ? i do mostly simracing and i do have a motion, i wonder if that could be a problem with the VR1 because of the size, shape and weight.

[@sirgriffinman]

I would like to know this as well.

[@lurchilurch5507]

I want to know this too

[@der60er]

Weight: 717 grams (487 grams + headband 230 grams) vr1 850g. i dont see there is a problem if you are fine with aero comfort and weight.

[@der60er]

850 is maxed out version. with mr cameras etc.

[@JPsTechReviews]

I have the Aero and it is great, clear and very stable headset, no regrets.

[@SpringChickensOnlyMan]

Somnium VR1 is insanely expensive though

[@kevinbrook7033]

Good video Steve, can definitely tell an instant difference. Is there any difference when in motion, i.e does the Somnium have less motion blur when moving around? The image looks very stable.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Thanks Kevin much appreciated. Honest answer, I tend to forget as I'm not very sensitive to it, or don't see it, as I don't move my head that fast in VR. But thanks for reminding me to check. As I'll have a full pre review video of the VR1 coming very soon. Take care.

[@Lonsome1223]

What would be interesting is what the really best VR headset you would recommend having tested them all.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Right now, I don't know myself until the dust settles. I'll keep you updated 👍

[@guylarochelle9793]

Another big difference… the price!

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Of course, for most people, the Crystal will make the most sense. However, for those who have deep pockets and crave the very best image quality in VR, including high resolution colour pass through, unbeatable brightness, wide FOV, big sweet spot and solid build quality, well its the VR1. It's not perfect though, and I'll be explaining everything I have learned in a video very soon. Thanks for watching.

[@Emir_de_Passy]

20 more degrees and seemingly better software. Not negligeable. And when comparing the og crystal (crystal light doesn't have eye tracking, nor local dinning), the difference is probably around 4-500 Euros. Not that significant imo.

[@turbohenk702]

​@@Emir_de_Passyno, the Crystal is around 1600 euro including tax. at resellers almost always. The VR1 including tax and eye tracking and CA fix(calculated 600 excl tax for these two essential parts) will cost around 3000 euro including tax. So that's almost double the price/1400 euro more.

[@Emir_de_Passy]

@@turbohenk702 fair enough. I only went by MSRP. Pimax has had time to reduce production costs and made in China, it's probably unbeatable in terms of price. As far as I'm concerned, Vr1 seems to be easily worth double the price, even though we are not sure yet about pricing by the way.

[@turbohenk702]

@@Emir_de_Passy The VR1 is surely better

[@arride4590]

Vr1 looks sharper. I would love to try this headset.

[@ben433]

Thanks for this comparison- I find it fascinating. I’ll be very interested to hear how the XR4 fits into that spectrum.

[@der60er]

thats a question !

[@sirgriffinman]

At the end of the video you state that the VR1 is amazing but that the crystal is similar and still really good. However, if that through the lens is anywhere close to what you experience in both headsets with your own eyes there is a MASSIVE gap in the overall image quality. Do you mind speaking on that point "the through the lens side by side"

[@granthartley]

Yes, I agree. In my opinion, it seems like the camera was not positioned in the sweet spot for the Crystal, as all other through the lens footage I've seen of it, including the footage MRTV just put out a couple days ago, is WAAAY sharper than the footage here. Perhaps even sharper than the VR1 footage here, or at least on par. Not saying the VR1 isn't sharper, but just that this does not seem like an accurate comparison of through the lens footage. I appreciate the attempt of the comparison nonetheless. Thanks Steve.

[@sirgriffinman]

@@adrenalinejunkie3828 the most important component in the stack are the lenses. The lens technology in the crystal and the VR1 is very different. That is how you can have such a huge difference in the quality of the image in the video. Screens mean very little in the overall image quality.

[@seattime4075]

Difference was quite noticeable...seems as with the quest 3, good lenses are the key.

[@L_Emir_de_Passy]

Steve, thanks a lot for the video! very informative. Your time is precious but I wouldn't mind some extra side by side comparisons, especially at night. and maybe DCS. Thanks again!

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Cheers mate 😊

[@L_Emir_de_Passy]

the gap is really shocking. especially given that both HMD's are using the same displays.

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

if you think that single lense stack is not covering whole display resolution then you understand why VR1 is sharper, Pimax just waisting many pixels

[@robinhillier4604]

You probably should have filmed it in 4K as well. That being said, for through the lens footage that actually looks incredibly good. I remember using the G2 for this and it gave a very poor representation of the quality. The VR1 Looks WAY clearer.

[@PaulMcDonagh-rv6vc]

What has happened to the distant scenery in MSFS? On my rig, and friends rig, and on your video, I see the same "wibbly" wobbly" low res distant scenery tiles. They shimmer. This is regardless of which VR set your using, its a game resolution problem. Can you confirm this, so i know me and my pal arn't suffering a shared psychotic delusional disorder.

[@ilkinahmadYouTube]

My Reverb G2 is also sharp but very grainy image. I want to get ridof grainy image doesnt matter if its 2880x2880 and grainy, i dont want that. Can you tell about pimax crystal visuals grainy or not? It can be 0 screendoor effect but when you look away it looks like sand effect

[@dharkbizkit]

0:19 damn, thats a lot of extra hight added to the lenses. that plastic frame for the glas is thick and with -7 dpt, that thick glas ontop of that will make it a nightmare for comfort, what are they thinking?

[@technikchegger7228]

Exciting impression but the price is of course a decisive factor for many in the end.

[@walltar]

That first trhrough the lens video seems like there is a massive difference... I hope that I can get my hands on VR1 soon. Cant wait to give it a spin in DCS.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Thanks for watching!

[@angrybeaver6667]

So the real winner here will be the crystal super since it has the better lenses and more leds on the backlight and even higher ppd.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

It's also not an actual thing yet. It could easily be delayed by a other year. There are other manufacturers too that will be releasing products in that time frame. They just haven't announced anything this far out yet.

[@der60er]

i wish same video with xr4 later next week ❤❤❤

[@poolhallshark]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@akpanjennings]

Isn’t it also nearly twice the price?

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

but if you want more than Crystal where you get it lol?

[@WOojerVest3andQuest3onMe]

Both look great! But, the price is what matters to me. The Pimax Crystal Light sounds to be the one I will get. I already have the base stations and controllers, so getting this headset with Face Plate is a winner for me. But, I am m9st excited for and really want to get a 5090 card to upgrade from my 3090 card. 😉👌

[@weirdgiven]

Is the sweet spot of Pimax crystal narrower than Quest 3?

[@CTTechGaming]

I'm looking at upgrading my quest 2 and the crystal light came on my radar when they announced it, on the crystal how clear is the writing and displays? As the quest was always blurry on the textures. Still loved it but would love one to know that the charity of the text and displays are in real world usage

[@SJkopa]

Somnium should lower the price by $800 and stop stupidly selling it only to Europe. I see a shortcut to ruin.

[@lurchilurch5507]

They are selling outside EU, but with a shorter warranty and less favorable returns conditions

[@SJkopa]

Pimax Crystal wins 100%.👍

[@wittyname-sy5je]

Really appreciate the side-by-side comparison. The difference is definitely noticeable. Pimax admitted last year that their main bottleneck for producing the crystal, at least for a while there, was manufacturing the glass lenses. I wonder if the crystal's 1 meter focal distance plays a part in this as well. Do we know what the focal distance on the Somnium is yet? Could you elaborate a little on the settings you were using for each? Were they both at 100% resolution? Were you using the nvidia upscaling/sharpening you mentioned in the video on the VR1? Somnium also mentioned in a video about a week and a half ago that they're also testing an in-house algorithm for sharpening. If Somnium is able to bring performance with dynamic foveated rendering (DFR) up to par with Pimax and avoid having the headset be too uncomfortable or awkward due to the weight/inertia then I'd say they have a chance despite its price and the competition from the Crystal Light. If Pimax comes to their senses and adds eye tracking (and thus DFR) as an option on the Crystal Light though then Somnium is definitely going to have a hard time. Seeing the difference in optics makes me wonder how the Crystal Super is going to fair. Pimax is going to have to step up the quality to be able to resolve that many pixels clearly. It would be exciting to see a VR2 with those same XR4/Crystal Super panels. Imagine an extra 20 degress over the Crystal Super (150+ FOV) with better clarity to boot.

[@x32i77]

Crystal Super will most likely not have 130 fov since they lied with the crystal fov of 125 which is only 104 104 max

[@victormaniaci2104]

Somnium is working with Hypervision right now to design their lenses for the VR2. Hypervision is the only company I have heard of yet that is doing wide FOV pancake lenses. They have a pancake lens design that can do 180* horizontal FOV. That is wider than the Pimax 8kx in a much smaller form factor. Hypervision also has a 240* horizontal small form factor lens design, but it uses 4 screens so it is not practical for gaming

[@wittyname-sy5je]

@@x32i77 Yeah I'm aware of Pimax's shenanigans with the crystal FOV. You can still go and find 125 deg. horizontal FOV listed under the specs tab of the Crystal on Pimax's website even now. I don't think they're going to pull off that big of a blunder twice in a row. Both the display panels and lenses are larger this time around so I think we're more likely going to get something closer to that original FOV this time around.

[@wittyname-sy5je]

@@victormaniaci2104 Where did you hear about this? Could you provide a link please? I remember seeing a Bradley video a while ago with him trying out their lenses. If true then that's amazing news. Hopefully Somnium is able to stay in business and make the VR2 a reality.

[@wittyname-sy5je]

@@victormaniaci2104 Nevermind, I found the video.

[@dtrjones]

So cool you put a side by side with these two jugganaut VR headsets! Looking at the side by side, I'm not sure you could say the image quality is close? There is definately more clarity in the VR1 and it's not down to brightness. One of the reasons could be sweetspot but the most obvious reason from the video is the chromatic aberration is much better controlled in the VR1 and it looks bad in the Pimax. Now I've seen that, I can't unsee it, so the Pimax Crystal light now seems a distant memory again, shame that. I'll know for sure when I'm hoping to try both of these at the FSExpo in June.

[@marcusdamberger]

I'm probably also heading to FSExpo too, but I didn't know Somnium is also going to be there to demo! That's even more incentive for me to come out.

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

VR1 has more pixels so that is why it is sharper

[@dtrjones]

@@vyacheslav_potapenko Do you mean visible pixels? Both have a resolution of 2880x2880 per-eye and that was confirmed in the video.

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

@@dtrjones yes usable pixels, with dual lenses design VR1 uses more pixes as second large lens covers more display area

[@dtrjones]

@@vyacheslav_potapenko thanks, that's good to know!

[@paulsleighty]

I noticed that the blacks in the crystal looked more black than the somnium

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Well spotted Paul. They are at the moment. But I'll have a new local dimming profile soon.

[@keithbriscoe99]

What are the downsides of going higher and higher on the Sharpening scale (NIS or CAS or FSR), like the one in OpenXR toolkit?

[@dathyr1]

Thanks for the information on the differences between the two VR headsets. Not familiar with the VR1 and not too sure how expensive it is. I did google search on pricing and they say it is around 2050 dollars, which is too much money for doing VR games for me.

[@quantumsoftware1424]

Making is hard but selling super hard. Making is all about been an engineer. But selling is about an engineer who focus on market research, knowing at which specification and at which price point that people finally give you their hard earned money.

[@sirgriffinman]

Will you be doing a ditect comparison to the aero in all the major categories? I am an Aero owner and would love.a comparison on the big categories like comfort, spftware stack, lenses, displays, eye strain, etc etc.

[@malakdecaen]

ok now we need to wait for a VR1 light

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

It already exists, the base model

[@corjansen8221]

Hi VR Flight Sim Guy. When are you going to tell us the negative points of the VR1? You told in a previous video that there are some, but that you would Somnium give the chance to correct them first. So when can we expect the complete story?

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Very very soon. I'm waiting for two new things, then I'll be giving you my full thoughts.

[@Killswitch1411]

Those VR WAVE inserts stick out a lot. I already had issues with my face being too close as it was.

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Yeah it's like that with all the lens inserts I've tried for the Crystal unfortunately.

[@wickfut8917]

What resolution did you run with each headset?

[@lurchilurch5507]

Guess they still haven't fixed the mic popping!

[@artursychov]

We did fix it but Steve still has that same unit with that popping issue

[@agordon20024]

How is the audio in the VR1?

[@Savage_Viking]

I'll wait till 2025. PPD still too low for my liking. 35 is good but 50+ is my sweet spot. Plus I'm looking for pass through and the smaller dimensions like the Big Screen Beyond. Yes I want it all but I'm willing to wait.

[@l8knight845]

And you also want ot to cost the same as the Quest 2?

[@markkovalcson7243]

You may be waiting a LOT longer then 2025. The Beyond is likely the smallest headset we will see any time in the next 5-10 years. Their next headset will have a larger display and larger lens and will have to be larger. There is no way to get around that currently. The only way get smaller would be with technology that we are completely unaware of right now.

[@tahirballikaya213]

how do you now 50ppd is your sweet spot did you try it out?

[@Rikus1978]

How you set Nvidia sharpenning?

[@artursychov]

This is Somniums proprietary implementation.

[@Pece73]

Cool! Thank you!

[@conkhi7344]

Since nothing is "free" in VR, I would speculate that the significant gain in FOV was achieved at the expense of a smaller binocular overlap. Did you notice a reduced stereoscopic effect at low altitudes?

[@walltar]

Binocular overlap is supposed to be 90°

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

Nope. Binocular overlap is excellent. This is due to using dual Apheric lenses

[@scottdominski8647]

Do you need base stations for DCS and can you do an DCS MR passthrough video. Thanks for sharing

[@walltar]

With VR1 you need base stations for everything... It is lighthouse based headset with no inside out tracking.

[@scottdominski8647]

@walltar Thank you, what recommended base stations and controllers?

[@walltar]

@@scottdominski8647 Basestations Valve or HTC v1 or v2 (Valve ones are probably cheaper and better, so I ordered them on Steam)... And controllers depends on what you play. For sims you don't even need them. But I bought Valve VR Controllers to use in other games. Not sure what is available as controllers for lighthouse though.

[@scottdominski8647]

@@walltar Thanks !

[@HighAspect]

I wish it had a built in tracking option. I don’t want to buy or mess with base stations on top of the high price

[@sovu9399]

Hi! Does VR1 work with steam?

[@artursychov]

Yes it is Steam native headset which also has its own OpenXR runtime. Works with all PCVR applications.

[@sovu9399]

@@artursychov Thank you!

[@4secsharkmr352]

❤thanks❤ VR1 seems to have a much wider sweetspot and it looks like the contrast is higher

[@markkovalcson7243]

If you were talking about a mediocre lens that was soft at f3.5 but stopped down to f5.6-8 got sharp and resolved more detail, your comparison makes sense. With a high quality sharp lens stopping it down will mostly impact the DOF so there is a wider distance in front of and behind your focal point in focus.

[@Godfather1010]

Hmm, this video is both true and accurate, big props to the newcomer competing for the VR Crown! weight, price & sound quality bring preferences into play with similar panels

[@VRFlightSimGuy]

My videos are always true and accurate. Thanks for watching.

[@lvx4408]

Very nice. If I was willing to shell out a lot more money than the Crystal perhaps I would have gotten it instead. It is amazing how quickly things are moving all of a sudden, though

[@tahirballikaya213]

would be great if Somnium would also bring out a more affordable "light" version

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

but it has base version already

[@vyacheslav_potapenko]

@@adrenalinejunkie3828 the spec is NOT similar at all