Crystal or Q3?

[Hulsie1983]

I'm in doubt. My reverb G2 just gave way (flickering right screen, it's not the cable. Seems a HW issue in the headset), so I'm going to replace it. 

Sure there are better headsets but it did the trick for me. With the upcoming EoS of WMR I was already loosely looking at the Q3, but since my G2 died, the crystal came in to view as well. I have the money, but I'm not sure if I want to pay the premium for the pimax. I read the Q3 is less sharp than the G2 but has the pancake lenses. The small sweet spot of the G2 never bothered me, but I don't want to downgrade in clarity, so I'm not sure if the Q3 is the headset for me. On the other hand there's the crystal which seems major upgrade over the G2, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to pay the premium as the G2 was fine for me.

I have an rtx4080super l, i5-13600KF, z790, 32GB ddr5 6400. 

I mainly play DCS and iRacing. 

Any advise?

[Elphaba]

I say this as a loather of everything Zuckerburg, but Q3 is miles better than the crystal.

I've had both this month (thanks amazon) and I really wanted to love the pimax (I HATED it) and hate the Q3 (I love it).

The difference in quality of the image is virtually zero, yes the wider FOV in the pimax is nice but it's not worth the light leaks, discomfort of the entire headset and the cheap arse manufacturing of the headset (sharp plastic everywhere). 

Q3 is way sharper than the G2 and it has literally no sweet spot. I can glance with my eyes all around the cockpit and the gauges are sharp, in the G2 I'd have to move my head to each in turn. 

The Q3 is *almost* as sharp as the pimax - you'd really need to hot swap between to two to tell any difference. It's light, the strap is really quite good but I did buy a 3rd party better strap, and the sound is actually good. Not as good as the G2 but possibly better than the pimax. 

Plus, if you play the piano, you can get Piano Vision. Killer app.

Best VR headset on the market; I loved my G2, but after trying the Crystal, I wouldn't swap even if you paid me. Huge POS in my opinion. Q3 is brilliant... and don't forget the colour hi-res passthrough. Game changer. I can text or use my ipad as a kneeboard without taking it off. 

[Steel Jaw]

9 hours ago, Elphaba said:

Q3 is way sharper than the G2 and it has literally no sweet spot. I can glance with my eyes all around the cockpit and the gauges are sharp, in the G2 I'd have to move my head to each in turn. 

What are your system specs please?

[Elphaba]

1 minute ago, Steel Jaw said:

What are your system specs please?

8700k o/c 5.0 Ghz

64GB DDR 3 

4070ti

Though that's utterly irrelevant to the sweet spot issue - that's the lenses. 

Edited February 20 by Elphaba

[Steel Jaw]

I know but cheers.

[freehand]

17 hours ago, Elphaba said:

I say this as a loather of everything Zuckerburg, but Q3 is miles better than the crystal.

I've had both this month (thanks amazon) and I really wanted to love the pimax (I HATED it) and hate the Q3 (I love it).

The difference in quality of the image is virtually zero, yes the wider FOV in the pimax is nice but it's not worth the light leaks, discomfort of the entire headset and the cheap arse manufacturing of the headset (sharp plastic everywhere). 

Q3 is way sharper than the G2 and it has literally no sweet spot. I can glance with my eyes all around the cockpit and the gauges are sharp, in the G2 I'd have to move my head to each in turn. 

The Q3 is *almost* as sharp as the pimax - you'd really need to hot swap between to two to tell any difference. It's light, the strap is really quite good but I did buy a 3rd party better strap, and the sound is actually good. Not as good as the G2 but possibly better than the pimax. 

Plus, if you play the piano, you can get Piano Vision. Killer app.

Best VR headset on the market; I loved my G2, but after trying the Crystal, I wouldn't swap even if you paid me. Huge POS in my opinion. Q3 is brilliant... and don't forget the colour hi-res passthrough. Game changer. I can text or use my ipad as a kneeboard without taking it off. 

best headset on the market ? what other headsets have you tried.

[Strong05]

As to the Quest 3 vs the G2 you can see my comparison here: 

 

One thing not mentioned is that the Crystal and the Varjo Aero both have dynamic Foveated Rendering, which means eye tracking and only rendering in high fidelity what you are looking at.  I haven't had a chance to use this yet but from everything I've read it's a game changer that allows for great FPS with minimal compromise.  Lots of great videos on youtube exploring this feature and comparisons of most of the widely used headsets.