Hands-On Review – Using the Pimax Crystal Light VR Headset for Immersive Flight Simulation

Last Updated on September 15, 2025

When Pimax asked if I’d consider reviewing their Crystal Light Virtual Reality (VR) headset, I was definitely interested. I enjoy flying in VR and I’m always looking for a more immersive experience. I really wanted to know how the Crystal Light would stack up to my Meta Quest 3.

In this review, I’ll be covering my experience and thoughts after some hands-on time with the Pimax Crystal Light.

Spoiler…I really like the Crystal Light, and more than my Quest 3. Read on to see why.

REVIEW DISCLAIMER

This review is based on a new (Sep 2025) Crystal Light that Pimax loaned to me (not gave) for evaluation and review purposes. I was presented with the option to buy the headset at a discount at the end of the review, or just send it back with no obligation if I preferred. Pimax also offered me an affiliate status for reviewing their product(s), so any purchases that result from clicking a Pimax link on my site will earn me a commission and potential discounts on future hardware if I choose to buy my own. I made it clear I would only review if I am free to give my subjective and honest evaluation of the product, which they welcomed. This article is entirely based on my own personal use of and subjective review of the Pimax Crystal Light.

Introduction

I was already familiar with Pimax in the VR flight simulation space and knew they had some high resolution headsets.

While at FSExpo 2024 I was able to try out a Pimax VR headset, but unfortunately don’t recall which one. I do remember, however, feeling a bit underwhelmed at the time and thinking my Meta Quest 3 seemed better. Looking back, I think the setup and environment wasn’t optimal to truly showcase the capabilities of the headset. Getting to review a Pimax Crystal Light was a great opportunity to get more hands-on time and see if my Expo impressions were accurate.

The Crystal Light is currently priced at $858 USD Retail versus $499 Retail for the Quest 3, putting it at the lower/mid-range for VR headsets. Is it worth the extra cost over something like the Meta Quest 3? I think after reading this review, you’ll probably agree it is.

About Pimax

Pimax has been around since 2014 developing VR technology. Per Pimax:

“Pimax was founded out of a desire to push technological limits to the edge of the possible, and to help humanity exceed its limits through that same technology.” “We were the first VR manufacturer to put 4K resolution in a headset, and after that 8K resolution, and soon 12K. We were the first to reach 200 degrees field of view, and the first to use glass lenses in a VR headset.” “Our current models are based on the Reality Series, with the Crystal, Crystal Light, and Crystal Super, all sharing key technology such as SLAM algorithm, glass lenses and ultra-high resolution QLED panels.” “Pimax is honored to be the official VR partner of Microsoft Flight Simulator. At the 2024 MSFS media release event, Pimax was the exclusive VR brand chosen to demonstrate the simulator’s performance in virtual reality.”

The Crystal Light Headset

Packaging

The Pimax Crystal Light came well-padded in good quality packaging. Everything arrived in perfect condition as you can see from the pictures below. I felt like I was opening a solid built product.

Size and Comfort

This headset isn’t small, nor very light, especially compared to the Meta Quest 3 as you can see below. While much larger than the Quest 3, I was still comfortably able to move my head around without any problems. I found the Crystal Light is evenly balanced and sits comfortably on my head.

A nice feature is the rubber light blockers around the nose which the Quest 3 doesn’t have. These work really well at keeping any ambient light from seeping in but can be a little uncomfortable if not positioned correctly.

The headset has an adjustable top strap and a dial on the rear to tighten from front to back. I found it a little more cumbersome to place on my head than my Quest 3 given its larger size but once on, I found it quicker to adjust the fit than my Quest 3. The rear knob tightens or loosens the headset against your head and is a great feature that I found very handy when putting on or taking off the headset.

Sound & Microphone

The earphones are mounted to pods on either side of the headset. These are not adjustable and I found that the audio, while clear, was a bit quiet even at full volume.

I found I preferred using my PC’s external speakers to get the level of volume I wanted for the aircraft engine and environment sounds. However, I found the headphones good enough for hearing ATC communication, and the built-in microphone did a good job picking up my voice.

Visuals & Clarity

Where the Crystal Light really shines is the quality of the visuals. With 35 Peak Pixel Density (PPD) compared to Quest’s 25 PPD, the individual pixels are basically invisible. Combined with QLED displays that are 2880 x 2880 resolution versus Quest 3’s LCD displays at 2064 x 2208 resolution, images are super sharp and readable down to even small text.

The Crystal Light has a wider field of view compared to the Quest 3 (115 degrees versus 103.8 horizontal, and 105 degrees versus 96.4 vertical). This means more of the scene fits into view, increasing immersion. 115 degrees is quite good comparatively, but Pimax has higher-end models that offer even more field of view and resolution, up to 140 degrees and 50-57 PPD.

Interpupillary Distance (IPD) or the distance between the centers of your eyes is adjustable, as with most VR headsets, and there is a nice on-screen display showing the current IPD distance as you adjust the small scroll wheel in the rear corner of the main housing. I roughly measured the distance between my eyes using a caliper in a mirror and set that distance accordingly.

My eyes, unfortunately, have become more near-sighted as I have aged and I found that portions of the VR image were slightly blurry to my eyes. You can wear glasses with this headset but it’s a little uncomfortable with the additional pressure against your nose bridge. However, once wearing my glasses, I found the image nice and sharp.

That said, Pimax offers some prescription lenses matched to your spec that mount directly in the headset and right now they’re free with a purchase, so that’s a $159 savings. I may have to give that a try to avoid having to wear my glasses in the future.

Connections

Connecting the Crystal Light to a PC is easy. The adapter cord is already plugged into the headset out of the box. This isn’t a wireless headset like the Quest 3, so the cord must always be plugged in. The other end plugs into a Display Port input on your graphics card, and a USB 3 slot. That’s it. No headset batter, no charging, and a direct link to your PC for the highest bandwidth.

Controllers

The two hand-controllers with vibration built-in are very similar to the look and operation of the Quest 2’s controllers. They came with rechargeable batteries that were ready to go out of the box. They can easily be recharged using the included USB charge cables. I rarely used them as they weren’t necessary for flight sim, but when I did, they worked perfectly.

Software

Pimax uses its own Pimax Play software to configure the headset settings and runs in the background. It’s pretty easy and straightforward to use. I also used the PX XR Switcher application to allow switching between Open XR and Steam VR drivers. I found Open XR provides a much smoother integration with MSFS than Steam VR.

Setup & Installation

My Desktop Setup

To test the Pimax Crystal Light for this review, I used my home desktop sim setup. At the time of testing, it’s a pretty decent rig: an AMD 7800X3D, MSI 670E motherboard, an RTX 4090 GPU, and 32 GB RAM, ultra-wide monitor with a smaller secondary monitor, Honeycomb flight controls and Winwing extras for my airliner flying. MSFS 2020 and 2024 run smoothly with my ultra widescreen.

Pimax Play Software

The installation of the Pimax Play software went smoothly enough. Download it from their site, run the installer, register for an account, and done. Easy peasy.

Connecting the Headset

Connecting the headset requires a Display Port 1.4a connection and a USB 3 connection which wasn’t a problem for my PC.

However, I ran into a problem where Pimax Play was not able to find the headset. After a bit of experimentation, I found the cause. Once I disconnected the second display, Pimax Play was able to find the headset. According to Pimax, the headset graphics demands may prevent multiple high resolution displays from being connected at the same time. So, if you’re like me and use multiple displays in your sim setup, you may have to disconnect all but your primary display to get Pimax Play to recognize the headset.

Hand Controllers

Once I had the headset connected, I finished adding the two hand controllers to the software, which was easy enough to do following the Pimax Play on-screen instructions.

SteamVR versus PX XR Switcher

I’ll admit, I had more trouble than I thought I would trying to get things running smoothly.

I run MSFS 2020/2024 from Steam and saw somewhere that I needed to install and use SteamVR. That turned out to be problematic for me. Once I put the headset on I was able to access SteamVR from the on-screen headset menu. From there, I launched MSFS 2020 from the SteamVR play list.

And then…a slide show.

Everything was extremely laggy with low frame rates, to the point it was completely unusable, even at the lowest settings. I was starting to think my PC wasn’t powerful enough to run the Crystal Light but that didn’t make sense.

As a quick test, I switched to my Meta Quest 3 headset and I was able to quickly dial into a fairly smooth experience. At this point I was starting to suspect something else was going on.

Then I found a YouTube video by VR Flightsim Guy which I highly recommend, and realized I should be using PX XR Switcher and not SteamVR.

Following his guidance and using the settings in his video below, my headset came to life!

Flight Testing

To put the Pimax Crystal Light through its paces for this review, I launched MSFS 2020 then loaded the airport I learned to fly at, Fly2High’s New York Long Island McArthur (KISP). Next, I selected the highly realistic JP Logistics Cessna 152, the aircraft I learned to fly in. For some added immersion, I launched Say Intentions for a little interactive ATC.

For now, I decided not to try a more complex aircraft like the PMDG 737 or Airbus A320 for my initial testing since I generally fly GA in VR, nor did I add a lot of AI air traffic, all of which will hurt performance. I may provide an update in a future article specific to commercial airliners and performance. Likely, with my PC specs, I’d have to sacrifice some visual quality to get the level or performance needed to keep things smooth. But that would be the case with any VR headset.

Visuals

After donning the Pimax Crystal Light headset, I switched over to VR mode and boy did it look good! It started bringing back memories of my early days of flying around that airport. I won’t post any pictures because honestly it doesn’t do any good to show 2D images to try and show off a virtual image. You really have to SEE it yourself to appreciate it. But it’s GOOD and way better visually than I remember it being at FSExpo.

Field of view in all directions was very good. Not as wide as the naked eye, but still better than my Quest 3, which is narrower in both vertical and horizontal directions. I found my peripheral vision on landings was very good. I could easily track the runway center line and out of the corner of my eye see enough to keep spatial awareness to properly judge the landing and put aircraft down smoothly.

Performance

Any jitters in VR can really throw you out of the immersion and make you feel disoriented and dizzy, so it’s important to have consistent, fluid motion throughout the flight experience. Even if you have to reduce your visual fidelity to achieve it. Fortunately, I was definitely able to achieve a smooth experience the majority of the time in the Crystal Light while still maintaining an excellent quality image. There were almost no perceptible frame jitters using the above settings and without any further tuning. This was even in overcast weather.

Once in a while performance would dip down a bit and the visuals would get laggy, but I found moving my head in full circles a couple of times usually cleared it. I suspect something else was eating some CPU cycles. As always, you have to play around until you find that good compromise between best performance and best visual clarity.

I also tried out MSFS 2024 SU3 with the Cyrstal Light using their default Cessna 172 and found visuals and performance to be comparable, perhaps slightly less than MSFS 2020, when following the same settings used in the video above.

Immersion

Flying around my home airport was a joy, and the visual clarity and overall fluid performance allowed me to easily practice stalls, steep turns, takeoffs and landings and even some sightseeing with minimal frustration.

Based on my experience, here are my thoughts.

Did the Crystal Light feel immersive? Absolutely! The clarity, vivid color, and good field of view combined with good performance on my AMD 7800X3D/RTX4090 made flying in VR a joy.

We’ve certainly come a long way over the last few years and things are looking just amazing. It’s only going to get better from here.

Conclusion

My testing revealed that what I had experienced at FSExpo 2024 was off the mark and the Crystal Light does indeed excel at immersive VR. In fact, I liked this headset enough that I am going to purchase this one from Pimax and order a set of prescription lenses to go with, if that tells you something.

So, would I recommend it over my Quest 3? Yes! At a cost of $858 USD total, it’s more expensive than a Quest 3, but for flight simulation (and I’d for assume driving sims as well), I think the Pimax Crystal Light is well worth the investment and should last you a long time. But if you ever want to upgrade to a next tier Pimax headset, their upgrade incentive is another bonus worth considering (see below).

Pros

Cons

– Clear, crisp images with imperceptible pixel spacing – Vivid colors and true blacks thanks to the QLED + mini LED backlighting – Quick setup and adjustment using the Pimax Play software – Large field of view allowing both horizontally and vertically – Great performance on a moderately powerful PC – Ability to buy custom-fitted prescription lenses for those who wear glasses – Upgrade program for those coming from other headsets or moving up with Pimax

– Large and heavy (but well-balanced) – Earphone placement not ideal, making it harder to hear – You may be limited to one display while using the headset – Pricier than a Quest 3 (but subjectively worth the cost)

I hope this review of the Pimax Crystal Light was helpful. If you want to see more hardware reviews in the future, let me know in the comments.

How to Buy

You can buy your Pimax Crystal Light or any other Pimax headset from the Pimax Store. If you decide to buy, I’d be honored if you’d use my affiliate link to purchase one. Use discount code “simobsession”. I get a small commission, and you’ll get a 3% discount on new purchases.

Pimax Crystal Light Requirements, Features & Upgrade Program

Recommended PC Specs

Best Experience PC Specs

For flight and racing simulations, medium graphics quality can be achieved through parameter adjustments. GPU: RTX 3080, RTX 3080Ti, RTX 3090, RTX 4070, RTX 4070S, RX 6800, RX 6800XT, RX 6900XT, RX 6950XT CPU: intel i5 – 13×00 Series or above, intel I7 – 12×00 Series or above, intel I9 – 12×00 Series or above, or AMD processor with the same performance RAM: 16GB Storage: 5GB Spare Space GPU IO Port: DP1.4a x1 USB: USB 3.0 or Above Operating System: Win10 (x64) / Win11

Achieves the best graphics quality and experience for flight and racing simulations. GPU: RTX 4070Ti, RTX 4070Ti S, RTX 4080, RTX 4080 S, RTX 4090, RX 7900XT, RX 7900XTX CPU: intel i7 – 13×00 Series or Above, intel I9 – 13×00 Series or above, or AMD processor with the same performance RAM: 32GB Storage: 10GB Spare Space GPU IO Port: DP1.4a x1 USB: USB 3.0 or Above Operating System: Win10 (x64) / Win11

Main Features
– Ultra-sharp 2880 x 2880 resolution per eye. – Glass aspheric lenses with a large sweet spot. – 35 PPD for super clear vision. – Manually adjustable IPD (58-72mm). – Variable refresh rate (72Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz) provides smooth gameplay, with 72Hz being the ideal choice for most sim racers. – Local dimming delivers vibrant, true-to-life colors. – QLED + MiniLED backlight

Key Advantages

Industry-Leading Visual Clarity: 35 PPD The Crystal Light delivers 35 pixels per degree (PPD), significantly closer to the human eye’s retinal resolution (approx. 60 PPD). Once PPD exceeds 30, the human eye can no longer distinguish individual pixels, meaning images appear extremely sharp and natural. Glass Aspheric Lenses – A First in VR Unlike resin pancake lenses, our custom glass, aspheric lenses offer exceptional clarity, durability, and light transmission. Key Advantages: – Wider sweet spot – Greater IPD tolerance – Sharper, more detailed visuals – Superior light throughput Dual Tracking Support: Inside-Out and Lighthouse (Outside-In) Crystal Light offers flexible tracking options to suit different user needs: – Inside-Out (Standard 6DoF): Plug-and-play with no external sensors required. Provides reliable stability and accuracy for most users. – Lighthouse (SteamVR): For advanced setups, Crystal Light can be upgraded to support precise SteamVR tracking using the optional Lighthouse faceplate and base stations—perfect for users who demand maximum

QLED + Mini LED Backlighting: True HDR Visuals Crystal Light utilizes quantum dot display materials combined with a Mini LED backlight system. This technology achieves: – Higher brightness – Wider color gamut – Reduced color distortion – True HDR display performance with pixel-level local dimming, black areas appear deep and pure, avoiding the “gray-black” effect seen in traditional LCD panels. Fixed Foveated Rendering 2.0 The latest version of fixed foveated rendering allows users to adjust the size and position of the central high-resolution area. This flexibility helps reduce GPU load, providing more stable frame rates without compromising visual quality in the center of view.

Pimax Upgrade Program

Pimax offers a great upgrade program. If you already own a Quest 3 or other VR headset, you can save up to $100 through their VR Upgrade Program. No physical trade-in is required. Simply submit your current headset purchase info to unlock special offers: Crystal Light at a discounted price, or Crystal Super with a bundle of extras. It’s an easy way to enjoy sharper visuals, a wider field of view, and a more immersive VR experience. NOTE: The upgrade program cannot be combined with any other offers. You can learn more by clicking here.