I’m firmly in the 8KX camp.
I’ve had both the 8KX and the 5K Super at the same time and did a lot of testing A-B comparing them along with a Valve Index.
The problem for the 5K Super is that it’s not quite as good as the Index overall. So where a lot of people are going to have an Index kit first and then upgrade the headset to a Pimax… well, the 5K Super is arguably not an upgrade. It has a wider FOV than the Index, and that’s it. It’s worse at everything else. The image quality of the Index is better. Especially the Screen Door Effect (SDE) on the 5K Super is pretty bad. As much as I really liked the wide FOV and favor FOV strongly, it’s just hard to justify getting the 5K Super over an Index when the Index is noticeably better in every other area.
Note in particular that the high frame rates possible on the 5K Super are only achievable by narrowing the FOV substantially. So if you want to match the 144Hz of the Index, you’re actually going to have only just slightly larger FOV on the 5K Super. And that’s frankly not worthwhile. With the full FOV on the 5K Super you can only run 90Hz.
The 8KX, on the other hand, does offer notably superior performance to the Index headset. The display quality is better while also offering wide FOV. The important thing here is that upgrading from the Index to the 8KX does make sense. It’s an expensive upgrade, but a meaningful one. You don’t buy an 8KX looking for price performance. You buy an 8KX because you want the best VR headset available on the consumer market today.
I think the high end is where Pimax needs to live. And that’s reflected in the price points of the 12K and Crystal. The 3 year old Index still beats the snot out of anything nears its price range. And the low end, of course, is completely dominated by the sold-way-under-cost Quest 2.
