What VR to get in 2026

[Bulldog]

S!

I have a gaming PC with a 5080 and 64 GB of fast RAM, etc.

I had a Reverb G2 and a Pico 4 previously on a 4070Ti card and was not impressed with the visuals.

However, I wish to dip back into VR waters. My squad pals have the Pimax Crystal but I have seen and heard horror stories on the lack of customer services. Indeed, I posted a thread on their VR Discord asking to what headset they would recommend to me and I was ignored. 

So...

Do I wait until the Samsung XR is released in the UK? Then again, it may not be released over here.

Or the Pimax Dream Air? However, see above.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

With very best wishes,

Bulldog

[GiftGruen]

Well, you can get a Quest3 and be quite happy with it. Taking costs into account, it's probably unbeatable.

Myself I moved from Quest to Crystal Light and ( after somewhat experimenting with ApacheStraps and several Settings ) now am quite happy with it.  I am using a 5090 and anyway ( with my quite high settings in IL2 ) cannot use 100% resolution. However - quite a good pair.

I cannot tell anything bad about the CrystalLight. But, hey, I never needed support and/or service so I am maybe just a lucky one.

CrystalSuper (Oled) or DreamAir are the ones I personally think are the most interesting HighEnd ( and HighPrice) options in 2026. 

 

Edited February 19 by GiftGruen

[Bulldog]

Thank you, sir, and appreciated.

BD

[Panzerlang]

I have the Crystal and Super, no significant hardware issues with either and only minor software ones.

[Bulldog]

Many thanks, chap.

BD

[Dash,Polder]

Pimax Crystal user also came from a G-2, I can witness they've stood behind their product and gave swift and prompt tech support, they've also honored their warranty no questions ask.  I was actually impressed with the speed of the support from them.  

I think some get confused when they discover that support comes direct from China and your dealing with a very small window when both sides are awake and theirs has fixed business hours.  That can cause some difficulty in having a conversation even more so than a language barrier, I'm used to it having some relatives on that side of the planet.  

All I can say is I love mine, it's fantastic flying unit, best one so far.  It's one I can spend hours in with great eye comfort, I find it much harder on the eyes sitting in front of a flat screen for the same amount of time.  Am thinking a bit about upgrading to an OLED super in the not so far future, but don't really see it as a necessity.

I do use prescription lenses in all my HMD's and glasses for flat screen viewing.  Find it ironic the easiest and most relaxed place for my old eyes seems to be in VR.  Also say I put a lot of effort into proper fitment and added the custom comfort face fit kits and top strap, that's helped to turn it into a well fitting top notch fighting unit.    

[spreckair]

I have the same experience as Dash,Polder above.  Someday I will likely upgrade, but not until so many things settle out a bit--computer upgrade prices, VR headset advances and prices, etc.  For now, the PCL is keeping me very happy.

[Bulldog]

Mr Dash: would yours be the Crystal Light?

Got my last Virpil delivery today. Am a happy dog!

BD

[Dash,Polder]

Yup, PCL here.

[chiliwili69]

Here just to share my own impressions about the PCL, Quest3 and BSB2:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/92536-bigscreenbeyond2-vs-quest3-vs-crystal-light-vs-monitor4k-through-the-lens-pictures/

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/92592-bigscreenbeyond2-vs-quest3-ergonomics-and-comfort/

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/88605-quest3-vs-crystal-light-through-the-lens-pictures/

VR headsets are very subjective, you never know until you try them.

Apart from the three candidates above there is one to arrive before summer, which is the Steam Frame.

Although the resolution is the same than your current G2 or Pico4, there are three things that might be worth:

- horizontal and vertical FOV

- edge-to-edge clarity 

- foveated streaming

I will buy the Steam Frame as soon it is available to compare it with BSB2.

 

[Bulldog]

ChiliWili,

Many thanks for this. So, in a nutshell, best wait for the Steam Frame perhaps.

I liked the Pico 4 for its size but the colours were weak. I could not fly competitively with it but enjoyed solo flights.

BD 

[GiftGruen]

It's LED with 2.2Kx2.2K and they tell "FOV up to 110".

So - maybe a great headset for occasional Gamers and a good competitor to Quest3 - but I don't expect it to be 'Peak'.

Wireless connection alone needs to make compromise since wirelesse connection simply has not the bitrates of a tethered connection, even if done well. So it probably depends if you want to have a good allround headset - like Steam Frame or Quest - or a specialized HighEnd-thing for simulations.

PS: Cool Virpil setup 😉

Edited February 23 by GiftGruen

[chiliwili69]

On 2/23/2026 at 11:50 AM, Bulldog said:

I liked the Pico 4 for its size but the colours were weak

I remember very well the Pico4, it was a great headset for the time it appeared (Sept-2022), well ahead of Meta at that time. It was the one of the first pancake lenses and FOVs were good.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/81135-the-issue-with-the-pico4-mask/

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/81247-pico4-vs-index-vs-monitor4kfullhd-through-the-lens-pictures/

The main bottleneck of most of wireless headset without eye tracking (like Pico4 or Quest2/3/3S) is limited by the streaming decoding capacity of the XR2 chip on the device.

For the H265 codec, the limit is 150Mbps for the XR2 1st-gen, and 200Mbps for the XR2 2nd-gen and XR2+ 2nd-gen.

There are two versions of the Pico4, the original from 2022 (with XR2 1st-gen chip) and the Pico4 Ultra (with XR2 2nd-gen).

 

The new Steam Frame will most likely offer you similar colors to the Pico4 since it is also based in LCD panels, but in terms of visual quality I expect better visuals over the Pico4/Pico4Ultra/Quest3 since it will use the eye-tracking feature to do foveated streaming, meaning that the limited decoding capacity (I really don´t know what is the chip of the Steam frame) will be used to give you more details on what you are looking (less compression) and less details on the peripheria (more compression).

All this is just on paper, that´s why I would like to test it.

In fact, the PlayForDream and SamsungGalaxyXR are also wireless devices with eye-trakcing which can run SteamLink and its foveated streaming functionality. But I am not interested in those devices because the limited FOVs.

 

Edited February 25 by chiliwili69

[Bulldog]

Many thanks for this. I did have my eyes on the Samsung Galaxy XR but now have reservations.

Perhaps it will be the Steam Frame. Not sure.

Presently, I am giving a wide berth from anything Pimax.

Have you ever thought about writing a book on VR headsets for the gaming community?

BD

 

[chiliwili69]

10 hours ago, Bulldog said:

Presently, I am giving a wide berth from anything Pimax.

Well, since I have the BSB2 I can not back to bulky headsets anymore, so Crystal Supers are out of my radar.

The Pimax Air Dream is an option but they use MicroOLED (like BSB2), so FOVs are not great.

If Steam Frame is giving me the same FOVs than the Index, I am sold.

VR headsets are not only panel resolution (beyond certain value you have dismising returns), there are many other factors which can be more important than resolution:

- Confort

- Weight and rotational inertia

- Quality of lens (resolving power, contrast preservation, aberrations,etc)

- HFOV and specially VFOV!

- GPU requirements (some devices has a large render/panel ratio -> waste of GPU power)

- Software simplicity

10 hours ago, Bulldog said:

Have you ever thought about writing a book on VR headsets for the gaming community?

LOL, nowadays people don´t read books anymore, people watch youtubers and lately ask to AI.

And the AI is fed from anything, including this forum...  😁😁

[Bulldog]

I think the Steam Frame may have promise. Many thanks, kind sir. 

As a  book publisher, I hope this is not the case. 

This is unleashed soon. Cannot go wrong with a radioactive Japanese lizard.

[chiliwili69]

On 2/25/2026 at 10:26 PM, Bulldog said:

As a  book publisher, I hope this is not the case. 

Oops! LOL! What a coincidence! 

When I said "people don´t read books anymore" I was referring more to "techy" books.

I myself read physical books, but I think it is part of my boomer generation (which I am proud of it). I see new generations embrace the phone and left the books. But there is still an small fraction of them that still read books. You can see that everyday on the underground. There is hope!

[Bulldog]

Indeed, I see cellphones used in the underground and the demographic has changed since the glory days of yesteryear. I would like to think that independent book stores are on the increase but overall, it is a more competitive market. And there is hope! Also, it is good to cater for the traditional aviation and hardcore audience (Il-2) as well as pop culture, in this case the Spice Girls and Kylie, which are strong commercial performers in the UK and US.

Edited February 27 by Bulldog

[GiftGruen]

12 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

When I said "people don´t read books anymore" I was referring more to "techy" books.

I myself read physical books, but I think it is part of my boomer generation (which I am proud of it). I see new generations embrace the phone and left the books. But there is still an small fraction of them that still read books. You can see that everyday on the underground. There is hope!

Well - my children ( I have 5 of them, so a good statistical base ;-> ) all read books. So there is hope. Myself I am also a 'reader'.

But - to be honest - for technical stuff like e.g. VR technics I simply use the net. It is more up to date than a printed book can be and it also offers discussion and pro-contra. I'd rather not trust a single author in such things. On the other hand - yes - a good book can give you the basic understanding and knowledge to be able to balance and seperate the internet wisdom from internet rubbish 😉  

[CaptHook]

I've been pretty happy with the Q3 for quite a while now, but I'll definitely be looking at the Dream Air.  I've actually got the $1 pre-order in for it, but I'm waiting for some folks here to try it in IL2 before I even consider the jump, and there's also the issue of sourcing a dead tech (lighthouses) as I've never used them.  

The Frame will also be a contender, and will likely have superior support and availability.  

My only use cases are IL2, DCS (rarely), and iRacing (a lot.)  I'll keep the Q3 for the non-sim games - love some Beat Saber when it's time to work out, for example, and the family likes the AR games you can play on it.  So the new HMD will likely only be used for seated simming.  May consider trying the in-unit tracking version of the Dream Air if the reviews are OK, but Pimax is not known for great tracking using this mode.  

[GiftGruen]

Mhm, I am in the same boat more or less.Keeping my QuestPro for some wireless fun (seldom) and at the moment using a Crystal Light for Sims (often).

Me I am watching out for more Pimax Super OLED or DreamAir reviews since - for seated gaming - I am not sure if the "lightness" of a DreamAir is soo important. Of course: less weight is always fine - but I'd not like to have less FOV ( vertical and horizontal ) and already the Super OLED is not much better than the Crystal Light, as far as I know.  So I am quite curious how the DreamAir will be regarding FoV in real life, especially when wearing lens inserts.

SteamFrame. Well. One has to wait for reviews. Technical data imho doesnt sound so promising ( for sims ! ) and it's probably rather a Quest3 contender, not a Super/DreamAir.