 Linus Tech Tips at CES 2019 is brought to you by dbrand. Check out their grip case and prism screen protector at the link in the video description. So I walked up to this booth with a healthy dose of skepticism. Pimax is the same company that claimed to me that they had the first 8K VR headset and promised to come all the way to my studio. They were so confident about this thing. They actually flew someone in a demo unit to my studio to show me how blown away and amazed I was going to be. And then I turned around and I said, well I didn't think it was very good at all. Basically it had glaring issues to do with the way that the lenses were distorting the image at the edge of my field of view. And like that's their whole shtick is like, hey we've got like a really, really wide field of view. And issue number two was that the tracking latency was abominable. Oh and also their display, which they claimed with some kind of like special low persistence something something. And I was like, so it's an LCD, right? They're like, no, no, it's this. I'm like, so it's an LCD, right? They're like, yeah, yeah, it's an LCD. Wasn't very good either. So I walked by the booth and I was like kind of trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. And someone kind of came over to me and was like, hey, hey, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Trust me, it's better this time. And I'm like, yeah, that's what you said last time. No, no, no, really, it's better this time. And it actually is. So they've got a couple of different demos here. The first one is their 5K plus. Now, I'm actually not sure what the plus is. So you've got 2560 by 1440 resolution per eye. And they actually got a couple of different versions, only one of which I tried an OLED screen. And their old low persistence, whatever, at least they're admitting it's an LCD now. So they've got either an OLED or an LCD. So I tried the LCD one. And here's what I have to say. So first of all, the screen itself is much better, possibly better than my vibe at home in terms of the blue and the yellow leading and trailing edge when you take a dark object across a white background. So that's the kind of artifact that you get with slow pixel response times. It seems to be better on this. I would have to have them side by side to know for sure. Second thing that's better is, of course, the pixel density. So the finest of the image and the screen door effect that you have with both the commercial versions of the Oculus Rift and the Vive are, well, it's very noticeable. Here, definitely better, huge improvement. But I was expecting that. Now let's talk about the field of view. So their shtick is that they've got versus the about 100 degree field of view that you can expect from the leading headsets right now. What are you guys like 160 or something like that? 170. Thank you. So they've got 170 degree field of view. The issue last time, though, was that as soon as I moved my head around, there was so much distortion out here that I basically immediately got sick. Now it is still distracting. There is still room for VR to improve, but I think we all know that. But to say that it's better would be a gross understatement. As long as I am looking, especially for a seated or a standing experience, I don't notice if I'm not looking over there or moving my head to nearly the same degree that I did. And even in situations where I was moving my head, like the longbow demo in the lab, I was noticing it. But I've been in there for about probably 15 of the last 25 minutes and I'm not feeling nauseated. That was something I couldn't say last time. Now, one thing I still take issue with is their 8K headset, because they're using up sampling technology. They're only rendering it at the same 5K, so 2560 by 1440 per eye that they are on their 5K one. But they've got a 3840 by 2160 display per eye. The issue is that up sampling, whether it's that or whether it's the panel, I'm not sure, introduces some artifacts. And that one only runs at 80Hz versus 90Hz, which frankly, I think is exactly the wrong direction for VR to be going. For me, I need to see 100Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz before we start worrying about like more resolution at this point in time. So in summary, it's a hell of a lot better. And I've gone from the point where I wouldn't even consider looking at it again, like I really was trying not to talk to them as I was walking past, to I would love to have a review unit and have a look at where they're going with this, because there's other cool stuff too. So over here, they've got an eye tracking module plugged into the top USB-C port, and they plan to also have their wireless module available and the ability to expand it more with the additional type-C port on the bottom. So stay tuned. There will be another VR headset review from me, even though I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen at this point. With that said, not every demo we saw here was as convincing. So these are the Cyber Shoes, whose claim to fame is that they allow you to run in VR. So the way that it works is there's a dongle that goes into your computer, and then there are wireless transmitters in each of the shoes that take data from, check this out, these rollers along the bottom. So they've got a special one-size-fit-all shoe and binding kind of assembly here. And then what happens is they've got kind of a low-friction sort of design on the bottom. So as you're sitting in a chair, so it's really designed to be used in a seated position, you can either roll your feet forward or roll your feet backwards in-game. They've managed to get integrated with SteamVR, so effectively what they're doing is taking existing game controls, like, for example, touchpad controls, and remapping them to this input. So game compatibility is actually looking surprisingly strong for something that won't even launch on Indiegogo for another two to three weeks. But we had actually three members of our team try it so far, and I do have to say the impressions were a little bit mixed. So first up is James. He felt a little bit like he was rollerblading in VR. And you know what? I can kind of see that because the way that the roller works is it doesn't stop immediately. But think about that. If it did, then any time you were running, like moving quite fast, if you had both your feet off the ground, you would immediately stop moving. That wouldn't work very well. So they wanted to make sure that you're maintaining a little bit of momentum. Now, they can help with that by tuning how sensitive the rolling is to how fast you move. You can adjust the movement speed. But I have to confess that I also had a bit of a similar experience where I felt like I was just kind of losing control and I did get a bit nauseated. With that said, Ed from our team tried it and actually got the hang of it quite quickly and said that he quite liked it. The big obstacle there, though, is probably going to be the price. So they're planning to introduce this at a retail price of around 400 US dollars. I don't know what the early access price will be, presumably lower. TBD, OK, it'll be about $300. But while I understand the cost associated with running a company and with the wireless technology they're using, Bluetooth simply didn't have the resilience to interference or the low latency that they needed. So they had to go with something more custom. I think it's going to be a bit of a tough sell for all but the most dedicated VR enthusiasts. With that said, those folks are known to spend a lot of money on VR gadgetry. So I definitely wish you guys the most of luck with your campaign. So this video is brought to you, speaking of campaigns, by our campaign to sell everyone watching a dbrand grip. dbrand's grip is drop resistant. I can't call it drop proof, but like I've dropped this a lot of times. It's basically we'll call it Linus proof. It's customizable so you can put any dbrand skin you want. It's got their trademark super clicky buttons and it's compatible with the Prism screen protector. This thing is freaking cool. So the demo you guys are watching right now, absolutely nothing about it is faked. It comes with this applicator so you can put it on perfectly every time. It feels really glassy from the front, but it's made of some other kind of material that allows it to stand up to some astonishing impact abuse. So check out both the grip and the Prism at the link in the video description. 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