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VRgineers XTAL 3

VRgineers · 2022 · PC-powered VR

VRgineers XTAL 3

A 600 g tethered simulator headset with 3840x2160 per eye and motorised IPD, sold to flight schools rather than to training departments.

Not for our training
Resolution per eye
3840x2160
Refresh rate
75 / 120 Hz
Weight
600 g
Field of view
140°
Battery
—
Runs Skillsive apps
No
Compare with another modelAsk about a fleet rollout

VRgineers XTAL 3 — specification and verdict

The XTAL 3 puts 3840x2160 in front of each eye across a 140° horizontal field, which is more pixels than a trainee needs to read a switch label or an instrument dial. The price of that resolution is the refresh rate: the panels run 75 Hz only at full 4K per eye, and reach 120 Hz when driven at QHD, so a course author chooses between text sharpness and motion smoothness. Eye tracking is built in and drives eye-tracked foveated rendering, which is what makes the 4K mode tractable on a workstation GPU at all. Motorised IPD covers 56–74 mm and sets itself, so a shared headset does not need a manual adjustment step between trainees. It is a PC headset over DisplayPort 1.4 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 — nothing runs on the headset itself.

Nothing here is a fleet device. The XTAL 3 ships as a headset, a VirtualLink cable and adapter, a power supply and a cleaning set; there are no controllers in the box and no vendor MDM or kiosk mode, because every session is a Windows application on an attached workstation you manage with your existing IT tooling. Positional tracking is not self-contained either: SteamVR/Lighthouse base stations are the default, with ART, OptiTrack, Polhemus or Vicon as paid alternatives, so a room has to be rigged before the first session. Budget past the 8,900 USD headset — a business licence takes it to 9,700 USD and a military licence to 10,500 USD, and each seat needs a GPU able to push 3840x2160 twice over. VRgineers is a Czech company selling across the EU, so PL and DE procurement is straightforward, but it is quote-and-invoice rather than a webshop.

Do not buy this for standard EHS or fire-safety training. Our courses are standalone Android VR applications and the XTAL 3 runs nothing on its own, so it is marked incompatible regardless of how good the optics are. It earns its 8,900 USD only if you are building a fixed simulator seat — cockpit, vehicle, control room — where the trainee sits still, the PC is already there, and instrument legibility is the whole point.

How it compares within its class

The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — PC-tethered devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.

Field of view140°
45°180°

Median for this class: 115°, from 26 models that publish the figure.

Weight600 g
107 g727 g

Median for this class: 285 g, from 17 models that publish the figure.

Launch price$8900
$398$38500

Median for this class: $799, from 32 models that publish the figure.

Full specification

An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.

ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
VRgineers
CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
VR — PC-tethered
Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
PC-powered VR
AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
2021-12-21
ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
2022
AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
On sale
Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
Support ends: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08.

PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
LCD
OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
Optics: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08.
Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
Both eyes
Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
3840x2160
Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
75/120 Hz
Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
140° horizontal
Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
Pixel density: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08.
BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
Brightness: Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08.
WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
600 g

Who this device is for

Flight schools, defence simulation integrators and engineering teams that already run a Windows simulator on a workstation and want the sharpest panel they can bolt onto it. The rigid retractable strap and self-setting 56–74 mm IPD suit a seat that many people rotate through in a day. It is the wrong instrument for a mobile trainer carrying headsets between sites.

What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish

VRgineers does not publish audio hardware, microphone, warranty terms or an end-of-support date for the XTAL 3, and the licence prices we quote come from VRcompare rather than the maker. The maker's own headline horizontal field of view is labelled experimental; the default it publishes is the 140° we record, and the aggregator carries the experimental number instead. IPD also disagrees: VRcompare lists 60–76 mm, the manufacturer 56–74 mm, and we follow the manufacturer. VRcompare lists dual passthrough cameras, which the VR product page never mentions, so we leave passthrough off the record.

VRgineers XTAL 3 — frequently asked questions

Does the VRgineers XTAL 3 need SteamVR base stations?
Yes, in its default configuration. VRgineers ships the XTAL 3 with Lighthouse (SteamVR) tracking and no base stations in the box, so you buy and mount those separately before the first session. The headset also accepts ART, OptiTrack, Polhemus or Vicon tracking as paid alternatives, which is why it appears in defence simulator rigs that already have one of those systems installed.
Why does the XTAL 3 run at 75 Hz instead of 120 Hz?
Because 120 Hz is only available at QHD per eye. Driven at its full 3840x2160 per eye the panels run at 75 Hz, so you pick sharpness or smoothness per application. Eye-tracked foveated rendering exists precisely to make the 4K mode affordable on a workstation GPU, but it does not lift the 75 Hz ceiling.
What do the XTAL 3 business and military licences cost?
The headset alone is 8,900 USD; a business licence brings it to 9,700 USD and a military licence to 10,500 USD, per VRcompare's listing of VRgineers' options. VRgineers itself does not publish these prices, and the XTAL Shop page is an inquiry form rather than a checkout, so treat the ladder as indicative and get a written quote.

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Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-08. Manufacturer's specification

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