For me, the most significant difference between the pulsars and the trijicons is the cost ... In the past 4.5 years of owning thermals, I've had 5 Armasights, 4 Pulsars, 5 trijicons, 2 BAE, 2 ATN and 1 NVISSYS.
If I was buying a thermal rifle scope today and could only have one thermal rifle scope, I would buy a trijicon mk3 35 .. I think that combo of magnification and FOV is the most flexible. And I've heard less stories about issues on the Mks 35mm than I have on the REAPs. The joystick housing that is used by the Patrol, Reap and PatrolXR was designed to be a spotter housing first, a weapon sight housing second. The turret housing of the Mk2/Mk3 was designed to be a weapons sight first.
That said, I'm willing to pay incrementally more for the BAE OASYS cores found in the Trijicons and the BAE OASYS units. That doesn't mean the image is always better, it does mean that for me, the image is usually better. And 10% to 20% better is an attempt at a quantification of better. And there are times where both trijicons and Pulsar images suck ... high humidity ... high winds ... etc.
Before the Trail 640s were released, I had them at the top of my short list. But the 1.6x mative magnification was a show stopper for me. I've used one, but never owned one. And they are very nice units! But I still think if someone gave me one, I would sell it and save up for another Patrol
Also, the idea that "best image" is linear, I don't find to be the case in my experience. I let some of my neighbors hold both a pulsar Apex 50A and a Zeus standard 75mm 640 when the pulsars first came out. And 100% choose the pulsar. But actually there were some reasons why and at the time I disagreed. The comparisons were done by first cold starting both units ... no adjustments ... looking at rats on a dirt pile at 30yds. One comment was, "The Pulsar can see the terrain better, but the Armasight sees the rats better" ... But why? My understanding is the FLIR core software was optimized on purpose for high contrast ... to bring out the "critters" better ... The OASYS core software and the Pulsar core software is optimized for a "smoother" lower constrast behavior. All had contrast adjustments by that point. If the contrasts are adjusted the images can be brought closer. Also, upon power up, by default, the pulsars nuc a lot ... the zeus nucs less. That matters. If you nuc both manually 5 times in the first 5 minutes, the image differences are reduced.
Further, looking at the pulsar and Zeus from 300-500yds (which the neighbors never did) I found the Zeus to be a clear winner.
So, at short distance, with factory settings on contrast and nuc frequency, the Pulsar can beat the zeus for terrain image. But outside that, not.
Just an example of "best image" is not linear
For me "better image" means "ability to more quickly PID smaller critters at longer distances". And for me, now with 4.5 years of experience (and I'm out an average of 10hrs per week) on the OASYS cores, FLIRs, Pulsars, etc. I have become an OASYS bigot. And I'm willing to pay incrementally more for a small improvement in "average image" ... (average meaning ... average over all circumstances I face). But, if I absolutely could not make it work financially, I am 5000% sure I could do what I do with a pulsar. So for me, pulsar versus trijicon is mostly a financial decision.
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As to CS ... I've had a lot of experience with Armsight (for both thermal and NV) ... and almost as much with Trijicon. But I've had zero experience with Pulsar. Have not had any issues requiring repair. The one issue I had ... really bad display in an Apex 75mm ... the dealer just said "send it back" ... and then set me a used Mk2 35mm in exchange ... oh my ... the evil dealer ... that got me going down the IRD path and I've never looked back
Right now I own 1xApex 38mm, 2 BAE, 2 Trijicon, 1 ATN and 1 NiVisSys and they all have their uses ... and they all work fine. But probably 90% of the time, I'm taking the Trijicons and the BAEs out ... the OASYS cores.
If your budget is under $5k get a pulsar ... if your budget is under $10k get a trijicon ... that's my summary !
I like the term "bang for the buck" that's where the Pulsars beat the Trijicons.
