Sorry for the late reply.
It's decent for the price. It's not gen 3 quality or anything, but the contrast is pretty decent and I think it's worth the ~$400 pricetag. It is better than my uncles old handheld ATN in both range and clarity and it works really good and has a good battery life too.
I do have a streamlight with an IR lens on it that I can use, but the only time you would need it would be ~75 yards or more. If you try to use the streamlight up close (under 50 yards), the external IR tries to wash out the picture from the glare/reflection if you're in thick brush. It's not as much of an issue at any distance with the built in IR and it doesn't seem to affect it as much, though is still somewhat present if you're in thick brush with lots of little leaves and things to reflect the light.
If I were to have an honest to goodness IR light (not a weapon light with a flip up IR lens), it may would be more suitable, but for all intents and purposes, the built in IR does pretty good out to the distances feel comfortable using the NV scope at.