Bigscreen Beyond: A Glimpse into Next-Gen VR, or a Niche Dream?

A Miniature Marvel

Upon unboxing, the most striking feature of the Bigscreen Beyond is its sheer size, or rather, lack thereof. While the claim of being one-sixth the weight of a Valve Index might be a stretch when factoring in the Index's integrated audio solution, the Beyond's innovative weight distribution redefines the VR experience. Unlike many headsets that feel like strapping a monitor to one's face, the Beyond achieves a goggle-like fit, eliminating the distracting wobble during quick movements.

Personalized Immersion

Setting the Bigscreen Beyond apart is its commitment to personalization. The process involves scanning your face using a smartphone to create a custom 3D-printed face cushion, ensuring a perfect fit. This bespoke approach extends to matching the headset's optics to your interpupillary distance (IPD), and even offering prescription lenses, a design choice that enhances comfort and immersion for the individual user.

The emphasis on a 'forever alone design philosophy' yields tangible benefits, most notably, unparalleled comfort and zero light bleed. However, this same strength morphs into a significant limitation. As a consequence, the high cost of entry is compounded by the fact that the experience is best enjoyed alone. While additional face cushions may become available, the headset remains a fundamentally individualistic experience.

Visual Fidelity and Compromises

The micro-OLED displays of the Bigscreen Beyond deliver a visual experience that sets a new standard for VR. The contrast is remarkable, with blacks that are truly black, a stark contrast to the grayish tones of older LCDs like those in the Valve Index. The fineness of the image, boasting over 50% more pixels than the PSVR2, elevates even familiar titles like Half-Life Alyx to new levels of visual fidelity.

However, this visual leap comes with certain caveats. Due to DisplayPort 1.4 bandwidth limitations, the headset employs display stream compression (DSC). While this has been a point of contention, the impact is, in reality, minimal during gaming. While running the display at a lower refresh rate of 75Hz at its native resolution using DSC might be preferable for virtual desktop use or watching movies, the drastically reduced motion blur and edge fringing make it a worthwhile trade-off, especially considering the alternative requires a beefy RTX 4080 or greater.

The Drawbacks

Despite its many strengths, the Bigscreen Beyond is not without its drawbacks. The non-porous silicone cushion, while comfortable, can lead to a rather unpleasant 'swamp eyes' effect during more active VR sessions, though this seems less noticeable when already perspiring from activity. Additionally, the thin pancake lens assembly, while contributing to the headset's slim profile, introduces distracting blur flares around bright objects, somewhat diminishing the viewing experience in brightly lit virtual environments or while using the headset as a virtual monitor with light backgrounds.

A Personal Sanctuary

Ultimately, the Bigscreen Beyond isn't merely a VR headset; it's a personal sanctuary. Its singular focus on delivering an unmatched immersive experience to the individual user makes it a compelling choice for discerning enthusiasts. This no-frills approach, devoid of integrated processing or gaze tracking, is a deliberate design choice that caters to those who prioritize visual fidelity and comfort above all else. Despite the inability to share the experience seamlessly or pop out of VR to converse with someone in the real world, the Bigscreen Beyond excels at what it sets out to do: provide a smaller, lighter, more immersive VR experience.

Though the Bigscreen Beyond has some trade-offs, the reviewer did say "I am sticking with the beyond!"