The Bigscreen Beyond Disappointed Me

10:20 NOTE: I forgot to mention that I increased the audio gain of the clips of the fan noise specifically to highlight the buzzing sound, and also to emphasize the noise that the fan makes to better replicate the experience of hearing it in-headset. I regret not clarifying that in the video and should have either put a note on screen or not increased the gain at all.
Both of my Bigscreen Beyond units had audible and irritating fan noise, though I believe only the latter (the one showed) had the buzzing sound.

Thanks for listening to my critiques.

0:00 Intro
0:54 Positives
3:34 Screen Blur & Glare
4:37 Fixed IPD
4:54 (Dis)comfort
7:40 FOV and Resolution
10:00 Clip & Fan
10:50 No Eye Tracking
11:14 Index vs. Beyond
12:02 Bigscreen's Support Team
12:43 Conclusion

[Meowzors]

saved my $1000 that i currently don't have right now

[sandernote]

As a beyond owner myself I feel like it’s not the perfect headset either but goddamn, is it close. Honestly, the glare is far more manageable than the valve index God rays. And I thought the sweet spot was really small until I got a face gasket that brought my eyes really close to screens and all of that was fixed. It felt like a brand new headset, huge sweet spot. And a bigger FOV (115). I’ve tried a quest 3 and I just can’t go back to LCD. Micro OLED needs to become standard in VR. I feel like most of the problems with the big screen beyond come from bad face gaskets and the wrong IPD which the team over there is really good at solving.

[CitizenMio]

I think the hype is understandable for a company that seemingly accomplished what everyone wanted but the big companies can't seem to manage.
The tiny form factor is a huge deal and the custom fit sounds so great on paper. Many people are quite forgiving of its downsides for the future that seems to promise.
But it's a logistical nightmare, especially for a smaller company. Adjustability and a couple of squishy semi universal absorbent inlay choices would probably work out much better for everyone.
Do hope they continue the work though and that we'll see more smaller headsets in the near future.

Also fingers crossed for the index 2 arriving sometime before the end times.🤞

[Exavolt]

Holy crap I feel like I've been in a damn echochamber with this headset and the subset of the community hyping that that don't even own it, thank you SO MUCH for making this video. I feel like everytime I bring this up on VRChat there's a 50/50 chance people are absolutely confused thanks to the reviews never putting enough emphasis on these very serious flaws of the headset, and even more confusion when I state that I opted for the Quest 3 over it. I preordered by bigscreen beyond in the first 30 minutes and honestly it was the biggest regret I've had on buying any VR gear. I kept mine past the return period because I really wanted to like the headset and felt like there was just no other options that could achieve that level of image quality while not having to do jankery with mixed VR full body... until I tried a quest 3 at best buy around january and vive released the ultimate trackers beta that enabled quest compatability. I put my beyond on ebay where I ironically got more than I paid for the thing. I literally share every single issue you have (even the IPD being off issue, they sent me a second one due to that lol) so yeah it's honestly nice to see someone make an honest video on this. Absolutely getting a sub from me lol.

[MrKillerbee]

Face hurts after a couple hours. In order to keep the sweet spot, I have to have the headset on way tighter than what's comfortable for me

[starlord]

Thanks for your candid and detailed review of the bigscreen! I have a quest pro (which did not come with a head strap) so understood the pain of wearing an HMD too tight. However, for $30 the Globular Cluster headstrap+pad kit alleviated all my comfort issues, so I can wear it now for hours without a problem. I'm always on the lookout for newer better headsets -- the bigscreen may have missed the mark, but it is nice to see other companies stepping in with new ideas.

[vr_jen]

This was literally my experience with the Beyond, from incorrect IPD and such a small sweet spot, all the way to fan issues on the replacement headset they sent. The only difference was my fan must not have worked, because my screen stayed foggy for the 1.5 hours I actually wore the replacement. They wanted to send me a third headset, but I declined. It was a $200 lesson in "don't believe the hype" and in the future, I won't be so inclined to buy a Beyond 2, if that were to happen. It's sad that the Quest 3's lenses are far superior to all of them, but I'll stick with my Index since I'm able to start a game or VRChat quickly, with the least amount of friction.

[namegoeshere]

5:25 yea this is ahuge problem with the defult strap... The audio strap or atleas a hard strap, should be included from the begining

[raye]

Been loving the beyond personally. You have to give yourself a chance to get used to anything that's attached to your face. Was a little uncomfortable in the beginning but in time I learned how to make it more comfortable. I only use one strap and have it positioned more to the crown of my head. Still looking forward to the audio strap to increase comfort even more. It's been almost 2 months and I have no desire to put the index back on again, it's just too big. Also use steam vr supersampling to help with performance issues. Have it down to 52% on high demanding games and the image is still crisp. My fan doesn't make that noise. Never wearing a toaster on my face again.

[replacesoundboard]

2:29 Vive Pro user here. I don't mind having a bad microphone because I don't use it. Don't want to pay premium price for a microphone that I don't want. It should be an option.

[vrmainframe]

Imagine if valve released an Index with updated 2550x2550 per eye screens and pancake lenses, it would probably be the best headset ever made for PC gaming for visuals and comfort. If only there was a mod to upgrade the old index.

[Gibbersworkshop]

If you're part of the discord, there are a lot of people that are in the same boat. People who just don't like it.

I had to go through 3 headsets to get one that worked. And even then, the fan doesn't see to work. It fogs up all the time, and my eyes feel wet after playing for a little.

The sweet spot is so small that moving my eyebrows up (something I now know I do all the time) will move the headset out of the sweet spot

It's not comfortable even though that was the selling point even after I got the new audio strap. And speaking about the strap, it is a pain to put on and take off (I put the headset into its original box to keep it safe after play). The headphones pop off all the time.

[alterablebark]

Wait, he returned a device with a faulty fan and still got charged restocking fees?

[YoruVII]

Thanks for such a honest clean review!

[Fry]

I’ve come around to the Beyond after an intensely negative first impression (and a few RMAs). My advice to anyone thinking of returning theirs is to just give it some time and talk to Bigscreen if you genuinely feel something isn’t right. Yes it can be a hassle but the end result is worth it. Personally I was a little bothered (understatement) at first by the glare and persistence issues but now I hardly notice them. Lens lottery does admittedly seem to be particularly bad with this headset but Bigscreen is extremely generous with returns/repairs.

[SEGAGENESIS-mz]

I used to use a valve index and a bigscreen byond and i loved both very much. I use a quest 3 now and have since sold my VI and BB. 1 simple reason, WIRELESS CAPABILITIES! I can't live with the cable anymore for a headset especially since I love the freedom to go anywhere in my home and outside with the headset and not being hauled back by my cable getting wrapped up or caught up. Plus less things to have no more light houses etc. and everything already works in the headset for pcvr wirelessly which is awesome!

[GMx_]

I have to say that i really really appreciate the honest review. I don't know if it is just me but here on YT i have this expectation that I am getting the truth about things from the channel owners as they are not paid by a company, work for themselves, etc...

But more and more last year i was getting the feeling that lots of these "reviews" were bullshyte - clearly had something that was effecting the reviews and this really disappoints me. There are now several channels that I no longer will even check out as this is a deal breaker for me.

I am only speculating on what I said above, but it seemed at one point during the summer that all the reviews seemed to have very similar comments, and that a couple products that clearly had serious issues were not discussed! How do i know - I bought some junk, found out the defects, then found out that lots of people were also having the same issue and in one instance the manufacturer even knew about the problems and did a quiet fix on new orders without telling the folks that already purchased their shyte product. Not cool.

[Macwoltshire]

I had many of the same issues, though support was able to solve them for me and eventually I started to like the headset. Glare is worse than index, like you say. One issue not covered here that makes it EVEN WORSE for movie watching in my opinion, is the sensor that detects if your headset is on doesn't work with steamVR. Instead it uses the IMU to detect if you're wearing the headset or not. This means that if your head is too still, like if you're resting it on a chair headrest for example, the screens will just turn off. I have to intentionally shake my head while watching movies to stop my headset displays from going black every 2 minutes.

[JohnMSawyer]

It's important for reviewers to focus a lot on the kinds of comfort, ergonomic, etc. issues that are covered in this video. My impression is that designers of many of these headsets and "glasses" are glossing over this crucial element, and many of the glowing reviews that don't cover these problems are from people who are either less affected by them for whatever reason, or experience the same levels of discomfort and inconvenience but just "push through" and ignore these problems to try to not seem to be naysayers, and to get on the good side of the manufacturers.

[CanaDan]

yeah. i really wanted to get this headset, but the lack of clarity with those lenses was a really big downside in my eyes. basically negated the high resolution, and made the overall cost seem not really acceptable, even tho i know thats not really true.
My other gripe, and something you didnt cover in your video, is a lack of display port 2.1 support. the reason you have to chose between 72hz (with high resolution) and 90 hz (with low resolution) is because its hitting the data rate limit of display port 1.4. im not sure if this was a cost cutting measure, or if this was because the on board chip just cant handle that data rate, but regardless, its very annoying. if im spending 1000 dollars on a headset alone. i expect the headest to atleast run an appreciable amount over 60 hz at the resolution advertised.
Eye tracking would have also been nice as you said, tho thats more for non fixed foveated rendering, which could allow the headset to run on middling hardware, instead of needing a top end GPU to run well.

idk. im hopeful that the company will come out with a big screen beyond 2. one which supports DP 2.1, and has larger lenses that deal with the awful color distortion around the edges. id even be willing to pay 20% to 30% more, as long as the headset looked amazing. afterall, you only need to buy once, cry once if the hardware you are getting is good enough.