VR has been going through a period of explosive innovation, but if you're a PC
gamer, I wouldn't blame you for having missed it because some of the biggest
innovations have been so very small. And
sure, the Silicon Valley vision pro of
an AR headset that's integrated into every aspect of my life sounds cool, but
man, I just want to be super immersed in my video games. And the big screen
Beyond 2 may be the very best way to do
that. Let me put it this way. I can't
see for but Beyond One was so much better than
my aging Valve Index that it literally reignited my personal excitement for VR.
As for the sequel, somehow in one short
year, they've made it so much better that I now feel bad for anyone who
jumped on the first one. I'm talking
dramatically improved optics, multi-user
friendly design, optional eye tracking, and somehow it does all of that while
being even lighter than before. And now
for a light segue from our sponsor, MSI. Their MPG 272 URX QD OLED monitor
comes packed with features with a 240Hz refresh rate and support for display
port 2.1A. Check it out using our link in the video description. On paper, only
a few things have changed since the original, but those changes make this
thing all killer, no filler. First up,
the transparent plastic. Now, he might not be able to see it, but he looks
dramatically more stylish. It's all relative. And what I can see is the
improved optics. The pancake lenses in the original Beyond, they were
impressive for their small size and weight, but they struggled with a number
of issues that combined with some usability quibbles ultimately led to me
abandoning my original Beyond in favor of my index in spite of its lower
resolution. First, there was the sweet spot, which is the area of the lens
where the image is the sharpest. It was so small and outside of it, things got
pretty blurry pretty quickly with some gnarly chromatic aberration sneaking in
near the edges. The bigger issue, though, was that the multi-layered
optics caused a pretty distracting lens flare in high contrast scenes, or even
moderate contrast scenes with high brightness. It's one of those things where it's absolutely a champagne
problem, but damn it, this is expensive champagne, and at this price, there
should be nothing to break my immersion. And somehow, despite them keeping the
form factor the same, all of that is resolved on the Beyond 2. I can pick out
the lens flare if I'm looking for it, especially in a menu or something like
that. But in game, it's almost too good, too immersive,
especially one like this. Ah, which is impressive knowing that they
have the exact same 2560x 2560 micro
OLED panel that's found in the original Beyond. This is all just improvements to
the glass. We didn't even mention that they've improved the FOV at the same
time, going from 102° to 116, putting it
in line with competitors that are much
bigger in size. There are still lingering issues with
pancake lenses in general, like reduced
brightness. Apparently, the panels that are in here are supposed to reach as
high as 3,000 nits. By the time that light reaches your
eyes, it's more like 150. That's a
yikes. But it matters less than you might think, thanks to the excellent
light seal that you get from your custom face cushion that big screen
manufacturers using a 3D scan of your face. They're super cool. They're 3D
printed out of a TP like material that has magnets that click onto the headset
for a perfect seal. Improvements to manufacturing have the new cushions
looking and feeling a little bit better, but we had new issues that we haven't
seen before. Like both of our new face gaskets had magnets fall out, but that
could be a problem with just a specific batch, but we thought it was important to note. Lionus, however, had a
different problem. Yeah. See, my eyelashes are so long that they
constantly brush up against the lenses on the inside. Meaning that if I'm
playing for more than about 5 minutes, what started out as clear and freshly
cleaned with a microfiber ends up a blurry, smeary mess. The good news
though is that BigCreen actually offers the ability to create a custom gasket
for you that is ever so slightly thicker. They actually sent one over,
which I haven't tried yet. Let's give it a shot. Big Screen does advise that it
will cost you a little bit in terms of your field of view, but if you're
particularly bothered by the blurry lenses, that could end up being worth it
for you. For me personally, oh man,
I think I'd be tempted to just stick with the improved immersion. And if you
think that this is just some special YouTuber treatment, it's not. Big Screen's actually very good about
addressing problems with their face cushions and will print you a modified one if you have any issues with the one
that you get out of the box. And we appreciate their make it right approach,
even if there's something that they can't fix, and that's the major swamp eyee you get when you're really into
gaming. But you don't have to worry about getting too sweaty when you're in
our sport buttonup. Only available at ltstore.com.
It's stretchy, too. Is it my turn yet? No, not yet. We did say that the Beyond
2 would be more sharable, and it is, but only some of those improvements are
implemented today. First up is adjustable IPD or interpupilary
distance. All you got to do is take this little baby screwdriver that you will
definitely never lose and turn this little screw. Okay, that is
substantially less convenient than the wheel on the Quest 3, but at least it's
there. And this is a huge deal because a misadjusted IPD can lead to headaches
and general discomfort for anyone who uses your headset who isn't exactly you.
The second big improvement to Sharability isn't here yet. It's the
universal face cushion which attaches to their Halo mount, which also isn't here
yet. So yeah, it's maybe much more
sharable and maybe only a little more sharable. Let's turn our attention back
to what is here then and talk about the audio strap. It was developed with cost
audio and uses drivers that remind me of those found on the cost pora pros which
are stylish but aren't famous for comfort or durability. And I found that
these flimsy little pieces would pop off
pretty easily. They're designed to do that but it's too easy. And the foam
again just kind of comes off. It also just feels extremely cheap, especially
compared to what I'm used to. And like I get it, they're all about keeping the
weight down, and I genuinely appreciate that. But unlike the Valve Index or
Pimax Crystal, these drivers are meant to be pressed right up against your ears
using this little knob to adjust their distance. So that cheap feel is
something that I am constantly keenly aware of and that would be fine if it
was cheap. But the audio strap is $130
which is $10 more than the price of an extra custom cushion and offers up an
experience that is more than sufficient for music games but falls a little bit
short in terms of immersiveness. With all that said about its cheapness and
midness, the comfort it provides is so much better than the stock strap that I
wouldn't recommend buying the Beyond 2 without also springing for the audio
mount and maybe some third party replacement foam while you're at it.
Adam, would you spring for the eyetracking though?
Yeah, I kind of felt the same way. As cool as it is that for a $200 premium,
the Beyond 2 can be equipped with what Big Screen calls the smallest
eyetracking on the market is the size of a single grain of sand.
We didn't really get a chance to test it out and we're not really sure if we care
because the biggest reason to care about highquality, low latency eyetracking is
fiated rendering, where your GPU works the hardest on the part of the scene
that you're actually focused on and then it renders everything else at a lower
resolution. But foliated rendering is not currently supported in Steam VR. So
the main use case for eyetracking continues to be social VR experiences.
It's worth noting that if those are your bag, well, you might be disappointed
that there's no face tracking. So other users will be able to see your eyes
staring at the breasts of their anime avatars, but not your eyebrows going like,
"Wow, wa." Will they see me doing this?
Yeah, actually. Now, let's talk about something that I didn't feel was a big
deal, but for Adam is a big elephant in the room. The fact that the default
refresh rate on the Beyond 2 is 75 Hz,
while the maximum refresh rate is just 90 with so many other headsets hitting
100 Hz plus. K, what's your take on
this? It wasn't really the biggest deal to me when I was coming from an HTC
Vive, but after using the Pimax Crystal, which can get up to 120 FPS, even with
the tiny tiny sweet spot on that headset, it's just like so much more
immersive. And if you're playing a game like BeatSaber, you kind of want the
extra like feedback from having a high refresh rate. That's fair enough. And
it's not the only disadvantage compared to something like a Pimax. This isn't
really a knock against this, but one of the issues with it being so small is
that it loses tracking a lot easier.
I only have two lighouses at my place and if I turn the wrong ways or go to
the corner because it doesn't go above any part of my head, it will just lose
tracking entirely. And the complete lack of any sort of inside out camera is a
real bummer. I mean, even the HTC Vive had a grainy camera so that you could
just see where a disconnected controller went or if you needed to get like a sip
of water or something. A sip of water or something over here, buddy.
It's also a nightmare for any kind of productivity because even if you're a
touch typist, that's not going to do you a ton of good if you can't find your
keyboard at all. Which brings us perfectly to the price. This thing is
expensive. It's $1,19 and that is just
for the headset. So once you grab the necessary accessories and some
recommended accessories, it adds up pretty quick. And with its everything
you need and nothing you don't approach to design in both the hardware and
software, which by the way includes a great little optimization utility that
actually explains what settings do, Valve. it can be hard to recommend the
Beyond 2 over other premium or even over other nonpremium options that might even
come with a whole computer inside them. With that said, it's hard to deny how
perfectly Big Screen has executed on their vision by issuing inside out
tracking and internal hardware for rendering. They've laser focused this
product as the definitive upgrade for folks that are already immersed in the
PC VR space and don't mind the tether.
So, if you're on an aging HTC Vive or even an index, it's hard not to
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If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out our review of the other best
headset on the market, the MetaQuest 3.