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VR has been going through a period of explosive innovation, but if you're a PC

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gamer, I wouldn't blame you for having missed it because some of the biggest

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innovations have been so very small. And

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sure, the Silicon Valley vision pro of

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an AR headset that's integrated into every aspect of my life sounds cool, but

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man, I just want to be super immersed in my video games. And the big screen

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Beyond 2 may be the very best way to do

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that. Let me put it this way. I can't

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see for but Beyond One was so much better than

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my aging Valve Index that it literally reignited my personal excitement for VR.

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As for the sequel, somehow in one short

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year, they've made it so much better that I now feel bad for anyone who

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jumped on the first one. I'm talking

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dramatically improved optics, multi-user

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friendly design, optional eye tracking, and somehow it does all of that while

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being even lighter than before. And now

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for a light segue from our sponsor, MSI. Their MPG 272 URX QD OLED monitor

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comes packed with features with a 240Hz refresh rate and support for display

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port 2.1A. Check it out using our link in the video description. On paper, only

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a few things have changed since the original, but those changes make this

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thing all killer, no filler. First up,

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the transparent plastic. Now, he might not be able to see it, but he looks

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dramatically more stylish. It's all relative. And what I can see is the

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improved optics. The pancake lenses in the original Beyond, they were

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impressive for their small size and weight, but they struggled with a number

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of issues that combined with some usability quibbles ultimately led to me

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abandoning my original Beyond in favor of my index in spite of its lower

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resolution. First, there was the sweet spot, which is the area of the lens

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where the image is the sharpest. It was so small and outside of it, things got

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pretty blurry pretty quickly with some gnarly chromatic aberration sneaking in

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near the edges. The bigger issue, though, was that the multi-layered

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optics caused a pretty distracting lens flare in high contrast scenes, or even

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moderate contrast scenes with high brightness. It's one of those things where it's absolutely a champagne

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problem, but damn it, this is expensive champagne, and at this price, there

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should be nothing to break my immersion. And somehow, despite them keeping the

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form factor the same, all of that is resolved on the Beyond 2. I can pick out

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the lens flare if I'm looking for it, especially in a menu or something like

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that. But in game, it's almost too good, too immersive,

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especially one like this. Ah, which is impressive knowing that they

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have the exact same 2560x 2560 micro

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OLED panel that's found in the original Beyond. This is all just improvements to

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the glass. We didn't even mention that they've improved the FOV at the same

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time, going from 102° to 116, putting it

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in line with competitors that are much

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bigger in size. There are still lingering issues with

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pancake lenses in general, like reduced

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brightness. Apparently, the panels that are in here are supposed to reach as

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high as 3,000 nits. By the time that light reaches your

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eyes, it's more like 150. That's a

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yikes. But it matters less than you might think, thanks to the excellent

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light seal that you get from your custom face cushion that big screen

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manufacturers using a 3D scan of your face. They're super cool. They're 3D

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printed out of a TP like material that has magnets that click onto the headset

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for a perfect seal. Improvements to manufacturing have the new cushions

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looking and feeling a little bit better, but we had new issues that we haven't

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seen before. Like both of our new face gaskets had magnets fall out, but that

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could be a problem with just a specific batch, but we thought it was important to note. Lionus, however, had a

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different problem. Yeah. See, my eyelashes are so long that they

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constantly brush up against the lenses on the inside. Meaning that if I'm

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playing for more than about 5 minutes, what started out as clear and freshly

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cleaned with a microfiber ends up a blurry, smeary mess. The good news

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though is that BigCreen actually offers the ability to create a custom gasket

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for you that is ever so slightly thicker. They actually sent one over,

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which I haven't tried yet. Let's give it a shot. Big Screen does advise that it

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will cost you a little bit in terms of your field of view, but if you're

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particularly bothered by the blurry lenses, that could end up being worth it

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for you. For me personally, oh man,

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I think I'd be tempted to just stick with the improved immersion. And if you

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think that this is just some special YouTuber treatment, it's not. Big Screen's actually very good about

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addressing problems with their face cushions and will print you a modified one if you have any issues with the one

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that you get out of the box. And we appreciate their make it right approach,

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even if there's something that they can't fix, and that's the major swamp eyee you get when you're really into

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gaming. But you don't have to worry about getting too sweaty when you're in

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our sport buttonup. Only available at ltstore.com.

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It's stretchy, too. Is it my turn yet? No, not yet. We did say that the Beyond

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2 would be more sharable, and it is, but only some of those improvements are

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implemented today. First up is adjustable IPD or interpupilary

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distance. All you got to do is take this little baby screwdriver that you will

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definitely never lose and turn this little screw. Okay, that is

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substantially less convenient than the wheel on the Quest 3, but at least it's

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there. And this is a huge deal because a misadjusted IPD can lead to headaches

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and general discomfort for anyone who uses your headset who isn't exactly you.

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The second big improvement to Sharability isn't here yet. It's the

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universal face cushion which attaches to their Halo mount, which also isn't here

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yet. So yeah, it's maybe much more

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sharable and maybe only a little more sharable. Let's turn our attention back

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to what is here then and talk about the audio strap. It was developed with cost

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audio and uses drivers that remind me of those found on the cost pora pros which

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are stylish but aren't famous for comfort or durability. And I found that

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these flimsy little pieces would pop off

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pretty easily. They're designed to do that but it's too easy. And the foam

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again just kind of comes off. It also just feels extremely cheap, especially

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compared to what I'm used to. And like I get it, they're all about keeping the

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weight down, and I genuinely appreciate that. But unlike the Valve Index or

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Pimax Crystal, these drivers are meant to be pressed right up against your ears

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using this little knob to adjust their distance. So that cheap feel is

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something that I am constantly keenly aware of and that would be fine if it

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was cheap. But the audio strap is $130

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which is $10 more than the price of an extra custom cushion and offers up an

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experience that is more than sufficient for music games but falls a little bit

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short in terms of immersiveness. With all that said about its cheapness and

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midness, the comfort it provides is so much better than the stock strap that I

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wouldn't recommend buying the Beyond 2 without also springing for the audio

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mount and maybe some third party replacement foam while you're at it.

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Adam, would you spring for the eyetracking though?

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Yeah, I kind of felt the same way. As cool as it is that for a $200 premium,

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the Beyond 2 can be equipped with what Big Screen calls the smallest

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eyetracking on the market is the size of a single grain of sand.

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We didn't really get a chance to test it out and we're not really sure if we care

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because the biggest reason to care about highquality, low latency eyetracking is

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fiated rendering, where your GPU works the hardest on the part of the scene

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that you're actually focused on and then it renders everything else at a lower

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resolution. But foliated rendering is not currently supported in Steam VR. So

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the main use case for eyetracking continues to be social VR experiences.

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It's worth noting that if those are your bag, well, you might be disappointed

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that there's no face tracking. So other users will be able to see your eyes

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staring at the breasts of their anime avatars, but not your eyebrows going like,

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"Wow, wa." Will they see me doing this?

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Yeah, actually. Now, let's talk about something that I didn't feel was a big

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deal, but for Adam is a big elephant in the room. The fact that the default

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refresh rate on the Beyond 2 is 75 Hz,

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while the maximum refresh rate is just 90 with so many other headsets hitting

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100 Hz plus. K, what's your take on

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this? It wasn't really the biggest deal to me when I was coming from an HTC

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Vive, but after using the Pimax Crystal, which can get up to 120 FPS, even with

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the tiny tiny sweet spot on that headset, it's just like so much more

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immersive. And if you're playing a game like BeatSaber, you kind of want the

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extra like feedback from having a high refresh rate. That's fair enough. And

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it's not the only disadvantage compared to something like a Pimax. This isn't

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really a knock against this, but one of the issues with it being so small is

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that it loses tracking a lot easier.

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I only have two lighouses at my place and if I turn the wrong ways or go to

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the corner because it doesn't go above any part of my head, it will just lose

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tracking entirely. And the complete lack of any sort of inside out camera is a

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real bummer. I mean, even the HTC Vive had a grainy camera so that you could

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just see where a disconnected controller went or if you needed to get like a sip

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of water or something. A sip of water or something over here, buddy.

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It's also a nightmare for any kind of productivity because even if you're a

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touch typist, that's not going to do you a ton of good if you can't find your

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keyboard at all. Which brings us perfectly to the price. This thing is

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expensive. It's $1,19 and that is just

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for the headset. So once you grab the necessary accessories and some

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recommended accessories, it adds up pretty quick. And with its everything

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you need and nothing you don't approach to design in both the hardware and

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software, which by the way includes a great little optimization utility that

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actually explains what settings do, Valve. it can be hard to recommend the

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Beyond 2 over other premium or even over other nonpremium options that might even

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come with a whole computer inside them. With that said, it's hard to deny how

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perfectly Big Screen has executed on their vision by issuing inside out

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tracking and internal hardware for rendering. They've laser focused this

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product as the definitive upgrade for folks that are already immersed in the

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PC VR space and don't mind the tether.

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So, if you're on an aging HTC Vive or even an index, it's hard not to

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recommend it. Just like it's hard for me to not tell you about our sponsor,

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If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out our review of the other best

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headset on the market, the MetaQuest 3.