One of the few VR headsets with micro-OLED has just been upgraded. Bigscreen Beyond 2 has enhanced optics with a wider field of view and eye-tracking – if you pay extra.
Bigscreen says that the Beyond 2, launched two years after the original Beyond, is now lighter at just 107 grams, down from 127 grams.
The key to its light and compact design is its reliance on an external PC to handle the heavy lifting. In other words, you must connect it via a cable to a PC with a powerful graphics card to use it.
Same micro-OLED, improved Optics
The Beyond 2 retains the same micro-OLED displays as the original but has been upgraded with new optics, providing a wider 116-degree field of view, reduced glare and manually adjustable IPD. These optics also allow for increased brightness, according to the company.
Alongside the Apple Vision Pro, Bigscreen Beyond 2 is one of the few headsets to feature micro-OLED displays. Sony's PlayStation VR2 also uses OLED, but not micro-OLED, so resolution is lower.
Also read: First look at Apple Vision Pro: A video revolution
Bigscreen Beyond 2 is one of the few VR headsets today with micro-OLED displays
2.5K resolution per eye
The company says that Beyond 2 offers a resolution of 5120x2560, but here is where it gets a little fuzzy. It uses two micro-OLED displays, each with a resolution of 2560x2560, for a total of 13.1 million pixels – equating to 2.5K resolution per eye.
- "Over 13.1 million pixels are packed into two 1-inch OLED displays in an RGB striped layout," the company explained. "The result? No more screen door effect, dull colors, gray shadows, or motion blur you became accustomed to with older and cheaper LCD-based VR headsets."
While this delivers picture quality far superior to the low-quality LCD panels of the Meta Quest 3, it still falls significantly short of the roughly 23 million pixels found across the two micro-OLED displays of the Apple Vision Pro, which is marketed as offering 4K resolution per eye.
The Bigscreen Beyond 2 supports up to 90Hz. A version called Bigscreen Beyond 2e, which includes built-in eye-tracking (pending a software update in Q3), is also available, though external SteamVR base stations (1.0 or 2.0) are still required for general tracking.
The Bigscreen Beyond 2 is available to order now for $1019, excluding the audio strap and of course the PC. Shipping is expected to begin in June as of writing. The Beyond 2e with eye-tracking is priced at $1219.
Bigscreen Beyond 2 – specifications
The 1-inch micro-OLED display inside Bigscreen Beyond 2
Minimum requirements
PC: Windows 10 or 11
Tracking: SteamVR Base Stations (Version 1.0 or 2.0)
Ports: 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 2 x USB 3.0
CPU: Quad Core Intel or AMD
RAM: 16GB
GPU: RTX 2070 or AMD RX 5700 XT (DisplayPort 1.4 and DSC required)
Headset
Weight: 107 g (headset only)
Length: 143.1 mm (5.63 in)
Width: 52.4 mm (2.06 in)
Depth: 24 mm - 49.2 mm (0.9 in - 1.93 in)
Accessory Ports: 1 x USB-C (USB 2.0 speed) |
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