Exploring Bigscreen Beyond: A Revolutionary Step Towards the Next Generation of Virtual Reality?

The Bigscreen Beyond is a VR headset that solves numerous issues with current VR headset technology, albeit with its own set of caveats. Let’s take a look at this entry in the virtual reality arena and why it may signal exciting things to come for VR.

What Makes the Bigscreen Beyond Different?

In contrast with its sizable $999 pricetag, the Bigscreen Beyond ‘s biggest feature of this headset is its small size. However, that final, tiny overall size is the result of innovation on multiple fronts. The Bigscreen Beyond contains absolutely tiny micro OLED displays, and uses pancake optics to reduce the thickness of the set. Despite packing everything into such a small package, the device offers a total resolution of 5120x2560 pixels, putting it right up there with the crispest modern VR headsets.

Bigscreen VR

This makes the entire headset more like a compact set of ski goggles than a VR headset. Even the Meta Quest 3 looks bulky in comparison. Apart from making all the VR components smaller, the Beyond has another neat trick up its sleeve in the form of custom face cushions. When you order the headset, you can use an iPhone XR or later to perform a 3D face scan, and then your headset will arrive with a molded face cushion that fits your face exactly. The same scan is also used to measure your IPD (InterPupillary Distance) and align the optics for you.

So you get VR that you’ll hardly notice on your face, with optics matched to your eyes (prescription inserts are also available), and virtually no light leakage from outside. That sounds like the VR solution we’ve always wanted.

It’s Not Perfect

Bigscreen VR

The Bigscreen Beyond is an exciting glimpse at the compact, high-quality VR goggles we could all be rocking five years from now, but it’s not a device without compromises. Perhaps greatest of all is the lack of inside-out tracking , We’ve all become used to having VR headsets that have onboard cameras for tracking, but the Beyond needs external trackers. Specifically, it is designed to fit in with the Steam VR ecosystem. You’ll need SteamVR Base stations and Valve Index Controllers . However, if you’ve got a permanent VR space set up, who would say no to eliminating most of the bulk of their VR headset?

Apart from removing onboard tracking, you need a molded face plate for each user, and there’s no IPD adjustment. That really means this is a single-user headset. These sacrifices make it compact, but you’re not sharing it with your buddies.

Finally, this is a VR headset that needs to be tethered to a VR-ready computer, so its diminutive size doesn’t make it any sort of competition for the Meta Quest series of headsets. Of course, with current technology, you can’t squeeze an entire smartphone’s worth of technology into a tiny headset like this.

Is This the Future of VR Headsets?

In my opinion, the end goal with VR headsets is to eventually have something so compact that you can stick it in a front shirt pocket and put it on whenever. Of course, mixed reality headsets are also coming along and with those the end goal will also be to have something you can wear almost permanently. So you can move between the real and virtual worlds in degrees.

The Beyond contains key technological innovations that can help that happen, but for now it’s closer to a concept device than something that will blow away mainstream VR headsets. Especially with an asking price of $1,000 just for the headset. This may be the blueprint for the future of VR, but the details still need better tecnologies and more time in the oven to make it a (virtual) reality.