How good is the Bigscreen Beyond in early 2025? Can we still recommend it if you are looking for a lightweight PCVR headset? That’s what this article is about. Since we looked at the headset in 2024, a few things have changed. The Meganex Superlight 8K as well as the Pimax Crystal Super are about to take the stage. And at least the Meganex offers big improvements while also coming in a similar form factor. So let’s get into it!
Overview & Features
The Bigscreen Beyond was the first commercially availabe headset that used microOLED panels in conjunction with pancake lenses, thus allowing for an extremely small form factor. The headset weighs a mere 127g! It’s a wired PCVR headset that relies on Lighthouse base station tracking. It comes with a face gasket that was personolised for every single customers, so a face scan is required when ordering the device. It costs $999 in the US and €1369 in Europe.
Visuals
Let’s talk about the visuals. The microOLED panels come with a resolution of 2560 × 2560 and that is still incredibly sharp and still does not look old, even compared to the new and upcoming competition. Yes, you can see a difference, but in my opinion, with the current GPUs the 2560 X 2560 pixels per eye is still a good resolution.
Displays
The microOLED panels refresh at either 75hz or 90hz. Colors look exceptionally good, and contrasts are of course high, it’s microOLED. You will enjoy the dark blacks that only OLED can give you. There is no mura and overal these are really good panels. Only as far as brightness is concerned these panels do not really shine. Brightness cannot compete with the LCD panels of other headsets, but thanks to the very good contrasts, this is not really a problem. But if you hope for a very bright headset that recreate a sun-shiney day in VR, you better look elsewhere.
Lenses
The lenses are still the Bigscreen Beyond’s weak point. And especially now that there is competition that offers higher resolution panels and much better lenses that are not plagued by glare and bad edge-to-edge clarity, the lenses of the Bigscreen Beyond start to look very outdated. The glare and low edge-to-edge clarity do distract from the nice panels. If you just look straight forward though and use your head to look elsewhere instead of your eyes, everything is still fine. But yeah…these lenses need an upgrade, should there ever be a next generation BSB.
FOV
The FOV largely depends on how close you can get to the lenses. So that would depend on the face gasket the company prints for your face. They will try to optimize it for you from the start, but we did hear that customers wanted upgrades that would even put them closer to the displays. Additional face gaskets cost around $50 I believe and it might be worth it. With my interface I get around 100° horizontal and 100° vertical, which really surprised me when taking into consideration the form factor. This is not much less thant the much bigger Pimax Crystal Light!
Binoculuar Overlap
The binocular overlap is quite good. It is not perfect though and you can see the darker areas in your Field Of View that indicate areas that simply do not overlap. But even for my high standards with overlap, this is still totally acceptable and you will get used to it pretty fast.
Comfort
The Bigscreen Beyond team is all about comfort and making this the lightest and smallest VR headset on the planet. At just 127g they succeed in this category. It truly is a lightweight headset and you barely feel it when you are wearing it. There is no feeling of inertia when you are moving around and the headset can truly become a part of you that you start to forget the longer you are in it.
I’m still not a big fan of the personalized cushion that completely seals your eyes off from the outside world. It is made of some kind of silicone material and it works mostly fine if you do not sweat. But if you do sweat it sticks to your face in an uncomfortable way. I personally prefer more space in an eye box or the panels floating in front of me in a Halo style. But well, tastes are different and for sure there will be people who love this personalised cushion.
Audio
Bigscreen offers an audio strap for the Beyond and yes, it is wonderful. Go for it. It makes the Beyond even more comfortable and it replaces the soft strap. Audio is really good as well thanks to the Koss Porta Pro drivers. It’s a true and tested solution that you should simply buy if you decide to go for the Bigscreen Beyond.
Microphone
Still, best microphone in a VR headset. The only microphones that can compete right now are those of the Valve Index and surprisingly the one in the PIco 4 Ultra. But the Bigscreen Beyond still plays in its own league, I would call this a broadcast quality microphone, so this makes it perfect for all the streamers out there.
Tracking & Controllers
The Bigscreen Beyond is a Lighthouse based headset so you will need Lighthouse base stations. to use it. Same goes for the controllers, so make sure you already own Valve Index controllers or any controllers that are compatible with the Lighthouse tracking system. If you do not own this, you can buy base stations and controllers new for around $600 or you look for a used Valve Index complete set and sell the headset. Tracking works very well and you won’ run into problems but two base stations are recommended for best tracking results.
Game Compatibility & Software
The Bigscreen Beyond is a SteamVR headsets, so all SteamVR games will work well. Next to the SteamVR software, there is a little Bigscreen uitility app that allows you to change refresh rates, increase brightness and so on. Everything works as expected and if you want to get a pure SteamVR headset this is as close as you can get, if you do not want to buy the now outdated Valve Index!
Conclusion
The Bigscreen Beyond is still an impressive PCVR headset in 2025. If you are looking for a microOLED headset under $1000, this is the one to get, especially if you already own Lighthouse base stations and controllers.
However, the lenses do start to look old, especially in the wake of the strong competition, that also offers microOLED panels with higher resolutions and much better lenses, but that cost quite a bit more. This industry is moving fast and right now I would rather recommend to wait a few more months and reevaluate the market once the competition has launched and probably bigger discounts for the Bigscreen Beyond are inevitable to stay competitive.
