The MeganeX Superlight 8K is an upcoming high-end PCVR headset manufactured by Shiftall, a Japanese startup that has its origins in the Panasonic group. It’s the world’s first Displayport PCVR headset that sports two 4k microOLED panels and at only 185g offers a very sleak and light-weight form factor. In October I traveled to Tokyo to join its launch event and had a full afternoon to go hands-on with the device and put it through its paces. In this article I am going to tell you everything I found out about the device!
Overview, Features, Build Quality
Let’s start with what it is and what not. It’s not a standalone headset like Quest or Pico. You need a powerful PC to run this and it is targeted at exactly this niche within the VR market: PCVR enthusiasts that want the best visual quality for their virtual adventures. That might be VR Chatters and without a doubt especially flight- and race simmers, but of course also everyone who simply loves the higher quality and sharpness that PCVR offers.
The headset makes sure to deliver this kind of quality by using a wired Displayport connection for transfering the videostream from the GPU to the headset. The BOE microOLED displays offers a stunning resolution of 3552 X 3840 pixels, that is 4 million pixels more than the Apple Vision Pro offers and I can already tell you: it shows!
Tracking is done via the Lighthouse system, so to make use of the headset you will need base stations and compatible controllers like those of the Valve Index.
And unlike the Bigscreen Beyond, the MS8K offers fully motorized IPD adjustment so that the headset can be used by many users instead of being a personal device only. And that makes sense because the company also targets enterprise customers that will likely share the headsets among coworkers.
Visuals (Panels, Lenses, FOV, Binocular Overlap)
When I first looked throught the headset, I was immediately stunned by the visual stack. “This looks better than Apple Vision Pro!” was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the photorealistic demo that I was presented with at the launch event. The super high resolution and the optics made the picture look so sharp that I simply came to this spontaneous first thought.
The next day I had an appointment at the Shiftall headquarters and was able to try any game that they had installed on their office PC. I tried many fan favorites like Half-Life: Alyx, Kayak Mirage, Microsoft Flight Simulator and Assetto Corsa. Each of those games looked stunning and as sharp and realistic as I had never seen them before.
The MeganeX Superlight 8K has the best visuals that I have ever seen in a VR headset. Period.
Displays
The new BOE microOLED panels surely are an important part of that equation. They offer super high resolution together with the typical rich OLED colors and perfect blacks that we love about the technology. And what’s so good about it: no MURA as opposed to standard OLED displays that are often plagued by those inconsistencies in pixel brightness. Those panels even can show 10bit HDR content when such source material is available. In my time with the headset I could not check that out myself though. The team was especially proud of the color accuracy that the panels can deliver and it makes sense that the device is not only targeted at gamers but also at professionals that will use this for work. The panels offer a 90hz refresh rate which is a good standard. I also asked about 120hz, which the device does not offer. Takuma Iwasa, the CEO of Shiftall mentioned that no GPU currently could anyways drive this resolution at 120 fps anyways and yes, of course he is right about that.
Brightness
While I was impressed with the resolution of the headset, the brightness was not something that struck me as noteworthy. It looked very similar to what I know from the Bigscreen Beyond. So it is not dim, but without a doubt not as bright as the LCD VR panels we see in the Quests and Crystals out there. Thanks to the very high contrast that the panel offers, I personally did not mind and in contrast to those perfect microOLED blacks, other colors simply looked incredibly vibrant and and intense.
Still, if you want your VR headset to reproduce a sun shiny day that makes you want to wear sunglasses inside the VR headset like the PSVR2 is able to, this is probably not gonna be for you.
The company told me that the headset was not configured to show its highest brightness for this demo. It was instead configured for hightest color accuracy and there was still the potential for up to 15% more brightness, something that I am looking forward to seeing in the review unit that I should receive in the middle of December.
Persistence Blur
So how about motion blur? I could not see any in my time with the headset and that is probably because the headset was simply optimized for color accuracy and not to maximize brightness. Headset manufacturers often have to choose between either having a very bright headset that would introduce motion blur because the pixels are shining for longer times to show a brighter picture or having less motion blur but being not as bright. That is how my demo units were configured.
Lenses
I am glad to tell you that the lenses are really good. The device is using pancake lenses that are manufactured by Panasonic themselves. I was concerned about lens quality because that was the biggest problem of the otherwise wonderful Bigscreen Beyond, the microOLED competitor that introduced the sleak form factor to the PCVR world a year ago.
The clear lenses of the MS8K offer an unobstructed view of the 4k panels and you won’t be bothered by glare or a diminishing quality towards the edges of the lenses. The edge to edge clarity as well as the little glare reminded me of the Quest 3 lens quality and that is high praise indeed. These are still not perfect lenses and like always there is still some extend of glare visible but it is just no comparison to the Bigscreen Beyond. It is simply the overall best optical stack I have so far seen in a VR headset.
Diopter Adjustment
The headset even offers diopter adjustment from 0 to -7 for us short-sighted VR enthusiasts. And unlike most headsets that offer this kind of functionality, you can do the adjustment from outside of the the headset while you are wearing it. That is such a clever design because you want to see the impact that the adjustment has on the visuals. For those of us that need other kind of visual corrections, the company will offer lens inserts that can be place in front of the lenses and that will be held in place by magnets. That is what I will be going for.
FOV
The field of view is nothing to write home about. It is a standard FOV comparable to that of the Bigscreen Beyond. I did not have the chance to actually measure it using my standard software but from my vast experience with VR headset FOVs I would estimate it at around 100° horizontal and vertical. The shape of the FOV is very round and reminded me of that of the Pico 4 which I like much more than some stretched shapes like that of the Quest 3 that gain FOV by sacrificing binocular overlap. So my first thought when I looked through it was: this reminds me of Pico 4 FOV shape, just a bit smaller. So is this a “small” FOV? No, it is a standard one that can compete very well against the likes of Quest 3s or Bigscreen Beyond. It is just not a big one. But what made it stand out for me is the binocular overlap.
Binocular Overlap
The binocular overlap is nearly perfect here. That is exactly what I need in a headset to make me feel immersed and comfortable. When both eyes see a mostly overlapping picture, it just mimics our real life experience. If the binocular overlap is not good enough though, our brains will have a harder time to put the two images together to give us a real 3D image. The overlap is just as good here as in the Pico 4 and better than what we get in the Bigscreen Beyond, Pimax Crystal, Quest 3 and most other headsets. And that is also the reason why I do not mind that standard FOV at all. I get more immersion from 100° with a perfect overlap than the 120° of a headset that would sacrifice just that. If you follow MRTV for a while, you will know that.
Distortions
I am very sensitive towards distortions and if there is even only a little optical problem, I will see that. The MS8K did not have any kind of distortion problems for me. So I was very surprised to find out that some people that tried the device at roadshows and other industry events did see distortions. I have asked the team why that is the case and the reply made sense to me. It is all about the correct distance from eyes to lenses. For the very big majority of people the headstrap will allow them to put the device into the position that maximizes FOV and cancels out any distortions, just like the experience that I made. But since the device is suspended from the cushion that is strapped to the users forehead, some users might not get close enough to the lenses. So if you are blessed with a protruding forehead or your eyes are positioned especially deep in your skull, this headset might not be the right fit for you and you have to wait until the Shiftall team either makes the final one also useable for your kind of headshape or until they come up with a completely different one.
The majority will not face these kind of problems though and most of us can enjoy the best visuals that are available in a VR headset right now.
Comfort
Now let’s get to the comfort of the device. I was sceptical when I saw that soft strap for the first time. Soft straps have so far only been an okay solution for when you wanted to travel with a headset or use it for being able to lean back. Generally I quickly replaced them with non-flexble headstraps for more balance and stability.
I was positively surprised by the MS8K soft strap though. It is the first soft strap that would implement a halo style design. So instead of being attached to the headset itself, you simply tighten a cushion to your forehead and the headset itself is being attached to that contraption with a hinge, merely floating in front of your eyes instead of being pressed against them. This design also allows for the headset to be flipped up if you need a glance into reality. It even has an eye-relief mechanism that will allow users to get as close to the lenses as possible or further away from them.
The gasket that touches your face actually only serves one real purpose: to keep the light out. It is removable if you prefer to still see your environment, but if you want to delve into VR experiences, you probably want to keep it on. It is made of a soft rubber material, very compareable to what we get in the PSVR2.
The device was simply incredibly comfortable to wear using this strap. I am a fan of halo-style design headsets like the PSVR 1 and 2, but when only having to carry 185g, this design truly becomes exceptionally comfortable. On my second day when I was able to use the headset for a whole afternoon, I actually forgot that I am wearing it, I was just so immersed into VR.
The flip up mechanism also proved to be solid and not flimsy at all. You have to press a button to unlock the mechanism, only then is it able to move up or down into its respective new position where it locks into place again. It’s very solid and you don’t need to fear that the headset is shaking around in front of your eyes.
And because the headset is so light and small, you won’t have that problem of inertia that bigger headsets like the Pimax Crystal are plagued with when you make fast movements. I loved that with the Bigscreen Beyond and it is the same here. This is simply the form factor that I hope to see more and more of going forward.
One part of this pre-production unit was not yet final though: the cable management. The cable just sticked out of the top of the device like a sore thumb and shiftall team members had to hold it in their hands in order to get it out of the way. When I tried it myself in their office, a cable management system was suspended from the ceiling, which also worked fine. For the final unit though, they will without a doubt need a system in place that would lead the cable to the back of the headstrap.
Audio (Microphone, Audio solution)
Unfortunately the MS8K does not offer its own audio solution. You will have to take care about audio yourself. There is a USB-C port at the bottom of the headset, so you could either get USB-C headphones, a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter to use your current ones or you go for a wireless headset that comes with its own USB dongle.
I personally prefer headsets that come with included audio solutions because in my opinion it is simply more convenient to have everything included in a single headset. So props to Bigscreen Beyond who offer a very nice high-quality audio strap for their device. I surely hope that Shiftall follows suit and will produce such a headset for their MS8K as well.
Gladly the headset does come with built-in high-quality microphones from Technics, which is also part of the Panasonic family. I could not test those in my time with the device but of course I will do so once the review unit has reached the MRTV Headquarters. But since the headset was developed with VR Chat in mind I do not worry about microphone quality at all.
Controllers & Tracking
The MeganeX Superlight 8K is a Lighthouse tracked headset. Lighthouse tracking is still considered to be the most accurate tracking available to consumers. But it also means that you will need base stations and compatible controllers. If you upgrade from the Valve Index or the older Vive headsets, you still own base stations and controllers. Lucky you! All others will need to invest another $600 for new base stations and Valve Index controllers to enjoy the headset. Or simply look for a used Vive that still comes with base stations and controllers. If you only use the headset for simming anyways, you will be fine even with the old Vive controllers.
Game Compatibility
Since this is a pure PCVR headset the device is compatible with all SteamVR games. So look forward to finally be playing Half-Life Alyx in all its glory, exploring the dungeons and dragons of Skyrim and finally taking off in Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you are a PCVR enthusiast you know what you want to play on this anyways.
Conclusion
The MeganeX superlight 8K could be the headset PCVR enthusiasts have been waiting for. The headset offers the best visuals that I have ever seen in a VR and it looks even sharper than the Apple Vision Pro. I had long been waiting for a headset that could offer such quality and that is made for us PCVR enthusiasts. With the MS8K it is just around the corner. And on top of that, it is even incredibly comfortable due to its well thought-through headstrap and the small form factor.
The $1899 asking price also does not seem too high when you actually happen to know the prices of the 4k microOLED panels from BOE that are used here. I do know those prices and therefore understand that the company is not making huge financial gains here as long as microOLED panels are as expensive as they are now due to the bad yield rates.
So there is a lot to like here. I would certainly hope for more brightness for the final model or elaborate settings in their app that would allow me to find my own sweetspot between pixel persistence and brightness. If they could give me those 15% more brightness they have mentioned, I’d probably be more than happy. But even in the pre-production state that I had seen it in Tokyo, it is better than any headset I used before because it simply ticks so many boxes for the ideal PCVR enthusiast headset!
To say that I am looking forward to getting my hands on the final unit would be an understatement. I can’t wait and I am sure many of you will love this headset just as much as I do! The first batch goes out in February/March 2024 and if you want to get in in that batch and receive a longer 3 years warranty, you should pre-order the device now in December before the pre-order special ends in January.
So that is for my very detailed hands-on review on the pre-production unit! I should be receiving the final headset sometime this month so get ready for lots of Meganex Content here on MRTV!
