Be warned, they're slapping a 20% restocking fee on returns according to some over on reddit.
Calm down everyone. There is no 20% 'restocking' fee. One thing I will say for Bigscreen is their customer service is absolutely stellar. Really First class which is so refreshing these days. I've been in touch with them a fair bit over the last week I've had this headset and I have it it writing that if I return it I get a full refund, but I have to pay for shipping costs, which I'm absolutely fine with. This is all outlined on their website and Ts and Cs for all to see anyway.
So customer service and company ethos I would so far give 10/10. But how do I find the actual BSB2e so far though? Errrr, it's sort of complicated but not really, and to cut a long story short I think I'm returning it. I think Bigscreen have basically prioritised making the 'smallest, lightest headset in the world' and have compromised too much on the obvious to achieve this 'USP'.
A bit more detail....
I've had to buy base stations and index controllers for it, so the cost has been considerable with that and ergo the
total cost, on balance, it's just not good enough for me.
My main gripe? The
glare. Oh my ******* Christ the glare!!!
I've only used aspheric and Fresnel lenses before and although I did a ton of research and knew pancake lenses + micro OLED had some glare 'issues' I wasn't prepared for this. At all. When I first put the headset on I immediately took it off to clean the lenses thinking they must be smudged and dirty. Alas no. Shocking is a word I would use without any accusation of hyperbole.
I genuinely,
genuinely, prefer the Fresnel lenses on my PSVR2 and Reverb G2 I had to the lenses of the BSB2e due to the glare. And the aspheric glass lenses on my Crystal Light are so much better it's beyond words.
All this hype about pancake lenses has really thrown me, and my next VR headset path is now totally up in the air as a result as I wanted OLED and all OLED headsets are now pancake lens bound. And I am now genuinely convinced that the vast majority of the Youtube 'VR scene' posters are complete paid up shills and liars........I've only recently learnt that these reviewers with their
"affiliate links in the description" get paid a few hundred dollah for every referral that goes through. That's why you see the same pattern of reviews/ repeated content and repeated opinions and comparisons that come out. I've watched the Youtube reviews especially for MSFS 2024 that say the Beyond 2 is waaaay better than the Pimax Crystal Light, and that is just 100% a categorical lie.
It's not just the lenses though. I'm even disappointed with the OLED panels on the BSB2e. I'm a full OLED snob for every device I own now and have been for years but the panels in the Beyond are incredibly lacklustre and it's not just the lack of brightness/ nits value. The colour gamut and in layman's terms 'punch' of the Crystal Light is vastly superior, which again has really surprised me as a die hard OLED fan.
Also, the clarity of the Crystal Light when both are at native res I would say is
significantly better. I was hoping 35ppd vs 32ppd would be mitigated somewhat when the Beyond was super sampled a lot, and it almost does achieve parity in some games, but overall it's just not as good. I paid about half the cost for my Crystal Light (new from Amazon) Vs what I paid for the BSB2e plus base stations, controllers etc, and I think the Crystal Light is a much better headset overall even though I'm an OLED black levels snob.
Even the comfort, the supposed killshot win for the Bigscreen Beyond I've found lacking. The weight is obviously great, but the actual
experience and how it feels on your face just is not, for me anyway.
I found one review that pretty much sums up my experience in many ways better than I can be bothered typing on here. Yes it's the guy who owns Somnium - and people will cry obvious bias - but as a normal man who is not a youtuber and just wants a ******* decent OLED VR headset, I agree with
almost every single criticism the guy makes in this video....