Bigscreen Beyond is now in production, the company announced.
Beyond is an ultra-compact and ultra-light SteamVR headset designed to enable truly comfortable long duration PC-based VR sessions. The key drivers of its tiny size and light weight are the use of OLED microdisplays and the fact that each unit is customized for the buyer’s face and eyes instead of being adjustable, based on an iPhone 3D face scan.
With production underway, Bigscreen has started emailing the first wave of US customers a link to perform their scan. Once it’s completed the custom-built headset should ship in 1-4 months. Bigscreen is aiming to eventually get this gap down to 3-6 weeks.
Bigscreen Beyond Proves A Point About VR Headset Weight
How does Bigscreen Beyond hold up while watching an entire movie? It proves a point about VR headset weight.
Beyond is priced at $1000 or from $32/month, but doesn’t come with positional tracking or controllers out of the box. It uses the SteamVR tracking system, so you’ll need at minimum one base station – and ideally at least two – alongside your own input devices such as Valve Index controllers.
UploadVR’s Ian Hamilton tried out a Beyond pre-production prototype in April, writing that it was “such a striking difference to feel so little weight on your face while still feeling entirely transported to a virtual environment”.
Earlier this month Bigscreen announced last minute improvements to the lenses, widening the field of view for most people, increasing the central angular resolution, improving the clarity and sweet spot, and reducing visual artifacts such as blur.
Bigscreen says after that announcement, and after Apple Vision Pro‘s unveiling, it saw a “massive increase” in preorders.
Bigscreen says the first wave of US preorders should ship in Q3, while international and subsequent US preorders will ship in Q4. It also says the Audio Strap accessory is still on track for Q4, and more details about it will be unveiled in August or September.
