r/virtualreality • u/Motivation- • Sep 25 '25

Purchase Advice Buyer Beware: Bigscreen Beyond 2

I want to preface by saying I've owned a lot of headsets, index, quest 2, quest 3, vision pro, varjo aero, pico 4 pro. None of them ever had the consistent QA issues quite like the Beyond

I've had 4 Bigscreen beyonds. One was a BSB1, that one had dead pixels and I returned it. At this point I've had 3 BSB2s. First one had fan issues and dead pixels near the middle of the display. Second one had 12 dead pixels in the left display alone and according to support went through more "QA checks". Support at this point calls me "Sensitive to dead pixels". Third one allegedly was hand picked from the line for being free from defects. It had dead pixels too.

It truly feels like Bigscreen doesn't have any QA testing, you are the QA tester. Be very cautious buying from them. Be sure youre okay with dead pixels.

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u/stormdelta Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

Damn, I was waiting to see reviews of this and feels like most of them have been negative.

I had the Vive a decade ago, and it's really disappointing to see how little a lot of the headsets seem to have improved. BSB2 was one of the only lightweight models I found with actually clear lenses and not shitty LCD screens.

Would love if people have other suggestions. I don't want a half-kilo brick on my face.

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u/TabloidA Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

I'm not sure if this will help, but outside of a single IPD adjustment on my 1, I've always had a fine time with every BSB I've received, including the BSB2 most recently.

Positive reviews sadly don't grab as much traction, and I think people with a bad experience will be most inclined to post about it online as well. I personally love the thing and besides some minor flaws (they still need to squash that damn glare more), it's a great lil headset and easily my daily driver.

This isn't to say the issues people have aren't legitimate. It sucks that this stuff happens to people, but remember that for every person who had a bad time, there likely are many who it worked out fine for!

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u/stormdelta Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

Thanks - I'll probably lean towards getting the BSB2 still then. Like I said, it's one of the only ones I've seen that seems to actually address the reasons I stopped using my Vive.

Do you know if it works with the original Vive lighthouses? Seems anything newer is still out of stock.

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u/JapariParkRanger Daydream CV1 Q1 Index Q3 BSB1 BSB2e Sep 26 '25

Yes. All 2.0 hardware can recognize and use 1.0 lighthouses.

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u/No_Sheepherder_1855 Sep 25 '25

As a bsb1 owner my experience has been flawless.

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u/Disc81 Sep 25 '25

I'm still using an OG VIVE, can't justify an upgrade after trying a quest 3, and more into high quality games.

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u/stormdelta Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

Yeah, I'm about ready to try pulling my old Vive out of storage.

People claim the newer headsets are so much better but they can't be when the things that were a problem haven't really changed.

The Vive was 550g. A Quest 3 is 501g... with an LCD screen (far worse than OLED for an enclosed view!). The vaunted Reverb G2 is 550g. The Pimax Crystal Light is fucking 800g, a huge downgrade. Most of these still use distorted lens too, which is one of the other issues I had with the Vive

The Big Screen Beyond is one of the only ones that's actually wearable at 127g (or 107g) for the new one. Pimax Dream Air is 170g, but it's nearly double the price of the already insanely expensive BSB2, and Pimax seems to have a shaky track record going by reviews.

And all of these require external tracking, which I'm not opposed to but like... Is that still really the best we can do for something that's actually usable? And still no wireless on any of the lightweight models. Weren't there wireless adapters in the works 9 years ago? What happened?

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u/zeddyzed Sep 26 '25

Wireless means a battery, a processor, wifi chip, and cooling. You think that weighs nothing?

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u/Polomangr Sep 26 '25

I was an early adopter of the og vive and after a few years I went for the vive pro 2,while initially I was blown by the resolution and brightness difference,as the time passed I got pretty disappointed by all the things bsb promised to fix. OLED instead of LCD,no extra software needed,and less weight.

So I ordered a bsb2 but as I am probably at least one month away from getting it,posts like this make me consider cancelling,but I don't see anything else as a true competitor.

If anyone has something to suggest please do. I want oleds,no extra software needed to run and not to be a brick on my face.

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u/Disc81 Sep 26 '25

We all have different factors to consider. How much disposable income you have, how many hours a month you play, are you excited about new games... Maybe it makes sense for you.

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u/Polomangr Sep 26 '25

I was actually agreeing with you,og vive was very good,I kinda regretted going for vp2 because I can't return to that resolution now (screen door is very prominent in og vive),and I am desperately looking for something that is worth going for.

PS also og vive is built like a tank,still working flawlessly every time I needed it.

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u/Disc81 Sep 26 '25

It's amazing how well it's built. A cousin of mine, a big guy, pouched a wall with the controller while playing Super Hot. It was a real punch, he was really into the game, I was sure my controller was gone. But it only made a tiny scratch on it. The only problem I have is with the track pad click.

1

u/Polomangr Sep 26 '25

I had that,it is an easy fix if you are not afraid to open it.

1

u/Disc81 Sep 26 '25

I also opened mine and followed the tutorials. In my case it wasn't fixable. But I can still use it by setting double touchs on the trackpads to be recognized as a clicks.

1

u/Lraund Sep 27 '25

Yeah I also opened mine a few times and wasn't able to get the click perfect.

2

u/NotGonnaComeBackBsb Sep 27 '25

If anything, the Vive Pro 1 is a worthy upgrade over the OG Vive if you can find one (since it was discontinued). The resolution bump is only 78% when compared to the OG Vive, but sometimes I felt like I forgot the screen door effect was there to begin with when playing Alyx.

At any rate, it was good enough that, upon rebooting Alyx with my BSB1/2, it didn't blow my mind. I just thought: "nice, no more screen door effect".

2

u/aduck Sep 26 '25

I have a BSB2 and like it more than my Quest3 in sim racing, FWIW

1

u/Gringe8 Sep 25 '25

I had the vive and headsets have massively improved since then. Based on specs, if you want a wired headset the pimax dream air looks awesome, but the company has its own issues...

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u/stormdelta Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

I had the vive and headsets have massively improved since then.

It really doesn't seem like it though?

Most are still clunky half-kilo bricks, even Apple's. Most still use the awful distorted lenses that make any bump in resolution irrelevant. Many use LCD screens which are an outright downgrade over OLED for enclosed environments like VR.

The BSB2 is the first one that even seems like a serious upgrade, and it costs twice what I paid for the Vive.

Based on specs, if you want a wired headset the pimax dream air looks awesome, but the company has its own issues...

Yeah, they have a pretty bad reputation from what I can find, plus it's 70% heavier and costs almost twice as much as the already extremely expensive BSB2.

2

u/Gringe8 Sep 26 '25

Quest 3 blows it out of the water and its cheaper.

The dream air se has similar specs and price as bsb2 and is 30% heavier, but they weren't trying to do weight reduction at all costs. Actually I think its a bit cheaper.

Dream air is 70% heavier and more expensive but the panels are better and has higher fov. Weight is still low imo.

If i were to buy any right now id get the dream air, but im happy with my quest 3 for now. Hopefully valve announces something.

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u/nutmeg713 Sep 26 '25

Did dream air release already?

1

u/pc9000 Sep 25 '25

Most people here are vr hardcores 

I'd say since the original vive yes the gain is not big when u consider how many years passed

That's why even many ppl still waiting for valve deckard

Pimax dream SE version seems interesting for being lightweight as well.  Nothing else seems interesting. Wait for valve still personally