Between now and Monday, new buyers of Bigscreen Beyond get the Audio Strap for free.
What Is Bigscreen Beyond?
Bigscreen Beyond is an ultra-compact and ultra-light SteamVR headset designed to enable truly comfortable long duration PC-based VR sessions.
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.
The headset comes with a simple cloth strap and no built-in audio. It doesn't even have a headphone jack, though it does have a USB-C port which can be used for audio devices. To add audio and improve comfort, Bigscreen sells a $130 Audio Strap accessory.
In our review of Beyond we praised its compact size and incredible physical comfort, which enables multi-hour VR sessions without the face pain of other headsets. However, we also pointed out flaws with the lenses, which introduce distracting reflections and blur in their quest to be as compact as possible. Beyond is the pioneer in a new era of headsets fully optimized for comfort, and others are aiming to follow it.
The Audio Strap, normally $130, adds integrated off-ear speakers and improves comfort by acting as a counterbalance and providing a top strap. Bigscreen describes Beyond with the Audio Strap as "the complete experience".
This Black Friday deal comes a month after Bigscreen said it now ships new orders within one day. That's a remarkable feat because each Beyond is custom-fit to the buyer, with its lenses fixed to match the distance between their eyes and a face pad molded to the shape of their face, based on the iPhone 3D face scan they provide when ordering.
In October 0.49% of SteamVR users were using Bigscreen Beyond, up from 0.39% in August, continuing the headset's steady growth.
