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> Personally, I would love to see a wired headset that resembles the bigscreen beyond but with inside out tracking and a universal face gasket. For wireless experiences, I'd love to be able to plug my phone in, put it in my back pocket and use it that way.

Been doing this with my wired XREALs for the past few months. They are light enough to be unnoticeable and can display a large monitor when plugged into my phone or computer. Since I have a Samsung phone, it just opens DeX on my glasses and the phone screen becomes a giant trackpad. Completely seamless except for the onscreen keyboard.

For my laptop it's good enough for all the coding I need and I use it in the office because I'm used to ultrawide.

Like $500.

For another datapoint, I took the plunge on a pair of xreals and trying to do real work in them felt like a joke. They’re not comfortable enough to wear as normal glasses, so you end up using them more like you would a VR headset. And at that point, they’re just a semi-transparent low-res screen that’s never quite in the right spot.

I've been eyeing xreals for coding for a couple of years now, ever since my office became a children's bedroom, and the two of you are killing me. I don't know which one of you I would agree with.

There’s some likelihood the parent comment is astroturfing (not saying they are, just that it’s a possibility). There’s less of a chance mine is, since I don’t offer an alternative and my review is more critical.

For sit down, say flight, driving sims and productivity, then things to look at to compare would be things with a cable and no local compute taking weight, heat and component cost. There's the Pimax Dream Air SE and the Big Screen Beyond 2e as two recent updates in the ball park of Steam Frame pricing. Both that have eye tracking for better high resolution performance. The Pimax has a variable quality reputation and the Big Screen Beyond requires a deprecating Lighthouse tracking system, so no easy answers. None will be as smooth an experience of the Frame but are more geared to head mounted display.

FYI, virtual desktop (and steam link) on quest 3 recently got beta updates for wired modes (they just tunnel ethernet afaik, but its better than nothing for your usecase probably) since the OS has seemingly recently unblocked this.

Wireless gets better if you mount a dedicated AP on your wall, but that's a pretty big ask when an appropriate AP isn't cheap.

Steam Frame is solving this with a dedicated dongle, if I recall, which I think is a good choice.

I had a dedicated router plugged directly into my PC's second ethernet port. That was the best wireless experience I had - but it still wasn't a great experience. Again, my Quest felt like a hot, heavy Rift 2 rather than a wireless G2.

> Wireless headsets also _suck_ for simulators and productivity - where a battery only adds weights and a wire is not noticable.

you could... just plug it in? unless the frame cannot be used while charging, but i haven't seen anyone claim that.

The USB-C port for charging is on the battery itself; their store diagram doesn't show if the battery itself can be disconnected for power passthrough.

At least with the Quest, the video quality over cable was only slightly better than wireless. The heat and weight of the extra hardware also becomes noticeable when sitting for a while.

For example, there's no way I could do an 8 hour work day inside a Quest - but I imagine a cool lightweight bigscreen beyond would be fine.

I used to love shooting games in my G2, I got the Quest and, despite having a similar resolution, I could hardly make out distant targets whether wired or not. It entirely killed VR for me and I haven't used it in over 6 months.

That doesn't fix anything. The battery is still heavy whether it's plugged in or not.

For anyone interested, in the Tested video he states that you can use it plugged in but you will only be able to use it this way uninterrupted while streaming, because using the Frame itself will use up the battery faster than the rate at which it charges

Wired is only great if you're sitting down, playing driving or flying simulators. If you ever need to turn or move, wires get annoying really fast. Even with Beat Saber, it's terrible

I agree but, my experience with wireless has been so bad that I'd rather be able to play games with a wire than avoid them without one.

I liked shooters and going from the G2 where I could actually use sniper rifles to barely being able to make out people down a corridor - wired or wireless - really killed it for me.

I have pretty much given up on VR as a result.