Avegant Glyph Review

A Personal Theatre? It’s not.
It’s more like holding a large phone in front of your face in terms of the ‘size’ of screen you see.
This may be very subjective and I’m sure different people will experience the Glyph differently. The tech is cool, as opposed to smartphone VR style or two mini screens, the Glyph reflects light from a million ‘mini mirrors’ directly in to each of your retina’s. (See the photo of @backlon sporting the headset, still considered to be one of the best photo’s taken of anything ever) This results in the 720p resoloution looking crisp and really very nice. But even with the settings as great as they can be, which is fiddly, and does need repeating whenever using it again. I found that the headset was just too far away from my eyes to mitigate any screen door effect (maybe the bridge of my nose was just too big?). It was literally like looking at a TV through pretend hand-binoculars. Seriously, put your hands up to your eyes like they were binoculars, welcome to the Glyph experience as I saw it.
A friend (PSVR owner) commented that compared to other headsets it actually looks cool, although I still could never bring myself to wear it in public, it’s nice to know that not everyone thinks it looks so dorky (see basically every YouTube review opinion).
Sound is great. But that’s not why you bought them and definetely not how you will wear them. Even the company video conveneiently crops this look.
In conclusion, I bought this on ebay and it was still just shy of £300. Even at that discounted price it’s still too expensive. I can understand that Avegant, as a startup is trying to cover expensive component costs from Texas Instruments (display) and Harmon Kardon (drivers for sound). However, price, set up, visual experience; it really is just easier to use a phone. That immersive experience isn’t there, it needs to be lighter, it needs to be cheaper. The search for IMAX goggles continues and I’m looking forward to the next generation of The Glyph if it’s million mirrors ever see the light of day.
JK.
