Asus ROG Bezel Free Kit Review 

Brother Gosling,thank you for going into detail on the bezel setup.No other person has mentioned the warp effect. I have been considering getting the bezels for a while now and let's face it.$100.00 for two pieces of plastic is kind of steep. I am going to hold off for now.I am enjoying my budget rig.Oh yes, your new setup looks great!!!!

The setup is just so amazing that I literally can't pay attention to the subject of the video because im too busy drooling. The overhead platform really seems to make it so much more immersive.

You are getting into a Boosted Media level of rig there. Looks amazing, the ultimate pad you've got.

Thanks for talking us through your experience - I've picked up a set for lols, even though I've had zero issues with my bezels for the last 2 years. I figured I might film a POV video from time to time and the kit would help the video look better, rather than make the driving feel better. Wish me luck!

I took a quick look through the comments and I haven't seen this answer, and I understand that this is about 6 months late, but hopefully this answers some questions that people might have. This bezel free kits work via optical refraction, which is essentially bending is light due to the light being transmitted through a medium different than normal, in this case, air. The classic examples of this are a straw in a glass of water, or a swimmer in a pool being viewed as "broken" as the top and bottom halves do not appear to align. This product, and others similar to it, accomplish this by making a slightly tapered polymer material which is constructed in such a way that the light from the far edge bends less than the light in the middle, and therefore what we see is only light from a certain portion of the screen, not actually the entire screen. In this case what might be occurring, but is likely not the case, is that you are cutting the outside 10-15 pixels from the refracted image of each monitor and therefore causing the mismatch of the 2 images. However, there is some very compelling evidence that this is not in fact the case, the misalignment changes based on relative viewing position. We can conclude from this that what is happening is that the light is refracting more from regions farther from your sitting position, creating a larger bend, and therefore more misalignment. An easy, but likely expensive fix to this problem would be to design the polymer strips as a confocal setup, thicker on the outside, top and bottom in this case, and thinner on the inside. This would, if calibrated properly, fix the problem with areas farther from your sitting position being out of alignment. Unfortunately, this would be harder to accomplish via mass production, and significantly more expensive. In addition, the polymer strips would have to be positioned with the thinnest part of the material parallel to your sitting position and therefore as a product it would be much less universal. To create as universal and cost effective of a product as possible, Asus decided to market only a specific size that in most applications would produce as few as possible refraction misalignments. The double bezel correction stacking is probably exasperating the problem to a greater degree in this situation. The unavoidable truth of these products is that a very small improvement in quality requires a large investment of money, and while expensive, $150-200 USD is incredibly cheap for this type of optical device, even if it is made out of plastic instead of glass or quartz. The manufacturing tolerances in these devices is often fractions of a millimeter, and therefore, difficult and expensive to achieve. Source: I am a soon to graduate, PhD candidate in Analytical Chemistry with a focus on spectroscopic (interaction of light with matter) instrument development for low concentration sample quantification. Maybe interesting to some, scientific grade products similar to this often are only a few centimeters in any dimension and can cost thousands of USD. While the manufacturing of these products is performed at significantly lower tolerances, it goes to show just how expensive this type of product can be. Also, any time light is transmitted through a material it loses some amount of intensity. This, along with the actual construction of the product, is why the image beneath the eliminators seems "washed out". Tl;dr: bezel free kit works by bending light of the display to "eliminate" the viewed gap between the two displays. However, the perspective of this bend is altered by viewing/sitting position. Stacking 2 polymer bezel eliminators is probably making the problem seem worse but unless the viewing position is changed relative to the eliminators, the cost to "fix" the problem is probably very high, and very specific to each case. edited for spelling

So happy with my sim thanks to you!

The image stepping is caused by the monitors not being perfectly plumb. It's a never ending battle.

Would be good to see a follow up after some time to see how you get on and if you manage to resolve the alignment issue. +1

Love the vids Karl and your honest opinion great stuff 👊

Great review. Now I understand why they dont make this for larger monitors. It can only be in perfect alignment basically at eye height and will slowly diverge as you go above or below eye level. Interesting take on it and really helpful, actually. I think with 27's this wouldn't be anywhere near as noticeable. My guess is that it can only stretch the image left to right, but it brings it further forward closer to your face as it does so, and that slightly skews the alignment as you get away from exactly eye level. Now I do wonder if you could prevent it by being able to precisely angle the lenses so that they're totally flat and perpendicular to your eyes in seated position. But you should be able to move around left to right to see if there's a perfect angle where this goes away, so Im assuming that doesn't work.

I agree Karl, they are worse than the bezel. The "bezel free" still have a bezel, and they also distort/blur way beyond the regular bezel area. If they lined up, they wouldn't be such a distraction, and I could live with the slight blurring of the image. But as it is, in my opinion they are more of a distraction than the bezel itself. Dump them, they don't work as intended. Great review! Saved me, and MANY other people money. Good work.

Thanks mate, I have been torn between getting this kit. Too bad this video left me just as torn, but I now know why! Lol. Good info

I think I would prefer the clarity without. The strips, even if they blend the bezel out, would be like looking through a strip of packing tape or waxed paper. I would notice the distortion as objects pass through it more. I have 32" monitors, so they won't fit mine anyway.

I prefer the bezels so that everything linens up and it doesn't stretch the image

Kyle would you mind sharing the instructions on how to use the string method to apply panels? Thanks

Think for that price the bezels are the way forward,. especially.wjen you have screens with such tint bezels as yours Karl. Setup looks great. Bought a GT Omega Art the other week on your recommendation, it's great, thanks for the content 👍

Tremendous set up jealous is not the word well done . The bezel it must be the power of the magnification ? I would be exactly the same as you looking for perfection especially paying such a premium . Is there any way you can buy or alter the size of the bezel to match the join on your screen . I notice it is only about an inch wide or so I know it must be a very tricky situation to fix, anyway I have just subscribed to your channel and am looking forward to your future videos on next gen simming 🤨 thanks again NICE

OK so I was just thinking about purchasing this kit but after watching this idk if I will. Thanks for pointing out this flaw. If it were 50% cheaper I wouldn't mind the offset but for $125, I think I will hold off for now until somebody releases on cheaper

Great vid as always

I’ve tried this kit on 2 diff sets of triples. Give up and sold both sets . I’ll stick with the bezels

On video I prefer the bezels over the kit, I guess it all depends on how big the bezels are and what person to person prefer

Great video! I have a question regarding the kit and game settings. Were you using any type of bezel correction on the triple screen setup in game? I think that if you set the in-game resolution to something that is not bezel corrected (from your previous video that would be 7680 x 1440) and in the triple screen spanning in pc2, I assume setting the bezel widths to 0. Curious to hear your thoughts on this if you get the chance to test it. Cheers !

i'm stunned, never realised 125 for a kit. For me it's geometry all the way. enjoying the content lad . i have my wrc wheel and dd table clamp so hopefully base and pedals soon .....

its all about alignment. and using the correct side, they do have a front and a back!

The camera position makes the step less noticeable as it’s closer to the “sweet spot” of the angle the lenses reflect to your face

Hello Karl mate. I've been running triples for about 6 months and don't even notice the bezels. I was considering the BFK but for me I don't like the kind of blurry distortion of the plastic lens. Like you, I have a bit of OCD and seeing the stepping issue you have in addition to the blurryness makes it a definite no no for me. Thanks for the review. BTW where did you get the roof for your rig? or did you make it?

Karl - this is off-topic, but I got the note from fedex today that my Prime has left GB and is headed to Omaha! If you'd have told me a year ago, I'd drop $800 on anything, let alone somewhere to sit to play ATS?ETS2 I would have said you were barking, mate! But because of your channel GT Omega got a sale. I have no illusion about being a great sim racer, but I am thrilled enough to consider branching out to other things. Most of all, the passion for the hobby you've given me has made my missus excited about getting more parts as well! I'm profoundly grateful I watched your GTO Prime reviews and can't wait to get it here! I have my trackir enroute as well. Need it to start raining GPUs from the heavens for an upgrade to triple screens - but that will come. It's still cheaper than real cars! Thank you, sir. For us older farts who are interested in the hobby beyond sitting in toxic gtame lobbies, you're a godself. Calm, a dash of funny and a profound appreciation for the art of faffing about! Thanks again. I'm off over to patreon because I want to put my money where my mouth is. Cheers.

Hey man! Great video as always! I had a bit of a offtopic question, who I'd know no one else could answer but you haha. I've bought a Fanatec CSL DD (should be coming early next month), and I was looking at cockpits to upgrade from my Playseat Evolution to. I wanted to get the GT Omega Art, but I remember you saying in that review that "you would never put a direct drive on it". Do you still stand by that? I wonder which other one to get, that has that some price range. Thanks for your time!

You could try to change the image position and size in the monitors, if they still offer these settings. Might take away some horizontal lines at the top and make the image a little bit less crisp, but maybe the steps disappear that way.

They should make a 32 inch version. My main issue besides the price was just how easy they scratch

man do what makes you happy but i feel it needs a slight tweak , maybe with two linked together they slightly come away from the screen ? either way its a fantastic set up !

Hey Karl , can you please specify how did u exactly mount the bezels on the screens themselves ? Thanks!!

Just upgraded to a triple screen set up and installed the kit straight away but I’m struggling with the same dilemma. On 32” screens the separation isn’t as bad but there definitely is a level of distortion. Now I’m trying to decide if the long black bezels bother me more or does the slight distortion.

@Karl Gosling I have the Samsung G9 on 1 of my sim setups and I still like my triple 32 inch monitors better. If they would make a dual 32 inch version of the super ultrawide I think I would be more likely to replace my triples. I just don't like losing all of that beautiful vertical space, you lose a lot of the dash area detail in my opinion. I have thought about the bezel free kit but I notice the same issues as you are having and the bezels really don't bother me.

hello my friend! how did you put the bezels together? That information was missing from your video!

Thank you

Hey mate , Have you checked out the new Playseat Trophy? Looking good at a decent price too (curious your thoughts on it) 👍

The bezels don’t bother me on my 32 inch and I think the kits are extortionate price for what they are?

Good review. It would be cool if they made them smaller so they could have less distortion. They seem really big

Hey Karl, I can see you are torn over this one LOL. With my much smaller tripple monitors which have large'ish bezels I sometimes have my middle monitor bezels in front on the side monitor bezels. You may see a slight shadow on side panel edges (depending on your viewing distance and screen brightness) however does half the visable bezel size. Worth experimenting with if you haven't already.

Hi Karl, did you try fiddling around with the screensettings like you did when setting up your 3 monitors? I remember you setting up the bezel distance etc...

Bin the bezel-free kit. It looks like they are more distracting than the bezels. (great video, btw)

I like the bezels; it acts like the window frame.

Hi Karl, how did you manage to use the bezel kit with large monitors? Im thinking of buying 2 kits for my 48 inch monitors but don’t know how easy they are to fit. Thanks.

Hi Karl, I have been watching this video over and over. I watch most of your videos and so I did buy the LG OLED 55 screens after you introduced them. Now I decided to try out the bezel free kit. But what I really cannot figure out is how you attach the 2 strips say on the left side. That monitor is so thin on top the clamp does not squeeze or hold anything in place. At the bottom the clamp does squeeze though. Also, I cannot figure out how you connect/attach the two lens strips. My bottom lens is standing off the monitor by a few inches thanks to gravity. I know it's been a while since you made this video....Maybe you still pick this question up? Greetings out of Switzerland. I like your videos alot, the are often times on things i am interested in at you have a very authentic, likeable and at the same time detailed approach. Tx Harald

What are the discount codes Karl, do they get added automatically? I’m looking at getting the Wheel Stand DD from Digital Motorsport. I know you said it’s for a specialised and that you wouldn’t really recommend it but I have disability and I think it’s the best suit for me. Do we just click on the link in description and it’s automatically applied?

I would go for without them... it tricks my ocd to see its not on angle in the right side

i think that is because its hiding the bezel. there will always be a bezel in between the screens. u see the difference because it streches the screens. without the kit u have the bezel to distract u. because there u look et the end of on screen and the beginning of the other. i hope that makes sense. :P love your setup! im also buying everything to get my setup going.

Good video. They're definetly a comprimise. We found there's a really defined vertical sweet spot you have to sit in thats only about 5CM and even then there's still some alignment issues. As you said if you get one area perfect, another will have a step. Better than nothing for our driver's eye videos but definetly the weakest link in our setup now. One thing i did notice is you have the two rights on one side and the two lefts on the other. I found it worked better if I used a left and a right on each side inverted, so the lindicator is at the top and bottom rather than in the moddle. That helped a lot with the wierd step you speak about. Fact remains I probably wouldn't run them if it wasn't for the driver's eye videos. Really good idea using string to fix the middle in place. I'll have to give that a try.

Have you got with boosted media and see what he has done? He may have some tips, since he said his lined up good. Keep up the good content! If he has got the same problem and has not talked about it, could be another video for you. The community then could probably get to the bottom of it and maybe the manufacturer will make the product better, hence make the sim community better!

Considering that your bezels are very thin I think you could do without them. When driving even thick bezels "disappear" after a bit of gameplay. I would rather have correct orientation than no bezel.

I have seen a few screen teardowns and it seems like the plastic bezel is always much larger and bulkier than the actual bezel needed for the screen's lightbars and such. Since you seem fairly practical, it could be possible for you to get rid of the plastic bezel on the screens and just mate up the actual internal frames of the screens, then you'd need less of the plastic lense type material from a bezel removal kit to cover the gap which might help with the mismatch. But then again I am not really much of a practical person myself so maybe I am just blowing spit bubbles.

Project cars 2 is to my knowledge one of the few games that lets you setup each screen separately without using nvidia surround. I know this problem of one correct side screen when the other is not, without an Asus Bezel It may have to do with a combination of angle, height, vertical offset , in combination with Seat height and the rotated vertical position. I got it right for some time. Then I moved the side screens about 1cm behind the central mirror to hide their bezel. I only have the two bezels of the center screen now, only 0.6cm wide now (Sony KD-43X85J). I had to setup new parameters and did not find the right values quickly . Project Cars 2 triple monitor settings is flexible but not 100% logic. But it should be possible to have a right position with the Asus kit. But what with nvidia surround games? But if you are right, it maybe the reason why Asus does not produce the kit for larger screens, they seem to abandon the project. And yet they have set a patent on their system, preventing other companies to develop the system further. While driving neither stepping nor the 0,6cm bezel distracts me. I don't see putting a 5cm large plastic to hide a half cm black line. Whenever possible, I try to merge it with the chassis of the car, by playing with the FOV. This works well, except for topless Formula cars or Kartings, I will search for a simple solution.

Where is the join ? could you try one from bottom or top as i wonder if they have sweet center spot like vr lens. just a thought i use vr but the lens to eye barrel distortion etc similar to stretching over bezel may be. GREAT SET UP . like the roof

Just wondering, will you have the possibility to review the Next Lever Racing 2.0 wheel stand? As someone, who can't have a cockpit, i'm interested in the chair cradle they've got. And since it's not yet on sale in my country, i'm in search of good reviewers :)

I think the problem is that your eyes are not in the center of the screen hence the distortion looks way worse than on camera, because tbh on camera it looks fine to me but that's because the camera is positioned higher than your eyes hence it's far less noticable.

does the Asus ROG Bezel Free Kit work in difrentes monitor?

what if you tried putting a left piece on top of a right piece then into the left corner. Is that stupid? I'm just thinking that they might equal out to a distorted but aliened image?

They say on their website max 27” maybe because of that there is warping effect ? With 27” maybe it’s perfect ?

I tried them for a while was playing f1 2021 this morning and ended up taking them off kept getting moti9n sickness on tight apex lol

You're comparing near vertical lines to horizontal lines. Since it only stretches the image horizontally and you have it looking correct if you imagine the lines continuing through the bezel, the steeper the angle to the line the worse the step will look no matter what height it is on the screen. At 7:50 the tree branch on the left would step up whereas the armco wouldn't as much due to the different angles despite being in a similar area of screen. If the A pillar stops 3 inches from the top on the centre screen, it needs to start at 3 inches on the right screen.

Somewhat off topic. What is the hood made of on top of the 3 monitors

Maybe a solution would be to do the mathematical equation so the center screen is larger, maybe 77 inch, then the two outside panels are smaller, so the joins in the screens end up aligning with the A pillars. Not a sim racer so might be a dumb idea.

Would there be a possibility of trimming the bezel lense? Those bezel covers seem much wider than your actual bezels and maybe this is whats causing the severe distortion. I can't tell if the lens material is a trimmable plastic that you could make as thin as your bezel and decrease the warping effect. Kind of expensive to go chopping about on, but just a thought...

you got 3 x 55 inch,so with you having such big screens is that why the step in image is so bad?,would it be as noticable say on 27 or 32 inch monitors

If you trimmed like 3-5mm off both long edges of the bezel free strip would that help?

I've been using these for over a year and I prefer them even with slight misalignment at the top. There seems to be no way to get around it. I do most of my racing in VR though. They work well with other games like 1st person shooters where the misalignment is not as noticeable.

Hi Karl, I'm guessing that's why ASUS only sell upto 28 inch monitors for the exact reason you highlighted...the higher you go the more misalignment I think if you was fitting to 28's your review would be different would it not?I have them on 32's an it starts to go a little a the top. I think really they are meant for peripheral use so u dont really focus in them. Its like VR, after a few weeks you forget about it tbh.

wouldnt calibrating nvidia bezel correction with the bezel kits on correct this to an extent?

Is it not because you have put two kits together? Are they not designed for a smaller screen and if so would they not work as expected?

I had no idea such things exist. Thank you Karl for this review. However, the combination of the compromised image and the hefty price tag make these not very attractive to me.

id give those a shot if they were £40, amount of money they want for a bit of plastic is silly

I think, if it was me, I'd go with the bezel free kit, when racing or rallying, I've usually got my hands to full to look at slightly odd misalignments, but that could be down to my bad driving 🙄🤣 But I'll be honest, I think the price is ridiculous 😲

Why dont you tell how you did it on your 34 invh since they are for 27 inch monitors.

I bet that’s why ASUS only made them for 27” monitors because of the stepping.

The way to fix this issue you have is adjusting the bezel correction in triple screen setup, no sure that every title/sim has this option though. You need to make the game think you have a negative bezel width to get them perfect. Its a bit fiddly but is great when they are aligned. I know ACC has this option but there is definitely a way to fix the issue your having but im not 100% PC2 will do it as ive not used it tbh. Great video though as always Karl

Don't think my OCD would be able to handle either way. 😅

i would go for bazzlefree kit! Its not perfect, but better then a black bar. Also, (i dont say you do) you are not alloud to comlain about this. Because if you do so, you ridicule my sim rig and almost all other sim rigs of your viewers. Because this my friend, it the ultimate luxery problem! Offcourse, this was just a joke, and you should not take it serieasly. Love the video's with the triple 55inch! Keep them comming. And if i may suggest, maybe you can show a view of dirt rally 2.0 with triples. Yeah, i know, it does not work propherly. But i see people driving DR2.0 with triples. I am wondering what your toughts are on DR2.0 with triples, and what is wrong with it. I am curious about your toughts on this topic. Sorry for my bad Englisch, i am not native. Keep up the good work (Y)

I have 3 27" curved monitors with really tiny bezzels and I'd just stick with that. Or use my VR tbh

What monitor are you using?

Could it be because you've had to use 2 lenses on 1 bezel?

Maybe just get the 49inch samsung super ultra wide?

To make this kit work well, you need to be exactly perfect lined up between youre monitors. Both height, depth and sideways. And absolutly not any overlap of the monitor bezels. Not easy to do without adjustable vesa mounts, but it’s doable. If you manage to get it perfect, the misallignment outside eye level will be almost none existent.

I mean its a solution for hiding the bessels but its not a perfect solution. For me its not worth the price tag for what it offers atm. Its suppose to be a "cheap solution", it started as that but it aint cheap for sure to have 1 problem fixed but make another problem born out of it lol.

Distorted peripheral vision at 100 plus MPH is much more immersive then a perfectly straight black line of nothingness cracking through reality and splitting the world in two. Jus Sayin

It's amazing how no one else has mentioned this issue? Oh I know, you paid for them and the others didn't. Thanks. No longer on my wish list.

You just need a decent ultrawide monitor instead.

Find an old tv that's either not working or otherwise not in use. Take it apart and you will find sheets of these lenses layered on top of the LCD pannel. cut them to size and call it a day. fee and easy no reason to buy these at a premium from asus! if you really wanna be anal about it, 3D print some Brackets for them just like the asus once.

Your brain will naturally block out the bezels much like it does to our noses., or make them almost unnoticeable.

I wouldn't keep them. too distracting

have you watched boasted media's video of his triple setup and the bezel-free kit? www.youtube.com/watch? he talks about setting the bezel width at a negative number v=8PwO7crVPFc&list=PLq1vJmvliZQPTKW_fE_611idzu-dN3UpR&index=2. Nice setup though