Varjo, the Finland-based creator of high-end XR headsets, announced their businesses and prosumer-focused SteamVR headset Aero is now permanently 50% off its original $2,000 price tag.
Aero is essentially a pared down version of the company’s strictly enterprise headsets, offering industry-leading fidelity and advanced features such as eye-tracking.
Released in October 2021, Aero was (and still is) the company’s least expensive headset; it’s now priced at $990 (€990), bringing the Helsinki, Finland-based company into a new price segment which its hoping will appeal to at-home simulator fans.
Photo by Road to VR
Ther news was revealed at during the company’s hour-long ‘Aeroversity’ livestream celebrating the device’s two years since launch. Besides the price drop reveal, Varjo focused heavily on the headset’s use in both driving and flight sims.
When we reviewed Varjo Aero in late 2021, we called it the “dream headset for VR simmers who aren’t afraid to trade cash for immersion,” as it offered some pretty stunning clarity (35 PPD) that’s beaten only by the company’s more expensive headsets.
Notably, the $990 package doesn’t include SteamVR base stations and motion controllers, making it appeal mostly to users already in the SteamVR tracking ecosystem. What’s in the box: Varjo Aero headset, VR adapter, power supply unit with 6 x power plugs (EURO, UK, US, AUS, KOR, CHN), in-ear headphones with microphone, user guide, cleaning cloth.
The price drop looks to be, in part, a response to the growing number of new PC VR headsets offering higher resolution micro displays, notably with the Bigscreen Beyond leading the charge at $1,000 for just the headset, which includes 2,560 × 2,560 (6.5MP) per-eye resolution microOLEDs clocked at 75/90Hz.
Varjo, maker of high-end XR headsets, and OpenBCI, a company creating open source brain-computer interface solutions, today announced a new partnership that’s bringing OpenBCI’s long-awaited neural interface ‘Galea‘ to Varjo’s latest Aero VR headset, something the companies say will provide “a deeper understanding to augment the human mind.”
OpenBCI initially announced Galea back in late 2020, a hardware and software platform that’s designed to merge its brain-computer interface tech with XR headsets.
It’s an area of research that many companies are looking towards (such as Valve) in the hopes that such non-invasive devices could provide a host of new data. Knowing how a person reacts in real-time to virtual stimulus could give developers in the future more ways of serving up dynamic content.
Since then, the Brooklyn, New York-based company says it’s attracted beta applicants spanning consumer technology, healthcare, research, training, and gaming & interactive media. Now Finnish XR headset creator Varjo, known for its exceptionally high-resolution headsets primarily meant for enterprise, is shipping out its Aero mixed reality headset with Galea’s beta system, neatly packed into headset’s strap.
Image courtesy Varjo, OpenBCI
Galea is said to include a suite of sensors including electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculography (EOG) electromyography (EMG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, which are intended to measure data from the user’s brain, eyes, heart, skin, and muscles.
Varjo Aero is a pared down version of the company’s latest headset which offers industry-leading fidelity and advanced features for a cheaper (re: not cheap) price that makes the company’s offering more attractive to medium-sized businesses and wealthy VR enthusiasts. Without Galea, Aero is priced at $2,000 and features no annual fee—a far cry from the company’s previous enterprise headsets that range from $3,200–$5,500 (plus an $800–$1,500 annual fee).
OpenBCI and Varjo are opening pre-orders starting today, May 31st, specifically appealing to companies, developers, and researchers who have already applied to the Galea Beta Program. The headset-BCI combo is said include SDKs with ready-to-use building blocks for accessing the sensor data inside of Unity, Python, and several other common development environments.
Provided there are any units left after pre-orders, the companies will open up sale to the general public on July 1st, 2022. It’s not certain what price the companies intend to levy on the BCI-capable Aero though.
Varjo’s Aero headset is the first from the company that’s meant to appeal to individual customers rather than large organizations… and it probably won’t be the last.
Since the company’s inception, Varjo has sold high-end enterprise headsets to the likes of Fortune 500 companies. That is until just last month when the company started shipping its new Aero headset which was not only substantially cheaper but was, for the first time, sold without any kind of annual upkeep fee which made the company’s other headsets a non-starter for individual buyers.
Varjo Aero | Image courtesy Varjo
And while it’s possible the company had formulated Aero as a sort of one-off experiment, it seems Varjo has been satisfied enough with the reception that it intends for Aero to become an ongoing series of headsets for the high-end enthusiast segment.
Speaking to Road to VR this week, Varjo Chief Technical Officer Urho Konttori touched on Aero’s recent launch, saying that the headset is still backordered but he expects things to start catching up in February. As of now the company’s website advises “3–4 months” from purchase to delivery.
As for what happens in the future, Konttori said that Aero would “probably” become an ongoing series of headsets from the company, rather than a one-off. Although the company still seems primarily dead set on serving the high-end enterprise space, the move means the company also expects to target high-end enthusiasts with more headsets in the future.
That could dovetail in an interesting way with some of the software the company has been building internally, especially its XR cloud streaming tech; though initially targeted toward enterprise customers, the company confirmed that the tech supports any OpenVR/SteamVR applications without modification, and plans to expand the feature to other headsets in the future. While the company says that multi-headset support is primarily aimed at making XR more scalable within large organizations, it’s not so far fetched to think that the company could offer it to individuals at some point in the future.
Finnish headset manufacturer Varjo launched its immersive collaboration tool Reality Cloud last year. The company has announced an upgrade to the platform today, seeing the addition of cloud streaming for enterprise customers.
Varjo has a vision for metaverse collaboration that’s the same as real life, combining its professional-grade VR/XR hardware with intuitive immersive tools. The cloud streaming rollout on the Varjo Reality Cloud platform will be an early access release for select customers – one of them being electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian – whether they’re in VR with the Varjo Aero or in mixed reality using the flagship Varjo XR-3.
Just like NVIDIA’s CloudXR, the whole point of cloud streaming is the ability to provide high-end workflows on PC’s that weren’t built for intensive VR applications. Varjo has its own foveated transport algorithm that can stream immersive content at a bandwidth of 35 megabits per second. To make this possible Varjo’s collaborative platform is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and NVIDIA GPUs.
“Being able to achieve the same quality experience through Varjo Reality Cloud with less powerful local PCs is a game-changer for companies looking to scale their use of virtual and mixed reality,” said Urho Konttori, founder and CTO of Varjo in a statement. “Now, with our new cloud streaming service, users can join photorealistic virtual experiences with almost any laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU and a Varjo headset and start collaborating in an immersive environment.”
Varjo Reality Cloud is still under development itself with an official commercial launch expected to take place during the first half of 2022.
Alongside Varjo Reality Cloud, the company is making it (a bit) easier to access its products thanks to the release of Varjo Aero several months back. The cheapest headset the company has made to date – it’s still $2,000 USD – the Aero packs in some serious specs including 2880 x 2720 px per eye resolution, eye tracking and SteamVR compatibility for those that want the best VR gaming experience.
As Varjo continues to enhance its product lineup gmw3 will keep you updated.
If you’ve been lucky enough to try one of Varjo’s headsets then you’ll know that they’re quite extraordinary pieces of kit. Currently, the two flagship models are the VR-3 and the XR-3, and the two reasons the majority of virtual reality (VR) fans won’t have tried them is because the starting price for the VR-3 is just over $3,000 and that they’re only sold for enterprise use. That’s all about to change though thanks to the new Varjo Aero, an (almost) budget-friendly edition for those that want the very best from their VR setup.
A Varjo for the masses?
Make no mistake, the Finnish company isn’t aiming for broad, mass-market appeal with the Varjo Aero. Coming in at a still wallet worrying $1,990, the Aero isn’t about to contend with the likes of the Vive Pro 2 or even the Valve Index when it comes to attracting new owners looking for a decent VR deal.
Varjo is still looking towards the business sector when it comes to most of the sales, encouraging companies who might be interested in VR but aren’t looking towards those flagship models. However, unlike its older brethren, the Varjo Aero won’t solely be a business model, for the first time ever you can actually buy this headset off Varjo’s website.
This is because there are two major differences with Varjo Aero – not counting the hardware. It doesn’t require an annual subscription to Varjo’s client services and it’ll easily plug and play with SteamVR. Yes, that’s right. You can use the Varjo Aero to play your favourite PC VR titles, whether that’s hunting the Combine in Half-Life: Alyxor cutting cubes in Beat Saber.
Where to begin…
Right out the box, the Varjo Aero looks like a premium piece of kit – which you’d expect for the price. You might be surprised what you get in that box though. Two grand gets you the headset and some in-ear headphones and that’s it – apart from the box to connect the headset to your PC. No accessories or controllers of any sort, those you’ll have to source elsewhere. Kind of like when a flashy sports car manufacturer takes their base model and throws half the internals out – who needs a radio anyways? – to then double the price.
No big deal, the Aero is compatible with Steam’s Lighthouse base stations (1.0 & 2.0), whilst you can also use Valve Index or Vive controllers for input. Essentially, when it comes to consumers the headset is really an upgrade to an existing setup, hence why Varjo only expects really pro-end consumers to buy the thing.
To look at, the Varjo Aero doesn’t look too dissimilar to the VR-3 with the same head strap system and a clean, very glossy front form. It’s not until you spool the thing up and put it on that you see where your cash has gone.
Supplied with its own Varjo Base software that works in conjunction with SteamVR, the software immediately runs you through the roomscale setup that most PC VR users should all be familiar with by now. Varjo Base then provides a number of other settings to play around with, such as the automatic IPD – which can be switched to manual – and the render resolution settings for OpenVR/OpenXR. Considering the recommended PC specs note a GeForce RTX 3070, Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X and 8GB RAM, you need a really hefty rig to even consider upping those render settings.
The IPD is the final part of the setup because as mentioned, the Varjo Aero does this automatically with its built-in eye-tracking. Taking only a couple of seconds to look at a few dots, it got my IPD spot on the first time with no having to fiddle around trying to find the sweet spot which is huge on this headset.
Gaming on a whole new level
That can be quite the problem with other VR headsets, having to constantly readjust not only the strap fitting but also the IPD sliders. Even then, a vigorous VR gaming session can jolt things around and out of position.
That certainly wasn’t the case here. Aero is wonderfully comfortable to wear for long gameplay sessions, not only because it’s fairly lightweight but also because of the three adjustment settings on the head strap. On the back – which is counterweighted by the way – there’s a hinged pad and ratchet dial for tightening. You then have a pad and turn dial for your forehead – similar to a halo strap positioning – and finally, two little dials that bring the headset into your face, for a nice snug fit with feeling like it’s pressing against your face.
At which point you’ll be able to appreciate the Dual Mini LED LCD displays that offer a whopping 2880 x 2720 resolution per eye with a horizontal 115° field of view (FoV). Saying these provide crystal clear viewing seems like a bit of an understatement. That’s not only thanks to the display but also Varjo’s own custom optics, aspheric lenses that don’t create any god rays or glare as they’re not Fresnal lenses like you find on almost every other VR headset.
The setup ensures crisp visuals that almost pop off the screen, allowing fine details to be noticed for the first time. Needless to say, it makes reading text in VR a whole lot easier. We’d expect nothing less from Varjo and the tech delivers…mostly.
The lens design has a flat bottom to it which cuts off a very small part of the visual experience. Whilst it wasn’t overly noticeable, to begin with, switching between various VR headsets – whose lenses are curved at the bottom – made it apparent what was being lost. Losing that tiny little portion does feel confining, although when drumming away inRagnarockit quickly became irrelevant.
Far more concerning is the peripheral distortion. When looking forward without too much head motion everything is fine, it’s when you start moving around that it becomes noticeable at the very edges which can get a little annoying. Hopefully, this can be fixed in a software update for a flawless experience.
It’s not all plain sailing
For a device of this quality and Varjo’s many years in the space, you wouldn’t expect many issues. That’s not the case and many seem to revolve around the Varjo Base software which is actually still in beta.
For instance, Varjo Aero doesn’t turn off. Even when closing down both Steam and Varjo Base the headset remained on. When speaking with Varjo it turns out that this is a known issue they’re going to resolve. Meaning, for the time begin the headset always required being unplugged between every test.
Now let’s talk about audio, or more precisely the lack of it. Sure, Varjo does supply some in-ear headphones – that weren’t supplied with the demo unit – so customers have an audio solution at hand. Again, for that price, you’d expect something a little more. When quizzed on the reasoning Varjo explained that if you’re interested in a $2,000 VR headset then you’ve probably got some good headphones laying around. This is probably true to an extent (I used some Bluetooth headphones instead), if not it’s another expense on top of an already pricy purchase.
Final thoughts
Varjo really isn’t pandering to anyone with the Aero. It has built a device it wanted to make with no compromises, and it shows. The build quality is rock solid, never once feeling flimsy even though it doesn’t look as robust as others on the market.
That almost pales in comparison to the visual quality from the displays and lenses. Even with headsets like the HP Reverb G2 on the market, the Varjo Aero is in a league of its own and will make you want to explore your entire gaming library again, especially when it comes to titles like Half-Life: Alyx or The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. There are flaws as mentioned, which makes a definitive recommendation difficult at this time. Varjo has said issues should be resolved by the end of the year when orders start going out. If that’s the case we’ll update the article with our findings. If those are sorted and you really love VR, no question you’ll want a Varjo Aero in your life.
October has been an exciting month for new XR hardware and today it got even more interesting with the announcement of Varjo Aero. Coming from a company that previously only specialised in enterprise-ready headsets, the Varjo Aero aims to grow Varjo’s user base, whilst still maintaining the high-end design its renowned for. So if you want to know what’s under the hood of the Aero, here’s the full specification list.
Varjo is known for its leading display technology in both its flagship VR-3 and XR-3 models. Whilst the screen in the Varjo Aero isn’t the same, the display and lenses still provide the type of clarity the company prides itself on. Of course, to run the Varjo Aero you’ll need a decent PC, the requirements you’ll also find below.
Varjo Aero specifications:
Displays
Dual Mini LED LCD; 2880 x 2720 px per eye
Brightness: Calibrated to 150 NIT
Colours: Calibrated with coverage of 99% sRGB, 95% DCI-P3
Refresh rate: 90 Hz
Optics
Custom-made variable resolution aspheric lenses with 35 PPD peak fidelity
Edge-to-edge clarity; no reflections, no ghost rays
Field of View
Horizontal: 115°
Diagonal: 134° at 12 mm eye relief
Interpupillary Distance
Automatic IPD adjustment with motor
Supported IPD range: 57–73 mm
Audio
3.5 mm audio jack
In-ear headphones with mic in-box
Weight
487 g + headband 230 g (including counterweight)
Dimensions
Width 200 mm, height 170 mm, length 300 mm
Connectivity
Headset adapter and USB-C cable (5-metre) in-box
PC connections: DisplayPort and USB-A 3.0
Positional Tracking
SteamVR 2.0/1.0
Eye Tracking
200 Hz with sub-degree accuracy; 1-dot calibration for foveated rendering
Comfort & Wearability
3-point precision fit headband
Replaceable, easy-to-clean polyurethane face cushions
Active cooling
Comparison image Varjo Aero vs HP Reverb G2 on Flight Simulator. Image credit: Varjo
Varjo Aero System Requirements
Component
Recommended
Minimum
Processor
4-core CPU
For example; Intel Core i5-4590, Intel Xeon E5-1620, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X equivalent or better
The Varjo Aero is available to order today for $1,990 USD/€1,990 EUR with the first shipments going out by the end of 2021. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Varjo, reporting back with the latest updates.
When it works, the Varjo Aero offers a tantalizing glimpse of the future of VR. But a prevalent issue makes it hard to recommend right now. Read on for our Varjo Aero review.
Note: This review was originally published on October 21, 2021.
The Varjo Aero arrives much sooner than I thought it would. A recurring theme in my tech event calendar (back when that was a thing) was an annual stop to one of the Finnish company’s booths to gawk at its latest, ridiculously impressive and equally expensive enterprise-focused VR headsets. I’d then ask the team if this was the year they planned to bring these devices to a consumer market, they’d say no, and we’d do it all again 12 months later.
Well, this year is a little different.
Varjo Aero Review Update – 01/26/2
As promised, we’ve gone back to testing the Aero ever since Varjo released the launch version of its Base software in December 2021, which the company said would improve the distortion when moving your head.
From what I’ve seen, there’s definitive improvement on this front. Blurring has been reduced and, crucially, the quality of an image seems to remain consistent across the entire field of view, and not distort at the edges.
But the issue isn’t entirely resolved. At this level of clarity, its still possible to point out blurring when you turn your neck, or outlines of objects ghosting. You’ll still see more distortion here than you would in lower resolution headsets made by bigger companies. I’d just note that, on the whole, it seems to be a lot less distracting than it was a few months ago.
You can read the rest of our original review below, which points out the big benefits to the Varjo Aero, like the amazing clarity, and some other cons, like the curious shape of the lenses. Ultimately it’s still an immensley performant and comfortable device that will give you the sharpest image quality yet seen in consumer VR, but the $2,000 price point makes it a device only for those ready to spare no expense, given stiff competition like new Pimax headsets are more are on the way.
No Varjo booth, obviously, but there is the Varjo Aero, a new high-end PC VR headset that the company is aiming at smaller commercial markets and — crucially — VR enthusiasts. You don’t need to be a business to order one and you don’t need to sign up to the company’s expensive subscription software either.
In truth, I thought we’d be waiting many more years before Varjo would make its tech available to anyone and, in a sense that’s still the case. The Aero is an eye-watering $1,990 for just the headset – VR controllers and the required base stations aren’t included. It’s not ‘Varjo For All‘ so much as ‘Varjo For Those With The Biggest Wallets’.
But the specs show where your money’s going; on paper the Varjo Aero is nothing short of a VR powerhouse. The dual mini LED displays deliver a monstrous 2880 x 2720 resolution per eye with a 90Hz refresh rate and there’s eye-tracking and automatic IPD adjustment too. With those specs and that price, you’d be well within your rights to assume the Varjo Aero offers nothing but the very best in consumer VR headsets today. And in many ways it does, but there’s one important area that — currently at least — it falls short in. Let’s get to that first.
Resolution & Clarity
Normally in a review I’d talk about the comfort and design upfront, but there’s a sticking point to what I’ve experienced with the Varjo Aero that I thought was vital to highlight to give you context going forward.
So let’s start with what has been my biggest issue in my time testing the headset. Yes the Aero is impeccably clear and I’ll touch on that in a second, but over the past four weeks using the headset I’ve noticed significant peripheral distortion when rotating my head. As I look away from a virtual object or surface, it appears to warp as if not entirely solid. Only the very center of my view looks stable. It’s incredibly distracting (which, ironically, is only enhanced by the clarity of the display).
In pretty much all the apps I’ve tested, including big-budget titles like Half-Life: Alyx and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and indie projects like Gorn and Sweet Surrender, it’s been a noticeable issue.
Crucially, Varjo itself knows about this. I’ve been on multiple troubleshooting calls with the company over the past few weeks to talk about it and have been repeatedly assured that this is a software issue it’s aiming to fix with subsequent updates. In fact, the company says it expects to have its Base software fully ready for the Aero in December, which is when it also expects the first units ordered today to arrive.
I’m in a bit of a conundrum on this front, as my review loaner has to go back to Varjo, but I have asked for the opportunity to test the kit again around the launch of this latest software and, if that happens, I’ll update this review. For now though, all I can say is that if the issue persists it would be incredibly tough to recommend the Varjo Aero given its pricing. There’s really very little room for error in the enthusiast scene and this is too big of an issue to overlook.
And that’s a real shame because, even if there are other issues, the fidelity the Aero otherwise provides is second to none. The 2880 x 2720 per eye resolution beats out the Oculus Quest 2, HP Reverb G2, and even the current leader (and just a few months old) HTC Vive Pro 2. I haven’t tested the latter headset, but the difference over the Quest 2 and Reverb G2 is nothing short of remarkable. For the first time in VR, I could line up the sights on a gun in Alyx or recent releases like Sweet Surrender and see a crisp, faultless and completely solid weapon model that gave me pinpoint precision when aiming.
When I reviewed the Reverb G2 I said that, for the first time, I got a sense of sharpness from something like an arrow tip but, inside the Aero, I’m even noticing the tiniest of imperfections that are lined along the arrowhead itself. At times it’s so clear that I genuinely felt like I was staring at real-life objects. It’s an incredible experience to say the least.
Lenses And Performance
There are other nice perks to the display system too. The IPD adjustment, for example, is entirely automatic, using eye-tracking to read your distance and then shifting the lenses itself to get the right fit. It’s pretty impressive to see in action although very much a luxury feature that I could have done without if it meant simplifying the device and bringing the price down.
Less impressive are the lenses, which offer a 115-degree horizontal field of view or 134 degrees diagonally. They’re a bit of an odd shape compared to basically any other VR lens design I’ve encountered, with a rigid horizontal line at the bottom. When wearing the headset your field of view has a distinctly noticeable, unnatural shape compared to basically any other headset I’ve used. You can clearly see a staircase-shaped diagonal edge at the top and a shadow-like horizontal line at the bottom. Both UploadVR’s Zeena Al-Obaidi and David Heaney both said the same upon testing.
I’ve found this to be less of an issue once I dive into a game and start focusing on the experience, but it’s always one of the first things I notice when I boot up the Aero and jump into the Base environment.
Obviously, to power all of this high-fidelity decadence, you’re going to need a good PC. Really good, in fact. Varjo recommends an RTX 3070 if you’re going to be using the Aero but, as I mentioned, I’ve been using the 3060 Ti supplied by Varjo itself most of the time and had good results in most titles, with more demanding experiences like Alyx requiring me to lower the render resolution as far down as 40%. I saw yet another jump with recent testing on a 3070 Ti but, even then, there have been regular technical hiccups trying to fire the headset on all cylinders. ‘Can it run Varjo’ might become the 2021 equivalent of ‘Can it run Crysis?’.
The headset also has onboard cooling, which does cause some noise from within the visor, including a quiet rattle when moving your head, as if a fan was coming into contact with something as I turned. The air also gets blown into the lenses, which didn’t cause an issue for me but others that tried it found it distracting.
As for tracking? Well, this is a SteamVR headset so you should already know what to expect; near-faultless positional tracking using at least two external base stations and either the Vive wands or Valve Index controllers.
Design & Comfort
If there’s an area where the Aero really succeeds, it’s with the comfort. The kit features a halo strap design, with an adjustable back dial to fit the ring around your head. But the design then goes an extra step with a small, padded plate to rest on top of your head. This leaves very little of the 487g visor weight resting on the front of your face, and I could wear Aero comfortably for hours without much hassle.
There are two head-mounted buttons for basic interactions and summoning a menu, though you have to imagine those are more for simple commercial applications or interfacing directly with the headset when using a steering wheel or HOTAS in a similar experience. There’s also a 3.5mm jack for headphones and Varjo does include a pair with a microphone in the package, though these weren’t made available for review. Overall the headset build is quite solid, even if the materials used don’t feel as premium as, say the Valve Index.
Software & Compatibility
The Aero is tracked by SteamVR base stations and thus all its software runs through Steam too. Despite this, Varjo has its own Base launcher, where you can tailor your experience in specific ways. Base allows you to set a fixed IPD, enable performance-boosting options in supported software and much more. It even has a camera display of the user’s eyes when in-headset.
Eye-tracking, meanwhile, brings two distinct possibilities. The first is a form of input, like aiming where you’re throwing or selecting menu options, and the other is foveated rendering, which improves performance by only fully rendering the area of the display the user’s eyes are directly looking at. Both are promising features not just for Aero but the entire industry, but software compatibility is extremely limited right now, and I’ve only tested the features in the two demos the company itself supplied. Varjo itself pointed out to me that it hopes to see other headsets with similar functionality release over the next 12 – 24 months that will help expand that list.
Price
Okay, let’s get to it. At $2,000, you’re probably not buying a Varjo Aero. Commercial market aside, that price puts it squarely in the range of only the most dedicated of VR enthusiasts – the type that probably already bought the $799 base Vive Pro 2 a few months ago and wouldn’t bat an eyelid at then throwing down thousands more to replace it. I wouldn’t exactly expect this thing to be storming the Steam Hardware Survey charts in the next few months.
Oh, and that’s just for the headset. Varjo is assuming you already have SteamVR base stations and either the Vive wands or Index controllers. Add those onto the price and you’re looking at over $2,500. And you thought HTC headsets were expensive. And then there’s the top-end PC you’ll need to own too. You already know if you’re putting this down on your Christmas wishlist or not.
So, aside from smaller businesses that will likely have the lion’s share of sales, who exactly is the Varjo Aero for? Well, if you’re reading this review from your simulation racing chair on a motorized motion platform, staring up from your top-of-the-line steering wheel with our webpage in the center of your three ultra-wide monitors, powered by the high-end GPU, then you’re probably in Varjo’s target market. But for pretty much everyone else, the Aero is a tantalizing glimpse of what the future of VR holds.
Varjo Aero Review – Final Impressions
It’s important to remember that, while anyone can buy the Aero, it’s still primarily a commercial product, and it ticks pretty much all the boxes for delivering incredibly powerful VR experiences in that context. It’s when you come to judge the Aero as a consumer product that the issues really come to pass.
On the one hand, the Varjo Aero offers unmatched visual clarity in VR. In terms of raw specs, the headset delivers a powerhouse experience, with per eye resolution that will have you marveling at the tiniest details of virtual worlds that you’d simply miss in any other headset. Testing the device, I constantly caught myself off guard as I inspected creases in garbage bags in Half-Life: Alyx, for example. It really is that big of a jump. But, in its current form, this enthusiast headset has issues that its target market simply wouldn’t accept, the biggest of which being the very noticeable distortion when turning your head. If Varjo is able to address this issue like it says it will, it’ll be a real turnaround for the Aero and we’ll update this review accordingly. But the prosumer market is (quite rightly) an unforgiving one and, at $2,000, there’s little room for error with the Varjo Aero. As it stands, the blemishes are too tough to ignore.
Finnish virtual reality (VR) headset maker Varjo is known for one thing, making high-end, enterprise-only headsets with crystal clear “Bionic Displays”. Today, after initial teasing earlier this month, the company has revealed its latest headset, the Varjo Aero, its attempt at creating a device that can be adopted by a much wider audience, it’ll even run SteamVR titles.
Now, this isn’t Varjo suddenly announcing a consumer product as the Aero will retail for $1,990 USD/€1,990, far outside the normal price range of most other PC VR headsets. And for that price, you only get the headset, no controllers or tracking system, as it’s compatible with Steam base stations and controllers like those from Valve or HTC Vive. Marketed towards those VR gamers who want the very best visuals companies looking for a slightly cheaper alternative to Varjo’s own VR-3, the Varjo Aero is all about clarity.
Featuring a 115-degrees field of view (FoV), the headset packs a Dual Mini LED LCD offering 2880 x 2720 px per eye – a resolution of 35 pixels per degree. In front of that screen are custom-made variable resolution aspheric lenses – no Fresnal lenses here – mounted onto an automatic IPD mechanism, using the built-in eye-tracking to adjust between 57–73 mm. Unusually, there are no headphones/speakers built onto the headset, Varjo supplies in-ear headphones in the box for that.
“We’ve heard the demand from leading-edge VR users such as aviators, creators and racing simulation enthusiasts to bring our highest-fidelity devices to everyone, not just enterprises,” said Urho Konttori, founder and CTO of Varjo. “As a result, we are proud to bring to market Varjo Aero, the best VR headset that anyone can get. This device, together with our Reality Cloud platform, continues our mission to make a true-to-life metaverse accessible for all.”
Comparison image Varjo Aero vs. Valve Index. Image credit Varjo
”The new Varjo Aero headset turbocharges the high-quality graphics and authentic immersion of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Our community of passionate flyers just unlocked access to the leading visual fidelity experience on the market. Varjo Aero and Microsoft Flight Simulator are a powerful combination for ambitious aviators everywhere,” adds Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator at Microsoft.
To compliment the hardware Varjo Aero integrates with the company’s latest service Varjo Reality Cloud, designed around universal collaboration and real-time reality sharing. You can place orders for the Varjo Aero today, with the first shipments going out by the end of 2021. For further updates from Varjo, keep reading VRFocus.
Finland-based high-spec headset maker Varjo today announced its first VR device available to both commerical and consumer markets, the Varjo Aero.
The Varjo Aero launches orders today with the first shipments expected in December. It’s a $1,990 wired SteamVR headset that is still largelly intended to be sold to commercial markets, but Varjo also envisions top-end enthusiasts that want the best experience for simulator apps like Microsoft Flight Simulator picking the headset up. We’ve already had a chance to review the device, which you can check out here.
Varjo Aero Specs
The Varjo Aero offers 2,880 x 2,720 per eye resolution through dual mini LED displays with custom-made aspheric variable resolution lenses. That puts it comfortably in front of the previous leader for resolution, the 2,440 x 2,440 HTC Vive Pro 2. It’s also got a 90Hz refresh rate and a 115 degree horizontal field of view (or 134 degrees diagonally).
One of the Aero’s other key features is its 200Hz eye-tracking. As with other solutions, this can be used either as a means of input in compatible apps, or for foveated rendering, in which the display only fully renders the direct center of your gaze, reducing the demand on your PC. This also allows for automatic IPD adjustment between a range of 57 – 73mm, with the lenses moving themselves to fit a user’s eyes once they put the headset on.
In terms of comfort, the headset weighs in at 717g total, though 487g of that is the visor and the other 230g is for the three-point fit headband with a counterweight at the back. It’s also got two built-in buttons on one side for basic interactions and a 3.5mm audio jack, with a pair of headphones and microphone included in the package.
The device does lose some of the features from the more expensive and fully enterprise-focused VR-3 and XR-3. There are no front-facing cameras so no hand-tracking or mixed reality support, for example, though Varjo stresses that removing these features has brought down the weight. Unlike those headsets, you also don’t have to purchase a subscription to Varjo’s support software.
The $1,990 price point, meanwhile, is for just the headset itself. Varjo expects you to already have SteamVR base stations and either Vive wands or Valve Index controllers. As you can probably imagine, recommended system requirements to run the headset are incredibly high (though, again, less than those for its other devices). Varjo suggests a 4-core CPU with a GeForce 3070 or 2080, or the A4000 or Quadro RTX 5000 cards.
We think the Varjo Aero offers a powerhouse VR experience, but we also experienced a major flaw, with very noticable screen distortion at the edges of the lenses when turning your head. We’ve spoken to Varjo about this issue and the company attributes to a software problem that it hopes to fix before the first headsets arrive on doorsteps. We’ll update you on the progress of this issue when we can.
What do you make of the Varjo Aero? Let us know in the comments below!
Varjo, maker of high-end enterprise XR headsets, today announced Aero, a pared down version of the company’s latest headset that offers industry-leading fidelity and advanced features for a cheaper (but still hefty) price that makes the company’s offering more attractive to medium-sized businesses and wealthy VR enthusiasts.
For the last few years Varjo has been making some of the most advanced VR headsets on the planet, but with prices ranging from $3,200–$5,500 (plus an $800–$1,500 annual fee) it’s no wonder that Varjo counts Fortune 500 companies among its clients.
With the announcement of Varjo Aero, the company aims to launch a more affordable headset that’s more attractive for smaller businesses and the upper echelon of VR enthusiasts. It’s still far from cheap though; Varjo Aero is priced at $2,000 (with no annual fee), but this excludes SteamVR Tracking base stations and controllers.
Image courtesy Varjo
Varjo Aero is essentially the same as the company’s latest XR-3 headset, except without the ‘bionic display’ (which provides retina resolution at the center of the FOV), nor any of its advanced passthrough AR capabilities.
Even without the bionic display, Varjo Aero still offers a stunning 35 PPD with aspheric lenses that give it the best clarity and largest sweet-spot that you’ll find on any VR headset (except for, well, Varjo’s more expensive headsets).
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