Varjo XR-4 Honest Review - $4000 Pre-Production S#@!show

The Varjo XR-4 is insanely good at giving the highest resolution and brightness to its user, unfortunately that’s about it. This headset is more reminiscent of a concept car than a working product. Check out the full review and then let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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[@wickfut8917]

I don't think I could trust Varjo again after selling me an Aero saying it's not getting abandoned and then abandoning it a month later

[@gregprouse1173]

I second that my friend. Its ridiculous honestly - they are pumping and dumping so to speak to make a money grab :)

[@JoTokutora]

The aero still in support until 2026- or late 2025. Windows Mix reality already also dropped support for their headsets

[@wickfut]

@@JoTokutora Yeah, it's still "supported" but none of the firmware updates have addressed any of the issues and have focussed on XR4 problems. Varjo Base still hasn't implemented a simple auto loading redshift fix when you boot or change resolution settings. No local dimming, no DFR which works as standard in most games like Crystal has, no brightness controls from the side buttons etc. No saturation/contrast controls, It's just half baked and left. If it continues to function once Windows 12 releases it'll be a miracle. edit: I'm wickfut. didn't realise I was logged into second A/C.

[@sirgriffinman]

Lol "support" they haven't released any updates for the aero that are meaningful in will over a year. They have a half finished CA fix that users have to run an external script after every reboot to fix the terrible blur/ca of the aero. There is a giant laundry list of features and fixes that needed to be done and they haven't made anymore progress that we can see as I already said for over a year.​@@JoTokutora

[@andresmedina7670]

This man saved me $4000 in 24 minutes. Thank you Sir!

[@picoshmit6547]

the tracking is linked to the game framerate WHAT

[@toddwhiteside8958]

Ooooff wow - great unbiased review. I’ve actually been in contact with Varjo over the course of the past few months asking/waiting for the “consumer” release of this headset… I had targeted this for my largely DCS focused system in the hopes of building out a partial F/A-18 Winwing cockpit thinking (hoping) the MR capabilities would eliminate the blind use of those types of peripherals… scratch that at this point. What a disappointment to hear but thanks for the information.. saved me a lot of headache and frustration for $4k. Shifting sights to the Pimax Super now… finger crossed that’s a usable MR option in the coming months

[@NebraskaDownHiller]

Sounds like you should be following the progress on the somnium VR1

[@user-qi2vl2eg5m]

As you say - a great unbiased review! Like you, I was planning to buy the XR4. Also like you, I am pretty disappointed with how it's shaping up. Whilst the Somnium VR1 could be a real contender, I have serious reservations about the reliability of base stations in my particular use case. The location of my flight sim equipment has too many potential obstacles to the line of signal, even with two base stations. I am considering the Crystal Light as a holding exercise, until Varjo can get its act together, which could be another 12 months from now ... (I really need a new VR headset, as my last one was overheating after 15-20 minutes of use). No decision yet.

[@toddwhiteside8958]

@@NebraskaDownHiller yep certainly keeping my eye on the Somnium progress as well. I’m not super keen on the need for base stations and would much prefer inside out tracking but with the XR4 appearing to be a bit of a dud options for high end optics + usable MR capabilities are limited so we’ll see

[@_zeranom]

Thank you very much for this great and honest review. Now I can avoid another mistake what I did before, when I bought the Varjo VR-3. This headset had a big issue after already 15 month (and we didn’t used this headset so much). Now the Varjo Aero is making already problems from time to time. When I see now your review, I am not in good hope for the future of Varjo. Instead of listening the problems of the clients in the B2C market, they stopped the program of the Aero, because the problems of the products could now everybody read in the discord or KZbin channels. Ofc big companies like Boeing or Volvo get a better individual support, maybe for the the XR4 is a good choice. But it’s time to think why the founder of Varjo has left the company 🤔…

[@riverfisher2123]

Thank you very much for a well thought out and well executed review. It saved alot of 💰 I have the quest 3 that I use for DCS and was looking for more clarity, but do not need the problems of software issues.

[@intotheblue8771]

haha, wow! Thanks for this brutally honest review! Looking forward to future reviews. In between too many over hyped reviews this is such a relief.

[@Nick72c]

Wow! Varjo have some big hills to climb. Thanks for the great review.

[@JasonXBeats]

great video - love the BTTF Car

[@stevebobowski3507]

Out of all of my vr hmds i still like my aero the best. When aero was 1st released it had a tonne of issues and varjo eventually addressed those issues.....hope thats gonna be true with the xr4 as it has a tonne of potential

[@En1gmatic1]

Tbh the sound from your Varjo was the fullest sound out of the 3 from your test. The Q3 and Index sounded more tinny

[@dtz1000]

No. You were probably listening on your phone to come to such a wrong conclusion.

[@oOZellzimaOo]

Can't wait to buy this 2 years from now for (hopefully) 90% off on the used market.

[@dtrjones]

Mmmm better you than me, 2 years from now and there might actually be some decent options around... On top of this video, I've heard the optics has serious problems, mura and poor stereo overlap.

[@replacesoundboard]

6:51 Listening through my IEM, the Varjo sounded the best/most natural to me. Definitely above average. The Quest 3 sounded as ear piercing as you would expect from a smartphone tiny speaker.

[@JoTokutora]

Hum, Im pretty sure all Varjo 4th Gen are 50+ PPD. Only the Varjo 3rd Gen is 35PPD. I think you got confused of your data sheet

[@Emir_de_Passy]

He is confused indeed. But xr4 only renders at 55ppd in varjo native apps. 51 PPD in apps using quad views. And 35ppd in openxr/openvr stereo applications. (Msfs etc). You could supersample MSFS and get higher than 35ppd if you add a 5090 for example.

[@4_am]

Thank you, i watched some other sim guys and he is just a salesman loves and think is the best any set he is using in his vid.

[@Eskoxo]

I thought there was also suppose to be steamvr tracked version but no longer see it on the website but also think most 1st gen tracking devices had tracking issues its mostly software related. I currently use bigscreen beyond and find glare and it being rather dim pretty annoying. Think in the end everyone just wants Valve to get that Index 2 working one of these years... as far as resolution it kind of becomes a gimmick beyond certain point as no gpu will support it and it just increases costs.

[@damiengvideos4337]

The Horizontal FOV is much larger in the XR-4 vs the Aero. In the Aero I get 96 degrees in the XR-4 I get 114 degrees. Its a massive difference!

[@brettgrieves]

I get 110 horizontal on my Aero, not sure if your face shape affect the FOV.

[@cylotron5447]

We are still in the "wild west" of the VR age. It's just a matter of time before headsets become unimaginably good and will be affordable to most people.

[@johnnyalbrecht41]

My X4 steam edition has USB-C connection problems in a loop so what you describe I first thought of the cable but good service from varjo immediately sent a new one to me the problem is not solved . Formatting the PC and reinstalling and still the same problem have you been able to solve this problem then ?? I reported this and I send it back to Varjo and they check it I have to admit that it is a very good headset for me and hope for a fix

[@jackr.749]

I hope they have a lot of enterprise customers out there, kind of wonder how many people still trust Varjo after they drop the price of the Aero just to abolish it a month or two after. And by your review, looks like the XR4 is far from being ready to be released to the public. Yes, Inside out tracking will take a while to get right. The Rift-S was a mess at launch but over a few months, Oculus got it straightened out and it then worked well. Let's just hope they didn't screw it up at the hardware level where it can never be fixed properly.

[@neilsimmons9582]

Thanks for your review. Is it possible to use the XR-4 with base stations?

[@johnnyalbrecht41]

no you need the steam version

[@Aku77777]

Time stamps dude. Apart from that great video.

[@theseekersofgames7867]

Varjo don't have fanboys that would pay 4000k for this

[@b.s.7693]

Of course no one would spend $4,000,000 for a headset 😂

[@johnnyalbrecht41]

@@b.s.7693 got myself the steam version why not

[@VanFS3K]

I wonder how this compares to the somnium VR1

[@seebarry4068]

Ahhhh they saw the apples money and thought that money was for all. It is not.

[@Killswitch1411]

They likely wont be a company in a couple years.

[@stevebobowski3507]

​@@Killswitch1411varjo has military support so dont need us consumer pee ons. Varjo will be around for many years to come.

[@bedel23]

Received my first headset in december, Its June now. My first headset was replaced, my second headset is with them, for replacement.

[@johnnyalbrecht41]

I know what you feel mine is ready to send let us hope that they fix it and that it is of better quality I am a bit afraid of when it does not work again at the moment the people of Varjo have given good suport

[@bedel23]

@@johnnyalbrecht41 They had told me they were going to test the unit before sending it some time last week. I am still waiting.

[@L_Emir_de_Passy]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnfOfoN5pquGjLssi=YUw0YieoN4afgMR4 This is me in my motion platform. Headset has zero issues with intense movements. inside out tracking version. also zero problems with tracking. though, the headset is definitely in beta state and released too early as mentioned. Something overlooked in that video is that MR image quality is not yet optimized. that's written in the release notes. with 20MP cameras, it will probably better than anything else on the market. It's also a shame that he didn't try DCS at 51ppd where the headset shines even more. There is no such thing as 48ppd in Openxr stereo applications like MSFS. what he experienced was 35PPD.

[@anthonylineberry]

What motion platform are you using?

[@dtrjones]

The Quest 3 has 4 tracking cameras. It sounds like from what you are saying the XR4 only has 2 if the bottom 2 are tracking controllers? Well if it needs at least 2 cameras for positional and 1 is compromised because of your flat wall, then that's the issue. A terrible design choice from Varjo. Man this headset is DOA and at that price, it's going to hurt. This feedback will definately hurt the corporate sector sales, especially with more competition appearing in this space. For my money they have been stupid. Better to have tested this technology on a cheaper Aero 2, but no, lets sell a headset for 10,000$ with all this first gen tech, what can go wrong....

[@TAGE_FPV]

Sounds like the Lighthouse version IS the only version to get.

[@dalemckenzie335]

I have one of these and it is terrible. The mixed reality camera image is really poor like worse than webcam in 2006. The internal speakers are dreadful with very limited dynamic range and absolutely no loudness. The vent on top of the headset is so big that when you tip your head forward the tracking from the rear light stations is temporarily lost. The virtual desktop that is used in mixed reality is bleached out with no ability for the contrast to be adjusted. The camera function keeps falling down every other time you load up. Steam VR struggles to connect with the headset. The gasket inside the headset spills light. I had to turn my RAM clockspeed down from 6200 Mhz to 5600Mhz to try to stop the USB C 3.2 from falling down. It is still intermittent. Not worth 4K and whilst the image quality is good it's not amazing. I like the auto calibration but I find the touch bar on the side is a gimmick. Buttons would be better and much more functional. I don't think the cameras utilise 3 chip CCD tech.

[@kevinbrook7033]

Anyone else remember when VR headsets cost £399 to £499 and had fully functioning tracking, controllers and audio out of the box!? Since the launch of the original Aero it now seems standard for HMDs to ship over £2000 and just feature excellent display screens and nothing else. I can remember weighing heavily whether I wanted to make a £650 investment into the Reverb G2 to enhance my flight simming over the Quest 2, but reviews were pretty scathing about its controllers, tracking, software and small FOV. Then Varjo released the Aero and just tripled the price, and ditched controllers, tracking and audio altogether and somehow the perception was much better. From a marketing standpoint it seems to be better to not ship features at all rather than ship them worse quality than a company like Meta can do as the illusion of premiumness is shattered. I wonder if this required base stations still and still cost £4000 and made you buy the tracking and controllers separately whether you would have liked it more? I'd guess probably.. For me, these HMDs are enough out of my price range that I can't consider buying them anyway, but its frustrating that perfect displays are always married to inferior HMDs in every other way. Really hoping that Meta's partnership with LG gives those 4K per eye microOLED panels that LG showed off earlier this month...

[@SJkopa]

I have experienced this product and this VR is the worst trash VR product after Apple Vision Pro. Don't waste any more money on this product. I recommend quest 3.

[@ricardo762]

Yeah at this point and I dare to say it, it’s more reasonable to get an Apple Vision Pro. You actually save on a working product.

[@andyaustin923]

I'm incredibly disappointed with x-4. I have experienced all of the problems you described.

[@Emir_de_Passy]

1) mixed reality mage quality is not final. This is written in the release notes. 2) there is no such thing as 48 ppd in openxr stereo applications. Dcs, Pavlov, the 7th guest and Vail allow for 51ppd because they use quad views. You are limited to 35ppd in Msfs. And motion reprojection at 30 and 45 fps works very well in Msfs.

[@gregprouse1173]

Total nonsense

[@Emir_de_Passy]

@@gregprouse1173 what is?

[@Emir_de_Passy]

​@@gregprouse1173what is?

[@richardnoall3758]

Varjo seem like they are taking lessons from Pimax and releasing half baked products.

[@n9ne]

are you aware of mini LED losing image detail? you should look it up if you didn't know. it's easily the worst display technology and why you don't see many mini LED monitors. this headset uses mini LED. some of the side by side comparisons i have seen are mind blowing.

[@dosperado74]

Glossy faceplate...OMG...that's a NO BUY for sure!

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

Varjo is a scam company, still remember the dirty Aero campaign selling overpriced poorly equipped product, heavy advertised via "bribed" youtube reviewers. Varjo is not on my shopping list for this, and I lost my trust into youtube reviews...

[@b.s.7693]

Calling them a scam company is really wild...

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

@@b.s.7693 well, overcharging for inferior product just based on false advertising is a scam in my book.

[@Killswitch1411]

@@b.s.7693 They're a dishonest and lazy company yes. They dont fix issues people have or take them serously. It took a third party to fix their crappy Red Shift issue and it was never implemented into the base software. F Varjo!

[@SJkopa]

This is a scam company. This Finnish company has a lot of problems.

[@ConvexRook]

Yeah they are purely enterprise based so prices are always high as snoop

[@aj2228]

I'm waiting for pimax crystal super. Yes, crystal lite is nice, but I want the super!!!

[@mahmudistiaq]

Biased, AERO is splendid.

[@seebarry4068]

Ahhhh they saw the apples money and thought that money was for all. It is not.