Hints of brilliance which only makes it more frustrating. The clarity can be so sharp it shows the limitations of software meaning textures need to get a whole lot better in games. I'm finding the tracking to be a mess and integration with some software needs improving.
I returned mine. Clarity insane and a step up from Aero for sure. However, lots of pupil swim, distortions, picky lenses, undercooked software, worst mura I've seen, and even dead pixels on my unit...it's hard to figure out who Varjo thinks wants this subpar expensive unit. Even simmers might feel the finicky nature of the software and compromises the aspheric lenses bring. And it is absolutely nuts how bad pass-through was. I don't think any amount of software tweaks will make it worth even $2k, let alone $4k. Looking forward to your full VR1 review! I'm #18 but feel like it might face similar barrel distortions -- deal-breaker after the special sauce Meta lenses I'm used to on my QPro. Thanks as always Sebastian! Love your channel.
Not sure why you are complaining about the binocular overlap. I you look at your recording showing both left and right eyes, the binocular overlap (what is seen by both eyes) appears to be actually quite big...
@@akpanjennings the Focal Edition has MR cameras for pass-through that focus on objects you're looking at based on the eye tracking. That version is $9k. Or $10k maybe? The plain one with 'regular' 31ppd pass-through is $4k. This Focal Ed one supposedly supports 51 ppd for pass-through. Pretty sad Sebastian got the better version and still felt q3 pass-through looks better...it was bad on my regular edition unit.
Varjo has shown that they do listen, so we’ll see how they apply the feedback… thought about the Aero when they had the price drop, but still needed bay stations and controllers and headphones. Also didn’t have the best fov. Crystal light seems to be the better option for high end pc vr consumers compared to the Aero and to the XR4. We still have a long way to go with the form factor, I still believe we are 20 years away from being mainstream. I will be retired and have lots more time for what will surely be mind blowing experiences by then. We may even have another Half Life VR game by then…
Varjo listen? Was the Aero not abandoned shortly after launch and no local dimming added? Varjo don't listen to or learn from anything which is why the XR4 is such a disaster at launch... at least for regular home consumers.
Another great, impartial video Seb. Does any tech company release a product that is finished anymore? I'm really hoping the somnium is good. When will you be reviewing it?
Looking at the clouds and it stays with you. You are describing mura 💯. Also would be interesting to know about the other spherical lens problems like chromatic aberration and distortion at the outer edges. I would imagine the QA for Varjo would have ironed these out though so that's hopeful that you didn't mention them. The final issue baring the price 🤣 would be finding a computer powerful enough to do this headset justice. I have a 4090 and Quest 3, but with MSFS recent improvements I'm able to run this at Ultra settings really smoothly. That combined with wireless and being extremely comfortable with aubika headstrap, then it rather puts me off these highend headsets as none of them are that great outside the resolution and colours.
There is A LOT of Chromatic Aberration. I did not mention it in this first impression video, but I will in the final review if they do not fix it. Also there is warping. The team got a lot of work to do.
Owned and returned an XR4. Lots of improvements on Aero but far from worth the money, even for us developers. Edge Distortions made the added FOV somewhat lower than advertised. Clarity is great as Seb said, but the barrel distortions, pupil swim, tracking issues -- bad overlap -- mura like crazy, and my hmd had DEAD PIXELS! I had 3 Aeros with dead pixels too. Unbelievable that Varjo asks $4k for this. And these issues are partially hardware, as in may never be solved. So...I'm not sure who would spend on this.
yeah imma wait a couple months longer to see if valve or meta releases something better if not im just gonna buy the quest3. only reason i haven't bought a q3 yet is because i don't have any wireless setup and the final price when i buy everything is close to $1000. i don't want to spent $1000 now and 6 months from now valve or some other company releases a standalone headset with foveated rendering and a really nice 35-60ppd resolution which i know is gonna release much sooner than people think.
@@nicktheg00 not sure about quality but definitely image because mini LED which the varjo uses has really bad issues like you can google side by side comparisons and quite literally see 30-50% less IMAGE compared to other lcd technologies. it has something to do with trying to mimic the black levels of OLED.
Varjo have to work on the Software for XR-4 the bug list is long and it holds me up to buy an XR-4 Steam Tracking Edition, thx for your honest pre unboxing try out review Sebastian
Between the price and lenses of the Quest 3, the panels of the XR4, the interface of the AVP, and the display port of the Crystal, we keep getting closer and closer to the VR/AR headset we all want, yet it's so frustrating we just can't quite get there.
I see a real world 114 degrees HFov, for reference on the Crystal I get 102 degrees HFov. Also the black levels are near OLED on the XR-4. Testing back to back against the Crystal there is NO comparison. But for the price it should be that way. Hmmm... I've just never been bothered by binocular overlap or the lack of it.
Could you elaborate please on what you mean by near OLED level? Are you referring to it having smaller local dimming zones (mini-LEDs)? I'm not sure how many are in the XR4.
These companies know they are screwed and are releasing headset after headset until LG, Samsung, Asus, Valve, Lenovo etc releases their new headsets. Why are these headsets so big and aren't even standalone it blows my mind.
MRTV, how does the CHROMATIC ABERRATION compare? Especially regarding things like white text on dark backgrounds? I love my Pimax Crystal but the CA is the one thing I really wish wasn't there, I have to wonder how an Aero 2 based off the XR-4 would potentially compare.
@@mixedrealityTV OH NO! Sounds to me like the bad stereo overlap and bad CA on the XR-4 are the same issues that I've read about reviews of the wide fov lenses for the Crystal.
Pimax is the winner. I was on the roadshow in Nijmegen. Just perfect headset in all the way. The Crystal super is Ultimate I think. Further pixels is not is not recognized by the Human Eye. Then would be the FOV the next upgrades and the Weight. In the Future.
@@RJ-kr4bs If I ever had the money for gear like this, I'm glad I don't have a wife, especially if she loved VR as much as me 🤣 It's like the price of a brand new car 😂 10000$ plus taxes 🥵
I bought one and had the exact same problems, other folks as well. I had USB-C not enough power errors on a 20gb port??? I tried the recent firmware update and base software updates and that helped reduce the the USB-C crashes, but is still has issues there. I will also get a replacement to try out. I believe that this headset has huge potential, but is premature for the open market. For 4k, I expected much more and I'm disappointed.
Im kind of tired of inside out tracking being a standard for high priced products. I dont think anyone is saying "yay inferior tracking!" on a 9k headset.
After what they did with the Varjo aero I wouldn't give them any of my money I don't care how good the headset is after first destroying the aftermarket value by halving the price of the headset and then totally destroying it by discontinuing it. There nothing but a money grab company as far as the gaming community is concerned. It also seems strange that you're waiting for Varjo to send you a cherry pick headset surely what they're sent you is what they would have sent to anyone who purchased it ?? . 🤔
Varjo pulling a Pimax on this one. In Bartman's Bits video on the XR4 he mentioned the same problems with tracking as well as connectivity and software issues. The Crystal had similar problems when it first released as well. You would think Varjo would have taken note of the flak Pimax got over the Crystal release but I guess not. For as much as the XR4 headset costs ($4k starting and apparently the version in this video starts at ten grand!!!) everything should work flawlessly. Varjo should be embarrassed for putting out a product in this state and charging that much ($10k!!!). If they're going to do that they should at the very least put in a confirmation page or mandatory checkbox when ordering where the customer acknowledges that X, Y and Z features are missing or may not work properly due to still being developed/improved. Set the customer's expectations of what they're getting. Also for that much money they should be doing what Sonmnium claims they'll be doing which is validating every lens that goes out as well as checking every display panel for dead pixels/mura and calibrating them. And the VR1 starts at roughly half the price of the XR4. Of course Somnium hasn't even opened orders yet so who knows if this is just marketing B.S. or not but in Varjo's case for how much they're getting paid, they should absolutely be doing this (Somnium probably too as the VR1 ain't cheap). There's just no excuse for this. At this point, you might as well wait for Pimax to come out with the Crystal Super and buy it for half (or 1/5 in the case of this XR4 version) the price. Hopefully Pimax doesn't make the same mistake as Varjo on the stereo (binocular) overlap and can deliver on the lenses. Those lenses are going to be critical for such a high resolution headset. Also it being Pimax, despite their claim of releasing in Q4 2024, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes them until well into 2025 to actually release that headset.
Surprising that a company as professional as Varjo would not understand the importance of binocular overlap. I'm realising more and more this is one of the major factors in immersion. Bad stereo overlap and there is a constant barrier between you and the VR world. That unfortunately is not something they can fix with a quick update. And the tracking sounds as bad as the vive cosmos. How could they let this go out to market? Appreciate your honest review and Varjo should have had you testing early to prevent these issues.
Having said all that, I think Steve had to replace his Quest 3, 6 (six) times before he found one without issues. I love the Quest 3 and mine was fine out the gate. At this price point though, these headsets are not good enough. The Somium VR1 is much better but the weight and outside in tracking just puts me off as well as the price. It would be nice if we have a decent all in one PC VR headset around the 1000$ price point but we don't.
Isn't tech supposed to become more affordable and better refined as time goes by? It's not like VR headsets have only just dropped on the market. At least Pimax seem to have a better price point, 10k whether euro's or not is ridiculous. As someone else mentioned I would also like to see what the Somnium headset will be like, however judging from what I have seen recently the Pimax would be the best upgrade from my HP reverb G2, and I might also be willing to get the lighthouse version for better tracking and play area freedom, plus choice of controllers.
Varjo is dead to me. they pulled out of the consumer market with Aero and who knows what they do next. Glad it fits well but for that money it's hard to justify.
Have you bought the XR4? What are your experiences with the device?
Hints of brilliance which only makes it more frustrating. The clarity can be so sharp it shows the limitations of software meaning textures need to get a whole lot better in games. I'm finding the tracking to be a mess and integration with some software needs improving.
I returned mine. Clarity insane and a step up from Aero for sure. However, lots of pupil swim, distortions, picky lenses, undercooked software, worst mura I've seen, and even dead pixels on my unit...it's hard to figure out who Varjo thinks wants this subpar expensive unit. Even simmers might feel the finicky nature of the software and compromises the aspheric lenses bring. And it is absolutely nuts how bad pass-through was. I don't think any amount of software tweaks will make it worth even $2k, let alone $4k.
Looking forward to your full VR1 review! I'm #18 but feel like it might face similar barrel distortions -- deal-breaker after the special sauce Meta lenses I'm used to on my QPro.
Thanks as always Sebastian! Love your channel.
Not sure why you are complaining about the binocular overlap. I you look at your recording showing both left and right eyes, the binocular overlap (what is seen by both eyes) appears to be actually quite big...
@@conkhi7344you must see it in person.
for a $9,000 headset, it simply needs to be the BEST in ALL categories - no ands ifs or buts
And yet, it's not even best in any one category except for sharpness. I owned but returned the XR4.
$9000? I thought he said $4000
@@akpanjennings the Focal Edition has MR cameras for pass-through that focus on objects you're looking at based on the eye tracking. That version is $9k. Or $10k maybe?
The plain one with 'regular' 31ppd pass-through is $4k. This Focal Ed one supposedly supports 51 ppd for pass-through. Pretty sad Sebastian got the better version and still felt q3 pass-through looks better...it was bad on my regular edition unit.
According to Varjo's website, the Focal Edition (what's in this video):
Starting at 9,990 €/$.
But at least there's no subscription amirite? 😉
This is not consumers product
Varjo has shown that they do listen, so we’ll see how they apply the feedback… thought about the Aero when they had the price drop, but still needed bay stations and controllers and headphones. Also didn’t have the best fov. Crystal light seems to be the better option for high end pc vr consumers compared to the Aero and to the XR4. We still have a long way to go with the form factor, I still believe we are 20 years away from being mainstream. I will be retired and have lots more time for what will surely be mind blowing experiences by then. We may even have another Half Life VR game by then…
Varjo listen? Was the Aero not abandoned shortly after launch and no local dimming added? Varjo don't listen to or learn from anything which is why the XR4 is such a disaster at launch... at least for regular home consumers.
Although it’s too expensive for most, it’s always neat to learn about new VR products.
Yeah that’s why I like to look at them and watch people review them. Especially when I want information before I even buy them
I am really curious as to how the $4000 Vario will compare with $899 Crystal
No eye tracking on the $899 Crystal. The $4000 varjo headset has better panels. Similar to the planned Pimax Crystal Super
Great simple and honest review - well done.
Is not a review. Read the title
Thanks for the preview! I’ll be interested hear the follow ups.
Another great, impartial video Seb. Does any tech company release a product that is finished anymore? I'm really hoping the somnium is good. When will you be reviewing it?
I have no idea, I have not heard from them yet.
"Does any tech company release a product that is finished anymore?"
How you just know a comment was written in the 2020s.
Looking at the clouds and it stays with you. You are describing mura 💯. Also would be interesting to know about the other spherical lens problems like chromatic aberration and distortion at the outer edges. I would imagine the QA for Varjo would have ironed these out though so that's hopeful that you didn't mention them. The final issue baring the price 🤣 would be finding a computer powerful enough to do this headset justice. I have a 4090 and Quest 3, but with MSFS recent improvements I'm able to run this at Ultra settings really smoothly. That combined with wireless and being extremely comfortable with aubika headstrap, then it rather puts me off these highend headsets as none of them are that great outside the resolution and colours.
There is A LOT of Chromatic Aberration. I did not mention it in this first impression video, but I will in the final review if they do not fix it. Also there is warping. The team got a lot of work to do.
Owned and returned an XR4. Lots of improvements on Aero but far from worth the money, even for us developers.
Edge Distortions made the added FOV somewhat lower than advertised. Clarity is great as Seb said, but the barrel distortions, pupil swim, tracking issues -- bad overlap -- mura like crazy, and my hmd had DEAD PIXELS! I had 3 Aeros with dead pixels too. Unbelievable that Varjo asks $4k for this. And these issues are partially hardware, as in may never be solved. So...I'm not sure who would spend on this.
yeah imma wait a couple months longer to see if valve or meta releases something better if not im just gonna buy the quest3. only reason i haven't bought a q3 yet is because i don't have any wireless setup and the final price when i buy everything is close to $1000. i don't want to spent $1000 now and 6 months from now valve or some other company releases a standalone headset with foveated rendering and a really nice 35-60ppd resolution which i know is gonna release much sooner than people think.
Mura on a $9000 dollar headset? No thanks! I own a Vision Pro and from what I’ve heard the image quality of its displays is leagues better than this.
@@nicktheg00 not sure about quality but definitely image because mini LED which the varjo uses has really bad issues like you can google side by side comparisons and quite literally see 30-50% less IMAGE compared to other lcd technologies. it has something to do with trying to mimic the black levels of OLED.
Great job.
It should be perfect at this price, they need to hire Sebastien for very gut money.
I like you. :)
Clarity, field of view, and ppd are everything in VR. All other features are secondary.
First thing.. comfort.
Looks like the XR4 is step backwards due the lens shape and the other issues mentioned and price point.
Varjo have to work on the Software for XR-4 the bug list is long and it holds me up to buy an XR-4 Steam Tracking Edition, thx for your honest pre unboxing try out review Sebastian
Between the price and lenses of the Quest 3, the panels of the XR4, the interface of the AVP, and the display port of the Crystal, we keep getting closer and closer to the VR/AR headset we all want, yet it's so frustrating we just can't quite get there.
I see a real world 114 degrees HFov, for reference on the Crystal I get 102 degrees HFov. Also the black levels are near OLED on the XR-4. Testing back to back against the Crystal there is NO comparison. But for the price it should be that way. Hmmm... I've just never been bothered by binocular overlap or the lack of it.
Could you elaborate please on what you mean by near OLED level? Are you referring to it having smaller local dimming zones (mini-LEDs)? I'm not sure how many are in the XR4.
Why are you comparing a $10,000 headset with a $1,600 one?
On quest 2 does Anyone know how do i edit my task bar to remove or switch out, horizon feeds, store and people apps?! they make the menu useless
hopefully Vario is onto all these issues- the main one being the binocular overlap or lack thereof 9K headset hmmmm VR1 is inbound soon
$10k lol
These companies know they are screwed and are releasing headset after headset until LG, Samsung, Asus, Valve, Lenovo etc releases their new headsets.
Why are these headsets so big and aren't even standalone it blows my mind.
MRTV, how does the CHROMATIC ABERRATION compare? Especially regarding things like white text on dark backgrounds?
I love my Pimax Crystal but the CA is the one thing I really wish wasn't there, I have to wonder how an Aero 2 based off the XR-4 would potentially compare.
CA on the XR4 is worse than on Crystal!
@@mixedrealityTV OH NO! Sounds to me like the bad stereo overlap and bad CA on the XR-4 are the same issues that I've read about reviews of the wide fov lenses for the Crystal.
Pimax is the winner. I was on the roadshow in Nijmegen. Just perfect headset in all the way. The Crystal super is Ultimate I think. Further pixels is not is not recognized by the Human Eye. Then would be the FOV the next upgrades and the Weight. In the Future.
Yes it is so good.
Wish they sent you the basic XR4 not the 10k focal edition :(
This is like 75000 Danish Crowns 😮
That's a lot! But you can still wear only one at a time, right? 😂
@@RJ-kr4bs If I ever had the money for gear like this, I'm glad I don't have a wife, especially if she loved VR as much as me 🤣
It's like the price of a brand new car 😂
10000$ plus taxes 🥵
I bought one and had the exact same problems, other folks as well. I had USB-C not enough power errors on a 20gb port??? I tried the recent firmware update and base software updates and that helped reduce the the USB-C crashes, but is still has issues there. I will also get a replacement to try out. I believe that this headset has huge potential, but is premature for the open market.
For 4k, I expected much more and I'm disappointed.
Mr. Ang, I am so grateful for your unbiased assessment of this costly VR headset! I will wait for quality to match the cost.
It better scream quality for thousands of dollars
Varjo still has to tweak it a bit. I think they can do it with time.
Great review
Varjo will knock it out of the park with AERO II.
It is disappointing from Varjo. I hope they get back on track quickly.
There likely won't be an Aero II. They announced they pulled out of the consumer market and are focusing on business/enterprise sector.
these strap parts with some kind of mesh might become annoying if your hair stucks in them.
Im kind of tired of inside out tracking being a standard for high priced products. I dont think anyone is saying "yay inferior tracking!" on a 9k headset.
People should realize that the Apple Vision Pro cost makes sense after watching this.
Never create headsets with bad binocular overlap. It must never be supported
and still feels like your peering through a couple of toilet rolls
After what they did with the Varjo aero I wouldn't give them any of my money I don't care how good the headset is after first destroying the aftermarket value by halving the price of the headset and then totally destroying it by discontinuing it. There nothing but a money grab company as far as the gaming community is concerned. It also seems strange that you're waiting for Varjo to send you a cherry pick headset surely what they're sent you is what they would have sent to anyone who purchased it ?? . 🤔
Looks really good,however its very expensive. Maybe an Aero 2 .At that price the image needs to be perfect.
There likely won't be an Aero II. Varjo dropped consumer headsets and are focusing on business/enterprise only.
$9K? Might as well be $100k at this point...
Varjo pulling a Pimax on this one. In Bartman's Bits video on the XR4 he mentioned the same problems with tracking as well as connectivity and software issues. The Crystal had similar problems when it first released as well. You would think Varjo would have taken note of the flak Pimax got over the Crystal release but I guess not.
For as much as the XR4 headset costs ($4k starting and apparently the version in this video starts at ten grand!!!) everything should work flawlessly. Varjo should be embarrassed for putting out a product in this state and charging that much ($10k!!!). If they're going to do that they should at the very least put in a confirmation page or mandatory checkbox when ordering where the customer acknowledges that X, Y and Z features are missing or may not work properly due to still being developed/improved. Set the customer's expectations of what they're getting.
Also for that much money they should be doing what Sonmnium claims they'll be doing which is validating every lens that goes out as well as checking every display panel for dead pixels/mura and calibrating them. And the VR1 starts at roughly half the price of the XR4. Of course Somnium hasn't even opened orders yet so who knows if this is just marketing B.S. or not but in Varjo's case for how much they're getting paid, they should absolutely be doing this (Somnium probably too as the VR1 ain't cheap). There's just no excuse for this.
At this point, you might as well wait for Pimax to come out with the Crystal Super and buy it for half (or 1/5 in the case of this XR4 version) the price. Hopefully Pimax doesn't make the same mistake as Varjo on the stereo (binocular) overlap and can deliver on the lenses. Those lenses are going to be critical for such a high resolution headset. Also it being Pimax, despite their claim of releasing in Q4 2024, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes them until well into 2025 to actually release that headset.
Surprising that a company as professional as Varjo would not understand the importance of binocular overlap. I'm realising more and more this is one of the major factors in immersion. Bad stereo overlap and there is a constant barrier between you and the VR world. That unfortunately is not something they can fix with a quick update. And the tracking sounds as bad as the vive cosmos. How could they let this go out to market? Appreciate your honest review and Varjo should have had you testing early to prevent these issues.
you're panel have problem, Steve sample have problem, o nanother review they have to replace.. Bad, very bad
Having said all that, I think Steve had to replace his Quest 3, 6 (six) times before he found one without issues. I love the Quest 3 and mine was fine out the gate. At this price point though, these headsets are not good enough. The Somium VR1 is much better but the weight and outside in tracking just puts me off as well as the price. It would be nice if we have a decent all in one PC VR headset around the 1000$ price point but we don't.
Basic version of the vr1 does weigh 850 grams only @@dtrjones
Isn't tech supposed to become more affordable and better refined as time goes by? It's not like VR headsets have only just dropped on the market. At least Pimax seem to have a better price point, 10k whether euro's or not is ridiculous. As someone else mentioned I would also like to see what the Somnium headset will be like, however judging from what I have seen recently the Pimax would be the best upgrade from my HP reverb G2, and I might also be willing to get the lighthouse version for better tracking and play area freedom, plus choice of controllers.
Having such problems for its price it's ridiculous
Varjo is dead to me. they pulled out of the consumer market with Aero and who knows what they do next. Glad it fits well but for that money it's hard to justify.
Is it possible to play Meta games on this bad boy ?
You are SO lucky !
Meta games aren't PCVR. so no.
@@adrenalinejunkie3828 I miss the old good days with Revive, so sad I doesn't work anymore.
But thanks for the reply 🙏
Kinda seems half baked