My Varjo Aero Review

[dburne]

Ironically just in time for me as I am ready to place an order with VR Opticians now that I have my eyeglass prescription for lens inserts for my Aero. . Appears they do a pretty good job. I look forward to getting them and see the difference they make for me with the view in the headset.

 

 

[javelina1]

3 hours ago, dburne said:

Ironically just in time for me as I am ready to place an order with VR Opticians now that I have my eyeglass prescription for lens inserts for my Aero. . Appears they do a pretty good job. I look forward to getting them and see the difference they make for me with the view in the headset.

 

 

they sure do Don!  you can't go wrong with VR Opticians.  I've been using them in my G2 for the last 8 months.  Highly recommended.  Glad you're getting them for your Aero!

[dburne]

Just now, javelina1 said:

they sure do Don!  you can't go wrong with VR Opticians.  I've been using them in my G2 for the last 8 months.  Highly recommended.  Glad you're getting them for your Aero!

Great to hear much thanks!

[DavePastry]

On 3/23/2022 at 4:46 PM, dburne said:

Ironically just in time for me as I am ready to place an order with VR Opticians now that I have my eyeglass prescription for lens inserts for my Aero. . Appears they do a pretty good job. I look forward to getting them and see the difference they make for me with the view in the headset.

 

 

thats awesome, just ordered for my (someday) incoming aero. Wish I'd known about these when I got my index lo those many years ago now, I've always been very careful when cleaning the lenses but despite my best efforts the soft plastic of the lenses are no marred by a bunch of micro scratches. 

[dburne]

Ok so after spending almost a week with my new prescription glasses I was comfortable enough to go ahead and place my order with VR Optician for the lens inserts for my Aero. I chose the Fed EX Priority option for shipping so hopefully will have them soon. I also chose the blue light filtering option, not entirely sure what that means from what I can gather may help reduce eye fatigue.

I will update the thread with my thoughts on the new lens inserts once I have them in use. Certainly excited to try them out.

[Burt]

Good choice ! I have enjoyed mine for sure and I like how better they snap on the lenses versus VRWave brand which I didn’t like how they would come off very easy and the shape was to square. 

[Badger633]

2 hours ago, dburne said:

Ok so after spending almost a week with my new prescription glasses I was comfortable enough to go ahead and place my order with VR Optician for the lens inserts for my Aero. I chose the Fed EX Priority option for shipping so hopefully will have them soon. I also chose the blue light filtering option, not entirely sure what that means from what I can gather may help reduce eye fatigue.

I will update the thread with my thoughts on the new lens inserts once I have them in use. Certainly excited to try them out.

How are you finding the smoothness of the Varjo in DCS. I have index at the moment and like how smooth things are. A little concerned that if I get the Arjo it might be a bit jerky. 
I am using a SSD, I9900k overclocked to 5ghz and a Strix 3090 video card. 
Thanks

[dburne]

17 minutes ago, Badger633 said:

How are you finding the smoothness of the Varjo in DCS. I have index at the moment and like how smooth things are. A little concerned that if I get the Arjo it might be a bit jerky. 
I am using a SSD, I9900k overclocked to 5ghz and a Strix 3090 video card. 
Thanks

 

I am finding it very smooth. Understand smoothness can be a very personal and subjective thing, what seem smooth  to one individual may not seem as smooth to the other. I find it just as good as Index or Reverb G2 in that department, maybe little better than my Vive Pro 2 in terms of smoothness. I find as long as I maintain min of 45 fps to me it is very smooth.  We have very similar rigs. I am now running my i9 9900k at 5.1 Gz all cores, 32 GB of PC 3200 MHz ram, and EVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra.

I have been flying your Rise of the Persian Lion campaign for the Hornet and going through Apache training. Loving my Aero. Usually during flight I am in the 60's fps wise. I also find the fps to be very consistent with the Aero, no wild jumps up and down but more consistent overall.

Edited March 26, 2022 by dburne

[SkipCarey]

So is this a big difference compared to the G2?Im tempted but $2400 is a lot of money.............at least to me that is

 

[Supmua]

At higher video setting, the clarity is similar to a 4KTV.  And that clarity also translates to the peripheral vision. Glance left right up or down and it’s all in focus, this is the main advantage of aspheric lens which also yields crisper images than fresnel.
 

Smoothness is relative as people have varying perceptions, but I don’t find any smoothness issue with the Aero as long as the frame rate is 45 fps.  In MSFS, it’s fine even at 30 fps perhaps OpenXR has something to do with this. 
 

The headset still doesn’t have motion smoothing (not working properly yet) so if you are used to that from your current headsets you might not like this, but people can always adapt and get used to new changes. It does have something called V-Sync which tries to even out frame pacing, thereby reducing juddering experience—this can cost a bit of fps depending on how close you are to the next reprojection ratio. 
 

Pricing is still an issue as it is a lot of money, and by this time next year you will likely see more headset announcements with similar or better features, or even the Aero2.  The question is do you want a crazy good VR experience now or are you going to wait another year. 
 

EDIT: I take back my now comment on the last paragraph. There are people who ordered on Dec 2021 and still haven’t got their headsets. So getting one now is out of the question. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Supmua

[dburne]

8 hours ago, SkipCarey said:

So is this a big difference compared to the G2?Im tempted but $2400 is a lot of money.............at least to me that is

 

It is a fairly significant difference. Whether it is worth all that money to you is a very personal thing and hard to say.

And I agree with all that Supmua stated as well. I am very much loving mine and glad I got it when I did. I use it daily for a few hours a day.

Edit: Just got notice my lens inserts from VR Optician is shipping today on Fed Ex. That is really fast turn around time, just ordered on Saturday. Hopefully will be using them here soon now.

Edited March 29, 2022 by dburne

[SkipCarey]

my problem with G2 is the small sweet spot but ive gotten used to it ,is the aero sweet spot bigger?(Ive watched the reviews on YT,but dont really trust reviewers any more)

[dburne]

14 minutes ago, SkipCarey said:

my problem with G2 is the small sweet spot but ive gotten used to it ,is the aero sweet spot bigger?(Ive watched the reviews on YT,but dont really trust reviewers any more)

Just about the entire lens, I would say around 95%. This really is the biggest feature of the Aero.

Edited March 29, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

They have arrived. Grandkids are in until Sat morning so not sure how much time I will get to try these out. I just did a quick check in the DCS menu and a quick look in the Hornet and Apache cockpits. OMG what a nice difference. I just thought the Aero was great before, now it is super sharp. I had not realized how bad my eyes had gotten until I went to have them checked and get a prescription.

Very easy and quick to install, just snaps right into place. And the turn around time was incredible, sent my order in last Saturday with my prescription and arrived today. I did choose the more expensive Fed EX option though. But they processed these and shipped out on Monday which was fantastic.

Edited March 31, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

I seem to be coming down with a head cold today but did manage to get a couple of hours in with my new prescription lens inserts from VR Opticians this morning.

Very pleased with these, did some Apache and Hornet flying today and the image clarity is so much better now for me.  I checked what my auto IPD did in the Aero with the new inserts, and it still set the same 69 as it had done previously so the prescription lenses did not affect that.  Overall I am very pleased and the price is reasonable especially compared to what my new glasses cost. And turn around time was extremely quick. I would not hesitate to recommend VR Opticians to anyone needing prescription glasses. They fit beautifully in the headset as well.

[dburne]

Thought I should update my review here on the Aero with the latest news. Mine died today. After just over 5 months of fairly heavy use without a single issue, my Aero has bit the dust.  I have opened a support ticket just now with Varjo and sent all the diagnostic logs.

So my VR progression - Rift CV1, Rift S, Quest, Index, Reverb G2, Vive Pro 2, and now Aero.  Out of all of these, Aero was the most expensive by far. And out of all of these, Aero is the first headset I have ever owned that died on me.  Understand I have been extremely pleased with my Aero - right up until today. Today I am not feeling so great.

So now I will update as I progress through the support ticket with Varjo. Will see how they handle this one.

[Supmua]

Sorry to hear that, Don, kind of unexpected. I hope it’s the linkbox or cable iissue rather than the screen as the latter would be a pain to replace considering a lot of people are having issues with dead pixels and blurriness. 
 

My Aero from the same batch is still ok *finger crossed*..

[dburne]

My first response from support:

Quote

We are facing some temporary delays in responding to all the inquiries, but we will get back to you as soon as possible.

 

[dburne]

Arch (Varjo) over on Discord took the bull by the horns, we have already debugged it this morning and he determined it is either in the USB cable or Link Box. Makes sense as headset goes through powering on routine - fans spin up, lenses adjust, just a gray image in headset and only 1 usb connect beep rather than the usual 3.

He is having sent to me a new cable and a new link box from their U.S. support site, it will ship out tomorrow as today is a holiday in U.S,

Woohoo - now that it some excellent customer service. Hopefully I will be back in business here very soon.

Going to be hard but reckon I will still hook up Index maybe, not sure I can go even a few days with no VR. Will see, after Aero kind of hard to go back.

Edited July 4, 2022 by dburne

[Gordy]

Varjo support was quite good/responsive when I was working with them on an issue.

My issue was the usb connect was unreliable; at this point I've accepted that I need to disconnect/reconnnect my headset several times before I get a solid signal.  A common failure mode (for me) is what you describe - fans spin up, lenses adjust, green LED, varjo base looks happy - but gray image in the headset.   I thought my headset had failed, because several attempts to restart it all failed and got me a pulsing red LED.   After working on it for awhile, disconnecting and reconnecting the headset up to a dozen or so times gets me back to operating fully, and then it's stable until I shut the system down, generally for several weeks. 

They sent me a replacement, but it behaved the same, and they couldn't reproduce the problem when I shipped the headset back to them, so I suspect it's an idiosyncracy of my hardware/motherboard/whatever.

Point is, try disconnecting/reconnecting a dozen times - unplug the USB-C cable between the headset and the link box -  it might surprise you.  And if you end up giving them some additional data that helps address this behavior, that'd be great.     8-10 misses before it succeeds is not unusual for me, but it always hits within about ten minutes. 

Also, if yours is now behaving like mine, and your replacement link box fixes it, I'm gonna want to know that too

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Gordy said:

Varjo support was quite good/responsive when I was working with them on an issue.

My issue was the usb connect was unreliable; at this point I've accepted that I need to disconnect/reconnnect my headset several times before I get a solid signal.  A common failure mode (for me) is what you describe - fans spin up, lenses adjust, green LED, varjo base looks happy - but gray image in the headset.   I thought my headset had failed, because several attempts to restart it all failed and got me a pulsing red LED.   After working on it for awhile, disconnecting and reconnecting the headset up to a dozen or so times gets me back to operating fully, and then it's stable until I shut the system down, generally for several weeks. 

They sent me a replacement, but it behaved the same, and they couldn't reproduce the problem when I shipped the headset back to them, so I suspect it's an idiosyncracy of my hardware/motherboard/whatever.

Point is, try disconnecting/reconnecting a dozen times - unplug the USB-C cable between the headset and the link box -  it might surprise you.  And if you end up giving them some additional data that helps address this behavior, that'd be great.     8-10 misses before it succeeds is not unusual for me, but it always hits within about ten minutes. 

Also, if yours is now behaving like mine, and your replacement link box fixes it, I'm gonna want to know that too

 

If I had a nickel for every time I disconnected and reconnected everything about the Aero yesterday....

Keep in mind it went from working solid - every day - for 5 months to totally dead. Beside they have already debugged and identified it is either the cable or Link box, which makes sense based on what I am seeing on my end here.

But yeah this puppy has been disconnected totally and reconnected many, many times. Also my LED stayed orange, never green.

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

Well all I heard yesterday from the support center here in the states was an email late in the day saying they had received the request and would work on getting it packed up and sent out as soon as quickly as possible . So did not ship yesterday as I was hoping and not sure when it will ship as they only stated as soon as possible.

Chances of me having by end of week are starting to look a bit slim. Maybe they will in fact get it sent out today and I will get lucky. Withdrawals are starting to kick in lol. I guess depends also on what part of the country here they are shipping it from.

Edited July 6, 2022 by dburne

[dburne]

Woohoo, just got an update from the Varjo service center in Arlington VA. They are sending the repair kit out today via Fed EX for overnight delivery so I will have tomorrow! Already have the tracking number. Not too much longer now thank goodness!

[Burt]

Don you were saying that Varjo was having issues and will this update change your mind in recommending the Varjo? I’ve been saving up to get one hopefully by the end of the year. 
 

Thanks

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Burt said:

Don you were saying that Varjo was having issues and will this update change your mind in recommending the Varjo? I’ve been saving up to get one hopefully by the end of the year. 
 

Thanks

 

Well I will put it like this. I have both a Vive Pro 2 and Index here, which I could easily have set up to keep on flying. But I did not as I am spoiled by the image clarity of the Aero and especially the practically edge to edge clarity. Now if it was a case of having to send the headset back then I would likely have done that as I don't want to go too long without any VR.

Yeah there are issues with some and hopefully they will step up their QC. Mine was solid using every day for 5 months straight, then just went kaput on the USB. The support I received on it was awesome though, mainly through Arch ( Varjo employee)  over on Discord. Hoping sometime tomorrow I will be back in business. I am not sure why my cable or link box went bad, I only played seated and was always careful with the cable.

It is a lot of money though and I can not say obviously what percentage are having issues. But there are still many that have gone so far without any issues. I don't think there is anything really new on the horizon, especially something that would be as good or surpass the Aero at this time. Oculus - Meta - is supposed to be releasing the more expensive Cambria later this year, but not sure it is really going to be a good headset for what we do here. Not enough detail on it yet.

I so far though even with this issue have no regret in my purchase and so look forward to having it working again. Hoping upon hope what I receive tomorrow will get me back in the game.

I would say to anyone that loves VR - if you value image clarity over FOV and have the disposable income to invest in the Aero then ya you should consider it. It is a very nice headset and obviously their support is quite good. I was thrilled to find out they actually have a service center for these things here in the U.S.  If spending this kind of money puts a big strain though, might be better off with Reverb G2 or Vive Pro 2. It won't be that nice edge to edge clarity, but still a pretty good experience.

Edited July 6, 2022 by dburne