Ok, people…
First of all, when I ordered the Varjo Aero, I made my peace with the price. It is very expensive. Any VR joy per dollar spent comparison is sort of meaningless…yet…one can’t really disregard it either.
I have now spent some days testing the Aero and I found some issues with it. Now I never expected Varjo to kill the VR market with a silver bullet headshot. There’s no such thing as perfect VR. Bear this in mind.
There are limitations to the technology, and we are all individuals.
I really love what VR brings to the flightsim hobby. Others are less impressed. That’s ok. You need to accept some drawbacks with VR. This also apply to the Aero.
What makes the Aero stand out in the crowd?
Well, the aspheric lenses are the key to the picture clarity which made Varjo famous in the commercial VR market. Earlier Varjo VR headsets has a clever quadruple display setup, for even higher resolution. This doesn’t apply to the Aero, but the lenses gives it an edge.
It also has automatic IPD adjustment and a built in cooling fan.
It also has a rather advanced head strap. But that didn’t make it fit my noggin any better. Strike 1.
The aspheric lenses, while very clear compared to standard fresnel lenses, creates a distortion in the image. Strike 2.
The bloody thing cost $2000 plus taxes, and you need to buy at least one Valve Base station for tracking and you need to buy VR hand controllers if you want to play regular VR games. There, I said it. Strike 3?
Well, not so fast.
If you have been following this thread, you have read about me complaining about this and that. Fit, FoV, and distortion have been the main issues.
You have also read about me praising the image clarity.
You have not read about me being very decisive about keeping the Aero or not.
As a last test I went back to the HP Reverb G2, to see if that would make my decision any easier…
Donning the G2 was like putting on a comfortable, worn in hat.
The lenses fogged up, immediately. It’s winter and cold here. The lenses were cold and my warm face made the air condense on the lenses. Hm… That didn’t happen in the Aero. Built in fan, remember?
The G2 is a damn fine VR headset. But it can’t match the picture clarity of the Aero. Even if I had SteamVR at 50% resolution in the Aero and 100% for the G2, there was no comparison. The G2 is good, but the Aero is better. At least when we’re talking about picture clarity.
We kind of expected that, didn’t we?
The image distortion…is also present in the G2. This surprised me. The artifacts that I complained about in the Aero, is also present in the G2. Not exactly the same, and to a lesser degree, but they are there. Had I gotten used to this in the G2, and reacted to it in the Aero because I expected it…?
The FoV is actually about the same. The horizontal FoV anyway. The vertical is smaller. The shape is also different, so maybe that’s what threw me off?
I tried to draw a picture, showing the difference.
The G2 is taller and more angular, whereas the Aero is rounder and slopes down at the top.
The famous sweet spot, or the area in the lens where you get the clearest picture, is larger in the Aero. It’s not edge to edge, but not far from it.
So, the Varjo Aero is actually on par with, or better than the G2.
At least when we’re talking about the displays.
The G2 has inside out tracking, which I thought was a huge plus, compared to the two external trackers I used with my Oculus Rift CV1.
But the tracking of the G2 is not as precise as using a Valve Base Station. Still the tracking of the G2 is very good.
The audio of the Varjo Aero is absolutely…not present…! Well, there is a 3,5mm jack and you get some earbuds. The audio of the G2 is very good, and the Varjo Aero isn’t. Technical KO in favour of the G2.
Lastly, we need to address the price.
Let’s say the Aero is $2000 and the G2 is $500? That’s not too far from the truth, if we ignore the audio, controllers, base station…
Am I four times happier with the Aero, than with the G2?
Am I four times better at shooting down bandits?
Does the Aero make me four times cooler?
The answers are, No, No and No, I’m a pilot and we already max out on the coolness factor 
Remember what I wrote above about the meaninglessness of a price comparison? Well, this is what I mean. Can you put a price on the value of your hobby? Is that value the same as for me? Are you into these kind of things? I am… I never thought I’d be able to answer yes to any of the questions above. Yet I ordered the Varjo Aero… I did it because I have great faith in Varjo as a company, and I want to be part of this journey, which I’m hoping will be a long and exciting one.
I’m keeping it.
Is the Varjo Aero the last VR headset I will ever buy?
Yes. NO!!
And in other news, @PaulRix won’t buy more MSFS add-ons.
