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 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.

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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.

Check out the specs below:

Varjo Aero Specs
Resolution 2,880 x 2,720 (7.8MP) per-eye, mini-LED LCD (2x)
Refresh Rate 90Hz
Lenses Aspheric
Field-of-view (claimed) 134° diagonal, 115° horizontal (at 12mm eye-relief)
Optical Adjustments IPD (automatic motor driven)
IPD Adjustment Range 57–73mm
Connectors USB-C → breakout box (USB-A 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4)
Cable Length 5m
Tracking SteamVR Tracking 1.0 or 2.0 (external beacons)
On-board cameras 2x eye-tracking
Input None included (supports SteamVR controllers)
Audio 3.5mm aux port
Microphone None (supports external mic through aux port)
Pass-through view No
Weight 487g + 230g headstrap with counterweight
Newsletter graphic

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Naruto Uzumaki

    So they where making 2 x money on this headset that’s insane considering meta wants to destroy the competition i bet apple vision pro will drop its price

    • ViRGiN

      What competition?

    • Chris Meeks

      Apple drop a price? lol.

    • At this point the Apple Tools in The Media have already declared the theoretical Apple headset a “Market Leader”… despite currently not existing. Why lower a price on something when the logo sells it at any price?

      They might as well raise the price! Those Silicon Valley suckers have the cash. They make absurd money while the rest of us consider burning the country down. They should price it at an even $5000. Hell, make a Rose-Gold version and sell it for $10,000. They aren’t charging enough!

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Why would they? “Pro” means: for creators and enthusiasts – many members of both communities would not have too much trouble with the price. For the rest of us, there will be a non-Pro version a year or two later at less than half the price – still way more expensive than Quest 3, but better and probably with massively more software. Meta is also making a business model out of getting as much user data as possible, which helps sponsor the price of the Quest. If you do not want that, you likely will have to pay double the price.

  • ViRGiN

    What makes headset a “high end”?

    • Pab

      for me is visuals, comfort and flexibility.

      • ViRGiN

        That doesn’t sound anything high-end.

        • Pab

          What does to you?

          • ViRGiN

            Support for truly new features, something going truly beyond Gen1 VR, nicely integrated to co-work together.

            Room obstacle detection, eye tracking, hand tracking, correct color passthrough, proper high quality pancake lenses, improved standalone power (there is still no standard for hand and eye tracking on PC), making slimmer headset, wireless connectivity.
            And since passthrough is a thing, Mixed Reality support.

            At least combination of multiple of these. Quest Pro is basically that, except it’s more of a devkit. Quest 3 seems to check all these things, minus eye tracking (cost and no support from developers yet).
            If there is eye tracking, then I don’t expect it to just be there, it needs a reason to exist and drive eye tracked-features, like controlling OS similar to vision pro.

            Varjo is nothing more than a high resolution devkit.
            I didn’t mention comfort since that’s always personal, but I dont buy shilling for example with valve index ~800g or pimax crystal ~1.1kg, you don’t just balance these things out lol.

            I have no idea what you mean with flexibility.

            It’s hard to pack features into television – it’s just software, panel size/type and resolution basically. And yet the “high end” TVs don’t really offer anything special, ground breaking or breath taking.

          • Pab

            I agree with your concept, but I don´t think the Quest 3 will have enough of these to be called “more advanced”. For me the PSVR2 is certainly advanced, except for its limited flexibility, meaning, the hability to run on different systems and to be unhooked.

          • ViRGiN

            Mixed Reality with color passthrough higher quality than Quest Pro, driven by depth sensor – I would say it’s infinietly more expensive than the most basic inside-out PSVR2 headset where the only new feature is head rumble motor (and still rarely properly used by developers).

          • Pab

            alright, fair enough. I usually don´t care for the AR captability of a headset, but it does have many uses.

          • ViRGiN

            hard to care about something that was basically never done before.
            it’s a new feature.

          • Pab

            You are claiming this is the first AR headset ever?

          • ViRGiN

            First consumer oriented real product with backing of massive company.
            Do you know any others that developers actually adopted?
            Quest 2 served as easily available devkit, and we got multiple games using it already. I’m sure we will see some more tomorrow.

  • I guess those “enterprise” suckers are drying up. You can only milk the clueless wealthy for so long before they realize they don’t need you. “Enterprise” just means overpriced. “Comsumer” does not mean “Dirty Plebs”, it just means “Competitively Priced”.

  • Good

  • Andrew Jakobs

    I guess they’re clearing their current stock and have a new headset around the corner, or they are completely getting out of the consumer business.

    • ViRGiN

      Not everyone is purely money oriented like you.

      This is clearly nothing more than being altruistic, they want high quality vr in the hands of more people.
      Oh and it’s clear answer to valve deckard

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Clear answer to something that doesn’t exist yet?

        And yeah, it has never happened for companies lowering their price to clear stock of older hardware, that happens WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more times then lowering the price, at the end of its lifecycle, ‘to get it in the hands of more people’.

        • ViRGiN

          Just because you haven’t used it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

        • Pab

          From this I had to reassess the age I thought VirGiN had.

          • ViRGiN

            I’m not as dated as Andrew is.

          • Pab

            quite certainly

      • Thud

        Why don’t you shut up instead of throwing around insults to other peoples character without justification. You have zero character. An egotist of the highest order. F’n clown

        • ViRGiN

          why dont you do you?

        • TH_VR_RD

          I’m guessing these posts belong to Virgin, all I see is a ‘content unavailable’ marker. It was worth the couple of seconds it took to block them.

      • KRAKEN

        lol

    • Captain Dunbrody

      Just a good advice, block him, like everyone else.

  • NotMikeD

    Imagine biting on an Aero during the month of August when it was on a “limited time sale” for $1500, only to have it further reduce price an additional 25% (permanently apparently) a few days later. There’s got to be at least a few pissed off people out there.

    • ViRGiN

      Then they should have gotten Valve Index that didn’t go up in price despite inflation.

      Things get sales. And most respected online stores have something like 30 days price match guarantee – meaning they could get their $500 back, not sure if Varjo follows that, but if not, and $1500 customers decided to keep the device then it’s on them and their piss off is unjustified.