VRHow / Headsets / Varjo VR-3

Varjo VR-3: historical specs, price and support

Short answer: The Varjo VR-3 was a professional, PC-tethered virtual-reality headset announced on December 1, 2020 and shipped from early 2021. It paired Varjo’s dual-resolution “Bionic Display” with eye and hand tracking, but it was not the XR-3’s mixed-reality model. Varjo says production is discontinued and the headset is permanently sold out; general Varjo Base support ended January 1, 2026. Last checked October 11, 2026.

What the VR-3 was

The VR-3 was designed for enterprise training, simulation, design and engineering rather than as a consumer standalone headset. Varjo’s product page specifies a full-frame display with a 27° × 27° focus area at 70 pixels per degree (uOLED, 1,920 × 1,920 per eye) and a peripheral area above 30 pixels per degree (LCD, 2,880 × 2,720 per eye). It lists a 115° horizontal field of view, 90 Hz refresh rate, automatic 59–71 mm IPD adjustment, 200 Hz eye tracking and Ultraleap Gemini hand tracking. The listed mass is 558 g for the headset plus 386 g for the headband.

ItemVerified VR-3 detail
DisplayDual-resolution Bionic Display: 1,920 × 1,920 per eye focus area; 2,880 × 2,720 per eye peripheral area
Field of view / refresh115° horizontal / 90 Hz
TrackingSteamVR Tracking 2.0 (or 1.0); 200 Hz eye tracking; Ultraleap Gemini hand tracking
PC connectionTwo DisplayPort outputs and two USB-A 3.0+ connections; two 5 m USB-C headset cables and adapters were listed
Audio3.5 mm audio jack with microphone support
Original announced priceUS$3,395 plus a one-year subscription starting at US$795 (Varjo, December 2020)

Varjo’s product page also lists 99% sRGB and 93% DCI-P3 color coverage. These are manufacturer specifications, not an independent measurement or a promise of application performance.

VR-3 versus XR-3 and XR-4

The VR-3 and XR-3 launched together and shared the display, eye tracking, hand tracking and 115°/90 Hz headline specifications. The model boundary is important: Varjo described LiDAR, stereo RGB video pass-through, depth awareness and inside-out tracking as XR-3-specific features. The VR-3’s listed positional tracking is SteamVR Tracking, so do not transfer XR-3 mixed-reality or inside-out claims to this headset.

The XR-4 Series is a later generation, not another name for the VR-3. Varjo’s current support notice says it is focusing manufacturing on XR-4 and separately identifies VR-3 as a discontinued older-generation model. This page does not infer XR-4 performance, compatibility or pricing for VR-3.

Workstation and software requirements

Varjo’s XR-3/VR-3 requirements page calls for Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11, 32 GB RAM, two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, two USB-A 3.0/3.1 ports and an NVIDIA GPU. Its listed minimum desktop GPU examples are GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 2080 Ti or Quadro RTX 6000; listed recommended examples include RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 6000 Ada or RTX A6000. AMD graphics cards are marked unsupported on that requirements page. Varjo Base 3.0–4.14 and SteamVR are part of the documented software path, with OpenVR/OpenXR runtimes enabled through Varjo Base.

VR-3 tracking is a real setup dependency: Varjo documents SteamVR Tracking for the VR-3, normally using SteamVR base stations. A used headset therefore needs more than a display cable: verify the headset, both adapters and power supplies, compatible DisplayPort/USB connections, base stations, Varjo Base access and any required controllers or tracking accessories. The product page’s “compatible software” list is not a guarantee that every application or current driver will work.

Availability and support status

Varjo’s current support notice says VR-3 production has been discontinued and the headset is permanently sold out. Varjo Base support for VR-3 ended on January 1, 2026; version 4.14 and earlier can still be used without licenses or login, but there are no Base updates or bug fixes, subscriptions, out-of-warranty technical/developer support, spare parts or repairs. Varjo separately offers a business-only extended compatibility package intended to maintain specified SteamVR, NVIDIA driver and Windows 11 25H2 compatibility through January 1, 2028; it is not general future-compatibility coverage and is not available to consumers.

Price conflict: Varjo’s contemporaneous launch release says US$3,395 plus a US$795 starting annual subscription, while specialist outlet UploadVR reported US$3,195 plus subscription in its November 30, 2020 coverage. Both are historical launch-era figures, not a current used-market value. There is no current Varjo retail price because the model is sold out.

This is a documentation page, not a hands-on review. It makes no claim about image quality in a particular application, comfort, frame rate or current resale condition. For the broader headset directory, see all VRHow headset pages.

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