All things considered, Varjo XR-4 provided the highest quality VR image I’ve ever seen, approaching complete realism in virtual details. But it doesn’t push forward field of view, at least not without unacceptable tradeoffs. And its passthrough is nothing better than what you’d get on a Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro, and in some ways markedly worse.

Varjo plans to sell XR-4 to wealthy consumers starting later this year. But the gulf between the VR quality and passthrough is so great that I think Varjo should sell a “VR-4” without passthrough, focusing on the headset’s strength as a VR headset without adding cost to support its weakness as a mixed reality device.