The First TINY OLED Microdisplay Headset… Arpara VR 5K

The Arpara 5K VR headset is on Kickstarter as the world’s first 5K micro-OLED all-in-one VR headset, pitched as a Meta Quest 2 competitor. There’s also a near-identical tethered version for PC VR. When we made this video in February 2022, you could back it for between 430 and 630 US dollars depending on the version, with shipping expected in March. I’ve been testing the PC VR version, and my advice is to be careful with this one.

Arpara sent me the headset. The video isn’t sponsored and they had no say in what I think.

Why this headset is so small

What makes the Arpara special are the micro-OLED displays inside. They reach high resolutions while being a fraction of the size of the panels in most current VR headsets, and that’s how they got the headset this tiny. A smaller, lighter headset should be more comfortable for longer play sessions. It also leaves room in front of your mouth, so yes, you can drink while you’re in VR.

These displays are very new, though, and they come with disadvantages, which is why hardly any other headsets use them yet. So can a company we’d never heard of make it work before anyone else? I’m skeptical, and here’s why.

What happened before the review

The Kickstarter ends this Saturday, and still nobody outside the company has tried the all-in-one version. That can be normal for Kickstarter projects in the prototype stage, but Arpara’s estimated delivery is next month. It’s strange that it isn’t ready to be reviewed yet.

What they did send me was the tethered PC VR version. The display specs are similar on both, so it still gives a good idea of what you’d get. But a few odd things happened:

• The cable they sent didn’t fit the headset, so I had to shave down my own cable to make it work.
• The headset came with a third-party tracking solution I’d seen years ago. I hoped it had improved. It hadn’t, and the tracking still wasn’t good. I said so, others did too, and Arpara has now dropped it from the package completely, which I think is a good thing.

Tracking, setup and content

Here’s what you get if you back it now:

• The cheapest pledge has no external tracking, only 3 degrees of freedom. That means very limited movement, probably just enough to use it as an external display. I would not get this version.
• The more expensive pledges include the Arpara tracker, a tiny module you mount on the headset. It gives you SteamVR tracking with 6 degrees of freedom, so the natural movement we’re used to on headsets today.

The tracker works with any SteamVR base stations and compatible controllers, and those are extras you’d have to buy yourself. SteamVR tracking doesn’t have the easiest setup, but it’s still the most reliable tracking method so far.

Getting it running was easy for me, because my base stations were already set up. I turned them on and started SteamVR. Apart from some software bugs that need polishing, it worked well with my Valve Index controllers and the tracking was as expected. That means you can play most SteamVR games. Interestingly, Hitman 3 wouldn’t run on it, which tells me some games need to support the headset. With a brand this unknown, you might run into more SteamVR games that don’t work.

You can also connect it to a laptop or a phone, and then it acts like an external display. That’s handy for watching movies or working when there’s no TV or monitor around.

Design and comfort

Without the tracker it’s tiny, and with the tracker it’s still tiny. I adore that part. The tethered unit comes with two straps that are easy to swap: an elite head strap and a soft head strap.

It’s the opposite of the Quest 2 here. The elite strap doesn’t flex enough to feel nice, while the soft strap feels much better, I think because the headset is light enough even with the tracker on. That’s my preferred way to wear it.

It’s sturdy, but it’s almost all plastic and every part feels a bit loose, so it doesn’t come across as great build quality. Still, I dropped it twice by accident and it kept working. What I don’t like is the cable: it’s short, it sits in a weird spot and it’s always in the way.

Display, lenses and visual quality

Inside are two micro-OLED displays with pancake optics, manual IPD adjustment and an individual diopter dial on each lens. I don’t wear glasses, but I did need to set each eye separately to get a sharp image, so maybe I should get that checked. The diopters are a bit annoying because you have to wear the headset while you turn them. Glasses do fit inside, but it’s very uncomfortable, so the diopters will help some people.

A button under the headset switches between resolution modes. Two are supported for VR with the SteamVR tracker, and there are others for watching movies or playing flat games. I mostly played VR games at 70Hz, the mode with the highest resolution, and I also tried the almost-4K mode at 90Hz.

What looks great

These micro-OLED displays look gorgeous. They’re darker than I’m used to, which is one of the known downsides, but Arpara improved the brightness with a recent firmware update and I don’t think it’s bad at all. It’s sharp with good colour contrast, there’s no screen door effect, and the sweet spot is larger than I’m used to. There’s maybe a slight glare from the lens in the middle, but it’s so small it never distracted me.

What doesn’t

The field of view is smaller than most headsets I’ve tried, because the lenses are smaller. The visual acuity is better than most, though, and I honestly don’t mind the smaller FOV. The image is clear almost to the edges, but if you look far to the side without turning your head, the colours shift and it blurs a bit. Together with the smaller FOV that gives games a permanent vignette look. I prefer it to the shape distortion some headsets have, and while playing I tend to forget it.

What bothers me most is smearing with even the slightest head movement. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. It looks like ghosting, maybe some motion blur, and it makes me think Arpara had to compromise on latency or response time. You won’t notice it in games where you stand still, but in most games you move your head a lot, and then you get the smearing even at the highest refresh rate. It makes me a bit motion sick.

Is the Arpara 5K VR headset worth backing?

I respect Arpara for achieving this much. A small, unknown company with probably a small budget building a VR headset and calibrating displays for eyes and faces that differ so much per person is very difficult. We’ve learned that first-hand.

But I can’t recommend it at this price, because there are headsets that give you better value for your money. If it were only the ghosting, I might have been more positive, since that could be fixed. It’s everything together:

• The all-in-one version isn’t ready a month before it’s supposed to ship.
• Even if it ships, there won’t be much to play unless developers decide it’s worth making games for it.
• Micro-OLED displays are facing manufacturing issues right now.

So I don’t have much faith that Arpara can fix all this in a reasonable time, and by the time they might, I expect other headsets with these specs that are more well-rounded. I really hope Arpara succeeds and takes this as feedback rather than criticism. Until it’s fixed, I’d wait for something better. If you still want to look at the campaign, it’s on Kickstarter.