Oculus Quest 2 is undoubtedly the most successful VR headset. Quest 2 is estimated to have sold over 10 million units, offering a more affordable standalone headset without needing a gaming PC. ByteDance subsidiary Pico is actively challenging the reigning champ with the Pico 4, and if current pre-orders are anything to go by, Meta should be concerned.
Launching today across Europe and Asia, Pico 4 is fighting to become the best VR headset before Oculus Quest 3 arrives, targeting a different market than Meta Quest Pro. However, if you pre-ordered the headset in Europe, we’ve got bad news; Pico has confirmed some orders won’t arrive on time, citing “unprecedented global demand.”
“There will unfortunately, be delays in fulfilling some customer pre-orders in the EU region. We are working tirelessly to ensure that demand is satisfied by the end of October,” Pico announced via Twitter. Continuing through a follow-up tweet, the company says it “strongly recommend[s] that you keep your back order in place at your preferred retailer as we will be prioritising existing back orders first.”
Pico 4 offers some improvements over Meta’s popular standalone headset. Firstly, there’s a higher LCD screen resolution at 2160×2160 per eye, which compares favourably to the 1832×1920 resolution for Quest 2. Pico 4 also includes a broader field-of-view (FOV) at 105° and 8GB of RAM, while Quest 2 uses 90° FOV and 6GB of RAM. That said, Quest 2 is two years older than Pico 4, so these improvements aren’t surprising.
Though it isn’t available in the US, the 128GB model retails for £379 GBP / €429 which places it around $415 USD, while the 256GB model costs £449 GBP / €499 / (est. $482 USD). That’s slightly dearer than Meta’s VR headset, even with the recent Oculus Quest 2 price increase. A Pico 4 Enterprise model is also coming, but unfortunately, that’s strictly a business headset.