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ByteDance’s Pico VR unit unveils low-cost headset in battle with Meta’s Quest 2

  • Similar to Quest 2, Pico 4 tracks the movement of both a user’s head and body, then translates that into VR with realistic precision
  • The new headset will be available in mid-October in 13 European countries, as well as Japan and South Korea

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An earlier model of Pico Interactive’s VR headset. Photo: Handout
Coco Feng

TikTok owner ByteDance has launched a new stand-alone virtual reality (VR) headset to rival Meta Platforms’ Quest 2 gadget, as competition for the metaverse heats up.

Pico, the VR developer acquired by ByteDance a year ago, unveiled the Pico 4, which consists of a visor with a 4K+ resolution display and 105-degree field of view, plus a pair of touch controllers.

Similar to Quest 2, the most popular VR headset, Pico 4 also allows six degrees of freedom, which tracks the movement of both a user’s head and body, then translates that into VR with realistic precision. Both devices are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chipset and feature a refresh rate of up to 90 hertz.

However, Pico 4 has a greater display resolution, and is lighter and cheaper. The resolution of up to 2,160 x 2,160 pixels per eye compares with Quest 2’s resolution of 1,832 x 1,920 pixels for each eye.

Pico 4’s visor weighs just 295 grams without the strap, the company said in a press release. There is no official weight data for Quest 2, but industry publication UploadVR said that the gadget weighs 503 grams with the straps.

Pico 4, which starts pre-orders on Friday, is priced at 429 euros (US$422) with 128 gigabytes of storage and 499 euros for 256GB. In comparison, Quest 2 sells for 449.99 euros and 549.99 euros for the same storage options in Europe, respectively.

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