PICO 4

When the standalone Quest headset arrived in 2019, it felt like the future of virtual reality for gaming. Immersive room tracking VR with no need for a PC? Wireless everything?

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What wizardry was this? Well, it's wizardry that other manufacturers have been keeping a close eye on. PICO is a VR subsidiary of ByteDance, the owners of TikTok, and has potentially just released a brand new, standalone Quest killer. With no Quest 3 in 2022 as might have been expected, the *37,900 PICO 4 is more than happy to fill the gently rounded VR headset-shaped gap. This is a device with its fully RGB-supported camera lenses set on the crown of Meta's prized all-in-one. And with a sea of upgrades, it's an impressive headset.

The PICO 4 is geared for comfort and accessibility with a real focus on gaming and fitness. That price point is fiercely competitive but this isn't a headset that's skimping on functionality. Its topline stats are excellent. Off the bat there's 2160 x 2160 pixels per eye, an enviable 105-degree field of view, and it boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset like the Quest 2 but with 8GB of RAM compared to the Quest's 6GB.