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Pico 4 ships October 18 in Europe, Japan, and South Korea – beginning at €429.
Pico isn’t any newcomer to VR – it revealed its first headset in 2016. Final yr it was acquired by ByteDance, the Chinese language tech big behind TikTok. Pico has all the time offered to Chinese language customers, however centered solely on companies elsewhere. This modified earlier this yr with the launch of Pico Neo 3 Hyperlink to European customers. However that was only a “beta program”, with the corporate teasing a successor by providing a 35% low cost for it.
That successor is Pico 4, and we’ve got hands-on impressions right here.
Specs & Options
Pico 4 is powered by the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor utilized in Pico Neo 3, Meta Quest 2, Vive Focus 3 and most different current standalone headsets. Nevertheless it brings a spread of serious enhancements over its predecessor: a slimmer & lighter design, larger decision, wider subject of view, shade passthrough, exact motorized lens separation, and redesigned controllers.
The slimmer & lighter design is achieved by way of the usage of pancake lenses, which help smaller panels with a shorter hole to the lenses. And as with Pico Neo 3, the battery is within the rear of the strap. Whereas Meta’s Quest 2 with fresnel lenses and the battery within the entrance weighs 470 grams with out straps, Pico 4 with out straps is sort of 40% lighter at 295 grams.
Regardless of enabling a extra compact design, Pico claims the brand new lenses even have a wider subject of view: 105° diagonal. That’s up from the 98° diagonal of Pico Neo 3 Hyperlink. And whereas Neo 3 (and Quest 2) solely provide three preset lens separation distances, Pico 4’s lenses are stepless and motorized, supporting interpupillary distances (IPDs) of 62～72mm. You set your IPD inside VR, and the lenses transfer themselves to match.
The LCD decision has been elevated from 1832×1920 per eye to 2160×2160 per eye. Factoring within the wider subject of view, this equates to a ten% enhance in angular decision (assuming comparable panel utilization). However whereas Pico Neo 3 has an experimental 120Hz refresh fee, Pico 4’s present max refresh fee is 90 Hz.
Along with the 4 greyscale fisheye monitoring cameras on the entrance corners, Pico 4 provides a central 5K RGB digital camera for shade passthrough. Pico hasn’t but introduced a blended actuality SDK.
The controllers have additionally been redesigned. Somewhat than housing the infrared LEDs in a hoop in entrance of your hand like Pico Neo 3 or Quest 2, Pico 4’s controllers place them in an arc over your palms. Pico factors out this implies your palms can get nearer collectively with out bashing the controllers collectively, for actions reminiscent of cocking a pistol or pouring water right into a cup.
Pico claims the headset battery will last as long as 3 hours, and it helps Fast Cost 3.0.
As with the Neo 3 and Quest 2, Pico 4 helps SteamVR by wirelessly streaming from a gaming PC over your property Wi-Fi community. There was no point out of a wired PC mode this time, however we’ve reached out to Pico to ask.
Pico Health Band
Pico Health Band is an upcoming wearable tracker “in a position to observe your physique actions” that can be capable to detect actions “reminiscent of shaking, tilting and kicking”.
Pico claims it could additionally predict your full physique pose utilizing a machine studying algorithm. This can be a vital declare, so we’ll be testing it as quickly as we are able to get our palms on this {hardware}.
Simply Dance VR Unique
Pico introduced a spread of current video games coming to Pico – becoming a member of the prevailing library it launched with Pico Neo 3 Hyperlink. These embrace The Strolling Useless: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2: Retribution, Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, Ruins Magus, Inexperienced Hell, and Ultimechs.
However the firm now has its personal main unique too: Simply Dance VR. It’s launching in 2023 by way of an unique partnership with Ubisoft, so received’t be accessible on Quest 2 or PSVR 2.
Enterprise Model
A model with eye monitoring and face monitoring sensors will launch to Chinese language customers as Pico 4 Professional. Pico informed us it received’t launch to customers outdoors China, however can be accessible to companies in Europe as Pico 4 Enterprise.
In addition to the usual use instances reminiscent of enabling eye contact in social experiences, the attention monitoring sensors can detect your IPD. Paired with the motorized lens motion, this implies IPD adjustment is totally computerized.
Pricing and the precise launch date for Pico 4 Enterprise hasn’t but been introduced.
Availability
Preorders for Pico 4 will open September 23 for Neo 3 Hyperlink house owners, and in October for everybody else. Pico says it plans to launch in Singapore and Malaysia later this yr.
The bottom mannequin with 128GB storage is priced at €429, and a mannequin with 256GB of storage at €499.
Pico didn’t point out any plans to launch in North America, although in June it posted a job itemizing “answerable for the gross sales and advertising of Pico’s general product within the US client market”.
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