Pico 4 headset

[stainedmonster]

Rumours circulating that Pico headsets were on the outs? anyone know if this is true

[InjuredCoffee]

Yeah I just saw this article: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/13/23999883/the-pico-5-headset-might-be-canceled-but-bytedance-isnt-done-with-vr

 

Saying that the Pico 5 may be cancelled because the 4 didn't perform as well as ByteDance had hoped... Shame.

[Dray hand]

I bought a Pico 4 recently, so I can share my thoughts.

The good:

Pancake lenses offer much more than anything Fresnel on the market, and this aspect alone makes the Pico clear so many other HMDs by default imo. Fresnel actively caused headaches for me and constantly had me readjusting my fit so I could get a decent sweet spot. I love being able to toss my Pico on without any thought, never fuss over my fit, and get an image that looks like an image instead of a Vaseline smear

Controllers are great and feel good to use. They're weighty, just the right amount. Buttons feel really good to press. They last for an absurdly long time. The ring design let's you bring them close together which makes a lot of interactions very comfortable. Ring design also let's you line them up without one blocking the other ones tracking. Speaking of tracking, it's good.

The weight balance adds so much to the comfort. The battery is on the back so the weight feels evenly distributed on your head. So many front heavy HMDs pressed on my head and nose and caused me headaches and discomfort. This actually feels good and light to wear. Also the dial on the back to adjust it to your head is gorgeous. It's definitely not the only HMD to do this, but it's nice to have

Wireless. Wired VR has its advantages but feels like griefing so many times. It's so immersion breaking having to baby your wire and keep it from tangling, wrapping around yourself, or putting in the space investment for a pulley system. Virtual Desktop actually does a really good job with visual quality and keeping latency as low as possible (you should still expect 30-45ms on average).

Color pass through.

The alright:

Standalone store is actually pretty decent. Some good titles on there and it expands pretty rapidly. It's still young so Quest clears Pico pretty handily, but a lot of good titles are on there. That being said, I would never recommend Pico over Quest if you are interested in primarily doing standalone. Some big titles are still missing.

AFAIK max brightness on Pico is about 60 nits per eye whereas others tend to hover around 100. This has never been an issue for me, and things still look bright enough. I'd only care about this if you know for sure it'll bother you

Putting this here cause I dont know where else to put it. Software has never been an issue for me. AFAIK it's been an issue in the past but I have not encountered a single bug yet. The worst thing is that is can randomly lose my playspace data sometimes forcing me to redraw. But AFAIK Pico isn't the only one who suffers from this

Again putting this here cause I don't know where to put it. There's a fan that blows inside the gasket. It prevents lens fogging and can cool you off and prevent you from sweating. Only putting this on the alright category cause it can potentially cause your eyes to dry a bit. But it's not a strong fan. It's pretty subtle.

The bad:

Face gasket is the shittiest thing that has ever made contact with my face. Pick a new one and order it. It's a must.

My unit came with pretty mediocre mura. I don't know if this is the norm, but I can only report on what I have

The colors on the Pico are honestly really bad.

Battery is not great. about 70-80 minutes on VD, I don't do standalone gaming much so I can't report on that. Also never owned a Quest 2 so I can't compare for you.

For standalone, devs seem to not give a shit about it(?). From what I've seen, games tend to launch bad and get patched later to viability. It's technically more powerful than the Q2 but I don't think you'd notice based on what is out there.