PICO 4 Ultra VR Headset Announced To Compete With Meta Quest 3
PICO XR unveils its new PICO 4 Ultra headset that’s packed full of features that give Meta’s Quest 3 flagship a run for its money
Bytedance and PICO XR have just announced their new headset: The PICO 4 Ultra—and it looks like Meta’s Quest 3 has some solid competition in the same price bracket.
Packed full of similar high-spec features to Quest 3 (that are actually superior in some ways) PICO has certainly upped its game with the PICO 4 Ultra. And they’re marketing it as a headset that’s Mixed Reality first, making comparisons to Quest 3 difficult to avoid.
It also kinda looks like Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3 had a baby…
So, since the similarities between Quest 3 and this new PICO are so obvious, let’s compare a few of the specs and see what we’re in for when it starts shipping in China come September 2nd.
The processor, storage, and chipset
The PICO 4 Ultra uses the same chipset as Quest 3: The Snapdragon️ XR2 Gen 2. This is a powerful bit of kit and top-of-the-range right now. Meanwhile, they claim that the CPU performance has been improved over the original PICO 4 by 20%, while GPU performance has been boosted by a massive 250%. If true, this is impressive indeed.
They also claim to have a stonking 12GB of RAM—which is 4GB more than both the original PICO 4 and Quest 3. This baby is packing some heat.
As for storage, ByteDance appears to be releasing only one version of the PICO 4 Ultra that will have a capacity of 256GB, which is probably the sweet spot in terms of internal storage for VR.
The display and optics
According to technical specs, the new displays will have the same resolution as PICO 4, but are apparently 25% brighter and offer improved color correction, while the default rendering resolution has been increased by 62% to 1920x1920 pixels per eye.
While Quest 3 is capable of 2064x2208 pixels per eye, it is often locked at 1680x1760—you need to access advanced settings to change this (and you can do that with our help at SideQuest). So, this seems like a nice upgrade that should make all apps and games look lovely and sharp by default.
Mixed Reality sensors
Just by looking at the PICO 4 Ultra, you can see that they’ve taken cues from Meta regarding MR. The new headset has 4 external cameras for environment tracking (just like Quest 3) and an iToF depth-sensing camera on top of this. However, some have reported that it actually uses a single IR structured light projector just like Quest 3, but since the terminology is a little dicy in this area we’ll have to see how it compares when it comes to release.
And here’s where we get to the real upgrade: It has 2 32MP color passthrough cameras, which is pretty great compared to the single 16MP camera of the original PICO 4.
Seems like we can expect some excellent passthrough quality!
The controllers
Just like Quest 3, the PICO 4 Ultra has apparently ditched the pesky rings and opted for a sleeker design.
The audio
The PICO 4 Ultra will ship with dual stereo speakers and 4 microphones—and it will support spatial audio, which will pair perfectly with the reported spatial video updates to the OS (discussed later).
As expected, this is almost directly comparable to Quest 3.
The battery
According to the revealed specs, PICO 4 Ultra’s battery has a rated capacity of 5700 mAh and a typical capacity of 5774 mAh. It also supports a 45W fast charger. Meanwhile, the battery in the Meta Quest 3 is rated at 4879 mAh.
This means that PICO 4 Ultra’s battery capacity is about 15.5% greater—perhaps we can expect a slightly longer average play time? But at the end of the day 15% isn’t a great increase—and the PICO is rocking some fairly demanding hardware, so we shouldn’t expect battery life miracles here.
Size and weight
If the dimension guide listed with the announcement is anything to go by, it seems the PICO 4 Ultra is set to be slimmer than Quest 3—but not lighter.
In terms of headset body measurements minus the strap (depth, width, height), the PICO 4 Ultra looks to be around 62 x 165 x 84mm, while Quest 3 measures up as roughly 68 x 160 x 98mm. This means the PICO is slightly wider, but cuts a slimmer profile in the other dimensions. Not a big deal, but nice to know.
As for weight (the more important factor for comfort!), Quest 3 weighs in at around 18.2oz (roughly 515g), while the PICO 4 Ultra will weigh approximately 580g. However, the key with headset weight is how that weight is distributed. Quest 3 is very front-heavy (especially if you don’t upgrade the in-box head strap), putting most of that 515g on your face. However, PICO 4 Ultra promises a distribution of 304g at the front and 276g at the back. So, although heavier, you may have a more comfortable experience—but we’ll see when it comes to release!
PICO OS updates
ByteDance has also announced that PICO OS will receive major updates alongside the PICO 4 Ultra launch to improve its capabilities as a general computing platform while integrating other devices and platforms.
First up, they’re launching an on-device video editing app supporting 3D spatial video editing and enabling you to publish them direct to TikTok. They’re also increasing the default rendering resolution for immersive apps to 1920×1920, which is a nice boost over the 1500x1500 of the original PICO 4.
To compete with Meta and Apple, they’re also updating software to let you freely position windows within your space in passthrough—and they can be a mixture of browser panels, system panels, or Android apps.
ByteDance also claims you’ll have the ability to wirelessly mirror your Mac, PC, iOS, or Android devices to virtual windows, which is a bold claim as Apple is notoriously stingy with those kinds of permissions—Meta asked them for this already and has had to resort to wired methods in the meantime.
These updates all seem very promising.
The price
PICO 4 Ultra is officially available for preorder in China for ¥4300. While they’ve not yet announced when or even if we can expect preorders in other parts of the world, ¥4300 equates to about $600, which is a fairly steep price tag.
After all, the base model of Quest 3 costs $499.99 right now.
However, you’re getting a bit of an upgrade with this new PICO in almost every way, so we’re curious to see how well it will sell in China—and if it eventually ships worldwide!
Is PICO 4 Ultra better than Quest 3?
We’ll have to wait until the full release and actual reviews start coming in, but if ByteDance’s claims and technical specs are to be believed, this headset will give Quest 3 a real run for its money.
It seems to have better performance capabilities, higher default resolution, better passthrough cameras—everything Quest 3 promised, but a little bit better (and probably with a higher price to match). Hell, even Apple might be a little worried!
But ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition…
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