PICO 4 REVIEW – A Mess or Quest 2 Killer?

I spent a week with the Pico 4, Pico’s newest VR headset and its answer to the Meta Quest 2. It’s the first time Pico has released a headset for consumers in the West, with the backing of TikTok’s parent company. There’s a lot to like about it, but reviewing it was a mess, and you should know why before you buy. This Pico 4 review covers the hardware, the software and the confusion around the launch.

Pico gave me an early access review unit for free. The video wasn’t sponsored.

Price and what’s in the box

The Pico 4 launched in October 2022 in Europe and some Asian countries, from €429. There were no plans for a US launch yet. Pico had made VR headsets for years, mostly for businesses, with consumer editions only in China until it was bought by TikTok’s owner the year before. You can tell they’ve spent a lot: the marketing changed completely (not necessarily for the better) and the hardware is slick.

In the box:

• The headset
• Two controllers with batteries and lanyards
• A glasses spacer and a nose pad
• A USB-C power adapter and a USB-C to USB-C 2.0 data cable
• User guides and safety and warranty papers

Design and comfort

The Pico 4 is the first headset from a major company with pancake lenses, which give it a small form factor that feels light on your head. After using it longer, I think it’s one of the most comfortable headsets so far, because it’s perfectly balanced. I’m a fan of the rear battery and the Elite-style head strap you get out of the box. Comfort is personal, though, and it’s not revolutionary: it’s still hard to drink coffee with it on.

• Foam: I’m not a fan. The material doesn’t feel nice and it’s stiff at first. It gets better as it shapes to your face, but I still want to swap it. It attaches magnetically, so I’m sure third-party foams will come.
• Strap: not replaceable, because it carries cables for the battery and speakers. You can remove and replace the top strap, but if the main strap doesn’t suit your head, you’re out of luck.
• Lying down: surprisingly comfortable, thanks to the back cushion.
• Glasses: there’s room for glasses like mine, and the spacer adds more, but I’d wait for third-party lens adapters so you don’t scratch the lenses.

Setup

When you put it on, you’re straight into Pico OS. You don’t need the mobile app (though there is one) and you don’t need a TikTok account. A few prompts show you the controllers and Wi-Fi, then you set your boundary: an easy circle or your own walls. That’s all you need to start gaming. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Specs, display and lenses

• Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 with 8 GB of RAM
• 4K resolution across two LCDs, at 1,200 pixels per inch
• Refresh rates of 72 and 90 Hz
• A promised field of view of 105 degrees

The display is where the Pico 4 shines. Colors are pleasing, the sweet spot is large, you rarely see god rays and everything looks really sharp, especially in good-looking games. It also has a low blue light certification, which I don’t notice but sounds safer. I mostly played at 90 Hz, which was smooth in the apps I tried.

For once the field of view I measured came close to the promised number. It’s slightly better than the Pico 3 and Quest 2, but you won’t notice much unless you compare them straight after each other. The resolution and lenses make up for a lot.

My only complaints: it still isn’t mini-LED or OLED, so blacks aren’t much better yet, and the display gets a bit warm after a while, with some fan noise. Not terrible.

Automatic IPD adjustment

You set your IPD in the software and the lenses move to match your eyes. I want this on every headset. The official range is 62 to 72 mm, but you can tick a box to ignore the warning and go as low as 58. Be careful, because it may squeeze your nose. My IPD is 60, and with my tiny nose it was perfect.

Audio and battery life

• Microphone: sometimes sounds pretty good, but the noise filtering messes up the voice at times. I hope they adjust that.
• Speakers: pretty good, not much bass, but they get loud with the volume buttons on the strap.
• No headphone jack: there’s only one USB-C port, for USB-C headphones and charging. Use headphones that way and you can’t charge at the same time.
• Bluetooth: works, with some delay. Not very noticeable in movies or adventure games, but you notice it in rhythm games.
• Battery: it runs out in about 2 hours. It supports fast charging, which helps.

Controllers and tracking

Pico innovated with the controllers. They’re the first with an arc-shaped tracking ring placed over your hands. The face buttons are the usual joystick and buttons, plus an extra button on the right controller for screenshots. I love the slider that pushes up the battery cover so you can swap batteries easily.

The new rings let you bring your hands closer together, and that’s true: no occlusion issues while scoping in on a gun or reloading with two hands. Controller tracking is really good. I found blind spots when the controller is right next to or right below the headset. That doesn’t matter for most things, but archery isn’t as much fun as with flawless base station tracking (an unfair comparison, since base stations cost about as much as this headset). Pico improved a lot over its earlier headsets, and I expect it to keep getting better. Head tracking was perfectly fine.

Color passthrough

There’s an extra 16-megapixel RGB camera in the middle of the headset for color passthrough. You turn it on with a button or by double-tapping the side of the headset. I was excited about it, but I expected too much. The image is noisy, and while I can read some text on my monitor or on paper, it’s distorted and warped, so reading for long is uncomfortable. It’s stereo, so each eye sees a different image, which helps with depth, but it isn’t one-to-one with real life: things look a bit bigger, and you need to get used to that.

It’s still heaps better than the Quest 2’s low-quality black-and-white passthrough, and I’m happy we got it. It probably won’t be used for much more than seeing where you are, but I liked doing quick things on my PC or phone without taking the headset off.

Games and PC VR streaming

Is there enough to play? I think so. Pico spent a lot of money on getting Quest games onto its store, like After the Fall and The Walking Dead, and is working with many developers to add more. They play the same and even look better on this headset. An 8K 360 video demo looked amazing.

The bad news: Meta has been buying VR developers, so some exclusives won’t come to Pico, like Resident Evil 4, Beat Saber and the upcoming Iron Man VR. Pico needs partnerships like that. Its first exclusive, Just Dance, was coming the next year.

With a gaming PC you can play SteamVR games by streaming or with a cable. Pico’s own software works, but I got better quality and stability with Virtual Desktop, which is now on Pico too. With it, I don’t think you’ll need the cable anymore. It’s fantastic, and it opens up games like Half-Life: Alyx and the PC version of Beat Saber.

Why the Pico 4 launch was a mess

At its launch event, Pico showed how ready it was to compete with Quest 2 by offering the same software features and more. I believe they can do it, but it wasn’t ready, and they didn’t say so clearly. Pico worked with several marketing agencies, sent out review units with different embargo times and gave reviewers a guide that didn’t mention which features weren’t available yet. That caused a lot of confusion in the VR community and led to reviews saying the headset was bad. It was so unnecessary, and I hope Pico does better next time.

Most of those reviews were about the software, so I waited for the version everyone gets at launch, Pico OS 5. It’s a lot better than version 4:

• The menu looks better and works much like Quest’s, with multitasking, avatars, streaming and recording.
• Hand tracking is in beta, due for release by the end of the year. It works but is finicky, like hand tracking was when it first came to Quest 2.
• The system is very open. Sideloading APKs is easy: no developer mode, credit card or sign-up. Plug the headset into your PC, copy the APK over and install it from the file manager in VR. You can access almost everything on the headset, with no restrictions.

Compared to Quest it’s still bare bones, but Quest took about two years to get all its features. Already announced for later: mixed reality features, remote assistance, a friend system, a new social VR app, a PC VR dongle for more stable streaming and a fitness band you wear on your body. I’m excited for all of it, but we need proof that Pico can deliver, so keep that in mind if you buy it.

Pico 4 review verdict: who it’s for

If it were only about the hardware, I’d recommend the Pico 4 in a heartbeat. The price is hard to beat for what you get, and it has everything you need to play games, which matters most. The biggest thing it lacks is software and content, and that’s exactly what Pico says it will work on in the coming months. I can imagine them catching up with Quest. So if you don’t mind that risk, the Pico 4 is a great option, and it’s the first headset that really competes with the Quest 2.