How Do ByteDance’s PICO and Meta’s Quest Stack Up?
PICO, a VR device brand owned by ByteDance, has announced that it will hold a new product overseas launch event at 14:00 GMT+2 on September 22, five days ahead of the scheduled product launch in China. Industry insiders think that this new product will be an all-in-one VR device named PICO 4. Besides, the firm’s online store in China shows that the new device has started pre-orders.
Among many all-in-one VR devices to be released soon, PICO 4 has grabbed the most attention, largely because it is the first product to be released by PICO since it was acquired by ByteDance. Minsheng Securities previously predicted that PICO 4 will mainly compete with Meta’s Quest 2, while the PICO 4 Pro will compete with Quest Pro, the next-generation product after Quest 2. In terms of shipments, according to IDC statistics, Meta’s Quest accounted for 90% of VR market in the first quarter of this year.
On September 17, STAR Market Daily sorted out previous leaked information and compared the configurations of PICO 4 and Quest 2:
| PICO 4 | Quest 2 |
| It adopts a ski goggles design with built-in “pancake” lenses. The headset will be thinner and lighter. | It adopts Fresnel lens. |
| The monocular resolution reaches 2160*2160 pixels. The PPI rises to 1200 and the field of view angle is 105 degrees. | The monocular resolution is 1832*1920 pixels. The PPI is 773 and the field of view angle is 100 degrees. |
| The PICO 4 Pro version will provide facial recognition and eye tracking. | Facial recognition and eye tracking functions are not supported. |
| It supports free IDP (interpupillary distance) range adjustment. | It has an IPD range of 58mm to 68mm. |
| It supports color passthrough. | It supports black and white passthrough. |
It can be seen that PICO 4 is superior to Quest 2 in many hardware parameters such as resolution, field of view angle and lens.
The “pancake” lens function mentioned above is intended to reduce weight for the device and enhance the wearing experience for users. Compared with the traditional Fresnel lens, its optical path is shorter under the condition of obtaining the same light area, which can effectively reduce the thickness of VR headset.
SEE ALSO: ByteDance’s VR Brand PICO to Release New Products
Facial recognition and eye tracking functions can not only meet the high-definition rendering requirements of users for the display device, but also can be used to capture user emotions and create new interactive modes. Meta’s next-generation high-end independent headset, Project Cambria, is also expected to be equipped with eye tracking technology. In addition, eye tracking technology plays a vital role in solving VR vertigo.
Finally, the passthrough function refers to using the front camera of the device to view the external real-time environment of the head display while wearing the VR headset. Those all-in-one VR devices launched on the market are in black-and-white passthrough mode. With color passthrough, the user can not only see colorful real environments, but can also use the new technology to create more applications and content combined with real scenarios. PICO 4 may be the world’s first consumer all-in-one VR device supporting color passthrough technology.
Sign in with google
