The new Pico 4 Ultra headset could challenge Meta Quest 3's VR dominance, but only if your country makes the shortlist
The Pico 4 sits among the best VR headsets for PC, as it's a super capable competitor to the Meta Quest 2, and, if current information translates to user experience, Pico might be set to do it once more with its new Pico 4 Ultra headset.
Announced for launch in select countries in Europe later this month, the new Pico 4 Ultra looks incredibly similar to Meta's latest offering, the Meta Quest 3, on paper. It comes loaded with the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip, has a comparable weight (with the Pico weighing just 68g more), and both are designed for mixed and virtual reality gaming purposes. However, the Pico 4 Ultra has an extra 4 GB of RAM, higher quality passthrough, and can even support Wi-Fi 7 for better internet stability.
The headset will be available at an MSRP of £529, and will only come as a 256GB model, placing it in between the most expensive and cheapest Meta Quest 3 model.
Pre-orders open up on Friday, September 6, and the headset itself will officially be released on Friday, September 20. Initially, you can only get it in the following countries in Europe:
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Poland
- Austria
- Switzerland
- UK
- Norway
- Denmark
- Sweden
There is no information on whether or not the headset is coming to the US. but the Pico 4 is infamously rather difficult to get so it seems unlikely you will get it any time soon if you live in the US. Given Bytedance, the parent company, is embroiled in a legal battle with the US, due to its ownership of TikTok, it's maybe unlikely we'll see the device arrive there.
However, if you live in Europe (or have a particularly nice friend willing to send you one) it seems like a rather impressive alternative to Meta's latest and greatest. The Pico store is a little more limited but pre-ordering the headset gets you some nice bonuses, though our standard don't pre-order advice still stands. It comes with a Pico motion tracker, for enhanced tracking in games like VR Chat, as well as Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, Infinite Inside, Let's Get Fit VR, and Footpool.
If you're looking for a good mid-range VR headset with MR capabilities, and haven't been tempted by Meta's lineup, this might be worth taking a look at when it launches later this month. But we're unlikely to get our hands properly on the device ourselves until after launch, so stay tuned for our review before dropping the money.