Pico Interactive, the VR {hardware} subsidiary to Chinese language tech large ByteDance, is seemingly on the brink of launch a brand new collection of standalone VR headsets.
As first reported by Protocol, Pico filed the units with the FCC late final week, saying within the submitting that it intends to launch each a Pico 4 Professional and Pico 4 standalone headsets.
Each headsets are an identical in specs “besides extra eye monitoring & face monitoring operate for Pico 4 Professional,” the corporate says within the submitting.
As famous by Protocol, Pico seems to have known as the brand new {hardware} ‘Phoenix’ within the FCC submitting, and it’s reported to run on Android Q through a Qualcomm processor. FCC filings are usually imprecise as to not give away an excessive amount of info pre-launch, so we’ll simply have to attend to see how a lot of an improve it’s over its newest.
It’s unsure whether or not ‘Pico 4’ is the ultimate naming scheme, or whether or not it’s a shorthand for Pico Neo 4, though it’s clear the corporate is trying to carry competitors to principally the one actual identify in shopper VR standalones: Meta. Since its founding in 2015, Pico just about solely focused customers in China and enterprise customers within the West. That was earlier than it launched it Neo 3 Hyperlink in Europe again in Might, a tool that options close to spec parity with Quest 2.
On the time, we surmised Pico was shortly eyeballing North America with its Neo 3 Hyperlink in an try to earnestly compete with Meta there, though now it’s attainable the corporate is trying to one-up the competitors with the brand new {hardware} earlier than it makes landfall on Meta’s dwelling turf.
The submitting doesn’t divulge to what extent Pico 4 will be capable of match Meta’s upcoming Venture Cambria, which is a VR headset able to doing augmented actuality duties because of its combined actuality passthrough digicam sensors. The worth of Cambria is ready to be “considerably increased than $800” although, so there could also be some wiggle room from a reputation that’s to this point unknown to customers within the US.
Cambria is alleged to incorporate each eye and face-tracking, so it will likely be fascinating to see how Pico intends on competing (seemingly with Pico 4 Professional), whether or not or not it’s by pushing specs barely past Quest 2 or going for full spec parity with Cambria.