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French
VR specialist Pico Interactive was already known for their enterprise VR solution, such as the Neo 3 Pro and Neo 3 Pro Eye headset.
At Laval Virtual, Pico announced a new product, aimed at a wider audience: the Pico Neo 3 Link is quite clearly designed to be a Quest 2 competitor.
Pico Neo 3 Link: the Quest 2 killer?
Here are the specs of this new product:
- 3,664×1,920 screen (1,832×1,920 per eye), 90Hz refresh rate
- IPD adjustement: from 58mm to 69mm (3 stages)
- 6 DoF, inside-out tracking
- Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip
- 6GB RAM
- 256 GB storage
- Wi-Fi 6
- DisplayPort
- 2 controllers included
- “spacer” for people wearing glasses
Obviously, these specs are very similar to those of a Quest 2 256GB headset. So is the price: 450€. The main technical difference at this point: the Pico Neo 3 Link does not provide any hand tracking feature out of the box, while the Quest 2 does.
Just like the Quest 2, the Pico Neo 3 Link can be used both as a standalone headset or as a PC VR headset, in which case you can either stream VR apps and games from your PC wirelessly (over Wi-Fi 6) or tethered using a DisplayPort cable (a 5 meter cable is included, which is a nice touch). Using a DisplayPort connection will allow you to get an uncompressed video stream and therefore a better visual experience.
Pico explains that more than a hundred games will be available day one, including popular games such as Superhot VR, Puzzling Places, After the Fall, Walkabout Mini Golf, Eleven Table Tennis, Demeo. Moreover, since the headset is Steam VR compatible, a wide range of VR games & experiences will be available when using the headset paired with a PC.
Data privacy policy
A few details are still unknown. Of course, contrary to the Quest 2 headset, you won’t need a Facebook account to use the Pico Neo 3 Link. However, since Pico was acquired by ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, we would love more details about Pico’s data privacy policy for this headset.
At Laval Virtual, we asked the Pico team about this, but they explained that they could not tell us much at this stage.
Preorders & launch strategy
Preorders have begun in France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands. Other markets will follow, such as UK in June. Pico also intends to launch the Pico Neo 3 Link in Japan and Korea. At this point, no US launch has been announced. Pico explains that the goal with preorders in limited supply (only one headset per person) is to create a “beta community”, which will allow the company to make sure everything is ok before a wider availability of the product.
Moreover, Pico gave us some insight about their content strategy. In addition to the games available at launch, Pico wants to support developers and reach out to the VR community. Pico also told us that porting existing apps will be “quick and easy”.
In any case, this announcement is good news: the consumer VR market will only get better with increased competition. VR studios, artists and developpers should also benefit from this.
