What if Meta’s Quest 2 (ex-Facebook/Oculus) was finally faced with some healthy competition? Chinese manufacturer Pico will launch its standalone Neo 3 Link headset in European stores in May, in limited quantities to begin with.
It’s a big announcement that Pico has just made at the Laval Virtual show, one of the most important European meetings on virtual and augmented reality. The Chinese manufacturer, owned by ByteDance (parent company of the TikTok social network) since 2021, will invest for the first time in the European consumer VR market.
So here comes the Pico Neo 3 Link standalone headset, available next month (May 2022) from a small number of retailers in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. The UK and Italy will follow in June. The manufacturer specifies that the volumes put on the market will be very limited: this launch is above all envisaged as a full-scale beta test program, which will initially allow the company to ensure the proper functioning of its user accounts. , payment systems, social functions, etc.
A quasi-clone of the Quest 2 to compete with the Quest 2
Still, it’s a fully functional product that buyers will hopefully receive. The Neo 3 Link is thus based on the “very short” Neo 3 headset, available in China since May 2021. This headset is equipped with a Qualcomm XR2 processor, 256 GB of storage, a display on a single LCD panel at 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye and at 72 or 90 Hz, optics with “coarse” adjustment of the inter-pupillary distance in three positions, as well as motion tracking inside out based on four cameras arranged at the corners of the front of the helmet.
Did this list give you a sense of deja vu? This is perfectly the case: apart from a few minor details, these specifications are identical to those of the Meta (ex-Oculus) Quest 2, of which this Neo 3 Link obviously poses as a frontal competitor.
On the software side, the Pico headset has its own operating system based on Android 10, but also its own native application store. Obviously, the Pico Store will be far from being as extensive as its Meta/Oculus counterpart when it is launched, but it will be able to count on a few big names in VR gaming from day one, including the essential Superhot VR, Eleven Table Tennis, Walkabout Mini Golf, Demeoor After the Fall.
The headset also puts a strong emphasis on its compatibility with VR for PC – hence the Link suffix. It thus supports the streaming of content via wifi from a PC, and even comes standard with a DisplayPort cable for users who would prefer to benefit from an uncompressed and immaculate image – or simply those who do not have a a fairly fast and robust wifi network for a satisfying wireless experience. The interconnection of the headset to the apps is then done via the Steam VR ecosystem.
All shoppers eligible for a big discount on the next generation of Pico headsets
The Neo 3 Link will be available for pre-order from this Friday, April 15 at a price of 449 € – let us specify it again, in very limited quantities. This is again a price identical to that of Meta Quest 2, but with the advantage, undoubtedly decisive for some, of not requiring a Facebook account (or even TikTok, rest assured!) for activation. . Better still, the manufacturer is already announcing that if it were to launch a new model of autonomous helmet in the next 12 months, buyers will automatically be eligible for a 35% reduction on its price.
We also know that Meta is working on its next standalone helmet, which should in all likelihood see the light of day in the second half of 2022. It is however likely that this new helmet, which we know for the moment under the code name Project Cambria , or launched at a much higher price position than the Quest 2. In fact, if Pico were to quickly launch a new generation of stand-alone headsets at affordable prices in the West, it could put the Quest 2 in a very delicate situation.