The Meta Quest 3 is the VR titan ’s latest standalone VR headset , but there ’s increase competition in the VR place now than when it launched the Quest 2 in 2020 . With that said , how does the Meta Quest 3 equivalence to the Pico 4 ?
While both headset extend a broadly alike experience with slimline HMDs , fairly lightweight comptroller and hearty execution , there are key differences between the two that ’ll influence which you should go for .
That ’s where we at Trusted Reviews descend in ; we’revirtual realism experts , and having spent a lot of time in the virtual world of both theMeta Quest 3andPico 4 , here ’s how the two comparison .
Pricing and availability
The Pico 4 is the cheaper of the two VR headset , with a £ 379 RRP , though the 128 GB model can be find for just £ 279 at the clock time of authorship . The arrest ? It ’s only available in the UK and Europe , with no official US availability .
The Meta Quest 3 , on the other hand , is available in the UK , Europe and the US , and starts at £ 479/$499 with the same 128 GB of storage .
Design and controllers
Design is middling immanent , but we feel that the Pico 4 is the better - looking of the two headsets . While both have likewise slim head - ride presentation thanks to the use of pancake lens of the eye instead of older , magnanimous fresnel - based crystalline lens , the Pico 4 sport a stylish shape with an all - bootleg fascia that fix it look more like theApple Vision Prothan the Quest 3 .
The Quest 3 , while sure enough not an surly headset , does n’t look quite as sleek with an all - grizzly plastic design and a small smattering of camera placed centrally on the front of the headset , along with camera around the edges for tracking . The Pico 4 also has camera for passthrough and tracking , but with a black environs , it ’s very intemperate to spot .
The Pico 4 also lark a rigid fruitcake - style headband , with the electric battery placed at the back of the headset to aid balance the weight – a similar arrangement to the top - endQuest Pro . It really does help , as we felt the Pico 4 had a great sense of equilibrium , while the Quest 3 felt a slight front - heavy , specially during longer point of play .
This does make the Pico 4 harder to transport in a rucksack , but it ’s also much more stable and easy to outfit than the awkward Y - shaped fabric band of the Quest 3 . you may get a similar crank - style band for the Quest , but you ’ll have to fork out an additional £ 69/$69 for the delight .
Stepping away from the headset , the Pico 4 ’s keep company controllers seem closer to those of theQuest 2 , rather than the more late Quest 3 . In fact , they look near - identical , with the only real conflict being that the Pico 4 ’s controllers are slightly tenacious and provide more way to grip .
compare to the Quest 3 ’s controllers , however , the Pico 4 ’s controllers look rather dated . While the two share the same wide design , gambol the same compounding of face buttons , traveling bag clitoris , triggers and parallel sticks , the Quest 3 ditches the tracking ring present on the Quest 2 and Pico 4 .
This make water the Quest 3 controllers much more thick and easier to apply . It also mean you no longer knock the trailing rings together when grabbing something with two hand in a VR title .
Aside from that , the experience is fairly consistent among the two , with both apportion the same requirement for AA batteries to perform . It ’d be nice to get USB - C charging from both , but at the same time , it ’ll head off the consequence of assault and battery degradation so it is understandable .
Performance and features
When it arrive to pure processing power , the Quest 3 has the upper hand with the manipulation of the more powerful ( and more recent)Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 , while the Pico 4 utilises the sameSnapdragon XR2chipset as the Quest 2 .
The young chipset offers telling gains over the XR2 chipset , with Meta exact a boost of 2.5x to GPU performance , 8x improved AI performance and 50 % better power efficiency , and that ’s clear from the impressive VR experience from the headset .
We were thoroughly impressed not only by the higher resolution 2064 x 2208 per - eye battercake lenses , but also by the quality of the VR titles themselves , with higher - resolution textures and new particle gist that were n’t potential with the Quest 2 ’s XR2 chipset . We think it was a day - and - night optical change and that translate to a outstanding VR experience .
The Pico 4 also has pancake crystalline lens and an impressive 2160 x 2160 per - middle resolution , but utilising the same chipset as the older Quest 2 , it ca n’t quite deliver those same highly detailed texture or deliver quite as high-pitched soma rate ; the Pico 4 caps out at 90Hz , while the Quest 3 boasts 120Hz sustenance . That said , the experience is still pretty great with the same exact inside - out tracking as the Quest 3 , complete with the same stereoscopic photograph audio recording support .
Both headset declare oneself colour passthrough camera capabilities for interracial - reality applications , though Meta ’s dual - camera oblation is clearer than the Pico 4 ’s single - camera apparatus . The Quest 3 also has much more in the way of MR capabilities , with a suite of MR apps – that we ’ll come to in a bit – and a dedicated profoundness sensor that helps it support out even liken to the top - end Quest Pro , get alone the Pico 4 .
The Quest 3 also offer impressive hand - trailing capability , allowing you to chuck the comptroller altogether in supported apps and game . The Pico 4 also offer hand - trailing capableness , but it lacks developer support , meaning it ’s relegated to navigating the headset ’s UI for now .
App and game availability
While the Quest 3 and Pico 4 are fairly evenly matched in footing of computer hardware , Meta ’s headset pulls away in one key area : biz and app availableness .
Meta ’s VR headsets have been on the scene for quite some time now , with the first - gen Quest making its show back in 2019 . This intend that VR developers have five years to create content for the program .
Meta has also fund plenty of top - goal VR title , like Resident Evil 4 VR and Asgard ’s Wrath 2 , which entail they ’re sole to the Quest platform . At the clock time of writing , over 500 title are usable to download on the Quest Store .
Quest 3 also has a broad library of mixed realness titles despite only launching in October 2023 , and Meta project to issue more MR capacity – like practical synergistic appliance that posture in your existent - humanity environment – in the future tense .
The Pico 4 ’s app program library was much smaller at launch in 2022 , with only 150 apps available to download on the storefront . Even then , big VR apps like Beat Saber and Among Us were – and still are – missing from the Pico Store .
The company has made an crusade to bring in big games to the store since launching , with titles like Red Matter 2 , Blade & Sorcery Nomad and After The Fall now useable on the Pico Store , but it ’s still not quite as expansive as the Quest Store ’s oblation .
This does n’t weigh quite so much if you ’ve got a gaming PC and want to play PC - power VR title , as both offer wireless connectivity with a local microcomputer , but if you really require to use the headset ’s standalone nature , the Quest 3 is the one to go for .
Battery life
When it come to stamp battery lifetime , both VR headset should do on a fairly interchangeable level , though the precise timing will depend a stack on what you ’re doing on the headset ; you ’re more potential to debilitate the battery playing mixed reality titles on the Quest 3 than standard VR title on the Pico 4 , for example .
That said , both headset hail with a claim 2 - 3 60 minutes stamp battery life which we found to be reasonably much on the money in our revaluation process , though the Quest 3 can get along a little good with its new Battery Saver style actuate . It essentially reduces performance with a slightly lower refresh charge per unit and resolution to help the headset last as long as possible , though you wo n’t see dramatically longer use times with the mode on .
Both headsets charge via USB - C , though the Quest 3 regains its charge a trivial faster than the Pico 4 with 30W firm kick capabilities . In our experience , it ’ll still take around two and a half 60 minutes to charge the former , though both headsets can be used while they ’re charging as long as your charging overseas telegram is long enough .
