A public CPU benchmark result suggests Pico 4S will have the same chipset as Meta Quest 3, but paired with more RAM.
The Geekbench result, brought to our attention by VR enthusiast Luna, shows a headset codenamed Pico A9210 with two 2.05 GHz cores and four 2.36 GHz cores. This is exactly what shows up for Quest 3 on Geekbench too.
The scores are also very similar between the headsets, with Quest 3 having 20% higher single-core performance and 5% higher multli-core performance. This won't necessarily be the case for the device itself however, as running sideloaded 2D Android apps to benchmark a standalone headset is not a reliable technique. When using a 2D app in the home space the operating system will rarely set the CPU clock speed to anywhere near its maximum, and the home space and interface itself use some performance.
While Quest 3 has 8GB of unified RAM, the Pico A9210 is listed as having 12GB. This would make it superior to Quest 3 for on-device multitasking, and potentially allow developers to use higher-resolution textures and more details.
David Heaney
ByteDance-owned Pico has yet to announce a successor to Pico 4, but it trademarked "Pico 4S" back in March.
Icons of ringless "4S" controllers were also found in the Pico Connect PC VR streaming software. Back in September images leaked on Chinese social media showing ringless Pico controllers, which appear to have the same design as the icons found in the software.
The Information reported in December that Pico 5 was canceled because Pico 4 sales "fell far short of ByteDance’s expectations". That same report said ByteDance does plan to release a refreshed version of Pico 4, but didn't give any detail of what changes it will bring.
David Heaney
The Geekbench result suggests Pico 4S will include an upgrade to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset used in Quest 3, and the previous findings suggest it will include ringless controllers.
As for what other changes Pico 4S will have, it will depend on ByteDance's priorities. Given it was reportedly disappointed with Pico 4 sales, it may want to cut costs to compete with the upcoming Quest 3S. Alternatively, it may want to focus on convincing existing Pico 4 owners to upgrade. We'll keep a close eye out for any further Pico 4S leaks or announcements.
