The Pico Neo 2 Lite might have dreams of one day taking on the Oculus Quest 2, and it’s launching with one of VR’s best games.
The Pico Neo 2 Lite is a new consumer-oriented version of the original Pico Neo 2, which launched worldwide earlier this year for enterprise. According to a Chinese report (thanks to Callum Hurley for tipping us off), the headset starts at 3799 yuan (about $560) for a 64GB version and features a ‘4K HD screen’ with 6GB RAM (same as Quest 2) and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, which doesn’t measure up to the XR2 chipset used in the Quest 2.
Pico Neo 2 Lite Gets Superhot
Two images make it seem like the Neo 2 Lite comes with a comfort strap that looks similar to Quest 2’s Elite Strap, which must be bought separately. However we wouldn’t expect this to include eye-tracking like the more expensive variant of the original Neo 2. Neo 2 also uses electromagnetic anti-occlusion tracking to achieve 6DOF support.
Pico has launched consumer headsets in the west before – like the 3DOF, Oculus Go-like Goblin – but they’ve never made much of an impact. The Neo 2 Lite, however, is launching with one of VR’s very best games – Superhot VR. It’s only the second standalone headset to get a native version of the VR great. It could be a signal that Pico is committed to building out a significant ecosystem for the platform, which is what its headsets have really been lacking in the past.
Then again, there’s still be a long way to go to build the kind of library seen on Quest today, though the Pico Neo 2 Lite does apparently support wireless streaming on SteamVR, a feature we won’t even see with the release of Quest 2.
We’ve reached out to Pico for more information on the device and to ask after a western release. We’ll let you know if we hear back.
