ByteDance-backed PICO Recalls PICO 4 Packages

VR brand PICO has released its PICO 4 series to the Chinese market, the company’s first update since it was acquired by ByteDance. However, a number of users have reported recently that they have received a recall message from the official account, suggesting that the original portable bag should be sent back for replacement as it may wear or cause scratches on the device.

A PICO spokersperson said on October 8 that the recall is precautionary and that the company will urgently optimize the design of its portable bags and provide replacement service for users before October 21.

The PICO 4 series is equipped with a super-vision screen with binocular resolution as high as 4K+, with a PPI (pixels per inch) of 1200 and refresh rate of 90Hz. Two versions are available – 128GB and 256GB. Officials say it provides about three hours of use on a single charge and, like previous PICO headsets, the battery is built into the rear strap for balance.

The PICO 4 series also adopts pancake optics and smaller display panels, which makes the entire device (excluding the strap and battery) weigh only 295g. In terms of system, the PICO 4 is equipped with the new PICO OS 5.0 operating system. Through the new Avatar system, users can not only customize their own virtual image, but also invite friends to interact with them.

Compared with the previous generation of products, the PICO 4 has a features a larger breakthrough in content ecology. The headset has four major scenes including VR sports and fitness, video, entertainment and VR creation. PICO has been authorized to jointly produce the first interactive narrative work for the VR version of wildly popular science fiction novel “The Three-Body Problem.”

SEE ALSO: ByteDance’s PICO to Launch VR Version of The Three-Body Problem

IDC data shows that, in the first half of 2022, VR hardware shipments in China totaled 558,000 units of which PICO’s made up about 349,000 units, accounting for 62.5% of the total market. In the global market, PICO ranks second in shipments, next only to Quest 2.

The PICO 4 series represents ByteDance’s bet on the VR field. PICO Founder Henry Zhou told iFeng that PICO’s shipments are expected to break through 1 million units.