The Pico 4 update further improves hand tracking

The Pico OS 5.8 update brings a range of improvements to the ByteDance Quest competitor.

Released in August, the 5.7 update reduced hand tracking jitter and increased accuracy and stability. Pico says 5.8 improves hand tracking by fixing an issue that caused more lag and improving tracking when hands overlap, as well as increasing reliability for darker skin tones.

I’ve tested the update and can confirm that the lag is slightly reduced. It still feels inferior to the Quest 2’s manual tracking latency, though, as does the accuracy and ability to track fast movements. And unlike Quest, there aren’t many apps that actually use manual tracking in the Pico Store yet.

The 5.8 update also brings improvements to using regular 2D Android apps on the Pico. App icons are now displayed correctly in the library, and several bugs that prevented apps from installing, opening, and/or displaying correctly have been fixed.

Finally, update 5.8 adds sleep mode. This is different from the standby mode that the headset enters when in use. After clicking Sleep Mode, the headset will go into standby mode for two minutes and then enter a low-power mode that will not automatically download updates. This can be useful when you want to carry the headset without draining the battery.

Pico 4 review: Should you really buy one instead of the Quest 2?

The Pico 4 ships today, and we’ve had a chance to go through it quickly over the past few weeks. Pico is not new to VR, having introduced its first headset in 2016. It was acquired last year by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok. Pico has always been like that

The Pico 4 is now a year old, and ByteDance continues to improve it with regular software updates. However, it is still not sold in North America, and in Europe and Asia it no longer has a hardware specification advantage over the Meta with the release of Quest 3.

At 430, the Pico 4 is closer to the Quest 2’s 350 than the Quest 3’s 550, so it could still be an attractive option for some people, especially considering it basically comes with an Elite Strap built-in.