PICO G2 — specification and verdict
The G2 renders 1440x1600 per eye at 90 Hz across a 92-degree horizontal field, which is enough resolution for readable slide text and 360-degree video. What it cannot do is let a trainee move: tracking is rotational only, so the picture pivots with the head but never shifts when the body does. Its Snapdragon 835 with 4 GB of RAM was already one generation behind XR2 silicon at launch, and the single bundled 3DoF controller offers a trackpad, face buttons and a trigger rather than a tracked hand. Our courses require positional tracking and two 6DoF controllers, so they do not run here at all.
There is nothing left to deploy. PICO's own G2 product URL now 301-redirects to the G2 4K S page, and PICO ended production, technical support, software updates and security updates for the G2 4K line in Q1 2023 — the plain G2 preceded that line. No current vendor fleet management, kiosk mode or enterprise licensing is available to a new customer, and PICO's business division no longer sells into PL or DE. Used units surface on eBay without a listed price; a 32 GB unit launched at 249 USD and the 64 GB at 299 USD, which is the only price anchor that exists.
Do not buy it, and do not accept a donated one for training. A rotation-only headset on a Snapdragon 835 with no supported update path cannot run our courses, and no configuration will change that. If someone is offering you a fleet of G2s, treat them as 360-degree video players and budget separately for real 6DoF standalone hardware.
How it compares within its class
The axis runs from the lowest to the highest published figure among the VR — standalone devices in this catalogue. The grey tick is the median of that class.
Launch price$249
$199$4750
Median for this class: $599, from 32 models that publish the figure.
Full specification
An em dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure.
- ManufacturerWho makes it — and who you buy support from.
- PICO (ByteDance)
- CategoryWhich kind of product this is. It decides which rows below make sense at all.
- VR — standalone
- Device typeWhere the computing happens, and therefore what you need to run it.
- Standalone VR
- AnnouncedThe day it was shown, which is not the day it shipped.
- Announced: not published by the manufacturer
- ReleasedYear the model went on sale. Older is not automatically worse in this category.
- 2018
- AvailabilityWhether you can still order it new today.
- Discontinued
- Support endsThe date the manufacturer stops supporting it. Decisive for a fleet you are about to buy.
- Support ends: not published by the manufacturer
- PanelThe screen type. micro-OLED gives deeper blacks and higher contrast; LCD is brighter and cheaper.
- LCD
- OpticsThe lenses in front of the panel. Pancake stays sharp closer to the edges than older Fresnel, which decides how much a trainee has to aim their head to read something.
- Optics: not published by the manufacturer
- Eyes coveredOne eye or both. Over a full shift this is a real difference in fatigue.
- Both eyes
- Resolution per eyePixels delivered to each eye. Higher means small text and labels stay readable.
- ≈1440x1600*VRcompare spec sheet
- Refresh rateImages per second. Higher feels smoother and helps people prone to motion discomfort.
- ≈90 Hz*VRcompare spec sheet
- Field of viewHow much of your view the image covers. Bigger is more immersive, not automatically better for work.
- ≈92° horizontal*VRcompare estimate
- Pixel densityPixels per degree of view — the honest way to compare sharpness between a headset and a pair of glasses. Higher is sharper. Only shown where somebody published it; we never compute it ourselves.
- Pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- BrightnessIn a plant or outdoors, brightness decides legibility more than resolution does.
- Brightness: not published by the manufacturer
- WeightThe device alone. Anything above roughly 150 g is felt within an hour.
- ≈268 g*VRcompare spec sheet
- Visible field of viewWhat the eye actually sees through the optics, by axis.
- Visible field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Rendered field of viewWhat the device draws. Never smaller than what you see.
- Rendered field of view: not published by the manufacturer
- Binocular overlapWhere both eyes see the same thing — this is where depth happens.
- Binocular overlap: not published by the manufacturer
- Average pixel densityPixels per degree across the image. More is sharper.
- Average pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Peak pixel densityThe sharpest point, usually the centre of the lens.
- Peak pixel density: not published by the manufacturer
- Subpixel layoutHow the coloured dots sit in a pixel. A stripe looks cleaner on text than PenTile.
- RGB stripe · 3 subpixels per pixel
- Foveated renderingWhether detail is dropped outside where you look, to save performance.
- Foveated rendering: not published by the manufacturer
- PassthroughWhat the front cameras give you: colour, grayscale, or nothing.
- None
- Passthrough camerasResolution, density and frame rate of that camera feed.
- Passthrough cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- IPD adjustmentMatching lens spacing to the eyes. Motorised is fastest when one headset passes between people.
- Manual
- IPD rangeHow far the lenses travel to match eye spacing. A narrow range excludes part of any group of adults, which matters when one headset is shared.
- 54–71 mm
- Works with glassesWhether people who wear glasses can use it — fits over them, or takes prescription lens inserts.
- Works with glasses: not published by the manufacturer
- Vision correctionHow somebody who wears glasses uses it, and in what dioptre range.
- Vision correction: not published by the manufacturer
- DimensionsWidth, height and depth of the device itself.
- Dimensions: not published by the manufacturer
- Weight with strapWith the strap it ships with — the weight you actually wear.
- Weight with strap: not published by the manufacturer
- Head strapSoft band or a rigid one. Decides how the weight sits over an hour.
- Soft strap
- MaterialsShell and facial interface, in the vendor’s words.
- plastic · foam facial interface
- ColoursColours the manufacturer sells it in.
- White · Black
- Haptics in the headsetVibration in the headset itself, not in the controllers.
- Haptics in the headset: not published by the manufacturer
- TrackingWhether content stays put in the room (6DoF), follows head rotation (3DoF) or is simply fixed.
- 3DoF rotational only, no positional tracking
- Base stationsWhether boxes have to be mounted on the walls before it works.
- Not needed
- Tracking camerasHow many cameras it uses to know where it is.
- Tracking cameras: not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking rateHow often position is recalculated. Higher is steadier.
- Tracking rate: not published by the manufacturer
- Depth sensorA dedicated sensor for distance, on top of the cameras.
- Depth sensor: not published by the manufacturer
- Hand trackingWhether bare hands can operate the interface, without a controller or the phone.
- No
- Eye trackingThe headset knows where the trainee is looking. Enables sharper rendering where they look, and attention analytics.
- No
- Face trackingTracks facial expression — for avatars, not for training scenarios.
- Face tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Body trackingHow much of the body the device knows about. Estimated legs are not tracked legs.
- Body tracking: not published by the manufacturer
- Controllers includedWhether motion controllers come in the box, or are bought separately — or the device is hands-only.
- Yes
- Controller modelThe manufacturer's own name for the controller.
- Pico G2 Controller
- Controller tracking6DoF controllers track position and rotation, so a hand reaches in space; 3DoF only point. “None” means hands only.
- 3DoF
- Finger tracking on the controllerWhether the controller senses individual fingers, and how.
- Finger tracking on the controller: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller inputsButtons, sticks and triggers the controller offers.
- trackpad · face buttons · index trigger
- Controller hapticsVibration feedback in the hand.
- Controller haptics: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller powerDisposable cells or a built-in rechargeable — a fleet question.
- Controller power: not published by the manufacturer
- Controller weightOne controller, as the vendor weighs it.
- Controller weight: not published by the manufacturer
- Other input methodsWays in beyond controllers and bare hands.
- Other input methods: not published by the manufacturer
- PerformanceHow much the headset can run — sharper scenes, more objects, smoother mixed reality. Higher is better.
- Dated — we no longer recommend it
- ProcessorThe processor and memory inside. This is what the performance grade above is derived from.
- ≈Qualcomm Snapdragon 835*VRcompare
- CPUCores and clocks, where the manufacturer publishes them.
- Octa-core Kryo 280 (4 x 2.45 GHz, 4 x 1.9 GHz)
- GPUThe graphics part of the chip.
- Adreno 540
- MemoryRAM on the device. Together with the chipset it sets how complex a scene can be.
- 4 GB
- PlatformThe platform an application is built against — and what an MDM has to speak.
- Android
- StorageOn-board space for downloaded courses. More matters for an offline library in several languages.
- ≈32 GB · 64 GB*VRcompare spec sheet
- SD card slotWhether storage can be added with a card.
- SD card slot: not published by the manufacturer
- BatteryRuntime as the manufacturer states it. A hot-swappable pack matters more than the figure.
- ≈180 min*VRcompare spec sheet
- Battery capacity (Wh)Energy in the cell. Bigger is longer, given the same power draw.
- Battery capacity (Wh): not published by the manufacturer
- Battery capacity (mAh)The same fact in the other unit vendors use. We never convert between the two.
- 3500 mAh
- Charge timeFrom empty to full. Rarely stated by the manufacturer, so it usually comes from whoever timed it.
- Charge time: not published by the manufacturer
- ChargerPower of the supplied charger — it decides the charge time above.
- Charger: not published by the manufacturer
- External batteryBattery on a cable or a puck instead of on the head.
- External battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Charging caseExtra runtime carried in the case the glasses ship with.
- Charging case: not published by the manufacturer
- Hot-swap batteryWhether a charged battery can replace the empty one without ending the session. This is what decides if a headset can hold an all-day training station.
- Hot-swap battery: not published by the manufacturer
- Runs Skillsive appsOur own statement about whether Skillsive training applications run on it today.
- No
- Suitable for trainingOur judgement on whether it survives real deployment: comfort, hygiene, fleet management.
- No
- Kiosk mode / MDMVendor tooling to enrol devices, push an app and lock the headset to it. Practically required above ten devices.
- No
- Business tierAn official business tier, so devices belong to the company rather than to employees’ personal accounts.
- No
- Swappable facial interfaceRemovable, wipeable face padding. A consumable, and the difference between shared use and complaints.
- Swappable facial interface: not published by the manufacturer
- CertificationsIndustrial certifications stated on the manufacturer's own page. Empty means unconfirmed, never "probably fine".
- Certifications: not published by the manufacturer
- PortsPhysical sockets and charging contacts.
- USB Type-C
- Wi-FiThe Wi-Fi generation — it decides how well wireless streaming holds up.
- Wi-Fi: not published by the manufacturer
- BluetoothFor controllers, headphones and accessories.
- Bluetooth: not published by the manufacturer
- Video from a computerWhether a computer can drive it, over a cable or wirelessly.
- Video from a computer: not published by the manufacturer
- AudioBuilt-in sound. Matters most where somebody has to hear a remote expert while working.
- Headphone jack
- MicrophoneBuilt-in microphone — the other half of talking to a remote expert.
- Microphone: not published by the manufacturer
- MicrophonesHow many. An array picks a voice out of a noisy hall; one does not.
- Microphones: not published by the manufacturer
- Price bandThe band it sits in, rather than a price that goes stale.
- Entry level
- Launch priceThe manufacturer's launch price. Fixed history, so it never goes stale.
- $249
- Price by configurationWhat each configuration cost at launch.
- 32 GB $249 · 64 GB $299
- Price todayApproximate current net price in USD — a general figure, since these barely differ between regions once tax is stripped out. A snapshot from the date shown, not an offer.
- Price today: not published by the manufacturer
- Comfort (from reviews)How it wears over a full session. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers, not from our own testing.
- Comfort (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Edge clarity (from reviews)Sharpness away from the centre of the lens. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Edge clarity (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Tracking reliability (from reviews)How tracking holds up in poor light and fast movement. Scored from agreement between independent reviewers.
- Tracking reliability (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews)How usable controller-free hand tracking is in a training scenario. Scored from agreement between reviewers.
- Hand tracking quality (from reviews): not published by the manufacturer
Who this device is for
Realistically, nobody buying today. The only people who still touch a G2 are organisations that bought a 3DoF fleet in 2018-2020 for seated 360-degree video and are now deciding what replaces it. If that is you, the relevant question is migration, not whether this headset can be stretched further.
What is missing, and what the manufacturer does not publish
PICO never left a live spec page behind: the G2 URL redirects to another product, so every figure here rests on VRcompare rather than the maker. Its own two dates contradict each other — a release of 2018-07-31 recorded before an announcement of 2018-08-01 — so we dropped the announcement date. We also could not source a discontinuation year for the plain G2 (only the G2 4K line's Q1 2023 end of life), a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth generation, speaker or microphone details, or a charge time.
PICO G2 — frequently asked questions
- Does the PICO G2 have positional tracking or only 3DoF?
- Only 3DoF. VRcompare records the G2's tracking as non-positional, and its single bundled Pico G2 Controller is 3DoF as well, with a trackpad, face buttons and an index trigger. You can look around a 360-degree scene but you cannot lean, step or reach for anything, which rules out every interactive VR training exercise.
- Is the PICO G2 still supported after the G2 4K end of life in Q1 2023?
- No. PICO ended production, technical support, software updates and security updates for the G2 4K line in Q1 2023, and the older plain G2 came before that line, so it lost support earlier still. Existing installed applications keep running on the hardware, but there is no patch path, no warranty and no PICO product page — the G2 URL now redirects to the G2 4K S.
- Will Skillsive VR training courses run on a PICO G2 bought for 249 USD in 2018?
- No. Our courses are Android standalone VR applications that need 6DoF positional tracking and two tracked controllers; the G2 provides neither, regardless of its 1440x1600-per-eye panel being adequate on paper. There is also no vendor MDM or kiosk mode left to distribute a build with, so we mark the device incompatible rather than merely outdated.
Compare this device
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Specifications checked against the manufacturer's page on 2026-08-10. Manufacturer's specification
Product and company names used here are the trademarks of their respective owners and appear only to identify the hardware being compared. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of these manufacturers. Illustrations are our own.