After using the Pico 4 for several months as my first VR headset in MSFS, I was largely satisfied with the experience but always felt the lenses were potentially leaving some visual fidelity on the table. They were good centrally but tailed off quite a bit as you go to the periphery. With all the talk of the Quest 3 having really good quality lenses and the potential for higher quality streaming, I had a hunch that I would see a tangible increase in visual quality and so finally picked one up to test with. This is all based on wireless streaming via virtual desktop and the experience in MSFS2020. The out of the box comfort is a separate discussion as this can be mitigated by additional purchases.
TLDR; The Quest 3 is a small but worthwhile upgrade over the Pico 4 in my experience.
Sharpness
This was my primary reason for wanting to try out the Quest 3 and there is a noticeable improvement with clarity/detail with the Quest3. Comparing the exact same settings using HEVC 10bit @ 150Mbps, there was a noticeable improvement in clarity with the Quest 3. Labels and buttons in the cockpit were easier to read as were signage outside at airports. Given all settings were identical, I can only attribute this to the lenses. The Quest 3 also lets you up the bitrate to 200Mbps so I tried this next and there was a further, albeit small improvement with this higher bitrate. I need to explore using AV1 codec @ 200Mbps a bit more as that in theory should offer a further improvement in visuals but I was focused on HEVC while doing my comparison.
Dark scenes
This is one area where the Pico 4 has the edge. They both use LED lit LCD panels but the Pico 4 presents darker scenes better and looks darker/blacker than the Quest 3, which is a little more grey looking - I’m assuming due to the latter having brighter displays. You can tweak settings to improve this but there is a still a small difference between the two. Ultimately though, they both use the same screen technology so this is largely a non issue for me.
Screen door
I’ve read a lot about screen door effect on the Quest 3 and yes it is there but it is also in the Pico 4 if you look for it and I think they are about the same level which makes sense given they have nearly identical resolutions. I think people are picking up on it more in the Quest 3 due to the better quality lenses making it easier to see but also due to the panels being canted. The Pico 4, much like most other displays, have the pixels arranged in a vertical and horizontal grid design which I think our brains are just accustomed to. Because the pixel grid in the Quest 3 is diagonal, we pick up on it more as it looks different to other displays - more noticeable in vertically and horizontally aligned lines such as text in the cockpit. This is just my theory but once you spend a bit of time in MSFS with the Quest 3, it just melts away and you don’t notice it.
Mura
This can largely be headset dependant and vary between different examples of the same headset but to me, there is a very small amount of mura in both the Quest 3 and Pico 4 - I would say they are pretty much identical in the headsets I’ve been comparing. This screen uniformity variance is to be expected in these kind of displays and a non issue if you are not specifically looking for it.
Stability
This is something no one seems to talk about but actually quite a big deal for me. I find with the Pico 4, when in a cockpit, I notice a small but consistent ’trembling effect’ of things near my head such as door and windshield frames and it’s always annoyed me. It’s like the image being rendered is not completely stable. Nothing I could do could eliminate it. In the Quest 3, this doesn’t happen and the image is rock solid in comparison. I’m not sure the reason for this but I’m making a guess it is higher quality cameras used for the inside out tracking on the Quest 3. I’ve used two Pico 4 units and the issue was the same so I’m assuming it is inherent in all of them. This, along with the increase in visual fidelity, were the two main factors in me switching to the Quest 3.
Battery
The Quest 3 battery life has taken a bit of a slating but in my use, it’s been better than expected. The Pico 4 has better battery life in my experience but not by much and because I typically only spend about 1-2 hours in the headset at a time while flying, I’ve not seen the need for a battery head strap or similar and can also plug in a long USB C charging cable if needed for a longer session. A battery head strap would make sense for those using the Quest 3 for longer standalone sessions or mixed reality or for those doing longer flights that simply hate any cable being connected.
Audio
The audio in the Pico 4 and Quest 3 are both pretty similar and actually quite good, it’s the delivery to the ears that is lacking. With the headset on, cup your hands over the audio area and your ears and there is plenty of bass and presence about the sound. Anyway, this is a small win for the Quest 3 as the audio is a little richer and get’s louder but I think both headsets are adequate in this regard.
Chromatic Aberration
This is my main disappointment with the Quest 3, as good as the lenses are, I notice a fair amount of chromatic aberration as you look towards the top and bottom of the panels. Comparing to the Pico 4, it is probably just as bad but somewhat obscured due to the lack of clarity of the lenses as you go away from the centre. Incidentally, I notice this more on the left and right edges on the Pico 4 as opposed to top and bottom on the Quest 3. In normal viewing though, this is mostly a non issue but I would have loved to have seen less so you could make more of the clearer lenses.
As someone who has done photography as a hobby for years, I appreciate CA can be an issue and typically it takes a larger lens stack with more elements and a higher price to reduce or eliminate this phenomenon and that is in a single lens design. Going down this route for a consumer VR Headset would make things prohibitively expensive and large so it’s a compromise I’m happy to make.
In summary, the Quest 3 performed better than I was expecting and is for me, a worthwhile upgrade over the Pico 4. I would recommend anyone looking at either of these headsets to go for the Quest 3, especially if you can pick one up for a good price as I did for a new, sealed unit on eBay. The Pico 4 is still a good headset for MSFS and is definitely a better value for money prospect when you consider the additional cost of the required extras to make the Quest 3 as comfortable to use. I haven’t tried a USB connection with either yet, I’ve never felt the need, but I do know there is more scope for a higher bitrate and therefore better image quality with the Oculus Link option on the Quest 3.
