Just when I thought virtual reality was about to be relegated to the scrap heap, Meta may have just convinced me that VR still has legs. The company has just announced the future of VR at Meta Connect, and I got a first look.
The newly announced Meta VR glasses essentially squash a full VR headset into a pair of lightweight glasses, with Meta putting all of the processing power and the battery into a puck that’s tethered to them. Controlled with just your eyes and hands, Meta has essentially removed the headset entirely, potentially spelling the end of the Meta Quest line as we know it.
Running on the same operating system as the Meta Quest, the all-new Meta VR glasses support the entire Quest catalogue of content. From watching films on a huge virtual cinema screen to working with multiple monitors and typing on a virtual keyboard, Meta’s VR glasses might be the best VR device I’ve tried in years – here are my first impressions.
Meta VR glasses design
I’ve genuinely never seen virtual reality compacted down into a form factor like this before. I thought it’d take a lot longer to get to a point where you could enter VR simply by putting on a pair of glasses, but here we are.
From the front, they look a little bit like Snap’s Specs, with a similarly chunky, wraparound design but without those massive arms, and they really are as lightweight as a pair of smart glasses. They didn’t fall down my nose because of their weight or feel particularly cumbersome on my face. That’s mainly because Meta has moved all of the processing power and battery into the puck that’s tethered to the glasses.
While Meta calls it a puck, it’s shaped more like a chunky power bank, but it can still be popped into your pocket. Inside it is Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, which handles all the heavy lifting for the glasses.
There is a compromise to getting VR this small. The field of view is significantly narrower than on a full-sized VR headset, so I could see the frames at the sides of my vision, and the virtual world didn’t fill my entire field of view. But having tried them in full VR, I didn’t actually mind all that much. It still felt super immersive, and I think the smaller field of view is a fine trade-off for getting something this small and lightweight.
Meta VR glasses ease of use
After setting up the eye tracking and fixing my view, Meta’s home screen appeared, this time plastered across a passthrough view of the room around me. It really did feel like a lightweight version of the Apple Vision Pro.
They’re super easy to use too. You don’t need controllers – just your hands – though you can connect your Meta Quest controllers if you want to, which will be useful for games that need more traditional controls. And the glasses are way simpler to use than both the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which are finally launching in the UK, and the Apple Vision Pro.
Like the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, you can swipe forward and backwards on the arm to increase the volume, and there’s an action button to go back to the home screen. While the Display glasses and Vision Pro have a bunch of gestures you need to master, there are really only two you need to get your head around with the Meta VR glasses – it’s an absolute doddle. Just look at where you want to go, then tap your finger and thumb together to select it. To scroll, you move your thumb up and down or left and right along your index finger. You can do all of this with your hands resting naturally down by your sides – you don’t need to hold them up in front of you. It’s super responsive.
I demoed a bunch of different experiences with the Meta VR glasses. One cosy puzzle game called Dragon Grove I played took place in passthrough mode, requiring me to pinch leaves off a tree and stack them on top of others. It was a really nice showcase for the hand and gaze controls, and interacting with my environment felt really intuitive. I could stand up to take a look at the tree from above and circle around it to get another look.
Meta says 75 Quest titles will be optimised for hand and gaze controls at launch, while the entire Quest catalogue will be available to play from day one.
Meta VR glasses display and audio
I also played Forza in full VR using an Xbox controller, which was a nice way to see how gaming felt in full VR. The racetrack stretched right around me, with the environment looking luscious and clear. While I could still see the edges of the display because of that narrower field of view, once I started playing, I didn’t find it particularly distracting. The display looked fantastic too – super detailed and immersive.
Entertainment is where the Meta VR glasses really impressed me. I had a massive virtual screen floating in front of me for watching films and TV shows, complete with spatial audio, but it goes further than that.
If you’ve ever tried a pair of Xreal glasses, which essentially place a thumping big screen in your vision, it’s a little similar, except with the Meta VR glasses, that screen can also exist within an entire virtual environment.
I watched a scene from Doctor Strange on a huge virtual cinema screen, but the experience wasn’t confined to the screen in front of me. I could look around the entire room as parts of the film extended into the space around me. Meta calls this VR Enhanced, and it says it’s working with Disney on bringing the format to more films.
There should be loads to watch at launch. Meta says it’s working with the likes of Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock, with some services bringing 3D film catalogues to the glasses.
My favourite experience, though, has to be streaming an NBA basketball game. Meta put me courtside, and it actually felt like I was sitting in the stadium. I could look around the arena, focus on specific players and even look at others in the crowd. Insane. Dolby Atmos made the experience even more immersive, with sound coming from all around me. It won’t just be basketball. Meta says there’ll be more than 100 immersive live sporting events to watch every year once the glasses launch, with MLB, NBC Sports, TNT Sports and UFC among its partners.
The Meta VR glasses are also the first VR device to be IMAX Enhanced, with support for the full 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio. I cannot wait to watch The Odyssey with these. Being able to have a cinema-sized screen floating in front of you wherever you happen to be, without having to be trapped in a heavy VR headset, is incredible.
The display itself looked really good too. Meta calls it a 5K infinite display. The glasses use two micro-OLED screens with a pixel density of 37 pixels per degree – that’s up from the 25 pixels per degree on the Meta Quest 3. It also has a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which helped make games look so good. Games and films looked mind-bogglingly sharp during my demo.
Meta VR glasses practicality
There’s productivity potential too. You can connect the glasses to your phone or laptop, either by tethering them or wirelessly. Connect them to your laptop and you’ll get three screens around you, like having a big curved monitor in your field of view, essentially giving you a huge workspace to play with.
There’s even a virtual keyboard and trackpad. The glasses project both onto the table, and I was shocked at how responsive they were to use. I could type directly onto an otherwise empty table, then move my finger across the virtual trackpad to navigate around my screen. Or I could just use my eyes and tap with my thumb and index finger to activate elements or scroll around. I’ve seen this kind of thing on the Apple Vision Pro before, but having it work on a much smaller device was bonkers.
It works for more everyday stuff too. I could scroll through Instagram using the same hand controls, flicking through posts, then use the virtual keyboard to leave a comment.
I didn’t get to test this myself, but Meta says it is also adding hologram video calls. The glasses can create a photorealistic digital version of you, complete with your expressions and reactions, so other people can see you even though you’ve got a pair of glasses strapped to your face. Meta says it’ll work across calling apps including WhatsApp and Zoom.
I’ve never particularly wanted to sit on a plane with the Apple Vision Pro strapped to my face, but I can genuinely see myself popping Meta’s pair of glasses on, using some huge virtual monitors and getting some work done, or just watching a film. I’ve never really wanted to use VR outside of my living room, in fact, but these may have changed my mind.
Meta VR glasses battery life
Meta says the battery in the puck will last up to three hours when continuously playing high-resolution media, and it supports 45W fast charging. I’ll need to wear the glasses for a much longer period of time to judge comfort and eye strain before giving a full verdict.
Meta VR glasses price
While they’re not cheap, costing a lot more than the Meta Quest 3, they’re actually cheaper than the Meta Quest Pro was at launch and a lot cheaper than the Apple Vision Pro. The Meta VR glasses will cost $1,299 in the US when they go on sale in spring 2027. Pricing for the UK has yet to be announced.
Although I was starting to fall out of love with VR, I came away from my demo more excited about its potential than I have been in years. Maybe virtual reality isn’t heading for the scrap heap after all.
