Meta Platforms Inc. founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has reignited his metaverse ambitions with the arrival today of the Meta VR Glasses, a much smaller, lighter and slimmer virtual reality device than the company’s existing Quest-branded VR headsets.
The Meta VR Glasses were announced at Meta’s annual Connect conference for developers, and not only are they smaller, but they’re also going to be more expensive when they go on sale next spring, priced at $1,299. They’re the company’s first new VR device since 2024, when it launched the $299 Quest 3S headset.
In a keynote speech, Zuckerberg told attendees that the company had made the decision to deprioritize its metaverse ambitions and develop fewer VR devices until it could achieve the breakthroughs needed to accelerate mass adoption of the technology. “This is a breakthrough,” Zuckerberg said as he whipped out the new VR Glasses. “A lot of people agree that augmented reality glasses with holograms are clearly going to be part of the future, but we’ve also heard that a lot of people are less interested in wearing a headset.”
That’s why Meta decided upon VR glasses as the way forward, in order to create the same “magical feeling of presence and immersion with high-resolution displays and views of the world around you in a form factor that is a pair of glasses for the first time,” he added. The Meta VR Glasses are five times lighter than Meta’s Quest 3 headset, and they look much more like regular glasses than any VR device the company has released before.
They’re made of magnesium alloy and they contain a powerful Snapdragon Reality Elite processor made by Qualcomm Inc. There’s also an accompanying “puck” device, which acts as the battery and can be slipped into a pocket or bag carried by the wearer.
Zuckerberg said the new glasses are designed for entertainment, featuring a 5K Infinite Display that’s built into the lenses. The display is built with micro-OLED technology and has 37 pixels per degree, and is capable of supporting Dolby Vision and, for the first time, IMAX Enhanced. Users will be able to download movies onto the device and watch them on the go in cinematic quality.
In addition, the Meta VR Glasses also support 3D experiences, as well as special kinds of movie formats where the user’s physical space is integrated into the viewing experience, Zuckerberg said. Meta is collaborating with the Walt Disney Co. to make this possible, and from November, the Disney+ streaming platform will offer a number of 3D movies that can be viewed on the device.
According to Zuckerberg, users who view movies in this way will experience their surroundings being “transformed with immersive environments, dynamic effects, stunning 3D visuals and spatial audio,” as the movie becomes more of a VR gaming experience.
Ray-Ban Meta Audio
Meta is going all-in on non-VR smart glasses too, and has developed a new line that abandons the integrated cameras that caused so much controversy in the past. The company’s first pair of camera-free AI glasses is named Ray-Ban Meta Audio, and it’s designed to combat criticism that its previous devices were often used by questionable individuals, usually men, to make recordings of whatever, or whoever, they were looking at. According to Zuckerberg, the camera-free glasses are “audio-only,” and give wearers the ability to chat with Meta’s AI assistant Muse, listen to music and podcasts, take calls and translate speech.
They’re going to be a lot cheaper than the VR Glasses, at least, with the first pair set to cost $349 when they go on sale later in the year.
Meta sells a range of AI glasses already, with users able to choose from various brands, styles, colors and capabilities, but the audio-only specs could help it to recover from the reputational damage it has suffered from people using the older devices to record others without their consent. The company tried to mitigate this by integrating a highly visible red LED light that automatically came on when the camera was activated, and later issued an update that would shut the camera down completely if the user tried to tamper with the LED. But many people still see the devices as “creepy.”
Zuckerberg compared them with something like Apple Inc.’s Siri-powered AirPods. “Once you get used to high-quality audio, it’s just a thing that you want all the time,” he said. Because there’s no built-in camera, the new glasses are much slimmer and lighter than existing models, weighing just 43 grams. They’re also customizable, with adjustable temple tips, overextension hinges and swappable nose pads, and they come with a beefy battery that can last up to 12 hours. By carrying around the charging case that’s included with each pair, users should be able to get up to 48 hours of usage.
The new audio AI glasses, which will be available from next month, will come in a range of colors and support various different lenses.
Despite all that, Meta is persisting with its original AI glasses that come with cameras, with the arrival of the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3). Unlike the first two generations, which were only available in Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer style, the new ones will also be available in Aeye frame shape, Zuckerberg explained
They will be equipped with a 12-megapixel camera that supports 3K Ultra HD video, have a six-microphone array and up to nine hours of battery life. Like the VR Glasses and the camera-free glasses, the third-generation AI glasses will let users access Meta’s new AI assistant Muse, which is designed to take actions autonomously on their behalf – for instance, shopping for products, booking hotels and flights and so on.
Muse can also be accessed through yet another new device that Zuckerberg showed off today. It’s called the Muse Charm, and it’s a small handheld device that can easily be carried around in a pocket or handbag. Zuckerberg didn’t say much about this, except that users will be able to speak to it and interact with their Meta AI agents “without having to unlock a phone or open an app.”
Meta hasn’t yet decided how much the Muse Charm will cost, since it still needs to “finalize laying out the components” and make a decision, Zuckerberg added. However, the company hopes to have the first Muse Charms ready to ship in time for the Christmas holidays.
“We’ve packed a lot of technology into this little guy,” Zuckerberg added. “So, if you’re not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse and to show it what’s going on around you.”
Photos: Meta
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