Meta’s New VR Glasses Are Lighter, Smaller And Can’t Record Video
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- Meta VR Glasses weigh about 100 grams and move the processor, battery and storage into a separate puck connected by an optical tether.
- Unlike Meta’s existing smart glasses, the new VR model isn’t designed around hands-free photo and video capture, although it does use a passthrough camera.
- The USD$1,299.99 (roughly AUD$1,850) glasses arrive in the US in Spring 2027 with 5K micro-OLED displays, IMAX Enhanced certification and support for immersive movies, live sport, work and gaming.
Meta has picked an interesting time to launch another pair of glasses. Just last month, its camera-equipped smart glasses started getting banned from pubs, restaurants and theatres over concerns people were being filmed without their consent.
Now they’re introducing the Meta VR Glasses, a far more capable pair of glasses that weighs about 100 grams and promises everything from 3D movies and courtside basketball action to a multi-screen workspace. What they won’t do? Take photos or record video.
They’re not completely camera-free; a passthrough camera still lets you see your surroundings while you wear them, just without the hands-free photo and video recording functions that have landed Meta’s other glasses in trouble. More importantly, Meta has turned what would normally be a bulky VR headset into something you might actually consider wearing outside the house. It just hasn’t managed to fit it all into the glasses.
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Meta VR Glasses Key Specs
- Weight: Approx. 100 grams
- Display: 5K Infinite Display with micro-OLED panels
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite
- Controls: Voice, eye tracking and hand gestures
- Battery Life: Up to 3 hours of high-resolution media playback
- Charging: 45W fast charging
- Price: USD$1,299.99 (roughly AUD$1,850)
- Release: US spring 2027
Learn more from Meta
Meta Splits the VR Headset in Two
Getting a VR headset down to roughly the weight of a deck of cards is an impressive feat, but Meta has cheated the scales a little by moving a lot of the hardware out of the glasses and into a puck you have to carry around with you.
The glasses themselves handle the sensors and displays, while a separate puck connected by an optical tether takes care of pretty much everything else: the processor, battery and storage. Clip it to your pocket, belt or bag and off you go.
That external puck invites an obvious Apple Vision Pro matchup, although Meta has certainly improved on the idea. Apple’s headset moves its battery off your head, while Meta has shifted the processor, battery and storage into the puck. The result is a pair of VR Glasses weighing about 100 grams, which Meta says is five times lighter than the Meta Quest 3.
There are no head straps either, while the open sides and passthrough camera are designed to keep you aware of what’s going on around you. It’s still VR, just without the feeling of having a submarine helmet strapped to your face.
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Reality Elite platform does the processing, while the puck provides up to three hours of continuous high-resolution media playback and supports 45W fast charging.
Meta has also baked its AI assistant into the operating system, with voice commands, eye tracking and hand gestures replacing traditional VR controllers for opening apps, moving things around and navigating the interface. You’ll still probably look a little strange to everyone else, but at least you won’t be waving two controllers around while you do it.
How Do They Compare to Meta Glasses (Gen 2)?
Despite sharing a name and roughly the same place on your face, Meta’s two pairs of glasses are chasing two very different things.
As we found out in Ben’s Meta Glasses (Gen 2) review, the AUD$469 smart glasses are really about making the things you already do with your phone a little more convenient. Their 12MP camera shoots hands-free 3K vertical video, open-ear speakers handle music and calls, and Meta AI is there when you need it.
As for the far more expensive USD$1,299.99 Meta VR Glasses, they’re swinging for the fences, squeezing a cinema, a gaming system and a multi-screen computer into a device that sits on your face (and clips to your pocket or bag). In other words, one pair wants to replace some of the things you do with your phone. The other wants to replace the screen entirely.
It’s Basically a Personal IMAX Theatre
Well, kinda. Meta is making some big claims about the displays inside its VR Glasses. Each pair uses what the company calls a 5K Infinite Display built around micro-OLED panels and ultra-compact pancake lenses, delivering 37 pixels per degree. They also support Dolby Vision, with Dolby Atmos spatial audio built directly into the frames.
Meta says that makes the VR Glasses the first-ever IMAX Enhanced-certified VR device. But no, that doesn’t mean you’ll get the same experience as sitting in a proper IMAX theatre.
What Meta is doing instead is putting a tremendous amount of effort into making these things a very expensive personal cinema. Which, if I’m honest, is where VR glasses shine. For starters, Disney+ subscribers will be able to stream selected movies in 3D, including Marvel’s The Avengers and Black Panther, alongside themed environments that let you watch from places like Tatooine or Avengers Tower.
Disney has assembled even more visual goodies for us with the Immersive Cinema app from ILM, which will offer enhanced versions of films including Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: A New Hope. Exactly how much better that experience is than simply watching the movie in 3D remains to be seen, literally, but Meta is clearly betting that entertainment will be one of the main reasons people put these glasses on.
Sport gets the same immersive treatment, with Meta saying more than 100 immersive live sporting events will be available each year once the glasses launch, with partners including ESPN, MLB, NBC Sports, TNT Sports and UFC. Its Immersive Sports format promises a front-row viewing position with 8K streams and a 180-degree field of view.
And if the campaign imagery is to be believed, that could make watching a game from an airport lounge considerably more interesting than balancing your phone against your carry-on.
VR Glasses to Replace Your Laptop Screen
When you’re done watching movies in a galaxy far, far away, or getting lost in the virtual crowds of live sport, Meta has some work for you to do with its new hardware.
Whether you’re in the office, working from home or doing the whole digital nomad thing by the beach, the Meta VR Glasses can create multiple private virtual displays around you. So there’s no need for a laptop screen or monitor sitting in front of you. And with full-colour passthrough, you can still keep your eyes on everything around you.
What’s really cool is that Meta says any flat surface can become a keyboard and touchpad, so in theory, your hotel desk, kitchen bench or café table can become part of the setup too.
But Meta doesn’t just want to replace your screens. Gaming is part of the equation, with more than 75 games supporting hand-gesture controls at launch, while Xbox Cloud Gaming will let you stream hundreds more.
Then there’s hologram calling, which is probably the most Zuckerberg part of the whole thing. Meta says the glasses can create a photorealistic digital version of you that reproduces your expressions and reactions during calls. It might sound like another attempt to drag the “Metaverse” back from the dead, but what’s interesting here is that the person on the other end of the line doesn’t actually need a pair of VR Glasses to participate. Meta says the hologram can appear in regular calling apps like WhatsApp and Zoom.
Pricing and Availability
The Meta VR Glasses will go on sale in the US in Spring 2027 for USD$1,299.99 (roughly AUD$1,850), although we still don’t know what they’ll actually cost in Australia.
That’s obviously not cheap, especially when the deal involves carrying a computer puck around in your pocket. But if Meta can deliver on the 100-gram form factor, it’s a lot easier to imagine wearing these for a full movie, getting some work done or sitting courtside for a game than the bulky VR headsets some of us have been strapping to our faces for years.
Unlike other smart glasses, the awkward conversation will probably involve explaining the puck in your pocket rather than why your glasses were filming everyone around you. Whether that’s a computer in your pocket or we’re just excited to see where Meta is taking VR, we’ll have to wait until 2027 to find out.
