Meta’s investments in VR and AR over the years have led to, let’s say, mixed results (remember the metaverse?). Recent months have been dominated by headlines about the company’s Ray-Ban Meta Glasses being used to take videos of people in public without consent, all while a number of VR game development studios close down. Still, the company hopes to change people’s minds by introducing the “next generation of virtual reality” via a new piece of hardware, the Meta VR Glasses.
On first glance, the device appears notably reminiscent of the Apple Vision Pro, all the way down to its requirement to carry a separate tethered battery pack, or puck, for power. That tethered battery has allowed Meta to notably slim down the device to resemble a pair of sunglasses, and the company claims it’ll only weigh 100 grams on the face. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Reality Elite chip and has 12GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a microSD card to expand that storage.
It will run some VR games playable with just your hands (roughly 75 at launch, including a number of new titles announced at the event like a port of the fifth Ace Attorney game to virtual reality, alongside Xbox Cloud Gaming via a controller), but Meta is notably positioning the Meta VR Glasses as primarily a multimedia device. The glasses are also capable of playing IMAX-resolution or 3D movies (via services like Disney+, which promises to support the app from launch), as well as immersive sports. Or it can be used for homework.
At the very least, it won’t be as easy to spy on unsuspecting strangers while wearing them, since the cameras on the device for spacial augmented reality applications are notably more prominent than those on other Meta Glasses, though this is because they’re designed to support more complex applications. Vision is presented on 2.4K micro-OLED screens inside the device, screens the company claims are some of its best-looking to date.
The biggest question facing Meta with the device is whether it can find a way to appeal to those not already invested in VR or AR glasses like Meta’s current devices, something even Apple struggled to do with its own device. It’s set to cost $1299 at launch in the spring of 2027, but will people who have remained unconvinced by VR for all this time find that a more lightweight model and access to a few immersive entertainment options alongside games is enough to make them take the leap?