Meta has officially pulled back the curtain on its new VR Glasses, delivering a direct competitor to the Apple Vision Pro in a radically slimmed down form factor. The headset pairs dual micro OLED panels and eye tracking cameras with an external computing puck to strip excess bulk off your face. With a retail price set at $1299, the hardware enters the spatial computing arena at roughly 3 times less than Apples flagship visor.
Mark Zuckerberg presented the device as a bridge between lightweight augmented reality frames and bulky virtual reality headsets. The actual glasses weigh only 100 grams on your nose. A pocket sized computing module provides the processing power and adds another 300 grams. By comparison, the Apple Vision Pro straps between 750 and 800 grams directly to your head, plus a 353 gram external battery pack. Moving the core processors and cooling out of the headset frame solves the long standing comfort problem that has plagued spatial computing.
Visuals run through twin micro OLED screens running at a sharp 2412x2288 resolution per eye with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a 70 degree horizontal field of view. Internal processing relies on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite XR2 Gen 3 chipset tucked inside the pocket module. For tracking, the chassis houses 6 outward cameras for color passthrough and spatial positioning. Another 4 inward cameras track iris patterns and gaze direction, allowing you to select interface elements simply by looking at them.
Meta is positioning the glasses as a dual purpose tool for daily productivity and entertainment. Users can tether the glasses to a PC to project multiple virtual displays across a physical desk. Daily navigation relies completely on pinch gestures and hand motions, though gamers can also link standard Touch Plus controllers. The hardware will launch with over 75 hand tracked games alongside full backward compatibility with the existing Quest app ecosystem.
Media consumption is another major focus for the platform. Meta is preparing a launch catalog packed with hundreds of 3D films, and National Geographic is creating a dedicated 180 degree video hub for release next year. A new format called VR Enhanced Cinema will also allow visual effects from movies like Avengers Infinity War and Star Wars Episode IV to spill beyond the virtual screen borders into your real room. The VR Glasses will arrive in early 2027 starting at $1299, drastically undercutting the $3699 entry price of the Apple Vision Pro.
