Meta Platforms launched Meta VR Glasses at its annual Connect event in Menlo Park on September 23, 2026, thus declaring a new age of virtual reality development after a decade spent in the VR field. In contrast to the previous bulky Quest headsets, which have been the main VR devices of the company.
The new product becomes much lighter as the processor, a fan, battery, and storage get moved from the headset into a separate "puck," which can be clipped into a user's pocket or set on a table. The glasses, which will be worn on the face, weigh around 100 grams, being about one-fifth of the weight of Meta Quest 3.
Meta's CTO and head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth, unveiled the product alongside Zuckerberg himself. The presentation highlighted features like the 5K micro-OLED display as well as its capabilities of projecting a private multi-screen environment as well as making any flat surface become a keyboard or touchpad via eye tracking and gesture controls.
The new unveiling is seen as an aggressive positioning strategy targeting Apple's Vision Pro that failed to become popular ever since its launch because of both its size and the price above $3,000. Selling for only $1,299.99.
The Meta VR Glasses beat out Apple's offering in both pricing and size as well as making it possible for Meta to move towards a sustainable model. Analysts believe that the slim profile of the new device resembles the XREAL Aura glasses coming with Android XR.
The company has marketed its device as the first IMAX Enhanced certified VR device, providing 3D films along with live sports that have immersive qualities. With collaborations with ESPN, TNT Sports, NBA, MLB, NBC Sports, and UFC.
The company claims that the users would be able to get over 100 immersive live sports games each year, with 8K, 180-degree “Immersive Sports” of college football coming from this year onwards along with additional sports in 2027.
The company has also entered into partnerships for content creation with Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and many other streaming services.
Apart from serving as entertainment tools, the company sees potential in the glasses as a future generation computing platform aimed at boosting productivity by allowing users to play continuous high-resolution videos for up to three hours and creating a private, scalable virtual working environment without any additional hardware.
Meta VR Glasses are supposed to be rolled out in spring 2027; specifically, the sales will begin on September 23 in the UK and Canada, while in France, Italy, and Germany, pre-ordering will start ahead of an October 13 release in those countries.
This product launch was made along with an expansion of Meta's portfolio of wearable devices. In addition to the glasses with built-in VR functionality, there were also launched audio-only and camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses, a third-generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses series with new frame designs.
and expansion of the Meta Glasses portfolio to such new markets as South Korea. Another gadget based on Meta's increasingly popular Muse AI agent was a keychain-like device, Muse Charm.
However, first impressions received by tech journalists on trying out the technology have generally been positive; some have even said that, despite the many years of doubt cast upon it, the category of virtual reality lives on—albeit in a way that matches the pre-release leaks very closely indeed.
