Meta's VR Glasses weigh about 100g, cost $1,299.99 and arrive spring 2027

The trade Meta is offering is simple: you stop strapping half a kilo to your forehead, and you start carrying a puck in your pocket. The Meta VR Glasses sit on the ears like ordinary eyewear, still with immersive displays for films, games and work, and The Verge puts them at 100g against the Quest 3's 515g. They cost $1,299.99 and go on sale in spring 2027.

The glasses do not carry their own brain. A separate puck holds a Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, 128GB of storage, 12GB of RAM and the battery, which Meta says is good for up to three hours of media playback, and the glasses keep working while that puck is charging. Engadget weighed the puck at about 300 grams and notes it comes with a clip to hang off a pocket, which Engadget's writer was not sure about walking around with. Meta says the frames are magnesium alloy and the glasses are five times lighter than a Quest 3.

Display first, because that is where the money went. Meta calls it a 5K MicroOLED "Infinite Display", with 2,412 x 2,288 pixels per eye, 37 pixels per degree and refresh up to 120Hz. Engadget adds a 70-degree field of view per eye and called it the sharpest mixed reality display its reviewer can remember seeing.

Control is eyes and hands. You pinch to select and move a fisted thumb to scroll. Engadget also found a feature called Surface Keyboard, which turns any flat surface in front of you into a keyboard and trackpad, and says the glasses can connect to a Mac or PC to act as a remote desktop. The Verge describes connecting wirelessly to computers or other devices over a USB-C connection for extra screen space at work.

The outlets do not agree on how many cameras are on the front. The Verge describes two cameras for colour passthrough plus six external cameras tracking your hands, while Engadget says four cameras handle both hand tracking and passthrough video.

On content, Meta calls this the "first IMAX-enhanced certified VR device ever" and says it will be one of the few ways to see IMAX's expanded aspect ratio. A Disney deal starts in November, when Disney+ users will be able to stream specific films, some Marvel titles among them, in 3D. Meta AI is built in for voice commands.

There are small and large sizes for different widths, priced the same, and small inserts for anyone who needs prescription lenses.

Mark Zuckerberg, who had said Meta would build fewer VR devices until it had real breakthroughs, introduced the glasses with "This is a breakthrough." His pitch: "a new kind of VR device that delivers 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." Meta calls it a new era for virtual reality.