Meta's VR Glasses Trade Power for Comfort

Meta's VR Glasses are not a headset you strap on and endure. They are a pair of slightly oversized sunglasses that push the heavy lifting — compute, storage, battery — into a 300g belt- or pocket-friendly puck, leaving 100-gram frames on your face. TechRadar Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff spent 45 minutes in them and came away reluctant to remove them.

A 45-minute walkthrough

Ulanoff's hands-on with the $1,299 VR Glasses took place ahead of a launch expected next spring, between April and early June. In that window he tested entertainment and productivity apps, set up eye tracking, and moved virtual screens around with gestures. He described the session as "breezy" but sufficient to form a view.

The glasses are expected to arrive next year, and Meta has not announced a final ship date beyond that spring window.

Compute in a puck, frames on your face

By moving CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, RAM, the battery, and even SD storage out of the headset, Meta could focus on making the frames light. The result is a wearable Ulanoff compared to an oversized pair of sunglasses. After 45 minutes of continuous use, he wrote that he did not remove the 100-gram frames with a sense of relief.

The design does not cut you off from the outside world, and an optional light shield is planned. Because the lenses do not need to hide electronics, there is no need for animated blinking eyes on the exterior.

Eye and hand tracking that matches Vision Pro

Setup echoed what Ulanoff experienced with Apple Vision Pro and, to an extent, Galaxy XR: you look at a circle of dots floating in space and pinch to select each one. He did not have to adjust pupillary distance, though the setting is available.

Cameras track eyes, hands, and the outside world. Ulanoff wrote that the accuracy matched what he has experienced on Vision Pro. The first floating menu he saw impressed him with its visual quality. Meta lists the Micro-OLED display resolution as 5K, and based on what he saw, he believes it.

One note for glasses wearers: Meta put in a pair of magnetic prescription inserts to match his eyes, and those inserts will probably add $150 to the final cost.

A scroll gesture worth keeping

The software does not try to reinvent mixed reality. Ulanoff had no trouble opening apps, closing them, or moving windows. Meta did add one gesture he appreciated: to scroll in any window, he made a gentle fist and swiped his thumb across the side of his index finger to scroll left, right, up, and down.

He was surprised at how quickly he picked it up, which he attributed to the accuracy of the eye and gesture tracking.

Concerts, courtside seats, and a dragon

His sessions were limited to a handful of apps. He started with an 8K VR Billie Eilish concert, virtually seated front and center, close enough to take a selfie with the singer. The volume started low, but controls under the right temple let him raise it above the voices of the Meta executives guiding him. They watched what he viewed through a cast on a nearby PC; the glasses can also cast to your phone.

They switched to an NBA Finals game, which put him courtside. Meta told him they partner with Kosmo (Hesai Kosmo), which uses relatively small 360-degree cameras to capture the action. He also played a puzzle game called Dragon Grove, featuring a small, green, cartoony dragon that landed on his outstretched hand and let him pet it.

By launch, Meta expects to have 75+ hands-first games.

Productivity screens and a surface keyboard

On the productivity side, Ulanoff had huge desktop screens around him that he could move and resize with gestures. He placed one screen on the ceiling and could make any screen ultrawide. One coding screen stretched code text into an almost unreadable format, which he noted is expected with pre-release software.

Like Vision Pro and Galaxy XR, the glasses have a floating keyboard, but Meta added a surface keyboard. He selected the option from the floating keyboard, put his hands on the table, and after a quick scan a transparent keyboard and trackpad appeared on the tabletop, usable like a standard physical keyboard and mouse. His concern: as a poor touch typist, the lack of physical key response might make his typing worse.

The processor question

The glasses run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite processor (XR2 Gen 3), which can supposedly support all the apps in Quest's library. Ulanoff questioned whether it has the juice to run true AAA titles.

He also raised a more basic consumer question: even at the more affordable $1,299, will people buy in for a big-screen experience on an airplane and when they are home alone?

What it means for the mixed reality market

Ulanoff's account suggests the comfort gap may be as decisive as raw fidelity. He was impressed and wrote that he cannot wait to wear them again, but his doubts — about AAA gaming, about shared spaces, about whether consumers will pay $1,299 for a personal screen — are part of the same review. The glasses are expected next spring between April and early June, and the final software will differ from what he tested. For buyers, the near-term question is less about whether the display impresses than whether a 100-gram frame and a pocket puck fit into daily life.

— Reporting based on original coverage from TechRadar.