Contents Overview
Meta Ray-Ban Display & Meta Neural Band
Oakley Meta Vanguard
Ray-Ban Meta (Second Generation)
Horizon TV Platform
Hyperscape Capture App
Horizon Engine
Comparing Meta’s Smart Glasses
The Meta Connect 2025 event, held on September 17-18, signaled a pivotal shift for Meta. After years of investing heavily in the metaverse and virtual reality hardware, often with futuristic concepts that felt far off, this year’s showcase emphasized tangible, consumer-ready products available now.
Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the event’s focus on eyewear, and indeed, AI-powered smart glasses took center stage. The highlight was the Meta Ray-Ban Display, featuring a minimalist heads-up display paired with the innovative Meta Neural Band, enabling users to operate their glasses through subtle gestures without touching any screens.
Alongside this, Meta unveiled the Oakley Meta Vanguard, tailored for athletes and active users, and the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2, an enhanced iteration of their bestselling smart glasses. Complementing these devices, Meta introduced new services such as Horizon TV for immersive entertainment and the Horizon Engine, a platform designed to support future applications, establishing a robust ecosystem for AI-driven wearable technology.
Meta Ray-Ban Display & Meta Neural Band
Known internally as Hypernova, the Meta Ray-Ban Display represents Meta’s inaugural smart glasses featuring an integrated color display. Rather than leaping directly into costly, high-end augmented reality headsets, Meta has introduced a hybrid device that bridges the gap between current AI glasses and the immersive AR eyewear of tomorrow.
Maintaining the iconic Ray-Ban aesthetic, the design avoids the bulky, futuristic appearance that hindered earlier smart glasses like Google Glass from gaining widespread acceptance. By embedding a straightforward heads-up display within a classic Wayfarer frame, Meta is pioneering a practical and user-friendly product category. This strategy eases users into the experience of in-lens displays, paving the way for more sophisticated AR glasses in the future.
Notable Features
The glasses showcase a compact, high-resolution display projected onto the right lens, delivering quick access to notifications, live captions, language translations, navigation prompts, and even a camera viewfinder for photos and videos. When inactive, the display seamlessly fades away to preserve unobstructed vision.
Paired with the Meta Neural Band-a water-resistant wristband that interprets forearm muscle signals-the glasses respond to subtle finger gestures such as pinches, swipes, taps, or even mimicked handwriting to send messages. This hands-free control is enhanced by Meta’s upgraded AI assistant, capable of answering queries, guiding cooking steps, or identifying objects via the integrated camera.
Technical Specifications & Design
The display boasts 42 pixels per degree, surpassing the sharpness of any existing Meta consumer VR headset. With a brightness level of 5,000 nits, the visuals remain clear even in direct sunlight. Additional specs include:
- 12MP camera with 3x optical zoom
- Six microphones paired with open-ear speakers
- Up to six hours of mixed usage, extendable to 30 hours with the charging case
- Meta Neural Band offers 18 hours of battery life and features IPX7 water resistance
Though slightly heavier than its predecessor by about 20 grams, the glasses retain the classic Ray-Ban style. Available in black and tan, they support prescription and Transitions lenses through Meta’s collaboration with EssilorLuxottica.
Pricing & Launch Details
The Meta Ray-Ban Display, bundled with the Meta Neural Band, is priced at $799. It will be available starting September 30 in the US at retailers including Best Buy, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, and Ray-Ban stores, with Verizon joining shortly after. The international rollout begins in early 2026, initially targeting Canada, France, Italy, and the UK.
Oakley Meta Vanguard
The Oakley Meta Vanguard is Meta’s latest smart eyewear crafted specifically for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Unlike the Ray-Ban series aimed at everyday users, these glasses prioritize robustness, comfort, and athletic performance.
Featuring Oakley’s signature wrap-around design, the Vanguard ensures a secure fit during intense physical activity. With an IP67 rating, the glasses are resistant to sweat, dust, and brief water immersion. Weighing 66 grams, they include three interchangeable nose pads for a customized fit and are compatible with helmets and hats, making them ideal for cycling, running, and outdoor workouts.
Distinctive Features
The Oakley Meta Vanguard integrates seamlessly with leading fitness platforms, providing real-time workout metrics. It pairs with Garmin devices and bike computers to display speed, heart rate, and distance via Meta AI. Additionally, it supports Strava for comprehensive exercise tracking.
A standout capability is automatic video recording, which captures short clips when you hit milestones like distance goals, speed records, or elevation gains. These clips are enhanced with data overlays to create personalized workout highlight reels.
For content creation, the glasses include a 12MP wide-angle camera with a 122-degree field of view, capable of recording stabilized 3K video. The audio system features open-ear speakers that are 6 decibels louder than previous Oakley models, alongside a five-microphone array optimized to minimize wind noise, ensuring clear calls and recordings during movement.
Cost & Availability
Priced at $499, the Oakley Meta Vanguard is available for pre-order now, with shipments commencing on October 21.
Ray-Ban Meta (Second Generation)
The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 builds upon the success of Meta’s original smart glasses, which sold millions globally. Rather than a simple update, this version tackles key user concerns such as limited battery life and average camera quality, while preserving the beloved Ray-Ban design.
Meta is also adjusting its pricing strategy to broaden accessibility. The first-generation model now starts at $299, while the Gen 2 begins at $379. This tiered pricing offers an entry-level option and encourages gradual upgrades to more advanced models like the Meta Ray-Ban Display.
Enhancements in Gen 2
The most notable improvement is battery longevity, with the Gen 2 lasting up to 8 hours-nearly double the previous model. The charging case provides an additional 48 hours, and fast charging reaches 50% capacity in just 20 minutes.
The camera has been upgraded to a 12MP wide-angle lens with a 122-degree field of view, capable of 3K Ultra HD video at 60fps with HDR. The glasses offer 32GB of onboard storage and an IPX4 water resistance rating, enhancing everyday usability.
Software enhancements include upcoming features like Hyperlapse and Slow Motion video, compatible with both new and older models. A new AI-powered Conversation Focus reduces background noise to clarify voices, and expanded live translation now supports German and Portuguese alongside existing languages.
Pricing & Release
The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 launched immediately after the keynote on September 17, starting at $379. Initial markets include the US, Canada, and the UK, with Mexico, India, and Brazil slated for later this year.
Available in classic and new frame styles such as Wayfarer, Skyler, and Headliner, the glasses offer diverse options to suit individual tastes.
Expanded Ecosystem: Software & Metaverse Innovations
Horizon TV
Meta unveiled Horizon TV, a new entertainment platform integrated into Quest VR headsets. It aggregates popular streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN, Hulu, Prime Video, YouTube, and Twitch. The platform also features exclusive 3D films from Universal and Blumhouse that extend into your physical environment with spatial effects. Currently supporting Dolby Atmos audio, Horizon TV will soon incorporate Dolby Vision for enhanced visual quality. By embedding entertainment deeply into Quest, Meta aims to transform the headset into a versatile media device beyond gaming.
Hyperscape Capture
Owners of Quest 3 and Quest 3S gain access to Hyperscape Capture, an early-release app that scans your environment and rapidly converts it into an interactive digital space. Demonstrations showed that a full 3D mapping could be completed in about five minutes of walking around. This tool simplifies the creation and sharing of mixed reality content, offering users more ways to customize their VR experiences.
Horizon Engine
Meta introduced the Horizon Engine, its proprietary game engine designed to replace Unity as the foundation for its metaverse development. This engine leverages AI-driven prompts to streamline VR world creation and now supports up to 100 simultaneous users in a single virtual environment-five times the previous capacity. By eliminating reliance on third-party engines and equipping creators with powerful tools, Meta is reinforcing the infrastructure for social VR spaces and content, underscoring its commitment to accessible VR creation and long-term ecosystem growth.
Comparing Meta’s Smart Glasses
Meta’s smart glasses portfolio follows a clear tiered approach, catering to diverse user needs-from casual consumers seeking stylish AI-enabled eyewear to advanced users desiring heads-up displays. This pricing and feature stratification aims to attract both mainstream buyers and early adopters of augmented reality technology.
Conclusion
Meta Connect 2025 clearly positions AI-powered glasses as the cornerstone of Meta’s future hardware strategy. Rather than spotlighting a single flagship device, Meta introduced a layered product lineup-from the accessible Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 to the athlete-focused Oakley Meta Vanguard, culminating in the advanced Ray-Ban Display. This approach offers consumers options tailored to their preferences and budgets, while fostering long-term confidence in Meta’s wearable tech.
Beyond hardware, Meta is investing heavily in software and ecosystem development. With Horizon TV, Horizon Engine, and enhanced AI features, the company is crafting a comprehensive environment that enriches the everyday utility of its devices.
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