(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)
Meta’s new VR Glasses are poised to take on the Vision Pro, but they have a few advantages over Apple's pricey headset. For one, they will cost $1,299 at launch next spring, a big difference over the Vision Pro, which now starts at $3,699 after a June price hike.
I tried the Meta VR Glasses ahead of Meta Connect, and they're noticeably lightweight at just 100 grams (0.22 pounds); the M5 Vision Pro weighs up to 800 grams (1.8 pounds). To pull this off, Meta offloaded the computing to a 300-gram puck that's connected to the glasses via a cable. The puck includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, 128GB of storage, and 12GB of RAM. The glasses themselves are outfitted with a 5K micro-OLED display and sensors that track your eyes and hand gestures. (The Vision Pro has its own puck-like device in a connected battery.)
Although the puck is a trade-off, it means Meta's product can be easily worn like a pair of glasses. The Vision Pro is more like a traditional VR headset with a sizable head strap that can mess up your hair. Not so with Meta’s VR Glasses; I didn’t feel any strain at all while wearing them during a 30-minute demo. (A regular pair of glasses can weigh between 15 and 40 grams.)
Comparisons to the Vision Pro don't stop there. Meta's VR Glasses also ditch controllers, relying instead on sensors to track finger movements to open and navigate apps in the headset. The built-in eye tracking from two infrared cameras per eye lets you stare at a virtual icon; the headset will know you’ve selected it. Press your thumb and index finger together, and the sensors will detect the movement as if you are clicking to open an icon, even if you do so right below the glasses.
A New Productivity Workhorse?
While the Vision Pro serves a niche, enthusiast market, Meta's product might gain more traction thanks to its lower price. Rather than focus purely on VR gamers, the Meta VR Glasses were designed to appeal to a wide audience by offering a mix of entertainment, gaming, and even productivity, an area the company tackled before with the Quest Pro.
For example, in one demo, Meta showed the glasses can project three desktop screens, effectively giving you a way to display multiple monitors. The glasses also work with a macOS or Windows PC through Bluetooth or a USB-C cable.
Software and usability are areas reviewers will no doubt dig into when comparing the two headsets. Despite the Vision Pro’s high price, Apple created a top-notch interface, which also offers some of the best visuals and hand tracking we’ve seen. Can Meta do things better?
Meta’s VR Glasses definitely seem competitive based on our brief hands on. The eye and hand tracking worked intuitively, making it easy to access and open apps. I even played a round of Beat Saber: Flux, and the experience was smooth; I simply waved my hands, and the headset picked up all the motions accurately, no controller needed.
On the augmented reality side, the built-in cameras and Meta’s passthrough tech let you see your real-world surroundings beyond the virtual world while donning the glasses. They can even project a virtual keyboard onto a real-world flat surface in front of you, such as a table or desk, if you don't have access to a keyboard or mouse. Although I only tried the virtual keyboard and its trackpad for a few minutes, the hand and finger tracking was very precise, letting me type out phrases and sentences with few errors.
The glasses also feature the best micro OLED panels Meta has shipped in a product before, offering 37 pixels per degree, a slight increase from the 34ppd in the Vision Pro, according to iFixit. The higher resolution also means the glasses can offer "great" text legibility, vivid colors, and sharp contrast, Meta says.
Strong But Not Quite Lifelike Visuals
The visuals are strong, with the microOLEDs capable of 2,412 by 2,288 pixels per eye at up to 120Hz. Still, don’t expect it to be lifelike; You can still tell you're staring at micro-OLED panels. I noticed a bit of graininess when watching Avengers: Endgame, during a replay of the NBA Finals, and when using the passthrough function. For example, the keyboard on a real laptop placed in front of me was a bit fuzzy when I looked closely at the individual keys. That said, Meta notes the glasses feature 26ppd RGB passthrough cameras, an upgrade from the 18ppd passthrough cameras on the Meta Quest 3, a PCMag Editors' Choice winner.
Avengers: Endgame, on the other hand, streamed on the glasses via a unique experience that simulated a movie theater while showing 3D visuals. But the result wasn't exactly better than that of a regular OLED TV, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Meta VR Glasses Battery Life
Meanwhile, battery life is comparable to the Vision Pro. Meta says the VR Glasses can run up to three hours on a single charge; the Vision Pro is about two hours. Like the Meta Quest headsets, the company also noted that you can stream Xbox games to the VR Glasses, another feature we're curious to see on the micro OLED panels. The glasses are compatible with Bluetooth keyboards, gamepads, and Meta Quest Touch Plus controllers.
Stepping Into the Future
I’m definitely intrigued. Using the VR glasses felt like stepping into the future, especially when typing on the virtual keyboard. That said, I’m skeptical we’ll see a consumer or office worker wearing them at work or in a coffee shop. We'll need to spend more time with the headset to see if the virtual workspace is practical or if the novelty wears off. I also didn't get to try using voice control with Meta's AI chatbots.
The other issue is that $1,299 is still a lot of money, double that of the Meta Quest 3. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the price at today's Meta Connect event, I heard some murmurs from the audience, perhaps a sign of disappointment. Even so, the price could put competitive pressure on Apple to respond. Stay tuned for our review.
Also today, Meta unveiled the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3), the camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio, and Hearing Enhancement, which uses the company's smart glasses as an alternative to traditional hearing aids. For more, check out some post-show analysis from PCMag's Iyaz Akhtar, Angela Moscaritolo, and Will Greenwald.
About Our Expert
I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.
Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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