Meta VR Glasses hands-on: Hand and eye tracking is so much better than a controller

Instead of a new Quest headset, the company showed off a more portable but less immersive device today.

After two years, Meta finally has new VR hardware and... it's not a headset. Instead, the company unveiled today the $1,299 Meta VR Glasses , a mixed reality device that feels very different from anything we've ever seen from the company.

Meta says the device represents a "new era for virtual reality," and after I spent some time seeing what the glasses are capable of, it does feel like an inflection point. The new form factor comes with some limitations that could be frustrating for longtime VR fans. But thanks to its portability and power, it delivers something Meta never has been able to before.

Despite their name, these don't feel exactly like glasses. Their thickness and the opacity of the lenses makes them seem more like a pair of goggles, though they feel more like glasses when you're actually putting them on. And unlike traditional glasses, the lenses aren't clear or translucent, so you can't see through them unless you have the passthrough feature enabled. But whatever you want to call them, they are sleek and surprisingly light.

They weigh a little less than 100 grams, which is heavier than a pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, but much lighter than a Quest 3S or any other headset for that matter. It's actually very close to the weight of Xreal's upcoming Android XR glasses, Aura .

And, like the Aura, Meta's Reality Glasses also rely on a tethered connection to a separate puck, which handles processing, memory and storage. The puck comes with a clip so you can hang it off a pants pocket, but as it weighs about 300 grams I'm not sure I would want to walk around with one hanging off of my pockets.

The puck mostly stayed on the table in front of me during my demo, but I could still feel a good amount of heat coming off of it without even touching it. It didn't feel hot, but it was putting out enough warmth that I think it might feel uncomfortable in a pocket.

I've never found VR headsets comfortable so I'm happy to ditch the finicky head straps and extra weight on my face. The actual glasses didn't feel bulky or heavy, though I only wore them for about 30 minutes and longer wear might make me feel differently. But they felt secure throughout my demo and didn't slip around my face as I moved my head around.