Meta Says Its New VR Glasses Are IMAX Compatible

The Meta VR Glasses come with a battery puck that provides up to three hours of use.

Meta has announced a new pair of VR glasses that the company says are “the first IMAX-enhanced certified VR device ever.”

Taking to the stage yesterday at Meta Connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Meta VR Glasses, which are significantly lighter than the Meta Quest 3 VR headset.

The spectacles look a lot more like normal glasses, weighing in at just 300 grams. A battery puck that can be slipped into the user’s pocket powers the 5K micro-OLED “Infinite Display,” giving the wearer 2412 x 2288 pixels per eye and a refresh rate of 120Hz.

Meta says that the design allows users to watch media in IMAX’s distinct tall and wide aspect ratio. The glasses also support 3D media that can integrate the user’s physical location into their viewing experience.

“This is a breakthrough,” Zuckerberg said at Meta Connect, per TechCrunch.

“A lot of people agree that augmented reality glasses with holograms are clearly going to be part of the future, but we’ve also heard that a lot of people are less interested in wearing a headset. So we have built 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.”

The glasses are also aimed at gamers; the device has the same catalog of Meta Quest apps found on Meta’s other VR headsets.

The Meta VR Glasses are slated to launch in spring next year at a price of $1,299. The Verge notes that they are more expensive than the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses but cheaper than the Apple Vision Pro.

Elsewhere at Meta Connect, the company confirmed previous reports that it is releasing smart glasses without a camera.

Called the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, users can take calls, listen to music, and chat to an AI assistant, but they can’t take photos or record video. The camera-less glasses are widely seen as a reaction to the growing privacy backlash against Meta’s camera-equipped model that has seen them dubbed “pervert glasses.”

And in a Steve Jobs-style “one more thing” moment, Zuckerberg teased a Tamagotchi-like device called the Muse Charm. The smart amulet houses Meta’s agentic AI model. It’s expected to be released soon.

Image creditsMeta