Meta shows off ‘Orion’ AR glasses, $299 Quest 3S, adds more features to Ray-Bans

Ben Schoon | Sep 25 2024 - 1:05 pm PT

Today during its Meta Connect event, Meta announced further expansions into augmented and mixed reality through updates to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a new and more affordable Meta Quest 3S VR headset, and a first look at new “Orion” AR glasses.

Meta has been pushing for improvements to augmented, mixed, and virtual reality experiences for a while now, and today’s announcements bring improvements to all of them.

This starts with Meta’s smart glasses built in partnership with Ray-Ban. Several AI updates are coming, including the ability to continue a conversation with Meta’s AI without needing to say “Hey Meta” to continue the conversation. You can also now ask the assistant to “remember” things such as your parking location or to set reminders for yourself. Other new actions include being able to send WhatsApp or Messenger messages and asking for specific songs, albums, artists, or audiobooks from services such as Spotify, Audible, and more.

Meta AI on the Ray-Bans will also now support video input, allowing for real-time translation, or using video to improve the results from prompts.

Today’s reveals also showed off Meta’s ideas for the future of smart glasses through “Orion.” The new concept was revealed for the first time as a pair of AR glasses with the main element Ray-Bans are lacking – a display.

These AR glasses use projectors to show content and apps in your field-of-view without blocking out the world around you, or showing that to you through a video feed. “Orion” can talk to Meta’s AI and use pictures to help you get information, such as looking at a table full of ingredients and overlaying a recipe on top of those. Controlling the glasses is a “neural wristband” that senses your muscle movements when performing gestures to control what’s on screen. Outward facing cameras also play a role in controls, while there are eye-tracking cameras inside that are further used.

“Orion” won’t be sold to the public, Meta says, but the “polished prototype” is a first look at the vision the company is working towards. The foundation laid with “Orion” will be used with future AR glasses with the goal of building a pair that can be sold at scale and made reasonably affordable.

Finally, the new Meta Quest 3S is the company’s latest VR and XR headset, designed with affordability in mind. Like the Quest 3 that launched last year, this new headset has more power compared to Quest 2 and the additional of full-color passthrough, enabling support for new apps and games that were exclusive to Quest 3.

The main difference you’ll notice is the displays, which are the same 1832 x 1920 resolution as Quest 2, and have a narrower field-of-view too.

This latest headset will also debut alongside changes to apps on Meta Quest, where more 2D apps will be made available. This new headset will also support Meta’s Travel Mode.

Pre-orders for Meta Quest 3S are open now starting at $299 for 128GB, with units shipping in October. Today’s announcement also brings an official end to the Quest 2, while the $999 Quest Pro will be discontinued at the end of the year.