Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday unveiled the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the social media company’s first consumer-ready smart glasses with a built-in display. A promotional video of the new smart glasses appeared on Meta’s YouTube page on Monday but was later removed.
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The new smart glasses serve as a bridge between the company’s audio-only Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and the experimental Orion augmented reality glasses revealed at last year’s Connect event. Orion can overlay 3D visuals over a person’s real-world field of view with the help of a wireless computing puck, but these glasses are expensive to make and are not yet available to consumers.
The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses come with the Meta Neural Band, an EMG wristband that allows users to control the device using hand gestures. “These are glasses with the classic style that you’d expect from Ray-Ban, but they’re the first AI glasses with a high-resolution display and a fully weighted Meta neural band,” Zuckerberg said.
With the new glasses, people can perform tasks like watching videos through the display or seeing and responding to text messages. According to Zuckerberg, the display doesn’t block a person’s view and disappears when not in use. The glasses will go on sale in the U.S. on September 30.
During a demo, Zuckerberg attempted several times to call Meta tech chief Andrew Bosworth unsuccessfully. “This is, uh, you know, it happens,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta has been developing its smart glasses in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica since 2019 and renewed a long-term partnership agreement last year to continue making the products.
In addition to the Ray-Ban Display glasses, the company also debuted the Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, intended for athletes who participate in high-intensity sports like snowboarding and mountain biking. The Oakley-branded glasses will cost $499 when they launch on October 21, making them $100 more expensive than the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses released in June.
The Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses feature a sportier look than the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, thanks to a wraparound design that extends its colorful lenses around a person’s temples. Unlike the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, the new model contains a button on the underside of its frames, allowing athletes who wear helmets to more easily capture photos and videos.
These sports-centric smart glasses offer up to nine hours of battery life, can capture 3K video, and contain speakers that are louder than their predecessors. They can also connect with Garmin-branded fitness watches to track stats such as heart rate using the Meta AI assistant. Preorders for the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses start today.
Meta also introduced the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), the latest version of the company’s original smart glasses. Priced at $379—up from $299 for the 2023 version—the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) boasts double the battery life of its predecessor, lasting eight hours on a single charge. It also features a more powerful camera capable of capturing 3K Ultra HD video. The new glasses are available for sale starting today.
In addition, Zuckerberg announced Horizon TV, positioning it as a platform to watch television shows, sporting events, and movies using Meta’s Quest VR headsets. Some of Meta’s partners contributing content to the app include Disney and Universal Pictures, Zuckerberg said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/17/zuckerberg-799-meta-ray-ban-display-glasses.html