Meta's Ultralight Headset With Puck Will Reportedly Cost "Less Than $1000"
The ultralight headset with a tethered puck that Meta plans to launch next year will cost "less than $1000", The Wall Street Journal reports.
The ultralight headset with a tethered puck that Meta plans to launch next year will cost "less than $1000", The Wall Street Journal reports.
Earlier this week, UploadVR reported that Meta is prioritizing shipping an ultralight Horizon OS headset with a tethered compute puck in 2026, and might not ship a new traditional form factor Quest until 2027.
The existence of this ultralight headset was first reported by The Information last year, which described it as resembling "a bulky pair of glasses", weighing less than 110 grams, having a codename of "Puffin", and featuring eye tracking for gaze-and-pinch input. The existence of Puffin was then confirmed by Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth to The Verge just after Meta Connect.
David Heaney
Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Meta plans to release a "premium virtual-reality headset" next year that looks "similar to a large pair of eyeglasses" with a puck — quite clearly referring to the same headset. While the report says the device's internal codename is Loma, not Puffin, Meta often uses separate codenames for projects and the devices within that project. For example, Quest Pro's project codename was Cambria, and the winning candidate was called Seacliff.
What's new from The Wall Street Journal's reporting is a claimed price range. The outlet claims Meta "is planning to charge less than $1000".
However, as UploadVR reported, Meta is exploring multiple display system approaches for Puffin, at differing price points, and hasn't yet settled on which it will ship. It's likely that The Wall Street Journal is referring to the leading candidate's expected price, but Meta's plans could change between now and shipping a product.
David Heaney
The Wall Street Journal also reports that Meta is "courting" Hollywood brands such as Disney and A24 to produce exclusive "episodic and stand-alone immersive video based on well-known intellectual property" for the headset. This content would likely also be available on existing Quest headsets, given that the new headset will run the same Horizon OS.
The report comes six months after Meta and James Cameron announced an exclusive multi-year partnership to help bring significantly more 3D video content to Quest headsets.
