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What is Orion? Meta’s AR glasses explained
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When Meta first announced it was building a pair of AR glasses, the company was still called Facebook. Five years on, Meta has officially announced Orion, “the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made”.
Here’s everything you need to know about Meta’s Orion AR glasses.
What is Orion?
Orion is the name of Meta’s first pair of true augmented reality (AR) glasses. The spectacles were officially unveiled at Meta Connect 2024 and were known as codename Project Nazare during development.
With Orion, Meta has attempted to combine the look and feel of a regular pair of glasses with the immersive features of AR, with the goal being to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds.
You might be thinking: hasn’t Meta released a pair of smart glasses already? And you’d be right. Orion, however, takes the experience a step further than Meta’s Ray-Ban collab.
“Ray-Ban Meta glasses have demonstrated the power of giving people hands-free access to key parts of their digital lives from their physical ones. We can talk to a smart AI assistant, connect with friends, and capture the moments that matter—all without ever having to pull out a phone. These stylish glasses fit seamlessly into our everyday lives, and people absolutely love them”, said Meta on itsMeta Quest blog.
“Yet while Ray-Ban Meta opened up an entirely new category of display-less glasses super-charged by AI, the XR industry has long dreamt of true AR glasses—a product that combines the benefits of a large holographic display and personalized AI assistance in a comfortable, stylish, all-day wearable form factor”.
Orion is packed with new technologies, according to Meta, including “the most advanced AR display ever assembled” and custom silicon that fuels these AR experiences while requiring less power and weight than a mixed-reality headset.
The chunky black glasses are intended to be worn with a woven EMG wristband that allows you to swipe, click and scroll as your arm remains comfortably by your side. They also come with a Wireless Compute Puck, which takes some of the processing load of the glasses and enables them to be slimmer and last longer between charges.
When will the Meta Orion glasses be available?
Meta hasn’t announced a release date or price for Orion, with the company only promising that the AR glasses will begin shipping in the near future.
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Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
