Meta Unveils $799 Ray-Ban Display Glasses and Oakley Meta Vanguard Smart Glasses

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses at $799, with a small digital display controlled via hand gestures through a wristband. The glasses are a bridge between audio-only Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and experimental Orion augmented reality glasses. Meta also debuted Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses for athletes at $499 and Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses at $379.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced the launch of its Ray-Ban Display glasses and Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, marking a significant milestone in the development of augmented reality (AR) technology. The announcement comes just days before Meta Connect 2025, where the company is expected to unveil these new devices as part of its spatial computing lineup.

The Ray-Ban Display glasses, priced at $799, feature a small digital display integrated into one lens, allowing users to see digital information overlaid onto their real-world view. This heads-up display (HUD) can show navigation arrows, incoming messages, and AI assistant responses, among other useful features. The glasses are controlled via an electromyography (EMG) wristband, which reads muscle signals to detect hand gestures, offering a discreet and intuitive way to interact with the device.

The Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, priced at $499, are designed for athletes and feature a wraparound sporty design with a centered camera on the nose bridge. These glasses are not equipped with a HUD but offer similar AI features and are aimed at capturing first-person action footage.

Meta has also introduced the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses, priced at $379, which build upon the original Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses released in 2023. These glasses add AI voice features and retain the stylish design that has proven popular with consumers.

The new Ray-Ban Display glasses represent a significant step forward for Meta, bridging the gap between its audio-only Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and the experimental Orion augmented reality glasses. The company's strategy of leveraging partnerships with established brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley is aimed at making AR technology more accessible and appealing to a wider audience.

The competitive landscape for smart glasses and AR technology is heating up, with companies like Apple, Snap, and Google also pushing into this space. Meta's strategy of combining style and everyday utility with advanced AR capabilities aims to stay ahead of the pack.

The AR and tech community have reacted with both optimism and caution to Meta's new glasses. While some are excited about the potential of smart glasses to become the primary way people interact with AI, others question whether a tiny, one-eye display for notifications and navigation is compelling enough to justify the price and extra bulk.

Meta's Next-Gen Ray-Ban Glasses with HUD – Features and Strategy

Meta's upcoming Ray-Ban smart glasses are poised to be the company's most advanced wearable yet, moving beyond simple camera glasses into the realm of augmented reality. According to the leaked video (briefly posted by Meta itself before being removed), the new Ray-Ban frames include a built-in heads-up display (HUD) in one lens businessinsider.com. This small transparent display can overlay digital visuals onto the wearer's view of the real world – for example, showing navigation arrows, incoming messages, or prompts from an AI assistant roadtovr.com. Unlike bulkier AR headsets, these look like normal stylish eyewear, thanks to Meta's partnership with Ray-Ban. The leaked footage and reports indicate the device is labeled "Meta Ray-Ban Display," signaling that Meta is sticking with the Ray-Ban branding even as it adds more tech into the glasses roadtovr.com. Under the hood, the Ray-Ban HUD glasses (code-named "Hypernova" internally) integrate with Meta's software and AI ecosystem. They will likely run on a variant of Meta's wearable operating system (reports suggest an Android-based platform, similar to how Snap's Spectacles run a modified Android OS uploadvr.com). This will enable features like real-time data overlays and voice-activated assistants. In fact, AI features are front-and-center: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said these smart glasses, combined with AI, could enable things like asking your glasses questions and seeing answers instantly in your view uploadvr.com. The HUD is expected to support simple but useful applications – think time/weather updates, turn-by-turn directions with arrows on the road, text messages and call notifications, photo framing previews, live speech translation captions, and even displaying responses from Meta's AI assistant as text so you can quietly read answers to your queries uploadvr.com. It's a pragmatic, smartphone-like feature set, not full holographic 3D objects, which is why Meta is careful to position this as a heads-up display device (more akin to Google Glass or a smartwatch for your eye) rather than a full-blown "AR glasses" in the vein of HoloLens. Controlling these glasses is another innovative aspect. Instead of relying solely on voice commands or tiny buttons, Meta is introducing an electromyography (EMG) wristband as the primary controller 9to5mac.com. This watch-like band (developed from technology by CTRL-Labs, which Meta acquired in 2019) reads the electrical signals from your arm muscles when you perform hand gestures 9to5mac.com. Essentially, subtle finger movements – like pinching your index finger and thumb – can be detected and translated into input. The leaked demo showed a user "typing" on the back of a hand or laptop with no physical keyboard, implying the wristband can sense individual finger movements for text input roadtovr.com. This approach allows for discreet, intuitive control of the glasses' interface without having to raise your hand in front of your face (as many camera-based gesture systems require). It's also a differentiator from the likes of Apple's Vision Pro, which uses outward cameras to track hand motions; Meta's solution works via neural signals and doesn't need line-of-sight roadtovr.com. The wristband was even showcased previously in combination with Meta's high-end Orion prototype glasses roadtovr.com, proving the concept works. Users can likely perform actions like scrolling through HUD menus, selecting items, or summoning the assistant just by subtle finger gestures, which could feel like telepathy in practice. In terms of hardware specs, details are still under wraps until the official announcement. However, some clues have emerged. The glasses are expected to use a monocular micro-display (only in one lens) with a limited field of view (~20 degrees) economictimes.indiatimes.com, meaning the AR imagery will appear in a small area to the right side of your vision – enough for notifications and icons, but not an immersive wall-to-wall hologram. This is a design choice to keep the glasses lightweight and stylish. Indeed, reports say the addition of the display and projector has bumped the weight to around 70 grams (from ~50g in the non-display Ray-Bans) uploadvr.com. For comparison, standard Ray-Ban frames are around 45g – so Meta’s HUD glasses remain far lighter than any VR headset or even Snap’s AR Spectacles (which weigh 134–240g) but slightly heavier than regular sunglasses due to the tech onboard. Battery life and processing power will be crucial questions. Meta will presumably use a power-efficient Qualcomm chipset –.

The new Ray-Ban Display glasses, Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses, and Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) glasses represent a significant investment by Meta in the AR technology space. The company's strategy of leveraging partnerships with established brands and focusing on everyday utility and style aims to make AR technology more accessible and appealing to a wider audience.