They Fail to Address the Issue

In the push to enhance standalone XR headsets, two key factors stand out: reducing weight and boosting performance. Meta has made headlines by showcasing its Orion AR glasses prototype, which utilizes a wireless compute unit. However, Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, doesn’t believe this setup will revolutionize standalone VR gaming.

As the head of Reality Labs, Bosworth regularly hosts Instagram Q&A sessions, where he touches on both professional and personal topics. In a recent session, he discussed the viability of wireless compute units for standalone VR headsets.

“We’ve looked into this extensively,” Bosworth explained. “Wireless compute pucks, in reality, aren’t the solution. Even if you’re cutting the cord, the headset still requires a battery, which significantly contributes to its weight. Sure, this setup might offer some thermal benefits that could improve performance, but you’re still shackled by bandwidth limitations due to the radio connection.”

Despite these technical challenges, Meta’s main goal is consumer accessibility. The Quest 3S, for instance, starts at an appealing $300 for the 128GB model. Bosworth elaborated further, saying, “The costs skyrocket. Even if you offload the main processing unit to a wireless puck, you still need substantial silicon in the headset for display power, local corrections, and data handling. Ultimately, the numbers don’t add up. It doesn’t significantly reduce weight, and it makes everything more expensive and complicated.”

Meta’s Orion prototype does incorporate a wireless compute unit, but it’s not consumer-ready due to its steep production cost, reportedly around $10,000 per unit because of complex silicon carbide lenses. In certain scenarios, like powering AR glasses with less immersive graphics, wireless pucks make sense.

That said, Bosworth has indicated that Meta’s first consumer AR glasses won’t be priced like the Quest when they eventually hit the market. Back in September, he mentioned that such a device is “not going to be cheap,” but the company intends to price them reasonably, akin to a phone or laptop.