Meta prioritizes delivery Ultralight Horizon OS headsets with Tethered Compute Puck in 2026.
These sources recommend that the codenames Pismo Low and Pismo Excessive, two primary candidates within the Quest 4 sequence, have been cancelled, however the subsequent candidate for the standard Kind Issue Quest won’t be shipped till 2027.
On the similar time, the corporate is accelerating plans for a really gentle open perimeter headset utilizing immediately’s Quest headset, which they hope to be launched by the tip of 2026, a tethered computing pack working the identical horizon OS as codename.
VR fanatics Luna and Brad Lynch have additionally revealed Meta’s altering headset launch plans.
Meta plans to make use of tether packs to make an ultra-lightweight headset in 2027
Meta reportedly plans a brand new, extraordinarily gentle headset with 2027 tether computing and battery packs as an alternative of the cancelled Quest Professional 2.
This data was first reported 9 months in the past of Puffin’s presence, weeks after Join 2024 Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth confirmed his report back to Verge’s Alex Heath.
In line with a report from final 12 months’s data, Puffin resembles “cumbersome glasses” and weighs lower than 110 grams. The report additionally explains that Puffin doesn’t embody a controller and as an alternative makes use of the gaze and pinch enter scheme launched by Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. A part of the rationale for the Puffin’s extraordinarily gentle weight is clearly that it offloads each the battery and the computing {hardware} to an exterior tether pack. This states that Meta is smaller sufficient that “hope” matches within the wearer’s pocket.
It runs the identical Horizon OS as immediately’s Quest Headset, however Puffin is offered to digital screens, specializing in digital screens, performing as a conveyable multi-monitor setup, permitting it to provide as many digital shows as wanted. Whereas present standalone headsets can already do that, none are subtle and lightweight sufficient to make them interesting to most individuals.
Potential Leak: ASUS ROG Headset for Monitoring Face and Eyes
VR fanatic Luna obtained a touch claiming that working Metahorizon OS does face and eye monitoring with ASUS ROG headset.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t essentially imply that present game-focused quest homeowners must look forward to 2027 for a direct improve go for the headset.
Asus and Lenovo are engaged on a headset with the identical Horizon OS that runs on a quest headset. The ASUS headset comes from the corporate’s ROG gaming model and was referred to as the “Efficiency Recreation Headset” when it was first introduced final 12 months.
A possible leak from Luna earlier this 12 months means that this ASUS ROG headset can do eye monitoring together with a extra superior show than Quest 3.
Meta checks QuestPro 2 cancellation and ultra-light headset for 2027
Meta has beforehand confirmed with Verge by cancelling the 2027 Quest Professional 2 candidate and is engaged on an ultra-light headset within the pack.
It’s also essential to notice that Meta can cancel your complete Puffin venture at any time, because it has been repeatedly carried out with headsets which can be at the moment in growth up to now, and has spin-up a complete new headset venture.
After we confirmed with Alex Heath concerning the existence of Puffin after Join 2024, Bosworth additionally detailed the phases of the meta {hardware} growth cycle.
- Pre-discovery: A devoted staff At all times “prototype the craziest factor” and create a “proof of expertise” for every concept.
- discovery: The “minority” of pre-discovery ideas is permitted by the chief evaluation and proceeds to the invention part. There, a “small” worker examines the practicality of commercial design and prices.
- Prototyping: If it seems to be sensible, the idea of discovery is prototyped, together with “perhaps greater than 10 instances extra folks” and builds built-in {hardware} and software program to understand the idea.
- Engineering verification check: “About half” of those prototypes go to this last stage, the place they’re listed on the product roadmap. Of those EVTs, meta-executives kill “about half” earlier than they ship, whereas others are made public.
In his public Instagram Ask-Me-Something session, Bosworth repeatedly emphasizes that Meta is continually engaged on a number of headsets in parallel at varied phases of this cycle, with most being cancelled.
Meta’s XR revenues fell as a consequence of a decline in quest gross sales
Metallographic Labs fell 6% year-on-year within the first quarter, and the corporate stated this was “as a consequence of a discount in MetaQuest gross sales.”
Nonetheless, the change in Meta’s headset priorities comes as the corporate’s monetary outcomes revealed that income from the “Metaverse and Wearables” division was 6% decrease in Q1 2025 than in Q1 2025.
Meta CFO Susan Lee informed buyers that the decline was “partially offset by elevated gross sales of Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses as a consequence of decrease Meta Quest gross sales.”
This means that Quest 3 has a powerful launch quarter and was a well-liked reward all through the vacation season, however its momentum didn’t take over earlier this 12 months. Due to this fact, Meta could also be essentially reevaluating its headset {hardware} technique and hopes to launch a product that’s not offered on Christmas alone.
