They Fail to Address the Issue

Shedding weight and enhancing performance are crucial elements in advancing standalone XR headsets. While Meta has flaunted its Orion AR glasses prototype, which employs a wireless compute unit, Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, feels that this kind of setup isn’t the holy grail for standalone VR gaming.

As the leader of Meta’s Reality Labs XR team, Bosworth frequently holds Q&A sessions on Instagram, tackling a mix of professional and personal questions. In his most recent session, he elaborated on the idea of wireless compute units and explained why Meta believes they’re not a suitable match for their standalone VR devices.

Bosworth shared, “We’ve examined this numerous times. Wireless compute pucks don’t truly address the issue. They still require a battery in the headset, which contributes significantly to the weight. You do get some extra thermal room, potentially boosting performance, but you’re also limited by bandwidth since everything’s running via radio.”

Beyond these technical challenges, Meta is dedicated to creating consumer-friendly options, highlighted by their Quest 3S, which starts at a budget-friendly $300 for the 128GB model. Bosworth further explained: “The cost increases substantially, even if your primary silicon is in the wireless puck. You still need substantial silicon to power the displays and make necessary local adjustments to manage data streaming. In the end, the math doesn’t add up. It doesn’t significantly lessen weight but does inflate both cost and complexity.”

This approach contrasts with Meta’s Orion prototype, which indeed includes a wireless compute unit. Of course, the Orion won’t hit the market because its silicon carbide lenses are costly to produce, driving the price to a steep $10,000 per unit. Nonetheless, Bosworth acknowledges that in certain scenarios, like augmenting the less immersive graphics of AR glasses, wireless pucks are beneficial.

Yet, Bosworth mentioned their first consumer-grade AR glasses won’t roll out at Quest-level prices anytime soon. As he noted in September, these devices won’t be “cheap,” though the company is aiming for pricing comparable to “phone or laptop territory,” ensuring some level of accessibility.