The competitive landscape has undoubtedly changed with the entrance of Apple Vision Pro earlier this year, raising questions where Meta is headed next with its XR efforts. A recent report from The Information maintains the company is now considering a mixed reality device resembling “a bulky pair of glasses,” codenamed ‘Puffin’.

Citing two Meta employees, the report maintains the headset currently under consideration is a slim and light mixed reality device that would serve as an alternative to larger headsets, such as the current Quest line, which thus far has “limited consumer appeal,” The Information reports.

While still in early stages, Puffin could release as soon as 2027, the report maintains, noting that it won’t be an augmented reality headset, but rather use pancake lenses, which are used in conjunction with VR displays.

Notably, such form factor would suggest the inclusion of micro displays similar to those seen in Bigscreen Beyond, the slim PC VR headset from the studio behind Bigscreen Beta.

Image courtesy John Carmack

Seemingly taking a page out of Apple’s playbook with Vision Pro, it’s said the headset will also omit Touch controllers, as it would primarily rely on hand and eye-tracking for input.

Additionally, it’s reported Puffin would offload weight from the user’s head with the use of “External Processing Puck and Battery.”

This follows a report last year the rebuked rumors that Quest Pro 2, which would be positioned to compete with Vision Pro, was cancelled. At the time, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said “don’t believe everything you read.”

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However, just a few days ago, a fresh report from The Information claimed the supposed Quest Pro 2 had indeed been cancelled by Meta, specified in the report as being codenamed ‘La Jolla’.

While we’re hoping to learn more about Puffin at Meta Connect in late September, it’s more likely the event will focus on revealing Quest 3S, which is rumored to be the company’s next affordable headset, ostensibly supplanting Quest 2.

We’re also hoping to hear about the release of its fleet of third-party Quest-like headsets running HorizonOS, which will include partners ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • LP

    Xreall and Rokid held their breath.

  • Duane Aakre

    I hope the pancake lens part is wrong. 2027 seems the right time frame to introduce the holographic lens that they've talked about several times, which should allow for a smaller form factor than pancakes and varifocal capabilities.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Holographic lenses need coherent light sources, meaning laser diodes, and last I checked we are still pretty far from getting those small and efficient enough to be used in esp. a lightweight HMD. That's still prototype technology for Meta internal HMDs priced more like cars or houses.

  • wheeler

    Very strong Apple influences, with display/cost concessions of course. VR Enthusiasts won't be happy to read that Quest Pro 2 was canned for this.

    Personally I think it's the right path if they want to free themselves from the very limited VR gaming niche. I feel like it's every day that I hear about this or that VR gaming studio going under, sequels opting out of follow ups, platform holders stepping back from the medium overall, new worse retention data, and so on–there's a clear pattern.

    However, with all they've invested into VR they probably should have done this several years ago instead of wasting time on the Quest Pro (which only proved useful for PCVR?) and waiting for Apple (well, several years after Apple in 2027)

    • Seven-leg-surprise

      Media consumption and productivity have been DRASTICALLY overlooked in VR/AR. This is the market correcting itself.

  • BOZ: "Don't believe everything you read."
    Or hear, apparently.
    []^ )

  • Andrew Jakobs

    External Processing Puck and Battery

    No thank you, I don't want any wires down my neck/body and have a puck on my belt, already hate the battery of my HTC Vive Pro wireless module, still need to 3D print a headmount.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    This is where things should have gone before the wireless snobs showed up.

    I'm all for wireless. I'm not against it. But Quest 3 battery life sucks. That is why you see individuals pushing more straps and more batteries and more weight on the head. Even evenly distributed, it's still more junk on the head. I didn't want to go that route. Which is why I bought a 10 foot wire and can game for hours and hours. Why? Because using VR is mostly standing in one place. Yeah. The wire gets in the way sometimes. But gaming session times are priceless.

    i came from PSVR. One wire hooked up to a powerful console. A machine defying all the talk of needing a powerful graphics card to enjoy VR. Sony proved that wrong. Just like with PS5. PS5 punches above its weight just like PS4 did compared to PC gaming without the high cost. Graphics still looked better on PC compared to PSVR. But VR was possible on console. All the wire talk was nonsense as there was only one wire hooked up to PSVR. Just one.

    What should have happened is that we went from trackers and one wire, to stand alone being powerful enough for VR, but connected to a processing puck. Then, full wireless on the go. After that, shrinking of the tech so that is all in one and are as light as glasses or cheap goggles.

    But the wireless or bust gamers pushed us into reduced play times, more cost to play longer with straps and external batteries, and reduced graphics. PSVR was pushing Quest 3 graphics back in 2016. I still enjoy it because I enjoy tech, it plays well like with Dead Second, Vader Immortal, etc and mixed reality is actually pretty good from Puzzle Places, Cubism, Chess, etc. Even Side Quest gaming like with Age of Joy VR is amazing. If you have not installed this app and put actual arcade machines right in your house as if they are in your living room, you're missing out. Sure you can have a virtual arcade. But seeing it in your room and playing Operation Wolf or any of the compatible gun games from the arcade, besides A DP, or Ms Pac Man, Black Tiger, Rastan, etc etc etc. So many Mame games to mention. So, I see why they want to push AR. It has just as much potential as VR.

    Apple has the right idea. But the execution of trying to sell a development headset for a ridiculous price is not helping the situation we are in. They need to cut the fat. Hopefully, Facebook can do that as well. Not give up the controllers through. Hand tracking is okay. But pisses me off when I don't want my hands to be tracked and it starts doing it. Making me reach for my controllers.

    But we'll see what the industry decides. Not just spoiled gamers that think that only wireless is the way forward and nothing else.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      As someone who has done full wired (HTC Vive Pro, and some older headsets), partially wired (HTC Vive Pro/wireless module) and completely wireless (Pico 4), I like the Pico 4 the best, and is still the one that weighs the less. The wire down to the battery with the wireless module is something I never want again, I prefer the extra weight on the head above the crappy wire/battery which pops off your belt or out of your pocket once in a while during 'roomscale' VR during crouch or jumps or just gets in the way during some arm movement. The extra time needing to position the wire/puck also makes me sometimes even skip using the headset. I'll be glad onces I get a new PC and wifi7 router so I can start using the Pico 4 (ultra, or other coming standalone headset) and using the Vive Pro for wireless PCVR.

    • Shad Apkant

      I think you need a wire back to reality. No one is paying upwards of $2,000 to see a Joust cabinet in his living room. I'd rather be inside a virtual arcade.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    TL;DR: Moving the compute into a separate puck works well if you mostly want to send display data from the compute unit to the HMD displays, but quickly runs into data transfer problems with a large number of cameras/sensors, making the concept of separate compute unit more complex, expensive and less efficient than one might expect.

    I'm still wondering about the feasibility of compute pucks for XR HMDs from a purely technical point of view. The main issue is that you obviously have to keep all the sensors on the HMD itself, and then need to get the sensor data quickly to a processor analyzing it. SoCs like the XR2 provide special ports to connect cameras via CSI (Camera Serial Interface). XR2 Gen 1 in Quest 2 allowed for seven, XR2 Gen 2 in Quest 3 for ten, and the XR2+ Gen 2 used by Samsung twelve cameras to connect at the same time. The Quest Pro already needed some trickery because the eye and face tracking required more cameras than the SoC could handle, and AVP comes with twelve cameras, six microphones and five other sensors.

    A 4-lane CSI 2.0 interface needs ten wires to transfer the signal at high speed, so twelve cameras need 120 wired just to get the signal to the processor. The PSVR2 uses a 24 pin USB-C cable with DisplayPort Alt and (according to iVy) can only use half the data lanes for video because it also needs to transport data from the HMD to the console for analysis. The PSVR2 includes a (small) SoC that does some camera/sensor data pre-processing and possibly the room, controller and pupil tracking all by itself. The APU inside the PS5 could easily do all this, but getting the raw data to the console via the cable would be a huge problem.

    You can put a much more powerful SoC into a compute puck, and the latest APUs by AMD now are pretty close to the performance of a GTX 1060, still the minimum spec for lots of PCVR games, so an x86 Deckard is now becoming technically feasible. But that only allows for external compute units using the "old" tethered HMD concept, where the headset is mostly a set of displays with very few sensors, similar to the Bigscreen Beyond. Mobile HMDs have become signal processing powerhouses with lots of cameras and sensors, the number of which only seems to go up. This means that a significant amount of compute power will still be needed inside the HMD itself to process all the sensor data, as it simply isn't feasibly to replace the 120 PCB traces connecting cameras via CSI to an XR2+ Gen 2 with a thick cable. This also means you need extra RAM and cooling on the HMD too, as well as on the compute unit, making things more complex and expensive.

    A compute puck still allows for a much faster CPU, GPU and larger battery, but it's not as simple as just moving everything out of the headset into a separate unit, at least not if you don't want to go for sensor minimalism like the Beyond. Which is very likely the reason why Apple went with an external battery while keeping all the compute inside the HMD itself. The large battery needed to power both the M2 and R1 signal processor drawing up to 40W adds significant weight. Apple could have moved the M2 to the same external pack, keeping only the R1 on the HMD to deal with the cameras and sensors, but apparently that wasn't feasible, so the ended up with a very heavy HMD containing all the compute and an external puck just for the battery, which seems like a bad combination, more cumbersome due to the tether, but still very heavy on the face.. So if Apple decided against a compute puck solution despite needing an external battery pack anyway, there were probably some fundamental issues not easily overcome.

    • XRC

      Was pleasantly surprised by Magic Leap and it's compute puck, very easy to secure even when moving about roomscale

  • I don't think we'll hear about it at Connect