Meta's Next Headset is Reportedly Thin, Powerful & Uses a Puck-style Compute Unit, Coming in 2026

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Meta may be looking to some of Hollywood’s top brands to produce exclusive content for its next XR headset, which is expected to feature a completely new thin and light design when it reportedly ships next year.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Meta has recently been in talks with a number of entertainment brands, including Disney, A24, and smaller production companies to create both episodic and standalone immersive video tied to well-known IP.

Additionally, WSJ reports that talks include the possibility of timed exclusivity, allowing producers to later sell on other platforms after a specified period.

It’s said Meta hopes to use the videos to attract users to the company’s next XR headset, which is expected to compete with Apple Vision Pro when it launches next year.

Codenamed ‘Loma,’ the headset is said to feature a design similar to a pair of eyeglasses that connects to a pocketable compute puck, which is described as more powerful than its Quest 3 series of headsets. WSJ reports Meta is looking to price the device less than $1,000.

Provided the report is true, this would mark a sharp departure from the company’s current line of Quest headsets, which pack all components into a single standalone unit. Outside of Quest Pro, which was largely seen as a commercial failure, the company has also increasingly focused on sub-$650 hardware. Quest 3S, its most recent, is currently priced as low as $300.

Speaking to WSJ, Meta says it develops multiple headset prototypes at all times—a non-committal answer if we’ve ever heard one. Whatever the case, shopping around for exclusive content deals suggests something substantial is coming down the line.

A separate report from UploadVR additionally claims Meta’s top Quest 4 contenders, codenamed ‘Pismo Low’ and ‘Pismo High’, have been canceled. Quest 4 was reportedly expected to land next year; rumors echoed by respected VR leaker Luna recently suggested Quest 4 is however now coming in 2027 in favor of the new design mentioned above.

Notably, Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth said last December that wireless puck units for mixed reality headsets like Quest aren’t “a magic bullet,” suggesting the separate compute unit may be tethered to the headset in question.

“We have looked at this a bunch of times. Wireless compute pucks just really don’t solve the problem. If you’re wireless, they still have a battery on the headset, which is a major driver of weight. And, sure, you’re gaining some thermal space so your performance could potentially be better, although you’re somewhat limited now by bandwidth because you’re using a radio,” Bosworth said.

In the meantime, the XR landscape is invariably moving towards thin and light hardware of all types, encompassing everything from PC VR headsets like Bigscreen Beyond 2, to smart glasses that offer built-in heads-up displays, such as the upcoming Android XR-powered glasses from Google—set to be released by Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Widely reported rumors of Meta’s next-gen smart glasses and Apple’s upcoming smart glasses also persist.

At least in the case of bulky XR headsets though, the hope is that removing weight will also reduce user friction, and drastically increase long-term engagement.

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Best design would be a wireless puck with its own integrated battery, and a separate swappable battery either on the headset strap or a dockable tether that could also charge the puck if connected.

Still think the real reason they're so afraid of a wireless capable puck design is it then becomes possible to use the puck as an all purpose compute unit powering multiple other devices, threatening multiple hardware partner markets.

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that…

Using Magic Leap 1 in 2019, had compute/power puck on a minimal harness I slung over my shoulder whilst crawling about in Attenborough's very impressive Immersive dinosaur application. Thought it would be an issue but didn't notice the puck at all.

TL;DR: Moving Quest 4 to 2027 may be a good thing for Meta, Qualcomm and also gamers; a Horizon OS based Loma XR HMD would NOT target gaming, instead be positioned against heavier offerings from Samsung and Apple that still keep all the compute on the HMD, with only the battery in a puck; the improved ergonomics could help Meta counter the much larger flat software library of its competitors.

Moving Quest 4 to 2027 is interesting, as we somewhat expected it to coincide with Qualcomm's next XR2. 20203 Quest 3 got the XR2 Gen 2 with six months exclusivity, following the 2020 XR2 Gen 1 in Quest 2, so a 2026 Quest 4 with an XR2 Gen 3 again three years later seemed plausible. We don't know if this was actually the plan, and with several high end HMDs still expected to release soon with an XR2+ Gen 2, Qualcomm may be reluctant to introduce a newer and faster generation just one year later.

And as Meta will still be their largest customer for XR2 SoCs by far, and the XR2 mostly a core reconfiguration of whatever top of the line Snapdragon is available at that time, postponing both XR2 Gen 3 and Quest 4 shouldn't even waste a lot of investments already made. It would allow Qualcomm to sell more XR2+ Gen 2, and hopefully would allow Meta to use microOLEDs in Quest 4, which are up to this point prohibitively expensive for use in a relatively low price consumer device. This would make their use in a 2026 Quest 4 very unlikely, even if they use only 2.5K ones. Which might be their best option, esp. if a Quest 4S targeting the giftable USD 300 price would still have to use LCD panels with Fresnel lenses that don't really allow for more than 2K.

Like the Quest Pro was never intended for gamers, a slim XR ‘Loma' HMD with external compute wouldn't be either, that would still be the role of a delayed Quest 4. Hopefully Meta will communicate this better this time, and also have more non-gaming use cases to show for Loma than the too-little, too-late Horizon Workrooms on Pro.

The comparisons to a Bigscreen Beyond 2 are always dangerous, as this HMD achieves its low weight and size by extreme minimalism, basically containing only microOLEDs, pancakes and a small SoC for video decoding and connecting the very light IMU and Lighthouse sensors. Loma will probably include audio and lots of cameras. 4x bw room/hand tracking, 2x hires passthrough, 2x bw eye tracking cameras and 1x depth sensors are already nine cameras more than on Beyond 2 (seven more than on Beyond 2e), adding not only a little bit of weight and size, but also the need for local processing on the HMD to handle all the raw data you cannot send through a thin cable to an external compute unit without adding lots of delay and image degradation from compression, and even this would require a SoC on the HMD.. Loma will very likely require a separate DSP/SoC on the HMD for signal preprocessing, similar to the R1 on AVP.

I like the TL;DR. Keep using those please.

And so it's the compute puck replacing the smartphone here, going in tour pocket and not the actual hmd, if it connects to 5g network as well. I absolutely see the potential for wider acceptance in such a light and small formfactor then, easily to be used for productivity apps, communication, media consumption, gaming and a lot more, while traveling, at home or in the office. But Samsung and apple aren't sleeping and could turn their next flagship smartphones / iphones into hybrid vr pucks and so bring serious competion to the same targeted consumer groups.Historically, consumers allmost choose for 'practical use above all' as it comes to accepting new technology, so accepting a lightweight hmd as addon to their smartphone/ iphone is more likely than accepting an extra compute puck in their pocket while also still needing to bring a smartphone. So here lies a split in the forseeable xr future market: a smartphone as hybrid vr puck for light mobile use while traveling, allowing for light productivity, communications and media consumption and a more heavy separate compute puck, replacing laptop/tablets/pc's for more heavy productivity work and gaming. A bigger compute puck in combination with an onboard small physical keyboard could have potential as well as laptop/pc replacement.Plenty of options there.

We won't see smartphones used as compute pucks for VR anytime soon. Partly because VR is a constant high load application while phones permanently switch between burst and low power modes to increase battery life, so Snapdragon and XR2 SoCs use very different core configurations, making smartphones a bad choice for running VR.

But mostly because VR is an energy hog, and people nowadays are basically glued to their smartphones. So an accessory that drains the phone battery that usually lasts for a day in less than two hours, leaving people without their internet lifeline, will be rejected. It may be more acceptable just for use as virtual screens similar to the Xreal glasses that draw a lot less energy with applications that still allow the phone to run on its energy saving low power cores most of the time.

In summary: Magic Leap had it right all along.

No they didn't .. cable to a puck on your belt or pocket is just awful.

I don't really see a major problem with a puck and wire. Just tuck it under your tshirt. It means the headset can be light (like bigscreen beyond) and the compute can be more powerful, and it could be put in a small back pack, strapped to arm or whatever. It could also be upgraded without upgrading the headset. You could plug it in to a PC instead when you need more power. None of that heavy battery and processor on your face which also limits how powerful it can be. Seems like a win win to me. Better something in your pocket than carrying it on your face. You don't carry your phone on your face.

He's right.

A more powerful AIO requires more battery.More battery means more weight & heat.

Less powerful means less battery, so lesser weight.But that means an undazzled consumer ….

Wierd tradeoff.

Nobody wants a "glasses" style VR HMD when the tradeoff is a stupid puck. That's for smart glasses.

Quest like HMD for VR is the best option hand down! Why would i care that my HMD is smaller when it's just for use at home? Make it more comfortable, maybe lighter. But for VR I don't care about the size…

You will be very surprised if you will go on Reddit and read the comments under posts with those articles. 99.9% of users there (I assume they can't be really considered "VR enthusiasts" if they only get news second-handed from Reddit anyway, lol) are in awe and can't wait for this device, because their biggest problem with the current Quest headsets is "comfort" and they don't mind having a wire going down from their head to their pocket/belt where this puck (that, again, will also weight something and most probably won't fit in every pocket) will be placed.

Can't wait to witness the moment when all those people will buy this very comfortable to wear ~1000$ device just to realize that there is still not proper (constant flow of) content for it delivered by Meta.

But that's more because those 'morons' stick with the default strap the headset comes with, most never invested some money in a better headstrap, which makes the Quest so much more comfortable and easier to use, especially with hot-swappable batteries.

Using a puck is a great way to take weight off the head. The odd thing I see is how all companies basically go "then you just put it in your pocket and voila". I can't possible be the only one bothered about the prospect of having a wire dangling down my side for my arm to get caught in, can I? Not to mention people have different heights so to accomodate everyone the cable will have to be longer than necessary for most people.

Seems to me the most sensible place for a puck would be somewhere on the upper chest. The weight gets off the head. The distance for the wire is roughly the same for all people. It enables you to sit down without leaning into the puck. The wire's potential slack/taut length-difference is neglible.

With stuff like pucks and AI-necklaces I wonder if we're seeing the drunk and clumsy staggering of technology towards a Star Trek-esque communicator-pin-computer.

From my experience with the battery of the wireless module of the HTC Vive Pro, a cable dangling beside your body is pretty awful. Let's not forget the amount of times it popped of my belt during ducking or other weird moves, or just falling out of my pocket.wireless would be the only way to go, but it still needs a good battery in the headset to process that wireless signal, so just adding the whole thing to a headset would be not even increasing the weight that much.they should invest, at the current technology state we're in, on improving the headstrap. The default headstrap of the Meta Quest is just awful, but look at something like the Pico 4(ultra), which is one of the better comfortable headsets (but still leaves more than enough room for improvements).AR only becomes another matter of course, you want that one to be certainly not larger then thick sunglasses (at current technological state), but for MR/VR you want complete lightblockage anyway, so a larger headset isn't a problem, but no wires to a puck/battery/pc.

Smart move.

Take the weight off the head at all cost.

A cable down to my waste? I dont care unless I play a game where you are supposed to pull your virtual body hair…

I think the people against it are just attached to the all in one device form factor and don’t care about comfort as long as it looks unified. That’s very shallow. Unified and comfortable and powerful is not yet possible.

I've been thinking about this. Make a headset as light as possible, which just the tech it needs to function: cameras, sensors, etc. Then, a cable running to the back pocket with the computer power necessary. Why more companies are not doing it this way is preposterous. All-in-one is a nice concept, but the weight for some people is as equally ridiculous. And, it will make the unit more comfortable for longer period of time.

TL;DR: external compute pucks sound like a neat idea, but you run into problems with data transfer from lots of camera data that needs to be processed and limited performance benefit from current ARM SoCs, so in reality the benefits are limited.

Aside from a lot of people not really liking a form factor that requires a external compute unit and a cable dangling down from the head, there are some very practical problems with moving the compute away from the HMD itself. The Rift S with inside out tracking used five low resolution nIR tracking cameras at low frequency that were mostly used to correct for sensor drift from the IMU that reported translation and rotation at a much higher frequency, and these cameras might have been connected to a single USB bus running through the rather thick wire, requiring only four wires.

Today's HMDs run a plethora of cameras, including hires color cameras used for time critical passthrough, so way more bandwidth is needed. Mobile SoCs typically have several direct camera ports with three or four lines each that connect them directly to the ISP/DSP/CPU processing the data, circumventing any slow bus. The Quest Pro already exceeded the seven CSI ports on XR2 Gen 1 with two extra eye tracking and one face tracking camera, using a daughter board to combine the streams.

If you wanted to do do this directly in an external compute box, you'd need a lot of lines. A future Quest adding eye tracking would use nine cameras, for a minimum of 27 lines. And as you need differential signaling with two wires for longer distances/lots of cables, we are looking more at 45 lines just to get the camera data to the puck. Which is completely unpractical.

So you need to do at least some preprocessing on the HMD itself, merging feeds or doing room/hand/controller tracking locally. Which is what the PSVR2 does with a custom SoC (only using four room/hand and two eye tracking cameras, producing a lot less sensor data than a Quest 3), or the AVP with the R1 chip featuring mind boggling bandwidth to handle 14 camera sensors, doing all tracking and passthrough even when the M2 SoC is rebooting. But this means you now need two SoC, each with RAM, with the one on the HMD just handling the sensor data and sending the results to the second, more powerful one in the external compute unit, which then renders the image and sends it back via the cable. Doable, and exactly what PS5 and PSVR2 do, but a lot more complex than just moving everything to an external box connected by a thin wire, which also makes it more expensive.

This still might be an option for Apple with laptop/desktop class SoCs that could benefit from sitting in an external compute unit with more battery and better cooling, or when using AMD APUs. But most ARM SoC are designed for use in mobile phones, not offering a massive performance boost in a compute puck, so it makes more sense to keep everything on the HMD instead of going with a split SoC option that doesn't really improve performance. The main benefit would be reducing the weight of the HMD itself, but it would often be better and much simpler to instead improve the balance by moving the battery to the back of the head.

A Quest 4 that's as thin and light as glasses but more powerful than Quest 3, I'm here for it! Hopefully it will have a bit bigger FOV too, considering smaller glasses form factor should be able to get right up into your eyes.

You could push the lenses right into the eye even with current standalone HMDs, and people have decreased the eye-lens distance by using slimmer padding etc. The problem is that at some point the greasy eye lashes start touching the lens whenever you blink, leaving a film of smudge that then starts blurring the picture. That's mostly a problem for people with long lashes, but limits how close to the eyes the lenses can be put.

It would be great if HMDs allowed users to adjust the eye-lens distance themselves, so everyone could find their optimal compromise. And ideally also include adjustable lens-display distance, to compensate for myopia. The problem with this is that getting closer to the lens means you'll see more of the edge of the screen, and HMDs like Quest 3 are sort of optimized for one specific FoV, not rendering/displaying a lot of pixel outside of that, so adjustable FoV would lead to some waste by requiring the largest visible FoV to be rendered. It could be adjusted with eye tracking measuring which parts the user can actually see with the current eye-lens distance/FoV, no longer wasting rendering time, only some pixels for lower FoV settings.

I hope some guys on Etsy get early access. What I want is a harness that goes over my shoulders to hold the puck against my upper back. I wear a small backpack when I'm biking and on a two-hour ride, I completely forget it is there unlike current Quest headsets which feel like a brick on my face from the moment I put them on.

Extra points if they can also come up with a reel mechanism. You will need some slack in the cable to get the headset on, but once it is on, it would be nice to just touch a button to reel in the excess and just leave enough cable to comfortably turn your head.

Come on you guys on Etsy. My credit card is out and waiting!!!!