Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that the gadget of the future is AI-infused glasses. Zuckerberg and Meta have been interested in these types of peripherals for years, but the focus has clearly been shifting lately from VR on our faces to glasses on our faces.
Meta’s not alone here. Apple sees a future in AR. Google does too. So does Samsung. The list of players goes on and on. As VR has shifted to mixed reality, and smart glasses promise augmented reality features to come, and AI evolves more features that see what we can see, the battle for facial gadgets is coming to a crossroads.
As a reviewer of augmented and virtual reality gadgets, it’s been pretty easy over the last few years for me to pick a headset to recommend. Meta’s Quest headsets are the best for the price in my tests, and Meta has added next-level extras like mixed reality, hand tracking and practical features like the ability to work both standalone and with PCs. But the certainties of the VR space are in flux. AR and smart glasses are coming fast. I’ve already seen it in pieces.
It’s clear that, entering late 2025, the AR/VR hardware landscape is shifting. I expect Meta’s Quest 3 and 3S to continue their reign as my favorite overall headsets through the end of this year, but new challengers will arrive soon and in forms that won’t even feel like what came before. Samsung and Google are expected to finally release their first mixed reality VR device, called Project Moohan, ahead of a wave of glasses coming in 2026. Apple could have an updated version of its Vision Pro with a new, higher-graphics chip onboard, along with support for controllers and other accessories. And smart glasses will be pushing extra features that challenge us for time on our faces, introducing AI functions in new ways. It’s already happening.
I believe Meta itself could play the biggest wild card, however. My demos last year of Orion, a prototype pair of AR glasses, could be the prelude to Meta making a new pair of high-end smart glasses this year that have a display and a gesture-control wristband, a starting step toward that Orion game plan. When it comes to its next VR headset, meanwhile, Meta could pivot to a smaller design and, possibly, higher-end hardware made by third-party manufacturers.
Finally, Valve — long dormant in VR since releasing the Index headset back in 2019 — has been rumored to be readying a new headset that could be both standalone and PC-connected. Will that headset emerge in 2025 or later? While Valve’s hardware likely won’t be AR-focused, it could easily redefine the VR gaming space for the next few years.
Here’s the tech I’m keeping both eyes out for in the last months of 2025.
Samsung’s mixed reality headset, Project Moohan, arrives this year. Samsung’s newest phones and glasses could be working together as the headset’s successors.
Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
Google and Samsung’s Project Moohan adds AI to the mix
Last December, I demoed the Moohan headset and saw something I hadn’t experienced anywhere else: onboard AI that could comment on and analyze the things I was seeing on-screen.
Moohan is the long-awaited first product for Google’s Android XR platform. Built by Samsung, it will act as a starting vision for where Google’s AR/VR next products could be headed. A lot of Android XR looks to be glasses-focused, with AI glasses partnerships already announced for next year, a display-enabled tethered hardware product made by Xreal, and Samsung’s plans for full AR glasses waiting in the wings.
In the meantime, Project Moohan — Samsung’s name for the headset for now — is a high-end VR headset with mixed reality that looks to demonstrate how Google Play apps will run in VR, and how Gemini AI will work in a headset.
We know Moohan is coming out in 2025, but when exactly — and how much it’ll cost — remain a mystery. It looks every bit as premium as Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro, with a high-resolution display, eye tracking and a tethered battery pack. But Moohan will be a sign of where Google and Samsung’s ambitions are heading in this space, even if it’s not necessarily affordable. It could also push both Apple and Meta to advance their work on onboard AI in their own headsets.
Meta’s AR glasses moonshot, Orion, has its own neural input wristband. That band could be coming as soon as this fall, along with a lower-powered pair of display glasses.
Celso Bulgatti/CNET
Meta’s next glasses could bring a ‘neural band’ that changes the game
Meta often comes out with hardware surprises around Connect, its September developer conference that I attend every year. In 2024, Meta unveiled the Quest 3S and gave me an advance look at prototype AR glasses called Meta Orion. This year, based on reports, Meta might be skipping VR entirely and emphasizing glasses once again.
Meta’s Ray-Bans have been a hot seller, with partner EssilorLuxottica reporting tripled revenue growth for smart glasses in the last year. Zuckerberg made glasses a big focus last year, wearing Ray-Bans and Orion glasses on stage during his Connect keynote. And in July, Meta introduced a new Oakley Meta HSTN smart glass line with improved battery life and camera quality, which I’ve already test-driven on my face.
Reports say a higher-end set of smart glasses will be unveiled, possibly with a display good enough to show notifications and even play games. These not-quite AR glasses will also come with a peripheral that could be key to everything that happens next: a neural-input wristband.
When I tried Orion last year, I got to wear that wristband and use it to navigate gestures in glasses. The wristband uses EMG (electromyographic) tech that senses electrical signals on the wrist, registering small finger gestures that can be used by smart glasses. The end result is sort of like camera-based hand tracking or Apple’s gesture-based taps on Apple Watch, but the gestures with this type of band could be read out of range of cameras and with a wider range of fidelity than anything else available right now.
I navigated Meta’s Orion glasses with pinches, taps and thumb swipes, but Meta’s research using this tech promises even more down the road. Meta could get a foot in the door on neural tech by releasing this band now and finessing it over time. Zuckerberg told me back in 2022 that he sees the band as a universal input device, meaning it could eventually be used with VR headsets and even other devices, too.
Read more: My Conversation With Meta’s Andrew Bosworth
Smaller input wearables are needed for smaller glasses to come, and could even be mixed into smartwatch designs. It looks like a missing link to glasses, one that companies like Google and Samsung have already acknowledged as a future direction.
Meta may not totally duck VR this year, though. A year ago, Meta announced hardware partners that were supposed to make additional Horizon OS Quest-alikes sometime soon. Lenovo and Asus are the first known partners, but no headsets have appeared yet. Maybe they’ll be announced this year, as spin-off pro-like upgrades while Meta takes a year off from making its own VR hardware. Microsoft’s Xbox-branded Quest, which finally went on sale this summer after being announced at the same time as those third-party headsets, could be a sign that the other news is around the corner.
Numi Prasarn/Viva Tung/CNET
Apple’s Vision Pro could be getting a better M chip, and controller support is coming
I’ve been reviewing Apple products for years and was one of a handful of journalists to get to be the first to review the Vision Pro, and even I have a hard time guessing where Apple is headed in the XR space. The company is tight-lipped on future plans, and while plenty of reports point to where Apple might be heading, the actual pace of evolution for the Vision Pro’s features has moved slowly since launching in early 2024.
Reports say Apple is going to make a smaller headset and smart glasses, but it’s the when part that’s a mystery. Next year? The year after? Maybe the year after that? Reports keep shifting.
Read more: The Vision Pro’s Future Needs to Hurry Up
In the meantime, it seems likely that Apple is going to update the Vision Pro with a new M chip — either M4 or M5 — sometime soon, along with a more comfortable head strap, according to reliable Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. That could happen this fall or early next year.
What we do know about Apple’s Vision plans is that VisionOS 26 will support spatial controllers and accessories for the first time, starting with the PlayStation VR 2 Sense controllers and Logitech’s wireless stylus. What we haven’t seen yet are the apps and games that will work with those new inputs, and how many there will be. And I’ve already tried updated Persona avatars and mixed reality widgets in Vision OS that are coming this fall, too.
A new M-series processor could allow better graphics for design and gaming apps on the headset. It could also open the door for deeper on-headset AI that uses the multiple cameras to see the world. Apple hasn’t announced any plans for Visual Intelligence on Vision Pro yet, but maybe the hardware pieces will start falling into place this year.
Is Valve cooking up a new, gaming-friendly VR headset again?
The most intriguing reports, and ones that could shake up the space even further, point to a new Valve VR headset that could work both PC-connected and standalone. Project Deckard has been rumored for years, and Valve’s still showing continued interest in VR despite not having a new VR headset since 2019’s Index. This would enable Steam Link connections to Meta Quests to work well as PC headsets, too.
Some earlier reports have suggested Deckard could connect to a future Steam Deck portable game console, playing games on the go while tethered to the console to amp up performance. It would make sense, but Valve may not have a new Steam Deck for at least another year or more. Or Deckard could have Steam Deck-level power in its own onboard hardware.
If Deckard does appear, and ends up being reasonably affordable — a big if, since some reports suggest the price could be over $1000, and the Index was expensive, too — it could be a more attractive option than the Meta Quest for gaming.
Beyond Meta, VR has struggled to offer great new gaming options lately. Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 tried to become a high-end VR gaming accessory, but Sony’s lack of consistent support for new games, and the headset’s need to be tethered to a PS5, hamper its appeal. If Valve could actually make its next headset work as a self-contained, portable device for games like Steam Deck, it could shift up the definition of what “PC VR” even means and where you can play. In the process, maybe, it could lay down ways that future, smaller headsets and glasses could interface with smaller deck-like PCs and tablets.
I want the Vision Pro to evolve into something small like the Xreal One. Different idea entirely, but as a wearable display, a sign of the future.
Scott Stein/CNET
Are VR headsets even the future anymore?
Or is the future just about glasses? So many companies like Meta seem to be pivoting to AI-enhanced wearables as a new model for gadget design. Smart glasses are taking advantage of AI hype and function, but VR isn’t yet. Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, told me a year ago that VR is a harder territory for gen AI to work with than glasses at the moment, but that could be changing as more tools emerge for mixed reality headsets equipped with cameras, and Gen AI evolves more models to work with 3D graphics and games. Smart glasses could be the first wave of AI, and next-gen mixed reality headsets after that.
This year doesn’t look to have all the answers. In fact, it’s looking like a year of scattered pieces. But the final products of the year should help point to where the future’s heading. And I can’t wait to put them on my head for a closer look.
