They Fail to Address the Issue

In the quest to push standalone XR headsets forward, two of the biggest priorities are cutting down on weight and enhancing performance. Recently, Meta gave us a peek at its Orion AR glasses prototype that uses a wireless compute unit. However, Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, doesn’t seem convinced that this is the ultimate solution for standalone VR gaming.

Bosworth, who also heads Meta’s Reality Labs XR team, frequently hosts Instagram Q&A sessions, diving into a wide range of topics. In his most recent chat this week, he explored the topic of wireless compute units, discussing why they may not be the best match for the company’s standalone VR headsets.

In these discussions, Bosworth explained, “We’ve explored this many times. Wireless compute pucks don’t really tackle the issue. If you go wireless, the headset still carries a battery, which contributes significantly to its weight. Yes, this does give you some extra thermal capacity, potentially boosting performance. However, the bandwidth becomes a constraint due to the reliance on a radio connection.”

Despite these technical challenges, Meta’s primary goal is to create something that consumers can easily get their hands on, evident in the latest Quest 3S, which starts at $300 for the 128GB model. Bosworth elaborated further: “The cost spikes dramatically because even if the main silicon resides in the wireless compute puck, you still need a substantial amount of silicon just to power the displays, handle local corrections, and manage data streams. In essence, the math simply doesn’t work out. You barely cut down on weight, and the cost and complexity rise significantly.”

Interestingly, this perspective contrasts with Meta’s Orion prototype, which does employ a wireless compute unit. Although Orion isn’t expected to hit the market due to its staggering $10,000 production cost — mainly due to pricey silicon carbide lenses — in certain scenarios, like delivering less demanding graphics to AR glasses, wireless pucks are indeed practical.

Bosworth has mentioned that Meta’s first consumer AR glasses won’t be available at the Quest’s price point when they eventually make their debut. Back in September, he noted that such a device won’t be “cheap,” but the company is working towards making them accessible, at least within a similar price range to other common devices like phones and laptops.