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Snap and Meta will compete in an AR glasses showdown in September, as both social media giants release their own augmented reality spectacles.
Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel will unveil the 5th Gen Spectacles in LA at the company’s annual Partner Summit on September 17th. Less than a week later, on September 23rd, Mark Zuckerberg will showcase Orion, Meta’s first AR glasses, at Connect in Menlo Park.
#LensFest2024 registration is officially open! Join us for our seventh annual AR developer conference, September 18, and discover how world-class AR can empower millions to dive deeper into the things they love, closer to the people they love. Register at https://t.co/azjXeUcrDU. pic.twitter.com/PuiPfH1Aya
— Snap AR (@SnapAR) August 21, 2024
Though both companies see themselves as major players in what they believe could be the next big hardware platform, this technology isn’t yet ready for mainstream use. Neither company will sell its AR spectacles to the public.
Snap will reportedly produce under 10,000 units, with plans to distribute them to select developers and partners, as it did in 2021. Meta will produce fewer units and release Orion as a demo device for employees and a select audience, including media members.
Meta’s Orion Will Use an EMG Wristband
We’ve been waiting for Meta’s Orion for a while now. In 2022, Meta announced that due to a combination of battery life, display quality, and cost, it would no longer be releasing them to consumers but to developers only. Orion has reportedly cost billions to develop since its inception.
Rumors suggest that Orion will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 or Gen 2 chip and will likely boast a stylish design if Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are anything to go by. With Meta AI integration, Orion will also supposedly feature both AR and AI.
Orion will also come with a wristband for controlling the glasses using electromyography (EMG), which measures small electrical signals generated by the wearer’s muscles.
Other than that, Meta has remained tight-lipped on any specs, so we’ll have to wait until September to find out more.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said in a statement to The Verge that Orion “might be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain,” even going so far as to suggest it may be the most advanced thing humans have produced as a species while acknowledging he could get in trouble for saying so.
Snap’s Spectacles Boast 2,000 Nits of Brightness
We know more about Snap’s 5th Gen Spectacles. Weighing 143 grams, they feature dual 3D waveguide displays with a 26.3-degree diagonal field of view and up to 2,000 nits of brightness for indoor or outdoor use.
The Snap Spatial Engine powers them and fully integrates with Lens Studio, allowing creators to build and interact with Lenses in real time. They have a touchpad, two RGB cams, and four microphones.
It’s not clear who will win the AR glasses race yet. Meta has greater spending power than Snap and a past successful partnership with Ray-Ban for its smart glasses. But Snap is on the fifth generation of its AR Spectacles, which launched in 2016, so it’s had plenty of opportunities to iron out past issues and generate hype for its latest iteration.
