Meta Orion AR glasses: we are witnessing the next smartphone moment

Orion is Meta’s — and Zuckerberg’s in particular — magnum opus. The company has invested billions of Dollars and years upon years of research into XR (Extended Reality). All of this has been undertaken because 10 years ago Zuckerberg envisioned a post-smartphone world, and he wanted to be the first one to make it a reality.

Orion, or at least the fantastic prototype we were just shown at Meta Connect, is a pair of AI-powered AR smart glasses. Unlike other AR glasses available for purchase at this time, Orion uses a completely novel form of display technology that relies on projecting holograms. Furthermore, it’s being controlled by a neural network wristband for private, accurate commands.

Perhaps the biggest reason Orion is such a compelling prototype is because of how small and lightweight it is while managing to retain a decent field of view. The Ray-Ban smart glasses also come in a stylish form factor but they lack a display. Xreal Air 2 Ultra, though great, require an external device to function.

Orion aims to be a standalone pair of glasses that will let you interact with the internet and other Orion users in a way that is highly reminiscent of the science fiction movies of today. The overlaid display has real depth and excellent color contrast, the glasses track your movements accurately and they’re even more convenient than your phone.

Make no mistake: Orion is a good few years away from entering mass production. The prototype Zuckerberg showed off is, as of this moment, quite the expensive piece of kit. But the company is designing it from the ground up to replace your smartphone completely.

At the event, Zuckerberg gave an example of receiving a message from someone. Nowadays this would mean hearing a notification sound or feeling your phone vibrate in your pocket. After which you have to pull out your phone to look at this notification. If you’ve set your phone to be more private and not show anything on the lock screen, you’ll have to unlock it first too.

With Orion, however, all of this friction isn’t just reduced, it’s completely eliminated. All that will happen is that a small pop-up, visible only to you, will appear in your peripheral for you to glance at.

With Orion you can have multiple browser windows, apps and videos open around you, suspended in the air. Much like how the Meta Quest 3 allows you to after recent updates. Unlike the Quest, however, you won’t have to wear a big headset on your face when leaving the house.

You won’t have to take out your phone to capture a photo, or shield it with one hand on the subway or even put it up to your ear when calling someone. And when you lay down after a hard day at the office, Orion will let you rewatch your favorite show for the hundredth time on a massive virtual screen.

Nearly every scenario you can think of, Orion beats the smartphone at convenience. But there’s a few other things Meta will have to address before it’s ready to topple the smartphone industry.

When humanity made drones synchronize in the air to form beautiful displays one of the first things it used it for was flying billboards. With Orion it becomes a lot easier to shove advertising down our throats wherever we go.

The once empty blue sky could be riddled with banners, bare walls could become canvasses for marketing and you might even start seeing virtual mascots patrolling the streets. That would be something that will lose its novelty very fast and you’ll often find yourself removing the glasses, completely negating their main advantage over smartphones.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that battery tech is still lagging behind when it comes to portable devices. The Apple Vision Pro, for example, can barely run a little over two hours, and that’s with an external battery! Meta will have to somehow cram a good enough battery into Orion that it can last all day, which will be a very challenging task.

With all that said, I’m certain that Meta is on the precipice of a revolutionary development. The groundwork has been laid, all that remains is to bring it to the consumer at the same price as a smartphone.

And the rest of the world will follow.