It’s a bit of a strange time for VR. While Meta once defended the industry, it has closed studios and procrastinated on the Metaverse (a word I didn’t hear once in my demo, by the way). And even though it announces new games alongside VR glasses, including the latest iteration of Defeat Saber, I don’t think gaming will be a primary use case.
Instead, Meta appears to be positioning its VR glasses as an entertainment and productivity device. I was able to watch 3D content – a Billie Eilish concert and an NBA game – filmed specifically for the device and it felt more immersive than even the typical VR viewing experience.
But I was more intrigued by how Meta views productivity. You can connect the glasses to a Mac or PC to use them as a remote desktop. I tried this with a Surface laptop. The laptop’s screen was dark but I could see a three-window setup in front of me, with the ability to reposition the windows or even switch to ultra-wide mode.
There’s also a somewhat confusingly named “Surface Keyboard” that turns any flat surface in front of you into a keyboard and trackpad. All I had to do was place my hands on the table and a virtual keyboard and trackpad appeared.
The keyboard was “full size” according to Meta, and when I looked at it next to my hands, it seemed close to the dimensions of the laptop keyboard I’m currently typing on. But something about the perspective made it seem a little smaller and more cramped. Additionally, the lack of haptic feedback made the experience a bit strange. I was still able to type a few sentences with relatively little effort, so it might seem more natural over time.
Meta
Still, I’m a little skeptical that people want to work this way. Due to the relatively limited field of view, I had to physically turn my head to see the contents of each window and could not see all three at the same time. But I also spend a lot of my time on my laptop writing in Google Docs and reading web pages, tasks that aren’t necessarily enhanced by the immersive environment of virtual reality. I could see how mood coding or design-driven work could benefit from this type of setup.
In some ways, the Meta VR glasses seem to be the company’s way of trying to make VR hardware more appealing. With a focus on “immersive entertainment” and productivity, Meta can now reach people who are intrigued by something like Android XR (or even Apple Vision Pro), but who have never seen much use in a Quest headset. It also helps that advances in hardware have made virtual reality possible in a glasses-like format.
I’ve only been a casual VR user, but I think it’s an approach that makes a lot of sense in 2026, even if it might disappoint some VR fans. I also expect that we’ll likely receive even more news and updates on upcoming content from Meta over the next few months before the Meta VR glasses are scheduled to ship next spring.
