What might we see at Meta’s next major event?
With Meta Connect 2024 just around the corner – September 25-26 – I’m sharing the five announcements I most want to see at the event, as well as explaining why I think they are (or aren’t in one entry’s case) likely to happen.
Meta Connect is an annual Meta event focused on its Reality Labs division, where it reveals exciting new hardware coming our way soon and teases future hardware and software we’ll see in the coming years.
This year’s event will likely continue the trend of focusing on XR tech – a catchall for virtual, mixed, and augmented reality technologies – as well as the omnipresent AI, which in Meta’s case is inventively called Meta AI. So this list reflects those expectations, starting with an announcement that has practically already been made.Meta Quest 3S revealed
This is less of a ‘what I want to see’ and more of a ‘what we definitely will see unless Meta is playing a big joke on us.’ That’s because the Meta Quest 3S has not only been teased by external leakers sharing details about the project, but Meta itself has leaked its existence through apps and accidentally shown it off in unrelated Threads videos from its CTO.
Based on everything we know, the Quest 3S will boast the Quest 3’s Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset, but a bulkier body and lower-spec displays so it can target a lower price tag – hopefully, somewhere around the Meta Quest 2’s $299 / £299 / AU$479.
This would be an ideal headset for anyone who doesn’t want to be left behind by VR software now that Meta Quest 3 exclusives like Batman: Arkham Shadow are on the way, but isn’t ready to spend ($499.99 / £479.99 / AU$799.99) on a VR headset.
Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see exactly what Meta announces during Connect, but I expect the Quest 3S could be the best and biggest reveal we get in terms of making current-gen VR accessible again.Non-Meta VR headsets finally shown off
The Quest 3S might not be the only Horizon OS VR headset we see this September. Back in April, Meta announced that its operating system – Horizon OS – will be coming to other headsets from Asus, Lenovo and Xbox, and I think it’s time we finally see one of those headsets in action.
