Meta Connect 2025: The First Year of 'In-Sight AI' with Ray-Ban x Neural Band Featuring Display—Redesigning Daily Experiences with Sports-Focused Oakley and Horizon Overhaul
Meta Connect 2025 was an event that centered on "AI x Glasses x Presence," rapidly expanding wearables that blend into daily life and platforms for creators. The focus of the announcements was the new AI glasses with a built-in display, a neural wristband operated by subtle wrist electromyography, a sports-specialized Oakley model, and a revamp of the Horizon ecosystem. This article summarizes the key points and explains the reality and implications of the pricing, release dates, and features.
1. The Core of the Strategy: "Glasses First," and Then "The Wrist"
Zuckerberg emphasized the value of "being excellent glasses," "technology not being at the forefront," and "making superintelligence (AI) useful to people." He positioned AI not as automation confined to the cloud, but as a tool to augment user actions in the real world. The implementation of this is the combination of Ray-Ban with display functionality and the Meta Neural Band (a wristband that enables gestures and "silent typing" via EMG).
2. The Two Pillars of the Ray-Ban Line
2-1. Strengthening the Existing Line: Ray-Ban Meta (2nd Generation)
The 2nd generation has double the battery life and supports 3K video recording. Priced from $379, it raises the "foundation" for shooting, streaming, and using Meta AI while maintaining a form factor suitable for daily wear.
2-2. New Category: Ray-Ban Display + Neural Band
The main attraction is the Ray-Ban Display. It features a high-resolution, small display built into the right lens, realizing an "in-sight UX" for notifications, a viewfinder, subtitles, and translation. It is priced at $799 including the Neural Band and will be released on September 30 (with in-store demos available). Meta presented selection, typing, and volume control via subtle wrist movements as a "new form of interaction."
"The Meta Ray-Ban Display is $799 as a set with the neural wristband. Sales begin at select retailers on September 30."
3. Sports-Focused: Oakley Meta Vanguard
For athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, they introduced the Oakley Meta Vanguard. It features a centrally located 12MP camera, a 122° wide field of view, 3K/30fps video, electronic image stabilization, and IP67 water resistance. It integrates with Garmin for automatic capture based on speed, distance, and heart rate zones, and also supports Strava overlays. Priced at $499, it ships on October 21.
4. Horizon Ecosystem: Studio / Engine / Hyperscape
Meta Horizon Studio integrates existing AI toolsets like mesh and texture generation in an agent-like manner, accelerating production through text instructions. The underlying Horizon Engine has been revamped for rendering, loading, and physics, and they are providing early access to Hyperscape (Hyperscape Capture), which scans a room from a Quest in minutes to create a "full-scale virtual space." Furthermore, as Horizon TV, they are expanding the availability of Disney+ (including Hulu/ESPN), Universal, and Blumhouse titles. 5. The Reality of Live Demos: The "Wi-Fi Wall"
During the venue demos, AI cooking assistance and video call triggers malfunctioned. This was attributed to Wi-Fi issues, paradoxically visualizing that "real-world latency/connection quality" can be a bottleneck for UX. However, in reviews outside the venue, the product specifications, pricing, and release plans themselves are solid. 6. What Changes: Entering the Implementation Phase of "In-Sight AI"
Primary Information for Visual UX: With a camera and a single-eye display, an "AI that sees, hears, and thinks" sits right next to your daily field of vision. Subtitles, translation, and viewfinder displays are highly usable "first killer features."
Bringing the Learning Cost of Operation Close to Zero: The neural wristband enables "input anywhere" via subtle wrist movements, which is silent input. It could become the shortest route to replacing the need to take out a smartphone.
Automation of Sports x Social: Vanguard goes as far as automatic highlight generation for each running event, reducing the friction of measurement, editing, and sharing. Using the existing Garmin/Strava community as a bridgehead, it aims for an "AI play-by-play" experience.
Lowering the Barrier to Creation: Horizon Studio/Engine connects "text-to-3D space" with real-world scanning, raising the quality and quantity of UGC.
Outlook
While short-term explosive adoption is unknown, the significance of having a practical lineup with pricing ($379/499/799) and release dates (9/30, 10/21) is great. External analysts see these as groundwork for the full-scale AR "Orion" path. The UI experiment for the "post-smartphone" era has finally entered the stage of large-scale field verification.