Meta has revealed a stunning XR headset that appears to combine the Meta Quest Pro, Apple Vision Pro, and a few more exclusive features. The only disadvantage? Anything like what Meta has shown off is probably years away from being released.
Douglas Lanman, Meta’s director of display systems research, demonstrated a representation of Mirror Lake, an advanced prototype that is “practical to build now” based on the technology Meta has developed, during a discussion at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. This XR headset (XR is a catch-all term for VR, AR, and MR) combines design elements and features from the Meta Quest Pro and Apple Vision Pro, such as the Quest Pro’s open side design and the Vision Pro’s EyeSight, with new tools like HoloCake lenses and electronic varifocal, to create something better than anything on the market (via UploadVR).
We’ve covered electronic varifocal earlier on TechRadar, when Meta’s Butterscotch Varifocal prototype won an award, so we won’t go into too much detail here. Simply defined, electronic varifocal tries to emulate the way humans focus on objects that are close or far away in the real world by combining eye-tracking with a display system that can move closer or further away from the headset wearer’s face. Meta describes it as a “more natural, realistic, and comfortable experience.”
HoloCake lenses, a portmanteau of holographic and pancake, aid in enabling this varifocal system while reducing the size of the headset.
Pancake lenses are used by the Meta Quest 3, Quest Pro, and other current headsets like as the Pico 4 and Apple Vision Pro, and they can be much smaller than lenses formerly used by headsets such as the Quest 2.
To further reduce the size of the optics, HoloCake lenses employ a thin, flat holographic lens rather than the curved one used by a pancake system – holographic as in reflective foil, not as in a 3D hologram you may see in a sci-fi film.
The sole disadvantage is that lasers must be used instead of a standard LED backlight. This can raise costs, size, heat, and safety concerns. Having to rely on lasers, on the other hand, could be viewed as an upgrade because these can typically create a wider and more vivid variety of colors than regular LEDs.
When will we be able to obtain one? Not for a long time
Mirror Lake, unfortunately, will not be arriving anytime soon. Lanman described the headset as something “[Meta] could build with significant time,” meaning that work hasn’t begun yet – and even if it has, we may be looking at it for years.
On this issue, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has previously stated that the technology on which Mirror Lake is based might be visible in goods “in the second half of the decade,” implying a release in 2026 and beyond (maybe late 2025 if we’re lucky).
This corresponds to when we expect Meta’s next XR headset, such as the Meta Quest Pro or Meta Quest 4, to be released. Meta typically teases its headsets a year in advance at Meta Connect events (as it did with both the Meta Quest Pro and Quest 3), so the earliest we’ll see a new gadget is September or October 2025. Meta Connect 2023 came and went without a preview of what was to come.
Waiting a few years would also give the Meta Quest 3 some time in the spotlight before the next great thing comes along to eclipse it, and it would also allow Meta to watch how the Apple Vision Pro performs. Apple’s XR headset is the polar opposite of Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest 3, with Apple giving very high-end hardware at an extremely high price ($3,499, or roughly £2,800 / AU$5,300).
If Apple’s bet comes off, Meta may choose to change its strategy by introducing an equally high-end and expensive Meta Quest Pro 2 that offers a more significant increase over the Quest 3 than the initial Meta Quest Pro gave over the Quest 2. If the Vision Pro fails, Meta will not want to follow suit.
