Meta’s new Hypernova AR glasses could launch next month, may cost as much as iPhone 17

Meta is looking to launch its first ever smart glasses with a display next month and we now have first leaks about the price of the upcoming product. As per a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the new glasses which are being dubbed as ‘Hypernova’ internally will now have a lower startying point compared to the $1000 which it was earlier expected to start at.

Notably, Meta's Ray Ban glasses cost around $200 - $400 but durin the development of its new model, Meta had thought to charge at least $1000 for Hypernova with some potential discussions on even charging as much as $1400.

Meta's earlier pricing would have meant that the new smart glasses would cost even more than the iPhone 16 base and Plus variant. However, the tech giant is now said to have found a way to cut down the pricing of its smart glasses to around $800.

The supposed reduction in starting price is being attributed to Meta willing to accept lower margins in order to boost the demand for its new product. Gurman, however, warns that different styling options and prescription lenses could lead to a steep rising in the price of the product.

The new Hypernova glasses are a precursor ro the full blown augmented reality glasses with the upcoming product likely to come with a small screen for mini apps and alerts on the right lens while the spectacles also being able to be controlled by a neural wrist accessory, the same one which was last seen on the Meta's Orion AR prototypes. 

On the home screen, users will see circular icons laid out horizontally which is very similar to the layout seen on Apple devices or Meta's Quest mixed reality headset. 

The glasses are also likely to come with dedicated apps for taking pictures, viewing them and accessing maps. There could also be support for notifications from phone apps including Meta's own suite of apps like Messenger and WhatsApp. 

Similar to other Meta devices, the new glasses are said to run on a highly customized version of Android but there isn't expected to be any app store on them yet.